On Mon, Sep 02, 2002 at 10:57:17PM -0400, Steve Simmons wrote: > The more I think about it, the less sure I am that Fenarian and Easterner > are the same thing. Here's some of the reasons. They're not _exactly_ the same thing. Fenarians are a subset of Easterners, Easterners being the humans+psionics shlubs east of the Empire. > It's stated plainly that Fenarr is not from Fenario, and more currently, > neither is the castle cook Alfredo. Cook? Do you mean the wizard, Sandor? nee' Alfredo? > Also in BP is are several discussions of 'wizardry'. I put the word > in quotes because I don't think the Fenarian use of the word matches > the Dragaera. Consider: No, their use matches Dragaeran sorcery. > Miklos, Sandor, and Brigetta all learned wizardry in Faerie. All are > non-Dragaerans. None seem to have any link to the orb. So whatever What? They refer explicitly to the Source, from which they draw power at will. Miklos clearly joined the Teckla, at which point he would have been given a link (the Empire's pretty generous, you know); he worked as a peasant, and he returns to the border with Fenario in Teckla colors. (Carefully changing clothes before coming home.) Brigitta's the odd one, as I don't remember it being clear that she had been to Faerie before, and she has that weird thing with here 'demon' father, whether that means Dragaeran demon or a Dragaeran or something else. But she might have inherited her link to the Orb from him. Or if demon-ness is really weird, maybe she was drawling directly on the Great Sea, like some god [this is speculation, but one doubts they draw on the Orb.] > People using it can almost fly (Miklos reports this), extend their lives Like flying castles and levitating Alieras. Life extension is novel, though. (Although on the witchcraft side Noish-pa is rather spry, and Cawti could nullify or at least delay shock reactions, although sorcerors seem to have that ability as well.) > greatly (Sandor), build magical weapons which can be carried by others > and discharged (Sandor, for Vilmos), and so forth. All three learned Flashstones, Mario's wacky mist. To me all this looks just like Imperial sorcery, apart from Sandor's life extension. And Sandor talks about the Art being connected to the Demon Goddess. > learn these powers? When the young Morrolan was sent East for protection, > did he learn witchcraft? Or did he learn these Fenarian skills? Vlad and Noish-Pa both recognize blatant signs of Morrolan's witchcraft. -xx- Damien X-)