Velarra wrote:Here's a thought: Does pride keep the Jovians from biologically breeding with non-jovians? Particularly with an interest toward rehabilitating the Jovian genome & introducing new / healthier material into their profile?
Sure, non-jovians may be prone to cancer & various other impurities, but they may not suffer from the genetically crippling, inherited Jovian disease.
On the other hand, Abdiel Verat out in Curse does seem to vaguely imply at one point that (a veiled something) ( i read as Jovian disease) can be transmitted to select targets.
I don't think it is a matter of pride, so much as compatibility. I have a bunch of theories about this. One of them involves the Minmatar Voluval ritual.
The Jovians have excellent standing with the Minmatar Republic. They've fiddled with the Minmatar leader's body and mind, and I suspect that's not the only fiddling they've done. Look at the Voluval from an analytical standpoint. A Shaman injects a candidate with a mysterious solution that interacts with their genes, and portrays their traits on their skin via the Voluval mark.
Now, if I were a superior species running out of ways to multiply, due to a ravaged genetic code, I wouldn't try to repair the damage directly... I'd rather try to culture a fresh, original sample of what the genetic code looked like
before I wrecked it with millenia of tampering, and see if it can't be used to somehow inject "fresh blood" into the mix. I'd try to see where the Jovian experiments went wrong, and breed a new generation of Jovians that aren't crippled by their disease.
So, I culture a few breeding pairs of humans as they looked way back when. I seed them on habitable planets throughout space, and encourage them to be fruitful and multiply. Some time later, I introduce a ritual to the primitive culture: without granting them the understanding behind the science of it, I teach them to segregate themselves based on desirable and undesirable traits. In this ritual, an undesirable trait is "a Bad Mark" and leads to exile or execution, limiting the spread of that genetic material, while desirable traits are bestowed with "a Good Mark" - which boosts the desirable individual's social standing and likelihood of propagating his genes.
In short, my theory is that the Minmatar Republic exists as breeding stock for the Jovians. An experiment in cultivating a human body and spirit that will always struggle to improve its lot, regardless of hardship, rather than grow weary of godhood and ennui and slowly plunge into an irreversible and lethal depression, as the Jovians do.
Now, where do I download hot interracial Brutor-on-Jovian po
rn...