Norilinde:
I wish it had occurred to me to ask this sooner, but if the aether can be “fixed” to avoid losses by sublimation, then could this be done with normal blood without brain or eye tissue? It might look different and would probably be less potent than aetherial blood unless vast quantities of it could be distilled into a more concentrated form, but it at least would be a renewable resource not requiring death. After all, “you can shear a sheep many times but you can skin him only once.” It might deserve a new name such as “liberty blood”, freely donated by free people fighting for their freedom and that of their descendants (no helots were Harrowed in the making of this “liberty blood”).
idonotlikeusernames:
Hmmm…if it can be done it is probably not with the current(ly known) techniques, otherwise someone would be doing it by now. I think finding a way to acquire meteorites to make totems would be the better long term solution. The disadvantage being that it might take a very long time to develop to technological capability to reach and harvest those, so that by that time its most useful god-like use might indeed be as FTL starship fuel
Yep. Unfortunately, “blood” isn’t just blood, as will become clear early in Game 2… So an Empire-wide blood tax/donation scheme would have to hit a much higher total volume to accomplish the same effects.
If even repeated collecting of “liberty blood” yields less total aether than Harrowing someone, then Halassur and the Hegemony may never have bothered attempting it on a large scale. My MC’s rebellion on the other hand cares more about human life and so the trade-off may be worthwhile .
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