constructed the ancestral cell of the Zacharians from different sources with improvements;
divided the cell;
substituted a Y for an X chromosome, thus making the second cell male;
nurtured both exogentically;
adopted and raised the infants;
named them Izanami and Izanagi.
These became the first parents of all Zacharians. Inbreeding generates no defects when the parents are perfect.
Kukulkan Zachary, explaining the process to Diana Crowfeather, cites one other Zacharian name, Astarte Zachary. We know this goddess from the Time Patrol series. See Phoenician Religion.
See also The Zacharians.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The Zacharians might have been genetically "perfect," but they were certainly not morally or intellectually perfect! How could they be when they were colluding or plotting with Merseia to help a deep cover Merseian agent, Olaf Magnusson, on the Imperial throne as a puppet Emperor? And, as we know, Merseia was quite willing to exterminate entire intelligent races if Roidhunate thought it necessary. Meaning the Zacharians could have become accessories to genocide!
I even speculated in one of my essays that Merseian racial supremacism could have been one of the roots used by S.M. Stirling in depicting the monstrous Draka in his four Draka novels.
Sean
The Zacharians are an example of the rage of frustrated entitlement -- they were designed as a "leadership cadre" for the human race, found the rest of the human race was profoundly uninterested in being led by them, and as a result were full of a burning resentment. This is not an uncommon psychological mechanism.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I like that, I mean the Zacharians felt rage and resentment at how the rest of the human race were not in the least inclined to accept them as their "natural" leaders. And the punishment Flandy would recommend for them, exile from the island of Zacharia and their scattering and dispersal among the peoples of the Empire, was right.
Sean
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