Posted April 10, 2013
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I'd just like to stick my spoon into the subject by going back to the Wikipedia where they say the name "Cancer" was given in the Greek era, 'cause "it mostly looks like a crab (cancer) with all the veins and stuff" or something like that. So Greeks already knew of carcinoma, the swelling that happens from mutated cell that grows too fast, even when they didn't know about cells back then.
BUT, back again to Wikipedia, it says live cells were first witnessed by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1674. That would be XVII century, while The Witcher seems to be based on late medieval era, XIV to XVI centuries. I think it's pretty sound that by means of magic (mostly, magnification) the achievement could be done 300+ years before a non-magical world did.
C'mon, sorcerers could freaking teletransport themselves - making lenses to see how the living works doesn't sound that far-fetched. On top of that, the making of a Witcher involved the know-how of mutation, cell feedback and alike, so Geralt should know what cancer is.
Of course, this technological advances were done thanks to magic and magic was granted to few lucky ones who had the gift and the means to become sorcerers. It wasn't much of a collective work of humankind, and thus, this few ppl were very jealous of their knowledge. It's plausible to me a world with such magic where most common folk still live in the medieval times.
PD: I mean, I really like this idea. Magic is powerful, but most worlds/games/set-ups represent it as the power to throw a fireball. Please... Here at least Sapkowski gives tidbits of what researches can achieve when magic is involved. Though I still have to read The Name of the Wind as suggested by Superarthur.
I'd just like to stick my spoon into the subject by going back to the Wikipedia where they say the name "Cancer" was given in the Greek era, 'cause "it mostly looks like a crab (cancer) with all the veins and stuff" or something like that. So Greeks already knew of carcinoma, the swelling that happens from mutated cell that grows too fast, even when they didn't know about cells back then.
BUT, back again to Wikipedia, it says live cells were first witnessed by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1674. That would be XVII century, while The Witcher seems to be based on late medieval era, XIV to XVI centuries. I think it's pretty sound that by means of magic (mostly, magnification) the achievement could be done 300+ years before a non-magical world did.
C'mon, sorcerers could freaking teletransport themselves - making lenses to see how the living works doesn't sound that far-fetched. On top of that, the making of a Witcher involved the know-how of mutation, cell feedback and alike, so Geralt should know what cancer is.
Of course, this technological advances were done thanks to magic and magic was granted to few lucky ones who had the gift and the means to become sorcerers. It wasn't much of a collective work of humankind, and thus, this few ppl were very jealous of their knowledge. It's plausible to me a world with such magic where most common folk still live in the medieval times.
PD: I mean, I really like this idea. Magic is powerful, but most worlds/games/set-ups represent it as the power to throw a fireball. Please... Here at least Sapkowski gives tidbits of what researches can achieve when magic is involved. Though I still have to read The Name of the Wind as suggested by Superarthur.
Post edited April 10, 2013 by dariusblackdeer
