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Shadow World / The Origins of Species (In Shadow World)
« Last post by kyussopeth on April 01, 2024, 09:03:08 PM »I've been a fan of Shadow World since the 2nd Atlas came out. One question came to mind immediately upon reading & assimilating the contents. Where did the races of Elves, Men, & others come from? I have three theories & I think they can't all be true. Since Terry is no longer with us I want to settle this, for my campaign & in my mind.
The 1st theory: They're all Althans. The Umli, Haid, Talath, Lydians. The Nomari, Iylari, Lugroki, & even Garks are the result of K'ta'viiri Genetic experimentation. This explains why the Elves & Human races can interbreed because their genes share a common root i.e. the Ancient people of Kulthea. The Lugroki, Garks & Nomari (as far as I can tell) cannot interbreed with Humans or Elves. I imagine these races were created as "servitor races" by the dark K'taviiri maybe even Kadaena herself. Therefore their genes were made incompatable with other Althan genetics. The Elves may have been attempts to raise the Althans up to become something greater. That is they were attempts at creating Essaence Lords. Failed experiments created by Althan science not ruthlessly destroyed, but allowed to live on quarantined by the Althans to keep them from contaminating the Althan Genome or to provide a samples for further testing/experimentation.
The 2nd theory: They're all aliens. All the Althans resembled the K'ta'viiri (e.g. they had six digits on their hands) & the Humans & Elves were brought to Kulthea by the Althans from other worlds both within the universe & from across the multiverse. Brought to Kulthea again as visitors, slaves, allies. Iylari could have been allies to the Duskwalkers in their war against Kadaena & after were stranded on Kulthea. This would to some extent explain Andraax's tendency to align with Elves, especially High Elves. The Ta-lairi are a result of the fact that these Elves come from a reality where such unions are possible. The Garks from some planet where they were the highest form of sapience (homo erectus of some alternate universe) brought to Kulthea as curiosities, pets, guard animals. The Lugroki summoned to Kulthea by the K'ta'viiri as the continents buckled during the war between Utha & Kadaena or far earlier during some other war. The Humans were brought from ancient earth for similar reasons as slaves, pets, soldiers, etc.
The 3rd Theory: They're Aliens or Althans brought into the world by rapid evolution or the Lords of Orhan not the Lords of Essaence. After the great war that ended the 1st Era the Lords of Orhan carried off some of the survivors & sent some minor spirits from Orhan to heal the shattered world. This is what happened during the Interregnum. Who were these survivors? Althans apparently brought to Orhan some of whom were transformed by their proximity to the Lords of Orhan or by some union with the lesser spirits into the immortal Elves of Kulthea. The rest remained Human, while the Garks, Lugroki, & Nomari survived within the Ash Lairs or with the help of the returning Earth Wardens or the spirits of Orhan. The Nomari, Garks, and all the subterranean races evolved over the course of Millenia their evolution from the Althans accelerated by the hardships of the interregnum including the storms of raw essaence of incredible power acting as catalysts for rapid mutation/change. Therefore the genetics distance from the Althans saved by the Lords of Orhan & the subterranean races became so great that they no longer were part of the same species.
I prefer the 2nd theory because it's what I always assumed was the case since the early 90's. It also fits with things like the Aldari/Taranians. I own everything Terry wrote for Shadow World as well as every ICE publication for the Loremaster series & Shadow World & I found no definitive answer to this. However I think theory 1 or 3 actually fits the facts better.
Anyone else have a better answer or cool theory?
The 1st theory: They're all Althans. The Umli, Haid, Talath, Lydians. The Nomari, Iylari, Lugroki, & even Garks are the result of K'ta'viiri Genetic experimentation. This explains why the Elves & Human races can interbreed because their genes share a common root i.e. the Ancient people of Kulthea. The Lugroki, Garks & Nomari (as far as I can tell) cannot interbreed with Humans or Elves. I imagine these races were created as "servitor races" by the dark K'taviiri maybe even Kadaena herself. Therefore their genes were made incompatable with other Althan genetics. The Elves may have been attempts to raise the Althans up to become something greater. That is they were attempts at creating Essaence Lords. Failed experiments created by Althan science not ruthlessly destroyed, but allowed to live on quarantined by the Althans to keep them from contaminating the Althan Genome or to provide a samples for further testing/experimentation.
The 2nd theory: They're all aliens. All the Althans resembled the K'ta'viiri (e.g. they had six digits on their hands) & the Humans & Elves were brought to Kulthea by the Althans from other worlds both within the universe & from across the multiverse. Brought to Kulthea again as visitors, slaves, allies. Iylari could have been allies to the Duskwalkers in their war against Kadaena & after were stranded on Kulthea. This would to some extent explain Andraax's tendency to align with Elves, especially High Elves. The Ta-lairi are a result of the fact that these Elves come from a reality where such unions are possible. The Garks from some planet where they were the highest form of sapience (homo erectus of some alternate universe) brought to Kulthea as curiosities, pets, guard animals. The Lugroki summoned to Kulthea by the K'ta'viiri as the continents buckled during the war between Utha & Kadaena or far earlier during some other war. The Humans were brought from ancient earth for similar reasons as slaves, pets, soldiers, etc.
The 3rd Theory: They're Aliens or Althans brought into the world by rapid evolution or the Lords of Orhan not the Lords of Essaence. After the great war that ended the 1st Era the Lords of Orhan carried off some of the survivors & sent some minor spirits from Orhan to heal the shattered world. This is what happened during the Interregnum. Who were these survivors? Althans apparently brought to Orhan some of whom were transformed by their proximity to the Lords of Orhan or by some union with the lesser spirits into the immortal Elves of Kulthea. The rest remained Human, while the Garks, Lugroki, & Nomari survived within the Ash Lairs or with the help of the returning Earth Wardens or the spirits of Orhan. The Nomari, Garks, and all the subterranean races evolved over the course of Millenia their evolution from the Althans accelerated by the hardships of the interregnum including the storms of raw essaence of incredible power acting as catalysts for rapid mutation/change. Therefore the genetics distance from the Althans saved by the Lords of Orhan & the subterranean races became so great that they no longer were part of the same species.
I prefer the 2nd theory because it's what I always assumed was the case since the early 90's. It also fits with things like the Aldari/Taranians. I own everything Terry wrote for Shadow World as well as every ICE publication for the Loremaster series & Shadow World & I found no definitive answer to this. However I think theory 1 or 3 actually fits the facts better.
Anyone else have a better answer or cool theory?
