Throughout the book the humans are greatly feared by the rest of the Weave because of the human race's violent tendencies.
Damned by alan dean foster series#
Humans have the potential to become fearsome allies for the Weave and are also physiologically immune to the Amplitur mind control abilities.Īfter the Weave scouts convince volunteers ( mercenaries) from Earth to join the war, the tide turns for the Weave and the main conflict towards the end of the series becomes a question of what will happen to the new warriors when the war finally ends if they have not become more civilized (and therefore, less effective allies). This is appalling to the civilized races of the Weave, but they cannot deny the efficacy of human combat troops. Humans have no problem hunting and slaughtering non-humans, and some seem to enjoy it. When humans are unleashed upon the battlefield, all inhibitions against killing other humans are disregarded. They surmise that all humans are born hunters and killers, but that intelligence is starting to drive them toward the abhorrence of violence that other "civilized" species consider normal.
Eventually Weave xenopsychologists determine that Earth's fragmented continents resulted in a species that evolved to fight, compete, and kill for dominance. On a mission to find new resources and allies, a Weave scout ship discovers Earth circa late 20th/early 21st century and finds that humans are uniquely suited as allies, in that they have the ability to fight, are adaptable to a wide variety of environments, have few (or sometimes no) compunctions regarding war (humans having been fighting each other for all of their recorded history), and above all seem even more enthusiastic when their aggression is focused on non-humans. The Amplitur, with their mind-controlling abilities and therefore ease with which they control conquered populations, have gradually been pushing the Weave back for centuries and seem to be on track for final victory. However, most sentient species in the galaxy have evolved to be incapable of committing violence against other sentients (violence of any sort being most uncivilized, but against another sentient being a unthinkable crime), which leaves a shortage of warriors on both sides. Most of the fighting takes place on planetary surfaces, and is relatively restrained in terms of destruction, the purpose of the war being to convince and control one's opponents rather than destroy them. The Weave is a group of species allied in opposition to the Purpose. The Amplitur are attempting to join all sentient species in what they call the "Purpose", an alliance they "guide" to some unknown (even to them) end. Two major alien civilizations, the Amplitur (a squid-like species with telepathic and mind-controlling abilities – which they couch as "suggestions") and The Weave (a confederacy of more or less equal species), have been fighting a war for several millennia.
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