Dragaera

Multi-jointed fingers (and houses)

Thu Jun 15 22:57:34 PDT 2006


On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, Jon Lincicum wrote:

> An argument against this theory is it's only been 200 some years since
> the Interregnum--and no Easterner could buy titles into the Jhereg
> before that time.

I'd guesstimate all Easterners in Adrilankha would now be citizens if 1%
of the first generation bought titles and were able to pass on their
citizenship, assuming no influx of non-citizens from the East and no
competitive advantage of a link to the Orb.  Let's throw in a factor of
ten down for the influx and a factor of two up for the link (at low
densities, a link might provide large competitive advantages, at high
densities the psionic network alone would be very valuable - one might
seek a citizen mate for that alone).  Let's then guess that <1:10k
Easterners in A. are citizens - I get, uhh, 1:200k citizens early.
And really it should be much less since obviously people in subsequent
generations joined the Jhereg.  Pretty bad business model if so.

Or one could say there are 1:1k E-citizens now, suggesting that in a mere
200 years (eight generations) there will be only E-citizens...


Maybe there are Dragaerans who hunt down Easterners with links and
suppress the infection rate.  But of course we would likely have heard
about that if it were common.

I can see complicated arguments about wealth in such a competitive
environment reflecting good genes or skills that could be taught to
one's children, leading to a greater transmission rate - or the opposite.
Perhaps someone with the proper expertise could do an evolutionary
model and produce more sensible limits.