I've mentioned on the lads page that my brother is big on dragons.
And although I don't like to admit it, in one way they do exist - in the strangley twisted minds ofthe interent followers.
That's right, there are millions of them all over the bleedin' place. People who's fantasies are totally entiwnded with this wierd breed of fantasy lizard.
And they have this thing called the dragon code. You can find out more abotu that at alt.fan.dragons - the BBS where all these unusal peopleseem to amalgamate.
The basic idea is that they all see themselves as huge fire breathing lizards and they want to give an exact description of 'themselves' as a dragon.
Chris brought a copy ofthis code homeand showed me it and I thought, "Bugger this, it's made for bleedin' Dragons! What we need is a code for all those followers of Redwall, The Depford Trilogy and other such real animal related books." Personally, I think of myself as an "fMO-&+Ckpstc-bt-m/hbzm-wA--GmWdrl@uwvBn"
My code is at the moment very short, just as the Dragon code started out. I have no doubt that over time, this will lengthen with my own ideas and of course any suggestions posted to me.
So here goes:

Species

Originally, this code was only going to be for mice, then I thought about it and decided that being a member of the Redwall fan club it would leave a lot of people in the cold so for all you RW and AOFW fans, it's gone multi-species! prefixes all go before the first letter. This has to be the first part ofthe code or it gets confusing. All species can have the addition of n or e as a prefixes for North American or european (makes little different but North American are usually slightly larger breeds so I thought I'd include it.) Also you can have multiple prefixes for crossbreeds and variants.
M it means mouse of course. The optional prefix is f for field mouse, h for house mouse, w for wood mouse, d for dormouse, y for the yellow necked mouse and u for city/urban mouse.
R for rat. The prefix is b for black rat (Akkikuyu was one of these), d for brown rat (Just about every other memeber of Jupiter's army was one of these), w for water rat (that's searat for all you Redwallers) and m for muskrat.
Q squirrel. Prefix g for grey, r for red, b for black (Deptford mice), f for flying.
G badger. No prefixes.
N bat (the N is for nocturnal). Prefix e for long-eared(Orpheo and Eldritch were these), s for serotine, n for natterer's, d for Daubenton's, o for noctule, p for pipistrelle, w for whiskered, h for lesser horseshoe, m for mouse-eared, l for Leister's, b for barbastrelle, c for Bechstein's, r for Brandt's and g for greater horseshoe.
V vole. Prefixe b for bank vole, w for watervole, f for fieldvole.
S shrew. Prefix p for pygmy shrew, c for common shrew, w for watershrew (GUOSIM and GUOSSSOM) and n for North American shrew(these have a venomous bite).
H hare. Prefixe m for moutain hare and b for brown hare.
U mole (U for underground). Prefixe e for european mole, n for North American (a larger breed) s for starnosed (very rare - has an unusually shaped and very sensitve nose) anf r for the mole rat(the mole rat is a bit lie ka rat and a bit like a mole but it's more like a mole than a rat so it goes under mole).
C cat. Prefix w for wild, d for domestic and f for feral (domestic turned wild).
F ferret. No prefixes.
T stoat. No prefixes.
W weasel. No prefixes.
X fox. Prefix e for European red, n for North American red, B for black (very rare) and (for all you Animals of farthing wood fans - I used to be one) l for blue fox.
J frog (becuase they jump). Prefix t for toad, b for bullfrog.
P for hedgehogs (p because they're also known as hedgepigs). No prefixes.
O otter. Prefix S for sea otter, f for freshwater otter, h for the otter shrew (it's a shrew but it's more like an otter than a shrew - go figure).
L rabbit (the L is for lagomorph). No prefixes.
B birds. Prefix s for sparrow, c for crow, e for eagle, h for hawk, f for falcon, r for robin and g for gull. Or use the species name as the prefix(example chaffinchB)
Z lizards. Prefix s for snakes ... erm ... i for iguanas. I could do with expanding this a little - any ideas?.

