Jag wrote: > Where was the Palace before the Interregnum? > > In FHYA when Adron first went to the city in order to get to the > palace, the Lord Mayor sent word to the Emperor in order to know if > Adron should be allowed when. When relaying this information to the > Emporer, Khaavren says that the request is from the Lord Mayor of > Adrilankha (FHYA 75-76). > > We feel an error has been made in this. It is obvious that the > Captain of His Majesty's Guard would know what city he resides in. > And the original author of the manuscript is such a studious fact > checker that there is no way he would have let the wrong city name > enter the text, at least not without some form of explination. > Although we are hesitant to do so, we feel we must look at the > translator of this manuscript to find the source of this problem. It > is apparent that he must have been working on one of those silly Vlad > stories[1], and simply wrote down the wrong city name. That is, > unless the translator wishes to push to blame even further down the > line to the publisher. > > > > Entering Homes before the Interregnum > > Vlad says that it is commonly believed that members of the House of > Athyra don't have doors into their homes, so that only those who can > teleport can enter, then goes on to mention that they do have small > doors for sevrants (Taltos 48). Taltos isn't set that far after the > Interregnum (relatively speaking), so it would be my guess that most > of the buildings in the Empire were actually built long before the > Interregnum and have just been kept up over the years. It is also > known that before the Interregnum, there were no confirmed teleports > (FHYA 534). So, either all the Athyra's rebuilt their homes after the > Interregnum to not have door (not very likely), or they had another > way to get into their homes before > the Interregnum. I would assume after the orb stopped functioning many house affecting spells stopped working leaving many homes in disrepair. At any rate from the time the interregnum ended -- when a new piece of technology enters our world it can take fewer than 40 years to reach 90% saturation rate, take for instance the microwave oven (90% is an actual referenced number, I was heard is on npr so :P) it was originally invented in the 50's but really didn't get produced in a useable fashion or cheap enough to buy till the 60's. -- Even if Dragaerans have a longer life 100-200 years of a new technology existing (or spell in this case) could have given them time to change one simple thing about their house (the door! for the Athyra, floating castles for Morrolan and the like) You really wouldn't have to rebuild your entire house to remove the door and seal the doorway, normal physical construction would allow you to do it in a single day which to a Dragaeran is less than an hour to us. I think it is pretty likely many Athyra 'adopted the new technology' so much that they made changes to their home. > > The only thing I can think of is that their homes do have main > entrances, however it required sorcery in order to reveal the door and > walkway into the keep. > > There is also the matter of the castles of the e'Drien's. We know > from Paarfi, that this line tended towards living in floating castles > before the Interregnum (FHYA 538). And we have it from Kragar, that > vast source of information, that in order to get to a floating > castle, you have to teleport (Taltos 7). When you bring in the fact > that people couldn't teleport themselves before the Interregnum (FHYA > 534), this present the problem of, how do the e'Drien's get to and > from their castles. > > We know that they had to leave at some point, as in FHYA we saw > Rollandar e'Drien in Dragaera City. The only possible solution I see > is that they had a levitation spell designed to raise and lower > people to their castles. This is quite likely considering they had > floating castles. Although this does seem like it might be quite > disconcerting to someone to suddenly find themselves floating through > air, so perhaps they had a special coach that people could sit in > while they were raised and lowered. Of course the coach would have > to have a clear view to show the motion, otherwise the rider might > miss some of the grandour of visiting a floating castle. > > > Using sorcery at Deathgate Falls > > While journeying with Vlad to Deathgate Falls, Morrolan mentions that > from his previous trip to Deathgate Falls (the one that ended the > Interregnum), he found he was unable to use sorcery while fighting off > local brigands. (Taltos 98) > > When most people talk about sorcery, they mean sorcery through the > Orb, and as we know, that would have been impossible anyways during > his first trip to the Falls. The other option is Elder Sorcery. It > is possible that he was talking about this. While growing up without > the Orb, it is quite likely that Morrolan did start reserarching > Elder Sorcery during the Interregnum (is a date for that mentioned > anywhere?). However, I find it unlikely that he would consider using > Elder Sorcery in battle. We've seen that you can produce quick > effects with Imperial Sorcery, however we've never seen anyone use > Elder Sorcery in any time frame that would be remotely useful in a > fight. It is possible that Morrolan had some pre-prepared spells > (similar to flash stones) using Elder Sorcery, but based on how we've > seen Morrolan fight, I think it more likely that he didn't really > have much prepared, but was wishing he had had something prepared. > He was probablly also mentioning it in order to impress/frigthen Vlad. > > (I'm hoping this will be cleared up some upon reading PotD, which I > still can't seem to get my hands on.) > > > > [1] Actually, I love the Vlad novels. > > > > Jag