On Sat, 8 Apr 2006, Maximilian Wilson wrote: > Philip wrote: > > Note that the J were able to make a river of amorphia elsewhere, to > > Sethra's great astonishment, so she may be overrepresenting her > > understanding of the issue to Vlad. And Vlad was able (I think) > > to produce amorphia there as well. Maybe Dragaera isn't so special > > in this sense. > > My impression is that Dragaera is special not so much for being the > only place where amorphia can be *created* as for being the only place > where a known, stable source exists. Remember Sethra's comments about > the biggest fluke of all, that the GS (and the LS later on) failed to > consume the entire world. The Jenoine didn't make their amorphia (it > was siphoned off from the LS) but Vlad certainly did make some there, > as you mentioned. > > On the other hand, since amorphia appears to convert other matter into > amorphia, I've wondered why cutting the link to the LS is likely to > inconvenience the Jenoine in any way except for undercutting their > plans to take over the Orb. Yes -the J have a river of amorphia and a hunk of trellanstone - I don't see why they can't make their own orb and maintain their own sea and just ignore Dragaera (or find more trellanstone and make more orbs and seas and then blow away the Empire/gods by brute force) - esp since they have been doing something similar already. The only out I can think of at the moment is that there's something special about the human (Serioli?) phenotype/soulotype that clicks with amorphia and the J aren't willing or able to modify themselves to do the same, and too dumb or something to just kidnap some e'Kierons and breed them and use them as proxies against the gods. Dunno.