In a message dated Wed, 24 Jul 2002 8:27:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, Steve Simmons <scs at di.org> writes: > Claire Rojstaczer writes: > >> My question about Great Weapons is, if they're getting >> created all the time, or even occasionally, ala Vlad and >> Godslayer, how can anyone say that there are seventeen of >> them? > > Here's my pure conjecture, backed by little or nothing > from the text of the various novels: [actually, most of this is strongly backed by the text] > The Serioli invented the Great Weapons to be used against > the Gods. These were made some time after the expelling > of the Jenoine, but before the founding of the Empire. > Some of weapons were very specialized, with particular > talents that are useful to this day (Pathfinder). Others > were just weapons (Iceflame). According to Mr. Lung (my name for the Serioli in _Dragon_), the Serioli created several artifacts (possibly including some non-weapons) for finding and replacing the Lord of Judgement with themselves. I can't see calling any of them "just weapons". And Pathfinder's current abilities are not what were intended. > The Gods aligned with the Dragaereans to defend themselves > against the Great Weapons. After some struggle, the > Serioli lost and the weapons were taken from them. The > Gods, unable to destroy them (or able to destroy all but > 17), put them into the hands of the Dragaereans. According to Vlad "legend says" there are 17. Why seventeen? Because Dragaerans always see things in terms of 17. If you put all 23 Great Weapons in a room at the same time and paraded Dragaerans past them, they'd still claim there's only 17. (And yes, I just made up that number.) --KG