Hloch, the compiler of
The Earth Book Of Stormgate, is our watchbeing. From the period of the early Terran Empire, Hloch surveys the several earlier histories of the Grand Survey, the exploration of Avalon, the Polesotechnic League, the two-stage colonization of Avalon (first the Hesperian Islands, then the Coronan continent) and the Terran War on Avalon. We might draw more inspiration from Hloch when we have reread the concluding chapter of
Mirkheim (but not tonight). If the Technic History had been extended, then it might have benefited from a later Hloch equivalent, surveying the entire histories of the Terran Empire, the Merseian Roidhunate and their aftermaths. Which species and which society would have been best placed to do this? Maybe a human-Ythrian pair on a fully integrated Avalon? Might a technological advance enable human beings to fly by flapping wings?
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am skeptical. I am not so sure the Domain (and Avalon, for that matter) would have survived the fall of the Terran Empire and the chaos of the Long Night. I strongly suspect the "suction" effect of the huge collapse of the Empire would have dragged down the Domain as well. We see not the slightest hint about Ythri and Avalon in the four post-Imperial stories, recall.
And humans were already able to fly using grav belts.
Ad astra! Sean
A human-sized flying animal requires a very, very unusual biochemistry; you couldn't do it with humans in a terrestrial atmosphere without total redesign. Diomedes, of course, has a very unusual atmosphere!
Sean: I think the Domain might pull through -- they're decentralized, but rugged. It could just be coincidence that they're not mentioned.
Those four post-Imperial stories focus only on human beings. They do not mention Merseians, Cynthians, Wodenites etc either.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: Your first point, and any man sized avian species of that kind would not even be human at all, but another species.
Second point: Possibly, altho I still have my doubts. Esp. if, at the time the Empire finally fell, the Domain was having its own problems with its own form of decadence and decline. Yes, only coincidence we see no mention of Ythri in the post-Imperial stories.
Paul: That is true!
Ad astra! Sean
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