I think the point is to give you PTSD. As Earth people define it, anyway. It takes death-fear to break you through into the first change. There's no getting around that. At least that I know of. If there was no shapefinding, people wouldn't learn to change.
And then they'd go mad. We have stories about that. People who stay too long in nok - that's human - form. They go as mad as people who stay too long in shape. A long time ago, there was no shapefinding, and people's first shift came when they got attacked by worms or sarkotu or whatever. There was no one to guide the change and bring them back, so sometimes they'd run wild and never come back. And sometimes somebody never got hurt, and then they got too old and rigid to change, and when something finally happened, they couldn't defend themselves.
It's in our blood, the change. You have wild animals on Earth, don't you? Think how they move, how they startle, how they think. It's not PTSD. It's a way of life in a hostile environment. And Karn is hostile, and we don't have machines to tame it.
I don't think we'd be better off if we did. Look at what these people have done to Earth.
The priests, the Grehti, they're the ones that are messed up. Not cause of shapefinding. Cause they really kill the ones that fail.
School - that's like an apprenticeship, right? Maybe you're apprenticed to the wrong craft. They tried to make a weaver out of me, once. It didn't go well.
no subject
And then they'd go mad. We have stories about that. People who stay too long in nok - that's human - form. They go as mad as people who stay too long in shape. A long time ago, there was no shapefinding, and people's first shift came when they got attacked by worms or sarkotu or whatever. There was no one to guide the change and bring them back, so sometimes they'd run wild and never come back. And sometimes somebody never got hurt, and then they got too old and rigid to change, and when something finally happened, they couldn't defend themselves.
It's in our blood, the change. You have wild animals on Earth, don't you? Think how they move, how they startle, how they think. It's not PTSD. It's a way of life in a hostile environment. And Karn is hostile, and we don't have machines to tame it.
I don't think we'd be better off if we did. Look at what these people have done to Earth.
The priests, the Grehti, they're the ones that are messed up. Not cause of shapefinding. Cause they really kill the ones that fail.
School - that's like an apprenticeship, right? Maybe you're apprenticed to the wrong craft. They tried to make a weaver out of me, once. It didn't go well.