[X] My Assistant

[Pthgar]

[Kagetenshi]

Sorry about that :oops:
Yes, levity is good; I've just been following the Ancient History/Master Shake debates too much recently and as such am sorta constantly on the lookout for attacks of the kind. No harm done on this end, and hopefully none over there :)

~J

[Pthgar]

It's all good, SR brother.

[Ancient History]

Just an idea:

The dragon creation myth is a myth. It was created in the prehistory of dragons. It has truths in it, maybe, but it's not the truth.

[Pthgar]

So AH, which parts are true literally, which are true symbolically, and which are total bunk?

[JongWK]

Could it be possible that fossils are just the remains of the creatures created by Vergijorm before Nightslayer? That could explain the gap. Not even the Dragons know Vergijorm's age.

[Req]

I've always assumed that the dragon creation myth was pretty much the same as Genesis - ie factually inaccurate but reflecting aspects of the culture that created it. The takehome lessons for me were, from the perspective of the dragons:

1) Dragons are the oldest, biggest, and most badass of the Namegiver races,
2) Dragons deserve to be in charge of the other races,
3) Verjigorm hates them specifically, and
4) Verjigorm is a total hardcore ass-kicker.

Beyond that it's just a nice story.

Note that I'm not trying to trash (too much) on the personal beliefs of any creationists on this board. I don't happen to agree with you, but that's a totally different debate that isn't really relevant.

[Prototype]

Well, I reckon that the Dragon Myth is just a story, but with some truth. Specifically I reckon that Nightslayer either endowed intelligence and/or namegiving ability on the primitive humans (orks, etc.) he found. With their new namegiving power they helped him kick ass.

As for the fluctuating manacycle. This is the best I can come up with, it's not too complicated but requires some sort of explanation so let's see if I can lay it out.

Imagine the metaplanes as a big mystic-cluster, all swirling around a central point. This central metaplane is the one (or ones) which the horrors are located in. Picture the manasphere around earth as a field which increases in size as we approach the metaplanes and more mana comes through.

Now, imagine our plane as being in elliptical orbit around the metaplanes. When we are at the furthest points from them in our orbit the manacycle is 'down' and when we reach the closest points it is 'up'. The closer we get to the metaplanes the more mana is able to come through and interact with earth to create a manasphere here and the more our mana field expands, eventually overlapping with these planes and allowing interaction and cross-over.

Only at the very closest points are we near enough the center for our plane to overlap with the Horror plane.

Of course, there is also the possibility that other metaplanes are whizzing around having mana-cycles as well thus creating various parrallel realities and the like. It's not the most solid of theories, but it offers some explanation as to how things work!

[leemur]

[mfb]

i've always wondered why everyone puts so much faith in a story whose only witness is the physical manifestation of everything that makes the baby jesus cry.

[Bull]

A) It's just a game.

B) The cycle of magic is based very loosely on certain South American Myths.

C) Earthdawn wasn't originally designed as the "history" of Shadowrun.

D) It's just a friggin' game. Get over it.

Bull

[Kagetenshi]

Psst! Bull is really an agent of the Horrors and wants us all to be unprepared when the Awakening hits!
Really, we're not so bad. You have people complaining about the fact that in Marathon the main character mentions remembering being taller than everyone else in his youth back on Mars when a comparison of his height with that of some of the aliens with stated heights shows him to be about 5'7", you've got Myth fans up in arms about the fact that the calendar in the games doesn't entirely line up, and then you've got us.
Well, I suppose you have a point, come to think of it...

~J

[Pthgar]

[Pistons]

My thoughts.

p. 21, Dragons {"On Dragon History and Beliefs"}

[Prototype]

Cool, maybe banisment also reduced the mana-level thus causing the 1st (non-magic) age to begin!

Alternatively, maybe the mechanism of banishing was to reduce the mana-level, but it didn't work 100% or something! thus why it occasionally comes back up.

Anyway, it's all good... great stuff!

[Kagetenshi]

I love this place. Toss out a theory based on nothing whatsoever, and sooner or later someone comes around to support it (though requiring it to be tweaked, of course) :)

~J

[Pistons]

What support? Never in there did I say that humans were older, nor how long the mana cycles were. :)

[Kagetenshi]

My theory was, at it's most basic level, the rather unimpressive statement that the count of ages begins not so much at the beginning of the world as at the beginning of the Horrors-getting-kicked-out. Essentially, I'm grasping at straws :)

~J

[Pthgar]