>One last - I swear! - comment in this thread: >Re the Empire not fully conquering the East, it's a well-known historical >phenomenon that invading barbarian armies indirectly exert enormous >pressure on distant civilizations - one tribe pushes out another etc. >etc. and soon the Germans are knocking down the walls of Rome. Still, >I think the gods must be keeping the Eastern scientists down (and >keeping the Empire from suppressing the East). - Philip In all these posts, nobody has suggested that everyone in dragera might have there efforts focused in another direction. The esasterners do not have the orb, but they do have witchcraft, and furthermore they know of the orbs existance. therefore they may have put there minds and efforts into only one direction. they may have blinders on with regards to advances in science. if you know that a method exists that works well, all your efforts are going to be biased in that direction--ex. everyone wants the A-bomb. A really good example of such single mindeness comes from attempts to develop a polio vacine. Joe Saulk(sp) had the answer (live virus) but everyone was hell bent on going with dead virus---they refused to fund any other type of research, setting the discovery of a vaccine for 10-15 years. Dragerans of all races may simply be blinded to antyhing that does not involve sorcery. jaa