[Dragaera] Dragaeran WMD

[Philip Hart]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2008, Maximilian Wilson wrote:

> If you were the Emperor, what sorts of low-probability, high-impact
> threats would keep you up at night?

The empire has faced several high-impact threats in the very short term.
There's zero point in worrying about low-probability ones.


> * There must have been hundreds of thousands of descendants of the
> e'Kieron/e'Lanya line by now.

Nope.  For one thing, there was a little war in the recent past
which wiped out most of the high-level Dragons - sort of the point
of _Jhereg_.  And, well, Adron's disaster.  Anybody recall any other 
extant e'Ks?

For another, there's no evidence that any e'K can make amorphia.
And plenty of reason why it's rare in the nominal line.

And, well, if it's a problem, it's been one for 200k years, and
the line now has Adron as an example which won't be forgotten.


> * Easterners could re-develop the advanced technology which brought
> them to Dragaera.

Tell that to the Cycle, the gods, etc. - whatever has kept the East
down for 200k years.

> Zerika has spies scattered throughout the whole world--but there are
> other worlds. Is somebody keeping tabs on them all?

They'd have to get through the J first, which they haven't managed
to do for likely large multiples of 200k years.


> * Outside-context problems. What's out there besides the Jenoine?
> Amorphia was created by a fluke, unique accident. Are there any other
> accidents waiting to happen? Can an empire survive a million years and
> *not* encounter a few outside-context problems?

This is the Cycle's problem, or House Athyra's.  The explosive growth 
in sorcery will cover this if it can be covered - assuming that growth
doesn't destroy the Empire by itself.  That's something I'd be worried
about in Zerika's shoes.