[Dragaera] Some speculation on Spellbreaker

[Jon Lincicum]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> 
> 
> On Mon, 29 Sep 2008, Kenneth Gorelick wrote:
> 
> >
> > On Sep 29, 2008, at 5:28 PM, Jon Lincicum wrote:
> >
> >> 
> >>> 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.
> >> 
> >> I am utterly unconvinced that the Jenoine came to Dragaera to study 
> >> amorphia.
> 
> This is a non sequitur for one thing.

Fair enough. The theoretical discovery of amorphia on Dragaera may have had nothing to do with their original arrival. Post Hoc, Propter Hoc.
 
> We know that amorphia is not amenable to standard scientific study - the 
> researcher needs allele x to communicate with it?  One has to become
> personally familiar with it?
> 
> And note its tendency to eat everything in sight.

The Athyra seem to have found ways to learn quite a bit about it, over the centuries. Surely the Jenoine, with the power of gods, would be able to accomplish similar feats in a shorter amount of time? Granted they think differently than we do. But there's no reason to think this would inhibit their scientific abilities.

> Also note our lack of evidence that the Jenoine are particulary smart - 
> except maybe at jhereg brain programming.  

Possible. Just doesn't seem to jive very well with the threat that everyone (Verra, Barlan, Sethra, Aliera, et al) seems to think they pose to Dragaera. 

> Or maybe they are smart and
> sophisticated in science, and therefore lack the right attitudes for studying
> magic.

They seem to have figured out enough of this by /Issola/ to have developed their own ersatz orb, and stolen a river of amorphia, so obviously the apptitude is there. Granted, we have no way of knowing how long it took them to develop it.  

> >> I think it's far more likely that the very first amorphia on Dragaera was 
> >> created by Vera
> 
> This seems rather unlikely to me - maybe the first free amorphia.  I'm 
> pretty sure we've heard that the J knew about amorphia (else the story 
> from their perspective is that Verra et al. managed to kill their 
> colony, and their success with the river is astonishing), and are 
> interested in Dragaera for its sake.

I am not recalling any direct evidence that amorphia existed prior to the rebellion of Verra and the other servants. This would certainly settle the point if there is any. It's clear in Issola that a large part of their interest in Dragaera NOW is the presence of amorphia, but I don't think it's ever said that that's why they went there originally.

> >> The Jenoine, from available evidence, came to Dragaera to study humans, and 
> >> their psychic abilities, and in the process created the Dragaerans.
> 
> What available evidence?  About all we know is that the J came.  Probably 
> they were just looking for interesting stuff to play with, and found a 
> lot - a lot more than they were ready for.

Well, the existence of the Dragaerans, for one. We certainly don't know how the Jenoine think, but it seems to me they're interested in power and control--so if they come across something as tremendously powerful as amorphia, why are they going to waste their time modifying ephemeral lifeforms for their measley psychic powers, and not concentrate full time on studying/controlling/harnessing the amorphia?
 
> > Per Issola, you are exactly correct. From p. 37 of my hardcover edition, 
> > "...Verra and a few others, who sabotaged [the Jenoines'] work, who created 
> > the Great Sea of Amorphia, who unleashed upon the world that which we call 
> > sorcery..."
> 
> This works rather against the claim than for it - "sabotage" suggests that
> Verra killed the containment system in the J amorphia lab more than "Verra
> put an amorphia bomb in the J biologists' mess tent".

I see no way to settle this point with available evidence. Both theories are certainly possible. 

I would point out that Verra might be the progenitor of the Kieron-esque ability to create amorphia through sheer force of will. This could well be where the first amorphia on Dragaera came from, and her "sabotage" consisted of dissolving some critical but unrelated piece of Jenoine machinery into a puddle of metamorphic goo.

Personally, I am more interested in knowing what exactly the forces were that prevented this original amorphic explosion from consuming the whole of Dragaera. Since there were no Lords of Judgment around to help contain it, as was the case when Adron caused the second explosion. Might this have something to do with Dzur Mountain and/or Sethra and Tukko?

Majikjon