| From: | Max Rible slothman@*********.org |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Elf/Dwarf Transforms, Part 2 (was RE: Breeder definition) |
| Date: | Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:02:47 -0800 |
>They are now, but there's nothing explicitly stating there wasn't a wave of
>(for lack of a better word) goblinizations at the beginning of the mana
>cycle.
...
>It doesn't mention other transformations one way or another; I want
>concrete, canon proof that my position is false. And I can't find any.
Basic logic: the lack of an explicit statement does not imply the truth
of that statement. In particular, you can't prove a negative; all you
can do is evaluate all available data to show that in an excellent sample
set you have no positives. In a game, as opposed to the real world, you
can occasionally get blanket statements about the universe that are
helpful for figuring it out, such as "no one ever transforms from a
human into an Elf or Dwarf", but the writers are not obligated to
state every negative about the universe they're building.
<facetious>
There is no proof that every citizen of the UCAS is required to keep a
1000 year old carp in a Ziplock bag tucked into their pocket, purse, or
body cavity at all times, but there's no concrete, canon proof that
that proposition is false, either. Sure, there aren't any mentions in
any of the source material, but they haven't even given us numbers on
the carp industry; the shadowrunners who break that law are too embarrassed
about it to talk about it in their posts on Shadowland! I'm sure the
Dunkelzahn cult would pay big money to the runners who track down the
carp that Dunky kept with *him*! It's probably carefully locked up
in a vault at the Draco Foundation awaiting magical analysis. "That's
ridiculous!" you may say; prove me wrong! Find a statement in the
canon material that mentions that the Carry a Carp law of 2019
exists solely in my fevered imagination!
</facetious>
The only mentions of transformation from human to another
metatype are goblinization to Ork or Troll and the transformation to
ghouls (which is later retconned into being an HMHVV variant). Orks
and Trolls can be born or goblinized; Elves and Dwarfs are born.
My collection of Shadowrun material is fairly extensive and I have
yet to encounter any statement that suggests humans can transform
into Elves or Dwarfs.
I think Mark Renouf's point about the staggering number of births is
correct: you start out with lots of genes expressing themselves because
the parents would have been born as that metatype, and metahuman births
to humans start to settle down after a generation. Just assume that
the demographics of the Shadowrun world were basically the same in 2010
as they are in 2050, only that the percentages of metatypes were unknown
at the time, as they were unexpressed. Forty years lets you churn a
lot of population. (To get really detailed, we have to acknowledge
that there hasn't been a complete replacement of the 2010 population; the
percentages of latent Elves and Dwarfs were probably higher than the 2050
demographic, since there are still people left from before the Awakening;
the percentages of Orks and Trolls could be lower because they have
a shorter generational time and Orks in particular have lots of kids.)
--
%% Max Rible %%% max@********.com %%% http://www.amurgsval.org/~slothman/ %%
%% "Ham is good... Glowing *tattooed* ham is *bad*!" - the Tick %%
