Dragaera

domesticated animals

Wed Feb 4 14:25:14 PST 2004


On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, Noam Izenberg wrote:

> On Feb 4, 2004, at 4:24 PM, Philip Hart wrote:
> > Excellent questions.  Re diseases, I believe we have no evidence, but
> > I'd be inclined to think the J didn't mess with the basic cellular
> > mechanics to the point that viruses couldn't learn to pass to Ds from
> > Es, given that they live in close proximity (v. Guns etc for more).
>
> That could be answer enough. Even if all the reasoning below were
> circumvented, an invading army could be put down by one of the
> plagues. Except:
>
> On Feb 4, 2004, at 4:43 PM, lazarus wrote:
> > I can't recall and thus don't have any textev, but I distinctly got
> > the impression that the various plagues' coming from the East would
> > have to mean they were transmitted from Easterner to Dragaeran.  How
> > else would the plagues be hanging around waiting to sweep west?
>
> If the plagues come _from_ the East and only hit Dragaera because its
> various protections have failed, then that would be a wonderful
> precursor to invasion - even invasion embodied simply by natural
> expansion to fill the voids left behind by dead outlying Dragaeran
> communities.


In _FHYA_, pg 546 of the ppb, Paarfi writes that after the Disaster
"the first seeds of the Great Plagues were beginning in Adrilankha,
Candletown, Northport, Branch, and Tirinsar."

I think this thread overestimates the weakness of the post-Disaster Empire
- certainly formidable Dragaeran armies are assembled in the Pirodessey.