Others' Island (spoilers all books incl RWC)

[maulkin]

I am not even clear on why/how serpents seem to have some dragon memories (?) - or previous life serpent memories (?) BUT they lose their serpent memories when they emerge from their cocoons as dragons.

I presume that it is a little like the process of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar's body (including the brain) is broken down and a new body (and brain) develops from clumps of stem cells. All of the caterpillar's memories are presumably lost during this process but this is OK because there is no need for a butterfly to remember how to be a caterpillar.

The whole idea of inherited memories is biologically unrealistic because memories do not influence DNA and so cannot be transmitted between generations (except through the normal human process of teaching and learning). This, presumably, is why the memory sand is needed for the cocoons, with the dragon-memories added by the attendant dragons. This raises the question of how serpents inherit their serpent memories. Perhaps serpents wait at Others Island for the dragon eggs to be laid and then help to bury them in memory sand, adding their own memories in the process. If so, there will be more problems in store when the next batch of dragon eggs is laid!