Bears Armed
‘The Bear-Belles’
National football organisation: ‘Bears Armed Association for Soccer’ (= ‘BAAS’).
BAAS Chairbear: Surranna SunDaughter (clan= Sun; female Ursine; formerly manager of ‘Sun Valley Smashers’, one of the country’s leading teams, after being their chief coach and also playing for them in various roles for several years; age = 42, fur = golden-brown, left-pawed, now wears glasses.) National anthem (for sports): ‘The Banner Green And Gold’.
Official supporters' organisation: 'Arri's Furry Army'.
Yes, this team is using the nickname generally associated with the nation’s ‘main’ team: They never settled on a definitive one for the U21 squads, and there
isn’t a main team at present to object, so…
Yes, it’s an all-female team again. As I’ve explained before, this is because the main ball-game that's traditionally been played in Bears Armed is actually closer to being a form of Rugby, but [for several reasons] that sport’s “proper” teams are all-male and so some females who wanted to make it as players decided that switching to Soccer — and trying to establish a professional league
for that sport for themselves instead — might be a viable alternative: They were right, because that professional league was founded shortly after WC44 and so has now been in operation for over an eightSquared of years.
All of the players and support staff are actual
Ursines (i.e. anthropomorpic, bipedal Bears)], except for any whom I actually specify as being members of other ‘peoples’ instead. The
Harr'aynau people are physically human (more-or-less, anyway, although inclined towards heavy builds & hairiness), but are spiritually & culturally Ursine instead.
As far as Bears Armed is concerned, this tournament is taking place in the Urssish calendar’s year 4188 which is basically equivalent in the Gregorian calendar to April-December 2019
AD & January-March 2020
AD. That’s despite the fact that, according to Bears Armed’s previous timeline for sporting events, DBC #29 took place in the year 2100
AD and so the “current” date really
shouldbe 2164
AD instead: This fact
will be considered in my RP…
_______________________________________________________
Staff Manager & Chief Coach: Urrsara Northgate _ Clan = Urrset; female Ursine; a former Deputy Manager & Chief Coach at ‘Sun Valley Smashers’
(one of the nation’s top teams), with 6 years in such roles after 5 years as a player (as Forward, Midfielder, and Lynchpin) there and 7 years before that (mostly as a Midfielder) at River City. (Age = 35; fur = reddish light-brown, left-pawed; speaks Ursine and English.)
Chief Coach: Karra’harrna Thunder _ Clan = Gunnar; female Ursine; formerly the Attacking Coach at ‘Newton Arsenal’
(another of the nation’s top teams), with 5 years in such roles after 8 years as a player (as Forward, Winger, and Midfielder) there. (Age = 28, fur = dark brown, left-pawed; speaks English, Ursine, and Ruottsan).
Attacking Coach: Marra Urrth’hrra Norr-Vurra _ Clan = Redwood; female Ursine; formerly the Attacking Coach at ‘Merlchester Rovers’
(another of the nation’s top teams), with 5 years in such roles after 9 years as a player (as Forward and Winger) there. (Age = 30, fur = medium-brown, left-pawed; speaks English, Ursine, Artorranick, and German).
Defending Coach: Greenfinch o Barrdenn _ Clan = GreenWoods; female Ursine; formerly the Deputy Coach at ‘Lakeport Lionesses’
(another of the nation’s top teams), with 9 years in such roles after 7 years as a player (as Lynchpin, Back, and [less frequently] Midfelder) there. (Age = 32, fur = dark brown & relatively long; speaks English and Ursine).
Goalkeeping Coach: Freeda Urrlafh’s-dottir _ Clan = Thuleann; female Ursine [of ‘Polar Bear’ stock]; formerly the Defending Coach at ‘Ammfahr Adventuresses’
(who play in the Northlands’ league),with 4 years in such roles after 11years as a player (purely as Goalkeeper) there. (Age = 31, fur = white & trimmed relatively short, right-pawed; speaks Norren, Ursine, and English).
Deputy Manager (Admin): Judith Gold _ Free Sept = The Exodus;
“ursomorphic” Human, female, follows a moderate form of Judaism; seconded from BAAS head office. (Age = difficult for anybody unfamiliar with ‘ursomorphs’ to tell, but obviously an adult, fur = black, right-handed; very good with languages, and already fluent in several Human ones — including English, Yiddish, German, French, and Greek — as well as in both Ursine and Ouesttree).
Routemaster: Helene Bosanquet _ Clan = Calvin; Human, female; on loan from the Bears Armed Tourism Agency. Her duties involve handling all of the team’s travelling & accommodation arrangements. (Age = late twenties or early thirties, hair = dark brown, right-handed; speaks French, English, and Ursine).
