> Question - what if it wasn't Vlad's 'soul' that let him create raw > Chaos, but the fact that he's an Easterner rather than a > Dragaeran? And > Chaos is something the Phoenix have doings with, if you look at the > history of Zerika I. Vlad is not the first Easterner to learn sorcery. He's surely not the first to learn of Elder Sorcery. If manipulating amorphia is an innate ability of Easterners, I'd think that would be common knowledge and that the place of Easterners in Dragaeran society would be quite a bit different than it currently is. > > Anyway, if it is being an Easterner and knowing that creating Chaos is > possible, it didn't seem to require anything more from Vlad, > other than > being desperate enough to try. Don't confuse Dragaeran "genetics" with 21st century Terran genetics. Whatever science it is that Aliera practices, it involves sorcery and likely is only superficially the same as our brand of genetics. The ability to create amorphia from nothing or from existing matter is tied to the soul rather than the body as illustrated by Vlad, so "genetics" as we think about it doesn't really apply. > > Possibly related - does anyone else get the feeling that Dragaeran > society doesn't really seem to fit a belief that they can tell who a > reincarnated soul once was in a previous life? Like, if that's the > case, why was Norathar picked as Dragon Heir because she was > an e'Lanya, > rather than because she was the reincarnation of the last Dragon > Empress? The thing about reincarnation is that it's a new start in life. Having a history doesn't change who you are now. Even if you have an especially adept and powerful mentor like Sethra to lead you in a past-life regression, doing so doesn't somehow transform you back into that person that you used to be. It just gives you some insight into your soul's history and maybe some pointers on what mistakes to avoid this time around. Never mind the legal morass of souls moving around through different Houses in each life. > > (BTW - does anyone know of any textevd that 'souls' have to be > reincarnated in the body of one of their line? Given Vlad's situation, I'd say way have textev that they don't. >If not, the LoJ really > should have taken advantage of that and reincarnated some of > their more > able souls into the body of an e'Kieron to get that ability in future > versions). Here again, the abilty to create amorphia is something the soul has or doesn't have. Getting reincarnated into an E'Lanya wouldn't modify the soul into one that has the ability, I wouldn't think. Rather, the soul would have to be "newly minted" and on its first trip the the cycle of reincarnation. That probably means that there aren't many such souls born nowadays. Frankly, if I was one of the Lords of Judgement I'd want it that way. Over and over again, people who mess with amorphia directly (primarily by Elder Sorcery) seem to just screw up the works for everyone else.