From:	Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.com>
Subject:	(Fwd) Goblinization Questions -Reply
Date:	Tue, 24 Sep 1996 10:45:37 -0500

>I just had a few questions concerning goblinization.
>
>1 ) Has there been any cases were goblinization has occured after puberty?
>
>2 ) Can goblinization be magical indused into a person that does not have the
>triggering gene (if it is a gene that causes gobinization) If so must the effect
>happen before the individual has gone through puberty?
>

Here is what is known about the Meta-races:
1) Elves and Dwarves are always born that way. You can't "goblinize" into them
after birth.
2) To "goblinize" into an Ork or Troll, you need three things:
a) to inherit the particular genes
b) to be exposed to a high enough magic level (whether it requires chronic
exposure or one brief event is unknown)
c) for the genes to be triggered by the appropirate growth hormones (almost
always at puberty).
3) When the mana level increased, adults often "Goblinized". This happened a
lot
in 2021, but almost never happens now. One can assume that once "b" above
happened, the adult levels of hormones were sufficient to trigger the change, while
people growing up in a mana rich environment change as soon as the adolescent
levels kick in. (one can think of Elves and Dwarves as triggering off of different
growth hormones, ones which are present during fetal development. They
"Goblinize" in the womb)

In my opinion, in order for an adult to goblinize in 2054 they need to have the
gene (or possibly be given it by gene therapy), but must either have lived in a low
magic area for most of his life (very rare) or lacked sufficient hormones during
adolescence (rare but not unheard of. Look up "Penis at Twelve Syndrome")

Also in my opinion, Sam Verner's sister was infected by the vampiric virus, not
the meta gene, although she (and the readers) didn't know what those injections
were at the time.

Given the examples of adults goblinizing in 2021, I would say that if you were
given the Ork or Troll metagene in gene therapy, you would goblinize soon
therafter. Note that the metagenes in question have not been officially discovered
at this time (2057) (but who knows what certain people know...)

Double-Domed Mike