Dragaera

Paarfi & the Gods (POTD spoilers)

Sun Dec 8 07:34:03 PST 2002

On Sun, 2002-12-08 at 10:21, Chris Turkel wrote:
> On Sunday, December 8, 2002, at 10:18 AM, Ruhlen, Rachel Louise 
> (UMC-Student) wrote:
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> > Spoiler space
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> > How is Paarfi able to relate the conversation between the gods in the
> > Halls of Judgment where they are discussing the fate of the Orb, when 
> > no
> > humans were around? I have a couple speculations:
> > 1. There's more to Paarfi than we thought. Maybe *he's* been there and
> > back. I'd give a lot to hear that story.
> > 2. Devera was there and she told someone who told Paarfi. Maybe she 
> > told
> > Paarfi. I'd give a lot to hear that conversation too!
> > In answer to some other speculations on another thread, about how the
> > Orb was changed, the gods discuss it in this passage, but we don't know
> > what they concluded or what they finally did. I assumed that they, or
> > one of them, had gone ahead and fine-tuned it, with or without the
> > consent of the other gods.
> > Rachel
> or maybe he just made it all up <grin>

That's my thoery.  I'm also starting to think that Paarfi is making up
quite a bit of stuff just to have had his heros do more stuff.  And I
offer two pieces of evidence:

1) Zerika's birth.  If you read FHYA and PotD, Paarfi claims that
Khaavren told Vernoi to send Loudin away, thus enabling Zerika to still
be born.  However, in Taltos it is claimed by a source I trust a little
more, that Sethra had some part in ensuring that Zerika would be able to
be born, and that this was done just before teleporting Aliera, and may
have delayed Sethra enough to have caused the accident where Aliera lost
her soul.  (As far as I know, no one else has pointed out this crack
yet)

2) The second is the one that truly boggles my mind, where in Taltos
Morrolan claims he was with Zerika when she went to the Paths of the
Dead, yet in PotD, Morrolan wasn't there, but Piro, Tezandra, and a few
others were.

Now, combine this with the end of the Acknowledgements for PotD where
Brust says '... the inconsistencies between this book and my other works
set on Dragaera were introduced maliciously, rather than by accident',
and based on email's from him, I beleive he was definnately referring to
#2 with that, and maybe others.  So, maybe he's trying to tell us that
one (or both) of Paarfi and Vlad aren't quite as reliable with this
story telling.  So, is Paarfi lying about what he uncovered?  Or is Vlad
lying in order to make the stories he tell SB a little more
interesting?  Or is SB subtly changing both stories just in order to
mess with us and make us beg him to write more books to resolve these
issues?  (that tricky Yendi! And here I had thought he was human)


Jag