[elihu]

You may be right; it's been a long time since I read A Fire upon the Deep or A Deepness in the Sky.

[ethbr0]

I remember some insinuations to that effect, but from an unreliable narrator given Vinge's penchant for strictly in-character exposition, and what would child races know of progenitor's motives?

As a universe arrangement scheme (both narratively and literally), it is a clean solution to providing a new race incubator and preventing "Why don't the First Ones rule everyone?" endgames.