In Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, quantum probability-waves can change their rhythm, thus altering the timeline.
Now imagine a Shadowspawn personal causal nexus able to make probability-waves change their rhythm. Would he initiate a divergent timeline while remaining in his original timeline or find himself transported with unchanged memories into an alternative timeline?
One Shadowspawn, Adrian Breze, seems to share the ability of the psychic, Yasmini, to detect alternative futures.
Each of us exists because of probabilities. If a different sperm and egg had met, then our parents would have had offspring with a different genetic combination. Imagine a being with a level of consciousness and power able to affect that. S/he would be able to choose between innumerable alternative world populations.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I think adult, experienced Shadowspawn can affect probabilities on a macrocosmic scale in their favor, but not necessarily on a microscopic scale. If only because many Shadowspawn are too lazy to do so.
Sean
They can affect things like which genes meet up -- that was how they rapidly reconstituted the Shadowspawn genome. It's a feedback cycle; as each generation gets more of the Power, it's better at doing this, which results in more powerful offspring. They can do this for persons other than themselves and their mates, too.
(There was a second-generation coup in the Order's history, as the first generation to have enough Shadowspawn inheritance to survive physical death came of age and killed off their predecessors.)
The mechanisms involved are largely subconscious, with the Power-directing portions of the brain running through unlimited numbers of alternatives until it gets the pathway it wants and then 'nudges' things towards that end. The spells and Mhabroghast incantations are a means of concentrating the Power on the objective, a form of mental discipline.
Unfortunately for the world, the low-level sensing and manipulation necessary for genetic editing is not a very 'heavy' application of the Power, requiring much less than maintaining an aetheric body, so that people who have a randomly assembled share of Shadowspawn genes can do it if they are aware of the concepts.
There were unintended consequences, needless to say! Some Shadowspawn adepts later theorize that the Power reached back in time to manipulate the Order of the Black Dawn, and conduct ceremonies to accomplish that purpose. Nobody's entirely sure if it works, but it doesn't hurt... and it is a little odd that the original Satanists didn't think of what their enormously powerful offspring might think of -them-.
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