---In , <mjwest@...> wrote : in that
> And even if the Ancient *are* old enough, there weren’t
> enough of them to terraform every world. There were,
> what, 400 of them?
Despite the other arguments on the matter, I wouldn't rely on this one.
Sure there were only 400 or so "real" Ancients, but there were any number of sentient robots, humans, Vargr and goodness knows what else around. Even if they were lackeys, they still had access to technology that was for all intents and purposes magic.
It would take just one "real" Ancient to take an interest in gardening to set off a massive wave of terraforming.
Unfortunately, we don't the the Journals of the Imperial Geological and Archeological Society available to tell us if there was any evidence that this happened.
"What the Ancients did" is pretty much a black hole, and could have involved anything.
So they probably didn't massively terraform, but they could have, if a reason for impossible/unlikely worlds is necessary. For me, it isn't.
> And even if the Ancient *are* old enough, there weren’t
> enough of them to terraform every world. There were,
> what, 400 of them?
Despite the other arguments on the matter, I wouldn't rely on this one.
Sure there were only 400 or so "real" Ancients, but there were any number of sentient robots, humans, Vargr and goodness knows what else around. Even if they were lackeys, they still had access to technology that was for all intents and purposes magic.
It would take just one "real" Ancient to take an interest in gardening to set off a massive wave of terraforming.
Unfortunately, we don't the the Journals of the Imperial Geological and Archeological Society available to tell us if there was any evidence that this happened.
"What the Ancients did" is pretty much a black hole, and could have involved anything.
So they probably didn't massively terraform, but they could have, if a reason for impossible/unlikely worlds is necessary. For me, it isn't.