So Victor's daughter would be about the same age (maybe a touch younger or a touch older) than Abbey? *shudder* that increases Victor's creep level tenfold or more.

Indeed it does.

Would his child or her mother even know who the biological donor was?

They might or might not know at first, but someone would know — and once it came out that Victor was a psychopath and a traitor, it would be hard to keep that information away from them. Anybody who knew would find it almost impossible not to broadcast the fact in their surface thoughts whenever they looked at her.

Besides, it makes for a better story if she has to figure out how to cope with it. :)

So Victor's daughter would be about the same age (maybe a touch younger or a touch older) than Abbey? *shudder* that increases Victor's creep level tenfold or more.

Would his child or her mother even know who the biological doner was?

We've also seen where certain mental traits will disqualify someone from the breeding pool… Victor for example. (Although I'm trying to remember, while at work, if Victor was just excluded from breeding cells but has genetic material on file for potential use later).

Victor wasn't disqualified from breeding, just child-rearing. His semen has been collected and used to create a lot of new baby teeks, but the same killer instinct that made him such an effective operative also made him a lousy candidate for fatherhood. The Elders are keeping a close eye on those kids, watching for signs that Victor's instability might have been inherited. Worst case, those kids will be singled out early for psychic therapy. And, of course, some of them are likely to make very good soldiers when they grow up.

Come to think of it, I've been thinking about doing a story about Victor's oldest biological child, who could be in her late teens or early twenties by now (2000 CR). How will she be treated once it becomes known that her father was a monster? How will she see herself in light of this information?

We've also seen where certain mental traits will disqualify someone from the breeding pool… Victor for example. (Although I'm trying to remember, while at work, if Victor was just excluded from breeding cells but has genetic material on file for potential use later).

Perhaps once the Collective has enough data they may take the secondary traits into account, but it seems like they are in an arms race of sorts (it just that each of their weapons take years to develop) and are trying to increase their population at an incredible rate.

For example, in the real world it is theorized that the genetic predisposition for alcoholism is a secondary trait for the genetic predisposition for extreme creativity.

Is it possible for certain psionic gifts to have as a secondary trait a predisposition towards a particular mental illness that can't be fixed without direct and highly precise genetic manipulation(like if you are a powerful enough telepath there is a very, very high chance that you will become schizophrenic or if you were a powerful empath it is a very good bet that you will develop chemical based depression)?

I think that it makes sense that this wouldn't be dealt with by the collective because of two reasons. First, there aren't enough individuals who would qualify to be able to uncover this as a trend and second, the people that would express these traits would be valuable enough for the secondary traits to be tolerated.

In any case, Elves and half-Elves are definitely immune.

Any non-human constituent in the blood was enough to prevent the curse affixing itself to mixed-bloods though it did catch a few by some unknown means (a mixed human/lutin was affected, as was a Kitsune).

The Curse is strange and fickle… that's the hard and fast rule you should consider. It just does not act as one expects that it should in particularly strange situations.

And those anti-curse amulets/charms/tattoos/implants are only expected to hold it at bay under normal circumstances…. *evil laughter*

Half-Elves (including Silvaan) are a special exception to the rule that human crossbreeds are affected. This is because Elves have ambient magic in their auras that resists changes to their nature. It's possible to create a transformation spell that affects Elves and half-Elves, but it has to be specially designed to target them.

I guess this post can effectively be culled, though the information you laid out might want to be shifted into another area (I didn't see a tech area on vehicles, so I guess I should look again).

Car-equivalents are called skimmers, and motorcycle-equivalents are called swoops. There are ground-cars and trucks, but these are little used in Metamor because they're restricted to the Street.

Large loads can be carried by cargo tenders and garbage scows, which are roughly two to three times the size of a semi truck. These don't use roads or skyways; they move around through flight lanes, driven by enormous drive turbines.

Propeller-driven aircraft are not used within the city. They might be used for recreation out in the rural areas, but generally speaking airplanes were never very popular. Lighter-than-air craft are more common, either through the use of helium gas or gravity repulsors.

Skimmers and swoops are not "powered" by mana. Direct conversion of mana into energy for thrust is wasteful and depletes the ambient mana levels; these sorts of engines are only used on high-performance aircraft like aerofighters. Instead, skimmers and swoops use electricity (usually produced from a high-capacity battery or hydrogen fuel cell) to spin the drive turbines, which are enchanted to produce repulsor fields when spun. These turbines normally direct their force downward, but they can be angled in different directions to direct thrust forward, backward, up, or to either side. Spinning the turbines faster causes the field to grow stronger.

Outside of Metamor City, groundcars are more popular than skimmers because they are more fuel-efficient. They can also be made to use gasoline-hybrid engines, which are a lot cheaper than the zero-emissions engines required in the city.

Drive turbines use relatively little mana to produce their repulsor fields, though the amount of mana required to craft them is substantial. They also have to be periodically "recharged" to renew the enchantment, though they last for a very long time in Metamor City due to the high ambient mana levels.

