I agree with you on most parts, except for this one really.
Tessa wrote:The life-spanning magic/potions (though I don't know of any confirmed sources) would be designed for that specific purpose. Tshaharks were designed only to battle insects in place of people, so they would be built for that purpose: smart enough to follow orders but too stupid to rise against their superiors, strong enough to combat insects and endure low living standards (I doubt tshaharks, being seen as beasts by many, were treated much better than riding mounts in the insect war days), and a short lifespan so they easily died off of once their purpose was served.
Assuming Genesis' text on the wiki is 100% like it happened, the last lines in this piece aren't true I believe. It's in this bit of text.
Genesis wrote:The Tshahark Army grew and they were sent to hunt the Insects. Many were good, but it seemed that their intelligence was quickly droppping due to the saurian blood. Legion Commanders were ordered to command the Tshahark Army in order for it to be efficient. But yet, it took years for the Insect Hive to be located and destroyed, it was done 41 A.A. After this, the scattered groups of Insects were hunted and destroyed - at least that was believed.
Another interesting section:
Genesis wrote:A group of six in addition to the leader magician surrounded the corpse, chanting syllables that were not anything like heard before. The leader magician made strange gestures and a shimmering blue runes started appearing in front of him, floating in the air. Soon, the runes leaped at him, burning him to death. After that they leaped into the saurian corpse and it exploded. The magicians in the pentagrams wringed in pain!
From this, you can tell the wizards didn't really know what they were doing. Their intention was to create an army of lizardmen using saurian blood. I've boiled down the quoted section to four points I believe you say were held in mind when creating the Tshaharks.
I - Smart enough to follow orders, too stupid to rise against their superiors.
II - Strong enough to combat insects.
III - Capable of enduring low living standards. (Being seen as beasts equal to riding mounts)
IV - A short lifespan so they died fastly when they did their job.
Point I: The first piece of Genesis I quoted states it -seemed- as if they were less intelligent. This implies it came as a surprise, or at the very least wasn't expected. So I think it's safe to say Tshaharks weren't designed to be stupid - it was just a nasty, unpredicted side-effect of the saurian blood.
No argueing point II. The fact they were made of saurian blood was done solely for the raw strength it would give a warrior.
I'm not so sure about point III and IV, really. Another bit of Genesis' text.
Genesis wrote:Year 50 after the arrival: the Tshaharks had long been enduring the constant mockery of other races. This resulted in an order from the Dragonlords to stop the ritual that endured their lives. The magicians, one after another, stepped down from the pentagrams. The magical humming stopped. All was silent... But the Tshaharks continued to exist.
This pretty much puts point IV another way around. They had intended for the Tshaharks to be able to exist after the war had ended, for they upheld the ritual for many years. (Destruction of the hive, many years after the Tshaharks were made: 41 A.A.) They didn't want the Tshaharks to die when they'd done their bit.
This is somewhat imaginable. A price paid in human lives and sacrifice is one you try to keep as low as possible. The Dragonlords sacrificed their own soldiers to be turned into lizard warriors, and I can imagine they'd want to keep them alive. Unfortunately, these soldiers that had protected them from the insects, saved their lives, etc. etc. were mocked by the other races so they decided to pull the plug to ease their suffering and decrease interracial conflict.
I believe point III is just plain wrong, but I can't find any direct hints to this in the text. It's mostly based on speculation.
At the time of their creation, the Tshaharks were the salvation of mankind. The last hope they had for fighting off the insects. I certainly wouldn't consider my saviour to be a beast.
'help tshahark' says the following though.
... Generations after the war, mankind had forgotten the deeds of the tshahark and started to hunt them down wherever they had been seen. Nearly exterminated, but not yet beaten, the survivors fled into some mountains where they took an abandoned castle in possession. ...
There's a few discrepancies between the help file and Genesis' text, like how they got the castle, the timespan it all took place in, etc. etc., but this file clearly states it took generations for mankind to forget the deeds of the tshahark. The word 'forgotten' implies they did know of their deeds before, and in this sentence, forgetting about these deeds is implied to be a requirement for hunting them down.
In other words, remembering their deeds would've stopped the other races from hunting the tshahark. They were grateful, or maybe even felt in the tshahark's debt before forgetfulness kicked in.
The whole point I'm trying to make here is this.
DURING and JUST AFTER the war, Tshaharks, from my point of view, definetly wouldn't have been treated or thought of as animals. It was only LONG AFTER the war that people started thinking of Tshaharks the way you describe them in point III.
Gods, another one of those dreadfully long posts... Can we stop this and agree with eachother now, Tess? xD