Doctor: Lierr’hee Redwood-of-Thramms _ Clan = Redwood; female; hired from private practice by BAAS for this tournament. (Age undisclosed, but has been a doctor for over twenty-four years, fur = ‘grizzled’ black, right-pawed; speaks English, Ursine, and probably other languages as well).
Physiotherapist: Krrystal Bruin _ Clan = WestWoods; female Ursine; previously worked at hospitals in Wiston City, and helped with local amateur football league. (Age = mid-thirties, fur = dark brown, left-pawed; speaks English, Ursine, and Ouesttree; mother of one child, a daughter, Steffannee Bruin, who is one of this team’s players.)
Chaplain, ‘One Plus Seven’: Marra Moon _ Clan = Silver-of-Night; female Ursine; assigned to this duty by her superiors in the Great Medicine Society. (Age = early thirties [apparently], fur = light brown, left-pawed; is not only a
Shabear but also a qualified psychiatrist; speaks Ursine, English, and possibly one or more other languages as well.)
Chaplain, Ursion: (none assigned yet)Security Chief: Captain Merrfinh Blonk _ clan = WestWoods; male; on loan from
[undisclosed duties in] the Confederal Army. (Age = early thirties, fur = medium-brown & relatively long, right-pawed [apparently]; speaks Ouesttree, French, Ursine, and English.)
Caterers: Jordon Blue
Mascot: Perraboh or ‘Bright-Eyes’
(one of the “blessed” [but non-sapient?] Puh-Barra, or ‘Little Bears’) Roster(#1) Charranna o Barrdenn _ Clan = GreenWoods; female Ursine; home team = LakePort Lionesses, category & usual position = Goalkeeper; age = 20 years, left-pawed, fur = dark brown & relatively long, tall for her age even by Ursine standards & has a correspondingly long reach.
(#5) Errh’thrra Troutbrook _ Clan = Widewater; female Ursine; home team = River City, category & usual position = Goalkeeper; age =18 years, left-pawed, fur = medium brown with hints of grey, physically tough.
(#33) Karramarrsar Ulgha _ Clan = Ostobora; female Ursine; home team = Krasny Kremmer [reserves], category & usual position = Goalkeeper; age = 16 years, right-pawed, fur = light brown, above-average eyesight & reflex speed.
(#2) Urrsa Irrumerrhabarra _ Clan = Beorningas; female Ursine; home team = Wiston City [recently graduated from reserves], category = Defender, usual position = Left Back; age = 16 years, left-pawed, fur = medium brown; “a very promising youngster”.
(#3) Etta Halliday _ Clan = WestWoods; female Ursine, home team = Westport U Wonders, category = Defender, usual position = Right Back; age = 19 years, right-pawed, fur = yellow-brown, short for her age but solidly built & [despite that build] surprisingly fast, fearless; very fond of sweet foods.
(#16) Urrth’hrra Mead _ Clan = Greybear; female Ursine; home team = River City [reserves], category = Defender, usual position = Right Back; age = 16 years, right-pawed, fur = light brown.
(#4) Marra Lightning _ Clan = Gunnar; female Ursine; home team = Newton Arsenal, category = Defender/Midfielder, usual position = Lynchpin
(but versatile…); age = 19 years, either-pawed, fur = light brown & trimmed relatively short; fast on her feet, and relatively nimble for a Bear; “a natural leader”, and particularly good at keeping track of team-mates’ current positions.
(#17) Urra-Marra Bright _ Clan = Sun; female Ursine; home team = Sun Valley Smashers [reserves], category = Midfielder or Forward, usual position = Lynchpin or Midfield Left or Left Forward; age = 17 years, left-pawed, fur = golden; very good eyesight even by human standards, particularly accurate on long shots (and quite good at penalty shots, too), and tactically gifted.
(#20) Errinth’hrra Russett _ Clan = Urrset; female Ursine; home team = Northgate Nomads [reserves], category = Defender/Midfielder, usual position = Lynchpin or Midfield Left or Midfield Right; age = 15 years, left-pawed, fur = reddish-brown; serious-minded, she is already a rival for Urra-Marra in tactics despite the age difference and their regular Chess matches draw keen audiences from among their team-mates & the belles’ staff.
(#6) Emerladina Sunbird _ Clan = Sun; female Ursine; home team = Sun Valley Sunbeams [a ‘Junior League’ team, as Captain
(but scheduled to move either “up” into the Sun Valley Smashers or by a transfer to some other major team fairly soon), category = Midfielder or Winger, usual position = Midfield Left; age = 17 years, left-pawed, fur = golden with reddish tints, extremely good eyesight, has quick reflexes and is very fast on her feet, lightly-built for a Bear of her height but this doesn’t weaken her.
