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« on: July 20, 2010, 10:14:22 PM »
I really like the family heirloom idea, but there's a problem with it.
To have any real power as an awakener, you need at least the first heightening, if not higher. That means at least 50 generations will need to have passed for someone in the family to gain awakening. True, during this time your entire family may be more healthy and live longer, but it's still not going to amount to much (this could be sped by everyone in the family giving their breath to one person on they die, as per the investment suggestion).
In short, I don't think awakeners could exist if people did not sell their breaths. As the system is, I was wondering throughout the book where all the breaths came from, and why EVERYONE wasn't a drab already. First, each God needs a breath a week. Let's say there are ten gods for easniness' sake (I don't know the actual number, but I think it's around there). Each takes a breath a week, assuming years are the same length as ours, that's 520 new drabs per year. Plus 104 more for the God King, since he usually takes two per week. Every two years, there are about one thousand new drabs. True, more people die and are born than that in two years, but I still think it's significant portion of the population. Especially when you take into consideration how many awakeners there are. There are many who have reached the first heightening (I believe most of the higher nobility and priesthood has). For each one of them, there are fifty new drabs. Vivenna and Vasher are significantly more powerful, and though they are rare, they are not alone, thus that's more breaths out of the system. Also, every lifeless costs a single breath to make, and breaths are also sometimes lost (as Vasher demonstrated).
Sorry for being long winded. Basically my point is, Awakening could not exist without the current system UNLESS the collection of breaths on the deathbed was highly standardized, concentrating these breaths into certain people, not just passed down through families.