Forging Life

This mysterious magical technology is one of the Elves' most influential additions to science. It allows for the manipulation of living things into new forms. Life forging is much faster than artificial selection, and allows for much more drastic changes.

Utility

Forging life allows for the creation of new breeds and varieties with abilities well beyond anything achievable by selective breeding alone. It cannot be used to create anything totally new, but it can very heavily modify the original life form. It was first widely used in plants to create crops able to grow in marginal environments and that were resistant to disease. It was also used to create new plant-based materials such as prairie silk fiber for use in textiles and the highly durable stonewood tree. The process became much more controversial when it started to be used in animals, particularly in the creation of potentially highly dangerous animals for use in war. Its use to modify anything other than plants or fungi was eventually banned.

Inventor(s)

House Vauxt

Access & Availability

The techniques used in forging life have always been a highly protected secret of House Vauxt. Very little information concerning the details of the technology is available to the general public. What little information has been leaked is most likely deliberate misinformation. Many have speculated about the exact nature of the technology, coming up with a number of vastly different hypothesis on how it might work, but attempts to copy it have largely failed and it is unknown if any of the speculation is even remotely close to the truth.

Discovery

Life forging was developed by House Vauxt. Most work is believed to have been done at their largest horticultural development estate. They did not develop the technology all at once. First they made very minor changes to plants, such as changing the color or size of fruit or flowers to be beyond what was possible by artificial selection alone. After they mastered smaller changes, they began to experiment with more drastic changes, create plants capable of producing wood, fruit, flower, fiber, and medicinal products unlike anything found in nature. After its use in plants had been well established, Iden of House Vauxt was the first to start modifying life forging techniques for use in animals.