From:	Erik S Jameson <esj@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Races
Date:	Tue, 22 Nov 1994 11:14:24 -0700

Alright, why do we have to have Obsidimen or T'skrang or Windlings or any
of those races included into Shadowrun. I want to play Shadowrun, not
Earthdawn. Now, some of the ED stuff included into SR make it better,
stronger. But, really, why do we need friggin' rock people? Let 'em
stay back in the fourth age...

As far as the combined affects of VITAS/UGE wiping out an entire new
race, I think that was mentioned in one of the Tir books. I would hazard
a guess that it was in Tir Tairngire...

But if some of you out there need a rational, pseudo-scientific reason
for there being no Windlings and such, here's my idea.

We already know that racial expression and magical abilitiy is tied to a
certain genetic code that 'hides' in our DNA until activated by an
outside factor, namely an increase in mana, or magical energy. Perhaps
this is the same for the other ED races. Perhaps not within human
genetics, but perhaps within other races, such as Komodo dragons or
something equally strange. For sake of argument, lets assume that my
above statements are true, or true enough. Now, in the past thousands of
years since the Fourth Age, we have rendered extinct a wide variety of
organisms, from simple bacteria to the carrier pigeon and the dodo bird.
This has happened because of pure human stupidity in the case of the
carrier pigeon and the dodo birds, but we have rendered several diseases
extinct or pretty damn near in the name of medical progress. Please, no
value judgements here. I would also claim that we have practicall
eliminated a small number of genetic traits in both humans and other
species. In dogs and cattle it is because of selective breeding, and in
humans it is the same, although we normally aren't rude enough to say
so. Now the point of all this set up is that perhaps we have rendered it
impossible for those other, Earthdawn, races to re-appear because we have
rendered them unwittingly extinct.

Sorry this took so long, but I seems to me to be a very viable answer for
why we have so rock people.

Erik, a.k.a. the Whistler