On Thu, 25 Jul 2002, Joshua Kronengold wrote: > Rick Castello writes: > > Where do you see that she's the first of the gods? > > Where do you see it explicitly said that she's at the center of > > the struggle against the Jenoine? > > Both of these are explicitly stated at some point in Issola, IIRC. > Specfically, it talks about how the gods were created, and that > Verra's existence predates the gods, and about her being the Jenoine's > greatest enemy. I think the most that can be inferred from _Issola_ is that Verra was *among* the original gods, not specifically first, but in that first group that encompassed, and achieved apotheosis through, the creation of the Great Sea of Chaos. > > I see nothing to make me believe that there is a one-to-one > > correlation between Great Weapons and gods. It seems more > > likely to me, both from the context in the books as well as > > the name the Serioli gave it that Godslayer/Lady Teldra was > > designed to kill gods in general, not Verra in particular. > > All the Great Weapons were created to kill gods in general. But it > seems more...appropriate that each was created for a specific god > (well, specific Lord of Judgement), and Verra has shown much more > trepidation toward Godslayer (before and after Lady Teldra merged with > it) than she has toward the other Great Weapons we've seen. The Great Weapons were created to be used against the gods. This doesn't mean they were intended to kill them per se. After all, why name a Great Weapon Godslayer if all the others are essentially godslayers as well? > Plus it explains why the Jenoine sent him off to kill Verra -- because > it's a long shot, sure...but he could, and she wouldn't expect that he > could. I can think of a number of reasons why the Jenoine did what they did. The immediate one is, of course, that they wanted Godslayer to come into existence and everything else is creating a win-win situation: "Either we get Godslayer in the world OR we get a link to the Lesser Sea. We can't lose." > > I'd like to see more supporting evidence for your one-to-one > > claim, if there is any. If it's just a pet theory, that's > > cool too. Theories are fun... just don't claim that something > > "makes that clear" if it's just a theory. :) > > Some things are clear; some aren't -- I got the impression of 1-1ness > a while into the books...and the fact that there are 17 Great Weapons > and 17 Lords of Judgement (IIRC) does make a strong case... > > > Having just read this bit a couple days ago, I find I still > > need to go back and clarify- is the Necromancer better at ALL > > magic than Verra, or just the particular barrier spells for > > keeping the Jenoine out and/or in? It seemed to me to be the > > latter, rather than ALL magic. I definitely need to reread > > that bit again. > > The quote is "Because she's better than I am." or a minor tweak of > same. No "better at this" involved. Enh. That's *really* vague. Some people would say "better than this" and others would just say "better." Expecting Verra to be that precise in what is essentially an offhand comment seems a little unreasonable. -Dennis