Jeff:
> Different thing altogether. First Council had these sorts of magical births because of their closeness to the divine. By the Third Council, magical births like Pavis were the result of magical experimentation to try to recreate what was lost. Very different motivation, very different process, and very different result.
In both cases, it created an embodiment of harmony...
But this is another pointer to the non-draconic aspects of the EWF that have seen too short descriptions so far. History of the Heortling Peoples grows all draconic, but at the same time there are oddities like Great Living Heroes (inside and outside of the EWF - living people with an active hero cult, I guess. The only Third Age Orlanthi who might have had similar (though lesser) status might have been Hofstaring Treeleaper), experiments in avoiding death by old age (but not, if I interprete the text correctly, old age itself), and of course the Remakers who produced hybrids like Pain Centaurs.
Researching the Original Man sounds very much like a similar project to the Remakers, possibly an offshoot. (Any relation to the hero band in MoLaD?)
I wonder why the Dragon Ring tolerated such research. It was their stated goal to transform their empire into a single draconic entity (the MRQ description even has them engraving the outline of that dragon into the land). They did not leech the populace systematically until 889, but the members of the Dragon Ring probably received at least as much magical support as other Great Living Heroes.
>> What the heck did a family like this do in a backwater place like Adari, then? Were they on the lookout for suitable uz to mate into the lineage? Or did the aldryami parent come out of the Redwood of Dagori Inkarth?
> Adari was well-suited for interaction between various Elder Races. And was quite different in the Second Age than in the Third.
We're talking Second Age prior to the founding of Pavis (and Robcradle) here. Praxian beast riders dominate the southern Chaparral, Dagori Inkarth uz are hostile to the dragon development in the Pass area. Pentan horse-riders have intruded into the fertile fringes of the Chaparral (a crescent from the Verge towards Adari and what became Pavis County - basically modern Pol Joni lands). Their king Firegleam assists Thanrax the Fair in establishing Robcradle.
It takes a whole lot of idealism to plant a peaceful magical project messing with some of the notions of the surrounding Elder Races in such an environment. Or very strong faith in the protection by the Pentans.
We know that the Praxians tolerate small (and useful) magical communities like the Chalana Arroy congregation at Horn Gate, so they may have been friendly. The local uz might have been convinced, too - what destroyed the settlement were giants and the "adventurer" uz following Paragua to destroy Robcradle.
Still, in 809 Adari was not a frontier town, but an enclave in savage lands. The main difference will have been the government - quite likely a ring which has a number of researchers and a few practical people on board.
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