Please don’t ask me why I was searching Google Books for references to ninja between 1795 and 1820. Just accept that I was and that I was expecting there to be close to zero results.
But below, is the first of two pages of results.
The examiner: Volume 9 – Page 127
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Leigh Hunt – 1819 – Free Google eBook – Read
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Holy moly! Forty NINJAS? That’s no lone ninja a long way from home. That’s an invasion! DURING THE REGENCY! How could we not know about this?
(Because they are ninjas, that’s why.)
So, of course I clicked. Who wouldn’t? I mean ninjas in England in 1819 and they’re all acting like, hey, let’s keep picking until we have an attack force of FORTY of these motherf*ckers. Napoleon would be toast if, uh, he weren’t already.
Alas, the reality was disappointing to say the least.
But if among these names is that of a Member who given a vote in the election complained of or who is a Petitioner or ngninst whose return a Petition depending or of a Member who is sixty years of suppose he wishes to be excused such name is set and another is drawn to supply his place until forty be selected When the forty nine are complete the or his Agent names a Member and the
All the rest were foreign language results. Those Romans, Germans and Italian-post-Latin speakers! Always the fake ninjas.
Kind of disappointing. So. Help me out here.
Your Task
You command the Ninja attack force in London, 1815. What do you do with them? Or, alternatively, provide a snippet of Regency Ninja Lore.
Like, A Regency Ninja is thought to have infiltrated Almack’s, assassinated six debutantes and eleven Regency Bucks in pink waiscoats and vanished after spiking the orgeat with sake.
Or something.
Comment away.
what a yummy story idea. I just love where ideas come from!
(unfortunately, do not feel like coming up with one … oh wait…)
Miss Verity Lee Berent peered through the upper storey window of her arch-nemesis. If Lady Marguerite Fotherington thought for a second that she would steal Verity’s thunder at her debut, she was much mistaken.
There was only a sliver of a moon, yet Verity’s ninja eyes picked out the silver lame’ dress hanging in front of Lady Marguerite’s closet. Her keen, trained eyes picked out the embroidered silver flowers and the rows of delicate Bruxelles lace.
She slithered through the open window, her black pantaloons and shirt making her nothing more than a shadow….
Forty Ninjas in 1811 through 1818! Wow! Bow street runners be damded, I want them:
1) steal back incriminating documents being used for blackmail
2) Steal back IOU’s that may destroy someone’s inheritance after the wastrel gambler relative has died
3) Plant incriminating evidence to ruin that rake who has just seduced and abandoned my baby sister
4) More schemes involving breaking and entering with stealth…
Susan
Could being a Regency Ninja explain some bad behaviors? Rakes faking like they’re merely having torrid love affairs to disguise their secret ninja…ninja-ness?
Lord Rakehell is accused of cheating at cards. He is, of course, totally innocent, but the others at the table challenge him to a duel. Instead of pistols at dawn. Forty ninjas pop up and fight their way through Hyde Park.
Given the ninjas, does that mean there’s a purveyor of throwing stars (shurikens) in London? Or where would they get replacements for their weapons? How was the steel in those days? Is Damascus steel still better? What would the average rake make of nunchucks?
Since one of the roles of ninjas is assassinations, I expect a spate of dead aristocracy with heirs and perhaps spares getting a chance to inherit.
Came here through Google, when I was looking for something else, and I thought I might mention this: http://www.redwombatstudio.com/blog/?p=4607 Ursula Vernon, artist and writer, threw together the beginnings of “Regency Ninja”. It’s now perhaps being expanded into a full book of some sort.
@Werrf: Obviously there is pent up reader demand for Regency ninjas. From Fan Fic has come wonderful novels and novelists. I see a great future in story for the Regency-Set Ninja historical.
Thank you for the link, that story was hilarious. Except I sobbed at the commenters who had never heard of a Regency novel. OMG.