Salic Law and Harry's Understanding of Magic Genetics

[morriswalters]

  White Night, Chapter 30.

I don't understand what the OP is saying about the salic law, as this is not based on genetics (but in patriarchy!), but we know that magic is not a simple genetic trait. Environment plays an important part. I would add the biological concepts of penetrance and expressivity. You can search if you want but basically means that genotypes are not all what it is.

Unless you are a fiction author I don't know that I would make any statements about genetics as it relates to magic.  And if you were a fiction writer you should perhaps do more due diligence when using the term  Salic law.

[Mr. Death]

Edit
Mostly means mostly.  And if Salic laws have anything to do with genetics I wish someone would give me a link.  Otherwise I see it as a male conspiracy to deprive women of the throne.

I have no idea how it's a "male conspiracy to deprive women of the throne."

I think you're reading into this more sinister motives than is warranted.

[Dina]

I have no idea how it's a "male conspiracy to deprive women of the throne."

I think you're reading into this more sinister motives than is warranted.

Really? Not allowing a woman to be the ruler if she has a brother is not a conspiracy to deprive women of the throne? What could be clearer?

[Mr. Death]

Really? Not allowing a woman to be the ruler if she has a brother is not a conspiracy to deprive women of the throne? What could be clearer?

I meant in the context of The Dresden Files. That doesn't seem to be how the term is applied in the novels.

[Dina]

Edit
Mostly means mostly.  And if Salic laws have anything to do with genetics I wish someone would give me a link.  Otherwise I see it as a male conspiracy to deprive women of the throne.

I think Morriswalters meant in general.

[morriswalters]

I meant in the context of The Dresden Files. That doesn't seem to be how the term is applied in the novels.

I knew what he meant. Only in this context would I draw my dictionary from its scabbard.

[Wizard Sibelis]

He also uses it do describe wereguild, blood money. So his usage is not linear too...

[peregrine]

I think Maggie Sr. inheriting her magic from her father's side was even lampshaded in the book as an example that there are exceptions the the usual matrilineal inheritance.

If it's about in utero magic exposure, even a purely mortal mother who spends a lot of time around a very powerful wizard would probably be enough to do it.

[Avernite]

He also uses it do describe wereguild, blood money. So his usage is not linear too...

That is because Salic Law has become famous because of the French throne (where the term Salic Law was used to refer to the fact that no land of the Salian Franks should be inherited by a woman, and hence, that the English king had no right to the French throne). But Salic Law in general is a broader concept, referring to the whole law of those Salian Franks.

Mind, I still don't know how Jim Butcher meant that law to refer to female-derived inheritance (even if weregild is perfectly logical), since it was primarily just generic relational, with a small male preference for property and a massive male preference for land.

An interesting factoid that I found on the avalon project is that it includes punishments short of death for nearly all cases; rape of a free woman in general, or being unable to cough up weregild for murder yourself or among your relatives, are a death sentence (and a handful if x, then y, then z cases).

[Kindler]

OP: catch up with the series. There is information you do not have, and TV Tropes does not adequately cover all events.

Regardless, I don't see the plot hole. Are you saying that Harry's line about magic usually passing down the maternal line (and that it's apparently well-known) not prompting the White Council to promote a conceive-athon is a plot hole? Because there are tons of other lines of dialogue (including quite a bit in White Night, if I remember, or maybe that's Small Favor/Turn Coat) discussing that the White Council does not have the manpower to manage the wizard-level talents that are springing up as it is. Harry specifically mentions that the wizard population is undergoing a massive expansion (though it's still a fraction of the total population, as most subgroups are) at the moment.

Wizards are also extremely long-lived. They have more time to have children than vanilla mortals do. There is less of a need to rush. Couple that with, as Mr. Death pointed out, big talents can spring up from magical have-nots (the typical patrons of Mac's, for example), or even out of nowhere, and you try to manage that with a few hundred people. There are way, way, way more sensitives in the Dresden Files than there are wizards. Not only are there too many for monitoring all of them to be practical, there had never been an effort (or means, for that matter) to identify all of them. That might change with the

(click to show/hide)

Paranet, but I doubt even that organization will be able to identify those like...eh, you haven't read Changes yet. But there is a side character with a small talent who would never be noticed by the Council, and would be equally unlikely to have ever even heard of the Paranet (at least... well, read Changes.)

Anyway, it's not a plot hole however you look at it, unless I'm completely missing your point.

[zetadog]

The books indicate Harry's magic kicked in a lot younger for him than most humans.

Some of the White Court and Red Court are pretty good at magic beyond the usual vampire powers.  By default they already have some degree of psychic/mind magic.

[LordDresden2]

If it's about in utero magic exposure, even a purely mortal mother who spends a lot of time around a very powerful wizard would probably be enough to do it.

The upshot of what we've been told, and what's revealed in the books, is that magic is partly a genetically inherited trait, and partly a learned skill, and partly something else, all interacting together.

The genetic component can be inherited from either parent like most others, but whether that genetic potential will ever manifest itself depends to a considerable degree on environmental factors, again like many other inherited traits.  You can inherit a genetic predisposition toward getting addicted to a given drug, for ex, or catching a particular disease, but if you never encounter that drug or are never exposed to that pathogen, it won't matter and the effect won't happen.  You can inherit the genetic potential for better than 20/20 vision, but if something external damages your eyes, you may still be nearsighted.

You can inherit the magic potential from either parent, but it's a lot, a lot, more likely to manifest itself if you're exposed to magic a lot in the formative stages.  Which means the child of a magical mother is more likely to be magical than the offspring of a magical father, everything else being equal, because he or she is exposed to that magical activity during 9 months of pregnancy.  But as noted by peregrine, if dad is magical and mom is not, but dad is right there all the time slinging magic for some reason, it might improve the odds a lot.

But even then, it also depends on training and unknown factors too.  Harry and Molly, or Harry and Elaine, might have a kid, and that kid is getting high-power magic genes on both sides.  But if he never bothers to train and decides to spend his time becoming, say, an airline pilot or corporate lawyer, he'll never be a Council Wizard even though he almost certainly had the potential.

Magic also involves both the body and the soul.  For ex, when Luccio is transplanted to a new body, she still has all her skill and knowledge, she's still Wizard-level, but there are things she can't do as well because the other body has different potentials.  How the soul-side of it rises and passes on we don't really know.

[Dina]

Very well said.