THE RETCONNATION

Ignore any mention of Kuja having a 'limiter gene', first of all. I believe this is primarily paragraph 2 and 3 of 'Further commentary on the mages'. In fact, let this one replace that one entirely. You stumble on the following archive:

Gaia is rich in energy, being a young world of scarcely five thousand years. This energy flows and pulses through its crust like veins of lifeblood surrounding its crystal heart. It was from this raw, untapped power that the Crystal shaped souls to distribute throughout the world. A different state of this energy, which the Gaians superstitiously call 'elemental spirits' are responsible for the different areas of climate and various biomes of the world. When this spiritual energy is gathered in sufficient quantities, a compression process will occur and a new soul can be born, capable of experiencing information and storing it, unlike its base components. There are very few forces that can artificially cause this process to occur, but it is not unheard of.

These 'elemental spirits' serve as a building block of sorts when life is created. To shape matter from lifeless into living, liberal application of specific amounts of this energy is required - therein is the difference between say, stone and flesh. There is an expression, 'from dust to dust', which is not entirely inaccurate. The creation process of Genomes uses the remaining elemental energy of Terra to create the vessels, which is normally a process handled by the planet itself during reproduction. Keeping the Genomes in this isolated quasi-dimensional state of Terra has been necessary for a few reasons. Firstly, it gives me a fully controlled environment in which to conduct my experiments. Secondly, elemental spiritual energy has a tendency to draw like to like. Here, this can be prevented, but in Gaia, as a genome begins accumulating life experiences and absorbing the elemental spirits of Gaia into themselves, they will eventually attract a soul. Naturally this outcome is to be avoided until all Gaian souls are cycled out and we are ready to proceed.

The Black Mages of Kuja's creation do not seem to be dissimilar in this regard. Kuja copied his own formula and substituted in Gaian elements for Terran (Mist is the catalyst in this case, crude but effective), then added arcane power to give his creations a predilection for black magic. Kuja's lack of a controlled environment will work against him as his creations happen to gain awareness one by one. Laughable, really. Flawed creations of a flawed creation. He prides in his ability to create what he calls 'dolls' as if they were mere playthings. As if his own life meant any more than theirs. He has imperfectly recreated himself in them, lording like a vain god over his subjects. How petty he is! What Kuja did not realize, however, was the difference between himself and other genomes. When I created him, I purposely left him incomplete, and gave him an artificial soul, resulting in the vain, child-like creature of today. The fact that he is missing vital 'spiritual building blocks' means he will not form a connection with Gaia. Living creatures require a connection with the crystal of their planet in order to continue vital functions such as cell division. Souls, by default, contain around enough energy to sustain a person for around a year or two - the artificial one that I've given Kuja will sustain him for precisely twenty-five. Thus I can postulate that his black mages, based off of his own blueprints, lack the same building blocks as he and, containing natural souls, will all perish in a much shorter period of time. They are interesting, regardless and considering their status are not a plausible long-term threat to me. Perhaps I will induct them into my research in the near future.