(#7) Karra Bronze _ Clan = GreenWoods; female Ursine; home team = Barrdenn Barbariennes, usual position = Midfield Right; age = 18 years, left-pawed, fur = medium-brown with reddish tints.
(#21) Steffannee Bruin _ Clan = WestWoods; female Ursine; home team = Wiston City Schools, category = Midfielder or Winger, usual position = Midfield Right; age = 15 years, right-pawed, fur = very light brown with hints of ‘gold’, small for her age but very resilient as well as nimble, good eyesight by Ursine standards (and not bad by Human ones, neither); daughter, & only child, of the Belles’ current physiotherapist.
(#7) Nerretta Barris _ Clan = BlackBear [Between-the-Rivers]; female Ursine; home team = LakePort Lion-Cubs [a junior League team], category = Forward, usual position = Left Forward/‘Inside Left’; age = 16 years, left-pawed, fur = very dark brown; of only average height for her age [or slightly less] but physically tough as well as quite fast; particularly good at keeping control of the ball on the ground, and at getting it goals past keepers & other defenders into the net at short ranges.
(#10) Amarr’hrrree o Redwood _ Clan = Redwood; female Ursine; home team = Kingly City, category = Forward, usual position = Centre Forward; age = 19 years, left-pawed, fur = medium brown with chestnut hints, tall & powerful for her age even by Ursine standards.
(#11) Andrraya Deh-Bruin _ Clan = WestWoods; female Ursine; home team = Westport U Wonders, category = Forward, usual position = Right Forward [‘Inside Right’
or ‘Outside Right’]; age = 20 years, right-pawed, fur = medium brown; some tactical skills, and particularly good at ‘set pieces’, but might be a bit more reluctant than most to pass the ball to team-mates even when their chances of scoring would be better than hers.
[#22] Urrma Kuthbearrh _ Clan = Errhabarra; female Ursine; home team = NorthPort Navigators, category = Forward, usual position = Left Forward (Inside Left
or Outside Left); age = 16 years, left-pawed, fur = light-medium brown, not yet at her expected adult height, relatively stocky but not particularly slow because of this; very determined even by Ursine standards.
(#23) Nennu Rangh’harr _ Free Sept = Rangh’harr; female Harr’aynau [humanoid]; home team = Heroes’ Park Heroines [reserves], category = Forward or Winger, usual position = Right Forward; age = 16 years, either-footed, dark red hair.
(#12) Karra Brent _ Clan = Redwood; female Ursine; home team = Holy Ternian’s School, category = Winger or Forward, usual position = Left Winger; age = 14 years, either-pawed, fur = golden-brown; quite large & very powerful for her age, fast & nimble, with very good eyesight even by human standards; apparently fearless.
(#13) Lurrsee Fane _ Clan = GreenWoods; female Ursine; home team = Holy Ternian’s School, category = Winger or Forward, usual position = Left Winger or ‘Outside Left’; age = 16 years, right-pawed, fur = light brown; maybe a bit flighty at times, but basically a good person, and tries to be a good influence on Karra Brent.
(#24) Sarranna White _ Clan = WestWoods; female Ursine; home team = Wiston City [reserves], category = Winger or Forward, usual position = Right Winger or Outside Right; age = 16 years, right-pawed, fur = ‘cream’; said to be better than most of her team-mates at understanding humans.
(#25) Harroya o Sarrndale _ Clan = Herrchaum; female Ursine; home team = Kingly City Kubs [a ‘Junior League’ team], category = Winger or Midfielder [or, less frequently, Forward] , usual position = either Wing; age = 15 years, left-pawed, fur = medium-brown with grey hints.
(#26) Greenfeathers Joysong _ Clan = Chii' Arrakhunnoth; female ‘Arrakhune’
(i.e. anthropomorphic Raccoon); home team = Northgate Nomads [reserves], category = Winger or Midfielder, usual position = Right Winger; age = 16 years
(which is proportionately slightly more for one of her people than it would be for an Ursine), right-pawed, fur = as you’d expect of a raccoon; relatively small even by Human standards [although significantly larger than an ordinary Raccoon] let alone by Ursine ones, but not as weak as some people might expect because of that, very agile, and can jump well; She is the first of her people to play at an international level, and is very conscious of this fact.
________________________________
Usual starters = #1-7, 10-13.
Style: Offensive, modifier = +4.0…
("A good offence is the best defence"...) Their usual formation will include a front row of at least 5 (normally arranged as 3 strikers & 2 wingers), with 2 midfielders, 2 backs, and a ‘Lynchpin’
(whose starting position would be at the midpoint of an imaginary cross drawn between those other four non-forwards’ positions).
