Dragaera

Dragaerans and learning (was re: the honing of Vlad)

Mon Feb 27 09:25:55 PST 2006

Maximilian Wilson wrote:
> 
> On 2/20/06, K Kuhn <kknolte at ecity.net> wrote:
> > that something's changed.  OTOH, you do have to wonder why it never
> > occurred to them that the Lesser Sea of Chaos might be of interest to
> > the Jenoine if the bigger one was protected. Although possibly that's
> > because the gods follow your model and do need several hits of a
> > clue-by-four).
> 
> Sethra: We are expecting an attack from the Jenoine.
> Necromancer: Where?
> S: The site of Adron's disaster.
> N: [eyebrows raised] Is it unprotected?
> S: Yes. The other has been protected all along, almost by accident, as
> it were. And it never occurred to me to look for an attack that way.
> 
> It sounds to me like the Orb "protecting" the Greater Sea is almost a
> side-effect of something else, so perhaps it's not so surprising that
> they never thought to protect the Lesser Sea in the same way.
>
Sorry, that's what I'm wondering about, given that Sethra at least has a
reputation for being a very good general, for a Dragaeran.   Admittedly,
the military mind is often mysterious to me (frex, a recent real-life
example of an army that didn't see a pressing need to secure a huge ammo
dump of boring old explosives), but I would think that a successful
general would pay attention to what the enemy is trying to get, in order
to deny them the opportunity.  And if Sethra and the Lords of Judgement
believe that their duty is to keep the Jenoine from getting access to
amorphia, why did they overlook the Lesser Sea as something they need to
defend?

So, to relate to the subject line - are even very successful and
competent Dragaerans rather slow to relate their existing knowledge base
to new information, or notice that the context of their life has
changed? (although I don't remember any textevd suggesting they're not
as creative as Easterners, although I suppose you could _maybe_ argue
that Verra trying to keep Easterners static despite her nature of
arbitrary just-do-it-ness could be a hint that Dragaerans aren't very
good at handling change the first time they encounter it).   SKZB
hinting that relying on the Powers-That-Be (ie, Lords of Judgement) to
be competent might not be a good idea?  Or just an example of how even
very intelligent people can overlook stuff until it bites them,
especially if it makes a good story?

Karen