Manwhaaaaa?
Because what’s worse than being outsmarted by a fifteen-year-old girl? Being outsmarted by a fifteen-year-old girl in footy pajamas.
Manwhaaaaa?
Because what’s worse than being outsmarted by a fifteen-year-old girl? Being outsmarted by a fifteen-year-old girl in footy pajamas.
… and then twice on one page… 🙂
I have some questions about the Racial Sciences is everybody of a particular race able to use it’s Racial Science (aside from humans) and is it only that race that can use it or is it more like a bonus that multiples the effect when using it’s own race’s particular racial science?
On a side note what’s the rules/limitations placed upon humans by Yamra for them to use/access their own Racial Science Cultivation?
It can’t be that it’s Yamra himself that bestows it to his priest since he was dead when Maresh acquired it or does it suffice that a Pleroma of Yamra (Barabon) did it?
Well, judging by the fact that Malice is a result of a failed attempt by Yamra to implement Min-Tin teleportation, I would assume that the different racial technologies are a specific effect by a given race; so, for example, another race could potentially fix up some old Wyrdish electrical stuff, they just have a pretty good chance of it blowing up in their face.
And, drawing from other little hints, it seems that members of “older” races have a better chance of working another race’s science (sciences are sponsored, after all), they themselves are not able to fully access a race’s capabilities. It’s kinda like teaching a musical prodigy how to play a piano; they turn your demonstration of chopsticks into a full-out concerto.
As for cultivation… remember that we only have Vish’s hunch that cultivation is the human science. It could be that they are like the Yigs, and have simply not achieved it yet (which is the least likely of the options, in my opinion, from a narrative stand-point), or that Cultivation is simply a… modification of how the Human science actually functions. In my opinion, the human science is exactly that, a racial science; the real reason Maresh can use Cultivation is because he has attuned and conformed himself to Tamantha, not because Yamra or Barabon granted it to him.
I’m just waiting to see what happens to Maresh once Tamantha collapses, or if one of Anthem’s rings just happened to fall on his finger. Would he adapt to the new world order, as it were, thus indicating that Cultivation is actually closer to the art of nigh-perfect Adaptation? Or will his once-crippled body fail him, and remember that he probably hasn’t eaten in months (Cultivation means that he doesn’t need to attend to many of the standard nitty gritty tasks that keep him alive.)
Amechra more-or-less gets it, at least given the information presented so far. Though Malice is an example of reverse-engineering; it was supposed to be a teleportation device, but based on religious magic, not on min-tin.
Not all members of a race know their Science. In fact, it’s very rare–you just see a lot of Science-specialists in the story because people with super-powers are interesting.
Non-members can’t really learn a racial Science, though they can use the artifacts of one. Lyca could pick up and shoot Gilgam’s lightning guns, or turn on an electric lamp, but she wouldn’t be able to repair or maintain them. (Gilgam, at this point, is partially attached to the inn, since he maintains all its electrical subsystems; even such comparatively simple devices would fall apart after a couple months.)
Cultivation requires a set of taboos and strictures that depend on one’s caste and role as well as rigorous training. Unfortunately, 1) there really aren’t any more castes anymore, as Yamra would understand them, and 2) Tamantha is inherently racist, and Maresh is half-Vasgollan, half-Esgavi, with maybe some Hadrakahn blood way back there somewhere.
So Maresh is basically Luke Skywalker compared to the Jedi of the Old Republic. Without the system in place, he only has Cultivation’s raw personal power, and of that, he doesn’t have much.