___________________________________________________________________________
Opponents may _ RP injuries to my players / Godmod injuries to my players / Hand out Yellow cards to my players / Hand out Red cards to my players: Y to all, at least to start with, but remember what I've written here and keep it in limits accordingly... Any serious offences by my players would probably result in injuries to your players, and causing any serious injuries to my players would probably require such obviously-deliberate attacks that your players would get yellow or even red cards as a result too. Don’t
kill anybody, or inflict injuries that would be serious enough to end careers, without checking with me & getting my approval
(which is unlikely to be granted…) first.
Godmod Other Events: Y, I suppose, at least as long as you do so in an AMUSING way... but please remember that Ursines are fully sapient beings, as much as Humans are,
not instinct-driven animals. Oh, and
of course female Ursines are
not sexually interested in Humans (of either sex), and it's very unlikely that female Harr'ayanau would be either. Please
don't have them run amok or outright revert to animality, without checking by TG first, don't make assumptions about their views on politics or religion, and don't do anything that would make more than one of them incapable of playing in their next game...
________________________________
Kit: This incarnation of the team will normally wear the usual set of designs (from
‘ediraf’) that the Belles have favoured in the past. See
"here" for details.
Bears Armed has traditionally used base-8 arithmetic, for several reasons, and this has affected the set of numbers used for this team’s players.
______________________________________________________
NOTESUrsines may tend to be a bit less agile & slower to accelerate on average than humans of comparable ages, but this team's members were carefully selected so the gap between them & their opponents in this respect should be narrower than some people might expect. They do tend to have [slightly] poorer eyesight than humans, on the whole
(although the members of both Clan Gunnar and the Sun Clan are generally an exception to this rule, and the eyesight of the latter group is actually often at [slightly] better-than-human levels instead), so long-distance passes & shots at goal will tend to be rarer behaviour for them than they are for human teams... but their typical size & strength mean that when they're running with the ball it will probably take a very brave human — as well as a very skilled one — to tackle them successfully
(or, at least, one who has reasonable experience of playing against Ursines…), which should balance that factor pretty well. They don’t jump very well, but then they’re generally rather taller than most Human players to start with so they shouldn’t
need to jump as often in order to intercept [relatively] high shots...
Ursines are physically robust, of course, which means that they're much less likely than humans are to suffer injuries in falls or collisions. The females of this species are more even-tempered than the males, and the team's members will
try to stay on their best behaviour not only in order to do well in this contest but also to impress upon the watching humans that Ursines aren't just "dumb beasts". They will not 'dive', or feign injury in other ways, because suggesting that they could be harmed so easily goes strongly against the grain. ‘Northlanders’ are maybe not
quite as "civilised" as the 'Mainlanders'… or, at any rate, that’s the traditional stereotype..
Unless our hosts at the match in question object, this team's members (including the designated substitutes for the match in question) will perform a [fairly short] ritual that's called the
'harrdiharr' on the pitch just before play begins... This is a traditional war-dance, meant to over-awe opponents, that has come to be a customary prelude for team games as well
(similar to the [RL] New Zealanders' 'haka'...). : )
As has now been seen during various tournaments, some of our fans like to take drums — and possibly also 'Urrs-horns'
[which are similar to Alpenhorns, cow-horns, or other "musical instruments", too — along to the matches…
The team is accompanied by a number of sapient
Ravens, who are there both to gather information about the rival sides and to provide air cover in case of hostile waterfowl.[/size]
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some Questions for the HostHaving read the schedule and what was said about needing to rely on rail travel, I now have some questions that my team’s IC organisers would have definitely have asked before the team was sent over:
1/ Will we be able to use either of the assigned stadiums, or a site close to one of these, for last-minute training and to acclimatise ourselves to playing under local conditions?
2/ The obvious one of the three listed airports at which to arrive, given the locations of the two stadiums assigned to our group, is Gladerial which is basically halfway between the stadiums. If the answer to the above question is ‘No’, then
(going by the information available IC, as well as OOC) would it probably seem to make more sense to base ourselves “centrally” in Gladerial — which we’d presumably have to travel through to get from one stadium to the other, anyway — rather than at one of the stadiums’ locations?
3/ Do services run directly from Gladerial to both of the towns/cities where those stadiums are located, or would we need to change trains once or more along either route? Looking at the basic map provided, I suspect that direct trains run from Gladerial to Ianisle through one or both of Sharala [and then Therathor?] or Zul’Daratar, but that to get to Goldsan we would need to change at Longview…
4/ Bears are often
interested in forests, of course, so they’ll enjoy looking at Valanora’s while travelling between sites. What basic sort of woodland (coniferous, mixed, broadleaf deciduous, broadleaf evergreen, or whatever) and particularly noteworthy species can they expect to see along those routes?
EDIT: Oh, and...
5/ What are the tie-breakers for progression from the group stage?