[Dragaera] Some speculation on Spellbreaker

[Michael Wojcik]

Steve Rapaport wrote:
> Scott Schultz wrote:
>>
>> I have the feeling that the Jenoine see sorcery as a new kind of technology
>> and they're playing around with it in a kind of trial and error fashion.
>> They're trying to understand the science behind it in a manner not very
>> different from the way that nuclear scientists in the 50's were trying to
>> understand nuclear physics and built a usable bomb.
> 
> Another brilliant take.  I particularly like that the Jenoine think on a big
> scale but work really crudely.

Yes. I think this makes a good narrative basis for everything we know
about the Jenoine. My guess is that it went something like this:

- Long ago, the Jenoine discover amorphia on Dragaera, and decide to
study it.

- For some reason, they decide that it will be useful to study it
using other intelligent beings as proxies (or tools). Apparently the
Serioli are not suitable, so they modify jhereg (and possibly other
species) to make them intelligent. They modify humans (perhaps after
bringing them to Dragaera; perhaps humans got there on their own) to
enhance their psychic facilities. They create Dragaerans from human stock.

- The Jenoine recruit other beings as lab assistants and/or
experimental subjects. These beings have, develop, or are given the
key aspect of godhood (simultaneity). Possibly they were demons (ie,
godlike beings that can be compelled) to start with; possibly they
were upgraded by the Jenoine.

- Those beings eventually revolt, using the power of amorphia, and
become the Lords of Judgement. They succeed in evicting the Jenoine
from Dragaera and blocking their access to amorphia - though it is a
constant struggle to keep them out.

- The LoJ form alliances with Dragaerans and humans in their struggle
against the Jenoine.

This fits with Scott's conception of the Jenoine: enormously powerful,
working on enormously large scale, but curiously clumsy. They clearly
succeeded in many ways in trying to control amorphia: the LoJ can do
lots of things with it (including, apparently, create trellanstone,
which is the key to amorphia technology); some Dragaerans and humans
can control amorphia; and so on. Their lab is producing good stuff -
it just keeps catching fire.

-- 
Michael Wojcik
Micro Focus
Rhetoric & Writing, Michigan State University