House Unshaperlike Activities Committee

[Emperor Tullegolar]

A Trakovite victory? Sure, that would mean the end of war as we know it in the Geneforge games. But it would result in the equivalent of dark ages earth. With no powerful Shapers or any other shaping wielding sect to maintain order, society would crumble. There would be barbarians everywhere. Not just human barbarians; with no essence minded individuals to keep creations in check, various species would run rampant, breeding out of control. Drakons might even have enough power infused into their race to be more powerful than humans by that point, anyway. Without shaping to maintain balance in the war, they will probably try to whipe out the human race. That's a Trakovite victory in a nutshell.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

Clearly the Shaper laws have become morer humane towards the serviles.

 

I don't think that Drakons would agree to no Shaping, and would eventually become over run by Humans, Drayks and Serviles.

[Upon Mars.]

Then if the laws are more humane why serviles don't create creations? The why don't the shapers acknowledge that the serviles and humanoid creations they were shaped form humans?

You end up with dangerous rogues.

So the trajkovites have to invent a alternative to shaping.

[Retlaw May]

There has only been speculation that serviles were made from humans, nothing has actually supported it with evidence.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

More humane does not necessarily mean completely humane.

[Lilith]

What you call the Shapers' "more humane" treatment seems to mostly involve deliberately making serviles nearly mindless or fanatically loyal so that they don't mind so much when they're mistreated.

 

Oh, and occasionally giving a carrot to a servile double agent who proves useful. Big whoop.

[Emperor Tullegolar]

It's still far more than they deserve.

[Sudanna]

Quote:

By Upon Mars:
So the trajkovites have to invent a alternative to shaping.

No. They can merely suffer more, or if they have inept Shapers to begin with, less.

The problem with Shaping is that it requires extreme foresight and pattern recognition. The Shapers have only the foresight, if the restriction on crop modifications are enforced.

If the Shapers had the microscope technology of the Drakons, then an enormous amounts of trial and error would be avoided. However, they were apparently unable to recover the technology from two successful purgings of rebel strongholds.

For Tully, the rewarding of a job well done is essential. It's like giving a dog a bone. It's still inferior and dependent, but it gives you a way of punishment later, and will motivate future success beyond the norm.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

The Shapers have to be nice to the Serviles though. They can't torture them or do anything like that.

[Randomizer]

All those whips and shackles that are left lying around will go to waste. Negative reinforcement training is the fastest way to teach someone.

 

The Trakovite way will stop new shaping. Existing creations that can reproduce get to survive. So there would be more drayks, drakons, gazers, eyebeasts, and similar but no more rotgroths after they acidify.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by The Absolute Value of Nalyd is Zero:
If the Shapers had the microscope technology of the Drakons, then an enormous amounts of trial and error would be avoided.

If they don't have it, it's because they deliberately abandoned it. There's a similar microscope on Sucia Island in Geneforge 1.

[Retlaw May]

I know that drayks can reproduce on their own, but I somehow doubt drakons can. There has never been reference to them reproducing, just "shaping" new ones. I think that drakons have modified themselves way too much to be able to reproduce still.

 

Are there even drakon females? I've never met one in the series.

[Dikiyoba]

There's at least one in G2:

 

Quote:

text1 = "A massive drakon lives in this stone building. She is a hermit, choosing to live alone for some reason. She is furious that you have disturbed her solitude.";

text2 = "_I am Krayoss, of the Takers. I will not be disturbed. Leave quickly, or I will destroy you!_";

Dikiyoba.

[F. Dirac]

Quote:

Originally written by Retlaw May:
I know that drayks can reproduce on their own, but I somehow doubt drakons can.

Litalia disagrees with you, and she would know:

Quote:

question = "What sort of creations might you make?";
text1 = "_Not drayks and drakons. They have insisted that they reproduce themselves through more biological means. Not gazers. They are too independent and unpredictable. And rotghroths are disgusting and hurt the morale of the other forces._";

[Suspicious Vlish]

Emp:

Quote:

A Trakovite victory? Sure, that would mean the end of war as we know it in the Geneforge games. But it would result in the equivalent of dark ages earth.

That scenario reminds me of the 'Dark Age' ending for Deus Ex.

 

To be honest, such as option doesn't look so unattractive in the Geneforge series. Sometimes the only answer to a huge mess is to cut your losses and start over!

[Slawbug]

The biggest problem with starting over is that, due to the nature of Shaping, it would be difficult to completely eliminate Shaping power. I mean, look at what happened in G1. How do you purge not just an island, but the entire world of canisters, textbooks, geneforge components, and so on...

[Sudanna]

You could always Shape a deadly disease that corrupts and destroys everything containing essence, release it on the mainland, purge a much smaller area like the Ashen Isles, and wait a couple hundred years for everything to rot away.

[Retlaw May]

That would go over big with everyone.

[Sudanna]

You, of course would hide out in the tiny uninfected area that you purged with a little band of people. After waiting, go back to the mainland and rule the world. If you're lucky, the Sholai will die out, too.