On Wed, 8 Jan 2003, Alexx S Kay wrote: #I'd always rather assumed that the gods (or whatever entities created #and maintain the Cycle -- which I think is something rather "higher" #on the scale) were exerting a great deal of influence to keep the #political status of the world at quo. From the time of the founding #of the Empire, there weren't *any* significant cultural shifts (that we've #been made privy to, at least) until the Interregnum. The recent degree #of change is literally without precedent for hundreds of thousands of #years. Indeed, the relevant question might not be, "why haven't the #Easterners developed at all?", but rather, "Why has the Empire suddenly #been allowed hasty development?". How about this for a hypothesis, just pulled out of my hat? One function of the Orb, unknown to most or all Dragaerans, is to give the gods a channel by which they can exert some types of influence on Dragaerans (all of whom are linked to the Orb). Maybe not strong, and maybe not specific... but maybe enough to effect a general damping of inquisitiveness into the workings of the world. The big exception to this, of course, is the Athyra, and they each tend (I think?) to concentrate very strongly on a single problem; and once sorcery becomes established, they concentrate on it rather than on, say, physics or chemistry, just because it's already there. Um. That doesn't say anything about the Easterners. But it does provide an additional reason for the burst of sorcerous advance during the Interregnum. Not only did sorcerors have to figure out how to work sorcery without the Orb, they also had the straps taken off part of their intellect. I have no idea how supportable this whole idea is, and I'm not wedded to it. Comments? -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website