if the uploaded Didyme turns out to satisfy Marcus’ mate bond, things just got very interesting.
Hee! Well, then.
Given that that worked, I would expect pretty much every mated vampire who is aware of the situation and at least marginally clever to demand their mate be “backed up” via Aro’s knee into Addy’s mind for safe keeping… and soon, as that knee has limited shelf-life.
I wonder, if they had figured this all out prior to killing Aro, if they’d have been tempted to keep him alive to power the backup mechanism indefinitely. It’s an awfully useful trick to have up one’s sleeve… though perhaps less so if you’re immortal and nigh-indestructible.
Unrelatedly: another implication of Elspeth’s vampire-reincarnation trick, potentially, is the ability to create edited versions of existing vampires.
That is, we’ve already seen that she can selectively choose what subsets of her memories she transmits; it seems to follow that not only can she overwrite a human with memories of vampire X as of their last Aro-read, she can overwrite a human with a more-or-less arbitrary subset of those memories.
I can’t come up with any useful applications of that ability in the current tactical situation, but it’s a cool idea nevertheless.
I wonder, if they had figured this all out prior to killing Aro, if they’d have been tempted to keep him alive to power the backup mechanism indefinitely. It’s an awfully useful trick to have up one’s sleeve… though perhaps less so if you’re immortal and nigh-indestructible.
It remains to be seen whether or not Didyme 2 is a witch, but if so, why not just recreate Aro when necessary?
We’ve seen no evidence that Elspeth’s trick affects witch-talents, and it would really startle me if it did.
But, sure, if a witch turned up who can read/store/project those powers, the way that the Addy in conjunction with Aro and Elspeth combination can read/store/project memories, that would be fantastically useful.
The existence of Addy suggests that something like this is theoretically possible… that is, it suggests that witch powers really are some kind of discrete thing that can be read and written as a class.
Of course, I can’t go too far down that road without becoming utterly frustrated that nobody in that world is even trying to research the mechanisms that underlie witch-powers, or vampirism, or etc. That would be the real payoff.
Of course, I can’t go too far down that road without becoming utterly frustrated that nobody in that world is even trying to research the mechanisms that underlie witch-powers, or vampirism, or etc. That would be the real payoff.
Not really. Addy is diligently studying the use and limitations and practical potential of witchcraft, but she doesn’t particularly care what makes magic work, as long as it does work and it’s tasty.
At a field’s infancy, engineers are typically more effective than philosophers. Her age and current disinclination suggest she won’t be the first philosopher of witchcraft, but whoever is will undoubtedly benefit from her memories.
It would be ironic if she ended up contributing, some day, to a genuine theoretical understanding of whatever it is that underlies all of their abilities… she could be responsible for saving and improving more lives than anyone else we’ve met in this world.
Hee! Well, then.
Given that that worked, I would expect pretty much every mated vampire who is aware of the situation and at least marginally clever to demand their mate be “backed up” via Aro’s knee into Addy’s mind for safe keeping… and soon, as that knee has limited shelf-life.
I wonder, if they had figured this all out prior to killing Aro, if they’d have been tempted to keep him alive to power the backup mechanism indefinitely. It’s an awfully useful trick to have up one’s sleeve… though perhaps less so if you’re immortal and nigh-indestructible.
Unrelatedly: another implication of Elspeth’s vampire-reincarnation trick, potentially, is the ability to create edited versions of existing vampires.
That is, we’ve already seen that she can selectively choose what subsets of her memories she transmits; it seems to follow that not only can she overwrite a human with memories of vampire X as of their last Aro-read, she can overwrite a human with a more-or-less arbitrary subset of those memories.
I can’t come up with any useful applications of that ability in the current tactical situation, but it’s a cool idea nevertheless.
It remains to be seen whether or not Didyme 2 is a witch, but if so, why not just recreate Aro when necessary?
We’ve seen no evidence that Elspeth’s trick affects witch-talents, and it would really startle me if it did.
But, sure, if a witch turned up who can read/store/project those powers, the way that the Addy in conjunction with Aro and Elspeth combination can read/store/project memories, that would be fantastically useful.
The existence of Addy suggests that something like this is theoretically possible… that is, it suggests that witch powers really are some kind of discrete thing that can be read and written as a class.
Of course, I can’t go too far down that road without becoming utterly frustrated that nobody in that world is even trying to research the mechanisms that underlie witch-powers, or vampirism, or etc. That would be the real payoff.
Isn’t Addy?
Not really. Addy is diligently studying the use and limitations and practical potential of witchcraft, but she doesn’t particularly care what makes magic work, as long as it does work and it’s tasty.
At a field’s infancy, engineers are typically more effective than philosophers. Her age and current disinclination suggest she won’t be the first philosopher of witchcraft, but whoever is will undoubtedly benefit from her memories.
Certainly more so than the rest of them, yes.
It would be ironic if she ended up contributing, some day, to a genuine theoretical understanding of whatever it is that underlies all of their abilities… she could be responsible for saving and improving more lives than anyone else we’ve met in this world.