As far as I understand, in FL universe works very strict form of biological determinism called The Great Chain of Being. Due to his genesis Naturalist was chained to particular destiny. He tried to free himself by changing his own biology. Become another species, not replace parts.
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Despite the change in surface details, I think Evolution explored a lot of the same thematic space. How much can you change yourself to a different person and still be you? Plus, at one point he actually did go as far as creating and discarding a whole second body to satisfy the Wax-Wind, which was a different self that had the changes he had undergone. We donāt know for sure how far FBG had gotten into development before dropping the idea, so who knows how much assets there are to re-use.
Still, Firmament is positioned to potentially explore similar ideas, but with replacing more abstract parts of yourself rather than body parts. Wings of Change was already foreshadowing that somewhat, and Autolepidoptery is only strengthening that connection. Iām personally of the opinion that the FLPC is apocryphal, and that we could at some point get to alter ourselves by altering our apocryphal history.
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Notā¦ really?
Thereās definitely a form of determinism but itās not very biological and can be pretty easily subverted, hence crimes against the great chain.
If it was biological, Polythreme would work differently. (Being vague to avoid spoilers but youāre an old hat, you know what Iām talking about.) If it was biological, the Noman would make no sense. If it was biological, Furnace Ancona would be a very different story in some of the routes you can take.
As for strictness, you need look no further than the history of the rubbery men. The terms can be rewritten; that is the POINT of red science, the correspondence, and it is not the point of the discordance since no such thing exists.
The major themes of the game are that any idea of predetermination is predicated by your willingness to accept it as truth and abide by it. The entire idea that The Great Chain of Being is anything other than a concept that may be either accepted or subverted is very much missing a large swathe of the game; the player character is, unlike most of the inhabitants of the world, made aware over and over again that the Great Chain is just a system of power like any other. it has no innate truth.
So no, there is no strict form of biological determinism. Thereās just a concept of said strict form that is pretty overtly contradicted in the narrative.
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Liberation from the tyranny of biology and all that.
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In Neath yes, rules a bit relaxed, and knowledgeable enough person could perform criminal (by cosmic standards) activities to loosen the chains even more. You get incinerated instantly for things like this in bigger world under the gaze of stars.
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Only if said Judgement cares about those specific Laws and declares you Is Not.
Whichever Halved, for instance, will not.
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