On Sat, 23 Nov 2002, Gametech wrote: #Adrilankha, I suppose because the westerly winds thin out #the overcast, so the Furnace is more apparent. Everything is #brighter in the west of the Empire, as it is in the far east; all #of which makes the darkness seem even darker. # #Now my first inclination is to take the reference to the 'Furnace' as #it's their equivalent to the 'Sun' or our 'Sol' I think that it only #became apparent to me because the word was capitalized as a proper #name would be (go fig.). But... It could also be a proper name for the #effect of sorcerous pollution or something to have to do with the use #of sorcery. The word furnace can easily be defined as to exhale or #exhaust (pollution in this case) which might be the exact effect that #is caused from using sorcery. I only battle my first inclination #because of the capitalization -- where Jhereg and jhereg are two #distinct and completely different things 'page to eye' the only #difference is the capitalization. That makes me ponder, at any rate #those are my two theories about it. Is there any other evidence #pointing towards either of these possibilities? In either _Jhereg_ or TPG, I believe, we read something about being able to feel the direction of the Furnace, through the overcast, by the warmth on one's face. Ah ha! I checked my files, and here's a quote from Steve in a letter >from "Rage" on June 20, 1998: >>> * Do Dragaerans call the sun "the Furnace" because it can hurt them, like some versions of the Good Folk in old tales? = Steve sez, "No, the sun does no harm to Dragaerans, but they just don't see it because of the overcast." (RAGE sez, if what you, Mark, say about the Serioli's furnaces being proverbial is true, well, that explains it, right?" <<< Since Steve doesn't correct Rage's assumption, I believe we can take it as confirmed. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website