Aptitude is the term for the ability to comprehend and use technology. An individual with aptitude is referred to as 'apt', and an individual without aptitude is 'inapt'. The existence and ramifications of aptitude became apparent during the Apt Revolution. The invention of the crossbow, a weapon the apt slaves could wield but their magical inapt masters could not, began a dramatic restructuring of society.
Principles[]
An individual's aptitude (or lack thereof) is set at birth. In the same way that an inapt person is unable to comprehend technology, even something as simple as a door latch, an apt person is entirely unable to comprehend or use magic. Machines and magic tend to seem terrifying for inapt and apt individuals respectively. The differences go beyond ability; aptitude affects the way someone perceives the world around them. Inapt individuals believe in concepts like fate and ghosts. Apt kinden tend to not believe in things that cannot be held and rationally analyzed.
Aptitude seems to be passed on genetically. Many kinden are either entirely apt or inapt, with exceptions within that kinden being exceedingly rare. People born from one inapt and one apt parent can be either apt like Dariandrephos or inapt Skrill. Many previously inapt kinden, like Skater-kinden have begun to develop aptitude well after the Apt Revolution. By contrast some kinden that began displaying aptitude hundreds of years before the start of the series, like Fly-kinden, still regularly produce inapt members at the time of the First Lowlands War.
Exceptions[]
Woodlouse-kinden are unique in that at least some are both apt and inapt at the same time. The Worm exists in a state which is neither apt nor inapt, as its coils smoother both states, making the apt unable to comprehend artifice and the inapt unable to comprehend magic. Outliers within otherwise totally apt or inapt kinden are also possible; at least one Wasp has been born Inapt, at least one Mantid is known to have been born apt.
Though occurrences are extremely rare it is possible for individuals born apt to lose aptitude and vice versa.
- Adguros, a Moth-kinden raider, was captured by miners and imprisoned within in a mine hearing and smelling machinery for about a year. When he finally escaped his captors, he found he was apt.
- Cheerwell Maker and Empress Seda I both lost their aptitude after becoming involved in rituals which inadvertently became intermingled. Both women also found they had become magicians.