Speculation talk:Crossbreeds
From the Lyorn Records of the Dragaeran Empire
This might lead to the idea that SOME Easterners can interbreed with SOME Dragaerans... Easterners who are close enough genetically to the original Jenoine breeding stock, with Dragaerans from certain houses whose genetic modifications are less significant.
It would make sense, for example, that Easterner stock mixed with dzur genes (to make a Dragaeran of the house of Dzur) would be more genetically compatible with a modern easterner than a Dragaeran of the house of Dragon--Since a Dzur is presumably a mammal, while a dragon is a reptile, and not as close genetically to an easterner.
Does this make sense? --Majikjon 19:43, 14 Oct 2005 (UTC)
- Does this make sense?
Not really.
We know that members of House Dragon and members of House Dzur are in fact the same species (since we know of an offspring of those Houses (Mellar's mom), and an offspring of that offspring and someone from yet another House (Mellar)). Indeed, all of the information we have indicates that all of the Houses are reasonably interfertile with each other.
We have no reason to think that members of one House are somehow closer to being Easterners than any other.
I think you're getting too hung up on the "animal genes" being added to the Dragaerans. There is no reason to think that the animal genes themselves actually affect their phenotypes (that is, anything about their physical bodies); they could well have been just added as markers. There's certainly no reason whatsoever to think that the "animal genes" affect their fertility in any way.
There is only one known tentative Dragaeran-Easterner crossbreed; since the identification *is* so tentative, we have no reason to suggest that one Dragaeran House is more or less likely than any other House. Heck, the non-Easterner parent could even have been a Greenaeran or Elde Islander, travelling west.
We have a near-total lack of information.
--Davdi 20:46, 14 Oct 2005 (UTC)
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Well, I never really studied that much biology. I'll have to take your word for most of the genetics, I guess. ;-)
Issola (Sethra's speech to Vlad on the origins of Dragaerans) certainly throws a lot of doubt onto the Jhereg explanation given by Aliera. Beyond those two speeches, we only have the one extremely sketchy case from Brokedown Palace...
As you said, a near-total lack of information.
--Majikjon 21:13, 14 Oct 2005 (UTC)
Getting this straight: Aliera, product of interbreeding between a Goddess and a Dragaeran, believes that Dragaerans can't interbreed with humans. Yet Dragaerans are created from human stock. So Dragaerans, modified humans, can interbreed with a totally alien species (Gods) but not with their own ancestors? Seems hard to believe.
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If you ignore the fact that Verra has the abilities of a god, perhaps.
Since we're trying to base the discussion on the facts stated in the books, this particular fact is hard to pin down. The one decisive statement we have on the subject (Aliera's) is suspect (primarily, in my view, due to Sethra's comments in Issola. The Brokedown Palace evidence is frankly not very convincing).
Sethra very carefully avoids stating her view on the cross-breeding prospects between the species, while at the same time throwing the veracity of Aliera's dogmatic assestment into serious doubt.
I'd attribute this to Steve having made the call to rule out Dragaeran-Easterner breeding very early on (Chapter 9 of his very first book) then wishing to backpeddle by the time he got to Issola. What exactly does he have in mind that makes this necessary? That's what I'M curious about.
--Majikjon 17:26, 28 Oct 2005 (UTC)
Just wanted to point out here that SKZB has thrown a certain amount of doubt on Aliera's reliability on other matters besides genetics, in this post.
--Davdi 19:37, 28 Oct 2005 (UTC)
Verra's comments about the possible continuation of the Phoenix house in Viscount may also be a reference to Dragaeran-Easterner cross-breeding. I think we can safely assume that Verra knew about Laszlo. -- Nekokami 16:17, 21 November 2007 (UTC)