puppeteer-instincts

The puppeteers have a unique fighting reflex involving turning away from danger to strike with a hind leg, challenging assumptions about their behavior.

1 chapter across 1 book

Ringworld (1970)Larry Niven

Chapter 13 -

In this chapter, Louis Wu reflects on the religious beliefs of the Ringworld natives, mistaking their reverence for the Ringworld engineers as worship of gods. The narrative explores the puppeteers' instinctive fighting reflex and reveals the strategic use of starseed lures by the puppeteers to manipulate galactic events, including the Man-Kzin war. Tensions rise as Speaker-To-Animals accuses Nessus of meddling in a war, highlighting the complex political and biological manipulations underlying interspecies conflicts.