In terms of emergency gear, all skimmers and most swoops are equipped with collision defense systems, which create a cushioning force-field around the vehicle in the event of a crash. These are one-use-only systems, designed to allow you to safely crash-land a malfunctioning vehicle. Of course, crashing into Street level has hazards of its own…

As already discussed there are 'Swoops' and 'Sweeps' which are essentially small hover-cars and -bikes powered by mana engines. The mana is sustained within areas where the ambient magic is strong (i.e. Metamor), but can also be generated by small conventionally-fueled mana generators (these are not terribly efficient, but enough to keep these small vehicles going in mana-weak areas).

Then there are ground-based vehicles, which are far more common and the only way to transport large loads. Sweeps/Swoops are like helicopters… damn versatile but lacking in carrying capacity.

Some ground based vehicles use conventional fuels (gasoline/diesel). These are typically found in areas where magic does not exist and mana-generators do not function well, such as Yesulam and the Holy Land. In Metamor such vehicles are called 'smoggies' and are rendered to the lowest levels of the city, typically for utility work such as waste removal.

Other ground based vehicles use a spin-drive: Essentially removing the 'engine' and spinning the main drive axle with a mana-field. This spinning shaft drives the wheels with passable efficiency. Though they cannot fly in the manner of sweeps, they can be made to levatate for short distances - usually the transition from one transit system to another. Forward motion is limited unless there is rubber on the road. Spin-drives are limited to small to large vehicles such as cars and small cargo transports. As vehicles get much larger the mana-conversion ratio drops off signifigantly requiring a shift to conventional fuels to attain greater torque.

The spin-drive magic can power propeller aircraft rather well. Coupled with a mana-generator such aircraft can fly from magic-strong areas to magic-weak areas efficiently. Jet aircraft are limited to pure mana or pure chemical fuels.

All mana driven vehicles require a back-up system that can take over in the event of mana-disruption or loss. Since mana-generators are not creating mana when shut down these are typically all that is required: In the event of mana loss or disruption the generator takes over to provide enough mana for maneuvering and controlled stopping. Many conventionally fueld vehicles, especially aircraft, often have a mana-generator as safety backups.

I know nuclear energy has probably been discovered in MK2K universe, but just wondering to what extent. Has its inception vaguely follwed our own world with the onset of a bomb. I realize the technology might not get to the degree it has in our world since there are other energy substitutes that are alot more practical in MK2K world that this technology.

Nuclear power does exist in this world; the nation of Whales spearheaded its development, perhaps unsurprisingly, though they had assistance from a number of collaborators, including the Empire and Majestic Industries. It was developed in the twentieth century, after the end of the second world war created a period of relative stability, so a nuclear bomb has never been used in anger, though tests have taken place underground.

Whales was interest in nuclear energy both for military applications and for electrical power, since they don't have an abundance of traditional fuels on the island. Lord Rickkter, the Imperial Minister of Defense, has campaigned hard to prevent the weaponization of nuclear power; he knows what a nightmare it would be if the sort of destructive power usually limited to archwizards were to fall into the hands of mundanes. Whales, of course, wants nuclear weapons for exactly that reason — to ensure their defense against nations that have powerful magical weapons they themselves can't match.

At the dawn of the 21st century, Whales is the only nation that openly admits to having nuclear weapons, though they will not say how many — the Imperial Ministry of Defense estimates that they have between 20 and 50 warheads, divided between ship-launched cruise missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Whales has declared that these weapons are for deterrent purposes only, but they are a constant source of friction with the major nations of Galendor. The nations of the Southlands are generally intimidated enough by Whales's power to leave it alone, but there is some definite resentment in response to their saber-rattling.

Nuclear power plants are used by a number of nations because of the clean energy they provide; waste disposal is not as great a problem in MK-Earth as it is on our world, because alchemy can be used to transmute spent fuel rods into comparatively harmless lead. Metamor, Quenardya, Yamato, Rukilia, Ainador and Whales all make use of nuclear power to some extent, and Majestic Industries has its own reactors to power its research and production facilities in Algra. Most of the reactors in use today are smaller and safer than their RL-counterparts, with designs that automatically stop the chain reaction in event of a problem and thus prevent meltdowns. (RL Japan has developed such reactors, and they are just coming into use.)

Some of the smaller nations on other continents also make use of nuclear power, but they do not have the ability to construct such facilities themselves. MI manufactures "pocket reactors" with sealed fuel supplies to most of these nations; the reactors will run for ten years with no external maintenance before the fuel supply has to be replaced, which MI will happily do for the appropriate fees. Non-proliferation agreements between MI and the major world powers insure that these devices are equipped with tamper-protection; any attempt to open the reactor's fuel pack and find out how it works will fry the circuitry and transmute the fuel to lead. It's possible someone has bypassed these safeguards and reverse-engineered a bomb — but, if so, no one has heard about it yet, and it would be very hard to do without help from one of MI's own nuclear engineers.

I was exploring the idea of a power source for the central Forge of DarkSteele enterprises that powers both the extreme heat needed to create daemon steele as well as keeps teh material of the artificial volcano constructed into the building molten. It can't be magical in nature since mana energy introduced into the forging process will cause the steele to become brittle like a clay pot.

You two should consider fleshing this incident out.