[Dragaera] magic speculation

[Scott Schultz via Dragaera]

> I was chatting with a friend, and he said this; "It's interesting that, in
order to
> make the musketeer-y tone work in Phoenix Guard, he had to tone down
> the magic and remove psionics."
> 
> Now we know the story reason for why magic & psionics are more prevalent
> after Adron's disaster - it spawned the lesser sea of Chaos.
> 
> I was wondering if the story rationale came first, or if it was
retro-fitted to
> include the events of the Phoenix Guards books?

I think it's most correct to say that the story rationale came first and the
Phoenix Guard books are the first stories to explain that setting, being
that every other story (save possibly Brokedown Palace) takes place
post-Interregnum.

As Corwin suggests, the lack of psionics in pre-Interregnum Empire is that
the migration of Easterners to Adrilankha happened during the Interregnum.
The plagues that decimated the world at that time hit on both sides of the
Eastern Mountains.  While it's not explicitly stated anywhere, IMO it
appears that the plagues originated in Empire lands and spread East. The Orb
was restored and the Empire cured the plagues using sorcery. Meanwhile the
East was hit in its own turn, and one result was a migration from the East
to Faerie; an event that ordinarily would never have occurred. 

Why the Empire allowed it might make for an interesting story in itself,
given that the East is the Empire's traditional enemy of convenience. I
suppose that Zerika being an Empress with an unusual fondness for Easterners
had something to do with it. It's also possible, perhaps probable, that
Morollan's parents were typical rather than exceptional in being Dragaerans
who fled Eastward during the Interregnum and perhaps developed a tolerance
for Easterners greater than had previously existed.

However - I could be all wet here; Khaavren shows no particular dislike of
Easterners (though he is good natured enough to like just about anyone who
isn't automatically hostile to him; rather differently depicted than the way
Vlad sees him) and I believe that in the Phoenix Guards Khaavren encounters
an Easterner who is a very minor palace functionary. Perhaps Vlad's
upbringing colors his narrative and makes him exaggerate just how bad things
are in the Eastern "slums". Then again, perhaps Paarfi just paints
everything deliberately through rose-colored glasses.

In any case - the lack of psionics in either setting is mostly that it's a
lot of work for little gain from the standpoint of most Dragaerans. Morollan
was raised in the East and, indeed, thought he himself was an Easterner
(albeit an odd one). He was raised with a cultural bias towards Eastern
witchcraft, rather than against. Damar is exceptionally talented in
psionics. If he was less talented, perhaps he also would have been less
inclined towards studying psionics and gravitated towards pre-Emire sorcery
instead, like most Wizards. There's a bias against Witchcraft, partly
because its Eastern, but mostly just that it's "inferior" and more work. 

As for sorcery, there are references here and there prior to the publication
of the Phoenix Guards and it sequels; noting, for instance, that
teleportation was a post-Interregnum innovation. Though, the implication in
the early novels is that the Interregnum forced sorcerers to innovate in
order to achieve any result at all, so that when the Orb reappeared, their
Interregnum-learned skills created a renaissance in sorcery. It's Paarfi who
tells us differently; that the Lords of Judgement enhanced the Orb and THAT
led to the post-Interregnum sorcerous renaissance. Which is "correct"? Who
knows. Unless Paarfi is secretly a Lord of Judgement himself or someone with
a pipeline to the Lords of Judgement, it's unlikely that he actually knows
what was going on in the Halls of Judgement during the Interregnum. 

The important thing as regards to your question is that yes, this was baked
into the setting from the beginning. The Phoenix Guards is simply the first
novel to illustrate just what the early setting was like in comparison to
the "modern" Empire of the Vladiad.

Also, keep in mind that EVERYONE in the various Dragaeran novels is an
unreliable narrator; Paarfi perhaps most of all.