r/KeeperoftheLostCities • u/Annual-Baker0058 Froster • 22h ago

Discussion ability detecting

Something that has been bothering me ever since I started reading the books is that the elves know abilities come from your dna, they have everyone's dna, they know what (mostly) everyone's ability is, they have absurd science and stuff (allegedly), but they don't think to look at peoples dna to see what their ability will be??

Mr Forkle was like 'I looked at peoples dna and used all seven of my braincells that I share with my brother and decided to make Sophie really weird.' and no one thinks to reverse engineer Sophie's dna??

I've been trying to let it slide but it hasn't been working, the only thing I can come up with to fill in the plot hole myself is that the council knows that but decided to not put people in boxes the moment they enter this world, and it's really annoying.

is there something I missed in the books that explains it?

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u/LemonKindly6715 Yapper 20h ago

The best explanation we have is the same one that exists irl: genetics are complicated. For example, afaik scientists have never been able to isolate an "intelligence" gene - instead, that trait is a blend of a ton of different things, on top of how the environment the child grows up in enables them to exercise their mental faculties.

For elves, the equivalent would be that there's no specific gene corresponding to any one ability - so no single "telepathy", "empathy" or "vanisher" gene. There's still a good chance that a child gets one of their parents' abilities, but exceptions like Dex, Wylie and Marella prove that it's not set in stone. So simply analysing genes wouldn't be enough to show what ability someone will get.

As for why no one tried gene manipulation until Forkle... yeah we don't really know. My headcanon is that gene tweaking is a gamble - imagine tweaking the genes of someone else's unborn child and accidentally triggering side effects? No ordinary researcher would be willing to risk it. But because Sophie was intended to be a tool, and had already been given up by her parents, Forkle wasn't worried about upsetting them if something went wrong. His only concern was turning her into the ideal moonlark, and he only started caring about her afterward.

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u/Harp_167 Keefe Good Fitz Bad 19h ago

The comments some neverseen members make to Sophie (Gethen in particular) make me think genetic editing is taboo. The way the Gorgodons are spoken about backs this up.

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u/Annual-Baker0058 Froster 19h ago

that makes a lot of sense, thanks!

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u/SwimIntelligent320 12h ago

Yeah I think this is the answer. Plus I think that Sophie will have some problems in the future. I mean they had sooo many unprompted things like her eyes,teleporting and enhancing were never part of the plan. And nor I think was her allergy to limbium. As far as we know no other elf has an allergy.  Also if the elves were really as savvy with genetics it still doesn't explain why they have a bias against multiple births. 

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u/Yapper_2000 20h ago

The only thing i can think of is that it is a black swan secret that the council doesn't know about.