Oldness

The scaleworks on a single letter(O) an a number of plusses and minuses.
O simpyl means adult, not really all that young or old.

Old

O+ Middle age
O++ Getting on a bit
O+++ Pensioner
O++++ Methuselah (Not the Redwall Methuselah(RIP) but the guy in the bible who lived for 900 years.)

Young

O- A young adult
O-- Teenager
O--- Child
O---- Dibbun (that's v.young for non redwallers. I doubt anyon of this age can reach a keyboard but just incase, it's here.)

Current status with opposite gender

The scaleworks on a single letter(&) an a number of plusses and minuses.
&++++ Married with kids
&+++ Married
&++ Engaged
&+ Attatched
& Attatched but on the look out for someone better...
&- Unnatatched
&-- Single (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more)
&--- Desperate (Well some people out there are)

Character

The system works on a single letter(C) and a string of lowercase additions.
Each one can be prefixed by a minus sign to show that you are the opposite (exmaples given). Put the lowercase string in order of how much you are whatever the letter stands for
In inside/outside addition. Many people are very differentto what they seem in general comany. to show this, put a / between the inside and the outside character. Inside goes first.
a Active (opposite of lazy)
b Barbaruous - cruel, savage (opposite to benevolent)
c Creative - could be in any form (opposite is a mind like a computer, only able to put out what goes in)
d Dogged - keeps fightign no matter what (oppose to irresolute)
e Emotionally driven (as oppose to practical/logical)
f Friendly - you know the type, millions of friednds always nice to stranger etc (opposite recluse and bitter twisted hatred for all others)
g Greatful - always returns favours, etc (opposite ungreatful - never thakful for anything.)
h Good sense of humour (opposite bad sesne of humour)
i Interested - intruiged by problems, epsecially of a puzzle like nature (opposite uninterested)
j Jumpy - highly strung (opposite- nerves of steel)
k Keen sense of jusitce - insitant that the right thing is done, possibly heroic. The kind of person that can see both sides of an argument. (opposite unjust, one sided, biased. onyl cares about thier own side of something.)
l Logical thinker (opposite to latteral thinker)
m Merry - always laughign smiling, joking(not neccersarily good jokes, see h), etc (opposite depressed, unhappy, mournful, etc.)
n Nice guy - you know always listens understands there when you need 'em etc (opposite does thier own thing oblivious to all around them - just like my mate Dan.)
o Outgoing - says hello to total stragners - enjoys answerign phones (oppsite is shy, timid, etc)
p Pacifist (opposite to violent, agressive, warlike, etc)
q Quizzical - speaks in riddles, hard to understand (as oppose to innocent, plainspeaking, call a spade a spade, etc.)
r Realist - says it the way it is (as oppose to those who sweeten the truth with little white lies)
s Serene - calm, peaceful (oppositeof those people who just have to be heard 24 hours a day)
t Truthful (opposing compulsive liar)
u Underhanded - sneaky, not a liar just smart bender of the truth and of rules (opposite on the level, above board, trustworthy etc)
v Vengeful - as in seeking revenge (opposite forgiving)
w Wit - always saying the righ things (opposite of impromtu, always putting you foot in it)
x Exited - thrill seeker, slightly crazed friend of danger (opposite not cowardly but sensible enough to know what's really notworth trying.)
y Young at heart (opposite of mature)
z Zany - unusually blatant non-stop sense of humour (Opposite is boring)
* Pure of soul and clear of mind (opposite is impure, tainted)

Attractivenss

the scale works on a single letter(A) an a number of plusses and minuses.
I think it's about time a few more people admitted to being ugly. I have no shame inbeing an A--.
A++++ I could give God a heart attack, that's how good I look.
A+++ good looking.
A++ attractive.
A+ reaosnably attractive.
A about average.
A- slightly unattractive.
A-- generally ugly.
A--- disticntly unatractive.
A---- See that bus? see the back end? That's me.

Gender

One uppercase letter (G) one lowercase letter m or f.
Self explanatory really.

