----- Original Message -----
From: “Michael Romes” <Archmage@T-ONLINE.DE>
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2002 12:57 PM
> Not all apprentices are blooded wizards - think of Rogr as heir of the
> throne of Ilien. Wasn´t he a lowly magician, inheriting the bloodline of
> his lord?
I answered that when I said:
> > Hence [wizards] desire promising apprentices from their own relation,
> > their lieutenants, friendly peers, and other loyal subordinates. In
such
> > a culture, a certain obligation would exist to ensure that the children
> > of your dependents were trained somehow.
Rogr was recognized as worthy, so this dependent minor personage was raised
up.
> Yes, but the Book of Magecraft gives also examples where apprentices are
> simply children from rich familiys with nothing to inherit (like before
> 100 years, where the 1st son was the heir and the other sons went to
> have a military career or to become a priest) - here one of the later
> sons goes and learns to become a wizard. There is even a character
> described for such an apprentice in the BoM.
You forget that my model is knighthood. Most knights were the sons of
nobles who did not inherit or the decendents thereof. Scions, but not
rulers. So wizards are blooded (noble), but there is no requirement that
they need to inherit anything, only that they can wield true magic.
> Torele Anviras comes first to mind: Anduiras, Major 35 (Talinie)
> And then Daeric Dhoesone - he´s the cousinf of Clumine Dhoesone, but
> doesn´t share his bloodline. One has Anduiras, minor, 20 and the other
> Vorynn, jmajor, 25)
See my post of Monday, July 23, 2001 8:48 PM under the subject heading
“Geneology” where I discuss this. Basically, you need to remember that as
you go back up a family tree the number of ancestors increases
exponentially, but the number of blooded people remains a relativly fixed
proportion of the population. So, you very quickly run out of unique
ancestors, and just in the generation of parents of the wizards described in
the books, you need to start linking families. They must all be related.
> And the logic of your “relationship of wizards” is flawed as well -
> their ancestors just had to be in the same place (near the men of Vorynn
> at Deismaar) to get their bloodline. No need to think of all wizards as
> cousins - 1500 years after Deismaar most of them would have suffered
> from incest…
First, 1500 years ago a small group of people get bloodlines. How are these
passed down? Through a very small breeding pool of people who share the
characteristic of being decended from such a person. Exogmany quickly
dilutes bloodline strength to tainted, very low levels. This group of
people must be all very closely related. In fact, given the mobility of
most people everyone in BR is related to their neighbors.
As for the “suffered from incest” business, this is your tabboo speaking.
We know that for most of human history, people married the people close to
them, and this means those people were closely related to one another. In
many places of the world, this is still common. So Slate.com asks whats wrong with marrying your cousin. Check out "The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Surname: Whats wrong with marrying your cousin?" By William Saletan,
posted Wednesday, April 10, 2002, at 2:32 PM PT at Slate.com. There you`ll
find this, "the National Society of Genetic Counselors says that having a
child with your first cousin raises the risk of a significant birth defect
from about 3-to-4 percent to about 4-to-7 percent.
Its hardly the case that everyone would be “suffering from incest” whatever
that means.
Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com
The Birthright Homepage: http://www.birthright.net
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