Classism in Elderling society? (spoilers RotE books incl Blood of Dragons)

[redchild]

An eruption of super-volcanic size will hurl enough ash up into the air to clog up very large regions. Dragons generally lived in one main region, so while it was not enough to cover entire atmosphere in a layer of life-killing ash, it was enough to slay essentially all dragon-kind. There is one dragon that escaped, but no indications of any others. (that excludes the cocoons)

Such catastrophe will not give anyone time to run (or in this case, fly) away.

I would dispute that as the effects of a volcanic eruption are not so instantaneous as it would seem. It would still take several days, if not weeks, for the ash cloud to cover the entire continent, even if the eruption continued for a very long time. The existence of Skill pillars allows quick movement for Elderlings and Skill users to escape to other parts and warn others of the catastrophe, and dragons can spot the ash cloud from miles away and those nearby can easily fly away. Dragons certainly could have resettled in another land far away from the disaster-struck areas, but instead they all died off, suddenly and mysteriously. I doubt what really rendered them nearly extinct was a natural phenomenon.

When dragon-kind essentially became extinct, Elderkind also expired. Elderlings are, after all reliant upon dragon-kind to exist.
It is however not unlikely that elderlings were a bit aloof when compared to regular humans. For a good part they did not use scrolls, but memory stone. Due to that, a lot of their knowledge became inaccessible upon their disappearing. combine that with the fact that people will abandon higher learnings in the face of disaster, and you have ample reason for Elderlings to quickly pass from common knowledge. in the time period around the Elderling demise only a very small minority had knowledge of the reading arts, and most history was passed down orally. within some generations (5-6) any oral stories of Elderlings would have become extremely distorted, eventually turning into fairy tales for all except those few in the nobility that can read the few historical texts written down.

I think they did have scrolls. I vaguely remember Fitz finding rooms full of scrolls in Aslevjal, and empty scroll cubbies in the Rain Wild excavation site where they've long rotted away.
You put up a very good point in how easy it is for knowledge to fade away. Much like any ancient language, such as ancient Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs, if there is no key, no Rosetta Stone, it would be terribly difficult for any contemporary translator to make sense out of them. The Skill scrolls Chade retained from Galen are all written in very archaic language and the last Skillmaters who could not only decipher them but mastered the techniques they described, have all died. Also, human methods of retaining knowledge for future visits is likewise very fragile. I recall the Library of Alexandria and its incredible trove of knowledge destroyed and lost to the ages. Beowulf is another example where it has probably evolved through several interpretations from its original source as it was passed down orally before one version of many was written down in one manuscript that managed to survive after centuries of obscurity.

Since the Elderlings lived apart from the majority of humans, and quite far away from places like the six duchies, none even thought to investigate their homelands after such disaster. They had no need to contact them, and the common folk had not the means. Thus what few Elderlings that may have survived passed away while humans elsewhere were oblivious.

If you have no elaborate knowledge, then you simply cannot recreate something fully. Combine that with the fact that you need dragons to create Elderlings, and you have ample evidence why their society could not simply be rebuilt by anyone.

While Elderlings did live apart from humans, I do not think they lived that far away. Most likely the Elderlings inhabited the areas that cater to dragons while humans lived in the outskirts or countryside. Elderlings are created from humans, and the memory stones of Kelsingra remember humans inhabiting the city. I also think full-fledged Elderlings were most likely the minority in the general non-dragon population. Most of the population probably remained human. Which brings up a question: can Elderlings pro-create? It's known that Elderling families vie for the attention of dragons, but is it because they wanted to transform their human-born offspring?

I would also dispute that Elderling society could not be rebuilt in some form. Humans in RotE are known to possess both Skill and Wit, and some, such as Kettle, are adept enough that they could artificially extend their life to rival that of an Elderling. With all the knowledge that Skillmasters attained and passed down, there is no doubt that it is possible for humans to achieve some Elderling attributes. Being masterful Skill users, they could access information kept in memory stones or in Elderling artifacts. The attempts by Skill coteries to create dragons from memory stone is evidence that they indeed explored Elderling magic. Perhaps they found the secret to the creation of Elderlings and wanted to create a dragon to do just that? Whatever their reasons, it remains obvious that if there ever were any attempts to recreate Elderling glory, it was not successful for whatever reason that remains a mystery.

There's also the question: if Skill users in post-Elderling times tried to attain Elderling attributes without the aid of a dragon, then why wouldn't the humans who were around at the time of dragons do that as well? Living around magical beings that can live for centuries is bound to make humans envious. Jinna voices such thoughts when she observes that people tend to be jealous and afraid of others who possess abilities that they cannot fathom. Only rather than being in awe of other humans, humans were in awe of dragons and Elderlings.