Just finished "I Am Jade Falcon" for the first time. Spoilers, I guess:
2/3 or so of the way through the book, Joanna stumbles upon the secret lab facility cross-breeding Jade Falcon and Wolf strains. The following passage appears on page 201, spoken by Kael Pershaw:
"I cannot speak freely, Joanna, but I will say this: what you have discovered may go far beyond some genetic machinations perpetrated by our Jade Falcon scientist caste. I have for some time suspected a network of conspiracy linking the scientist castes of many Clans--perhaps every Clan."
"But why? What are they up to?"
"I am not free to discuss that, especially with so much still based on speculation. But I have begun to suspect the scientist castes of somehow setting themselves apart, almost as if they had formed a separate Clan of their own. Frankly, it turns my blood cold to think of it"
Is this a crazy early (1995) reference to The Society as presented in WoR?? Did the Catalyst devs know of plans to pick up this (fairly obscure) plot thread somewhere down the road, and eventually do so 16 years later? Or was it just intended as a loose thread by author Robert Thurston with no real intent, until someone else picked it up a long time later?
The only other early reference I could easily find is a tiny mention in the "Clans: Warriors of Kerensky" book, written in-universe by Phelan Kell. It comes on page 59, in a discussion of the governance of civilian castes:
"With the exception of the Diamond Shark merchant caste, and rumors about the head of the Jade Falcon scientists, I know of no systematic abuse of power by the head of a civilian caste."
Later in the book, the head of the scientist caste is listed as Etienne (Balzac), so that seems like a clear cut if really really obscure mention of what would come more than a decade later.