The other day I borrowed Year of the Comet from my GM. Looking over the rules for Surge, I couldn’t help but notice chronic osteocuspis. Being the group’s ED GM, my first thought is the thorns from Blood Wood. The problem is, only the Elves of Blood Wood (and a few Windlings, but that’s besides the point) underwent the Ritual of the Thorns, and chronic osteocuspis can happen to anyone who Surges.

Does anyone have any theory about why this is? I’ve already looked through Ancient History’s site, and did a search of DS, and came up with only a passing reference in the ED/SR crossover section.

well, the genes are all mixed up--everyone's got a little ork, troll, elf, dwarf, and norm in them. the thorn gene got mutated in the millennia since it last expressed, so that anyone who has it might express it, regardless of race.

Maybe the effect of the mana surge in that particular instance resembles to Ritual of Thorns.

mfb about sums it up for me. That ritual is pretty powerful, maybe parts of it got linked with the genetic code of the recipients and passed on, but only if the right bits combined would it manifest. After 5000+ years, there's enough random chance of mising to get the results you see from SURGE. Remember it affects a very small percentage of the population and the % of those that will get the effect you're talking about is even smaller.

Spotlight and mfb, that makes alot of sence to me. After all, there has never been a cannon resolution to the corruption of the Blood Wood, so perhaps there never was one. Also makes for some rather nasty implications.