World / Genre

The system works on a single letter(O) and a string of lowercase additions.
The usage of animals is widespread and the actualsystem of animal usage varies slightly depending on the genre in use. For example, Redwallers and Deptford fans are like chalk and cheese (even though I follow both), while Redwall is an idyllic setting where apart from the odd multi-stage war life is trouble free, the Deptford Mice are i na world where survival is a constant struggle every day (especially in Holeborn).
There are different ideas, cultures and cross species realitons. It's all very confusing for fans of different genres, so this sets them apart. Remember, you can be a fan of many things, you don't have ot restrict yourself to just one genre
Write in order of favourites.
r Reality - no genre. Lover of animals, not thier fictional counterparts.
l Redwall - Brian Jaques' abbey of peaceloving creatures. More inclined towards frivolity and merrymaking
d Deptford Mice - Robin Jarvis' entry into the animal kingdom. Much more philosphical and inclined towards depth. Mice cats rats, bats and squirrels in the original (oh, there was an owl inthe crystal prison and a hedgehog got a mention in the final reckoning) but branched out a lot more in the prequels.
f Farthing wood -series of books by Colin Dann the ntranferred to TV. Used to be a fan myself. Much more like real life than any other fictional system (but started getting much less realistic near series three)
u The Rescuers - what a mutispecial system Disney thought up - the animals seem to be friendly towards humans for soem reason. Can't imagine why. Lots of fans out there however. I much preferred the sequal, but then I would.
@ Apodemus Sylvatius. Alright, this is my own system and hasa fan base of 1 (me), but why not? There might be some one out there who likes the idea of rodents living off the wastefulness of humanity and building up a rebellion agaisnt humanity.
v The american tale genre (sequelled by fivel goes west) Spielberg's animal entry. not a bad system but makes the whole thing just not serious enough for my liking. Mice and cats mainly. Some rats involed I think, can't quite remember.
w Watership down - and why not? bloodygood book turned fil soon to turn TV series and I quiteenjoyed the film. bit surreal in places but very realistic considering. One for rabbits only for the most part.
Any others out there to add to the list?

Genre dependant additions


All of the additions form here on in are genre dependant. Some of them may not even apply to thier own genres under certain circumstances.
That basically means they are not actually necersary (if any of this is neccersary tha is) you can miss them out if they're not 'your genre'. Non Deptford fans can miss out the B code and Non Redwallers can miss out the R code.

GDA-1 MouseBrass


Deptford only. B followed by a lower case modifier
This has been constructed from all exmaples given in the books, any additions by Robin Jarvis (the author) or fans with thier own ideas are welcome.
Remember, this is mice only (although Morgan owned a brass for a short while) and becuase of the nature of the mousebrasses, It'll have to be restricted to mice with 'O-' and above.
f The family brass (as owned By Arthur and Albert) - shows strong ties to relatives. Depicts three mouse tails meeting in the cntre of the circle.
h The house-mouse brass (As owned by Gwen) shows general instincts of the house mouse, good around the house etc. Depicts a wedge of cheese (and why not?)
n The nature brass (as owned by William (twit) and Woodget) shows general field mouse instincts (sun on the back and all that) - depicts the top of a stalk of wheat before a Crescent moon.
c The courage brass (as owned by Oswald -rightfully so- and Jenkin - his was actually a fix but he desrved it in the end) shows well... courage I suppose. Depicts a large sun.
a The anti cat charm (as originally owned by Audrey) provides a sort of protections against cat's. good to thosewhoneedit i suppose. Depicts a cat like face.
b The brass of beauty (as owned by Alison) meant to display inner beauty I think. Usually just fuels the ego of the owner. Depicts the crescent moon of the nature brass but with a small bell handing from it. v The brass of pure hatred. Never actually owned by anyone and not officially a proper brass but Isaac nettle forged one for audrey one time when Akkikuyu managed to convince him (under the control of Jupiter) that Audrey had caused his son's death. The appearence is never fully described.
If you have any suggestions for new additions to the code, e-mail me.