On Sun, 29 Dec 2002 22:21:35 -0800 (PST), you wrote: >To: dragaera at dragaera.info >Subject: The Phoenix succession (was: The Jhereg) >From: Greg Rapawy <grapawy at yahoo.com> >Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 22:21:35 -0800 (PST) > >(Spoilers for _Paths of the Dead_.) > >1 >2 >3 >4 >5 >6 >7 >8 >9 >10 >11 >12 >13 >14 >15 >16 >17 >18 >19 >20 >21 >22 >23 >24 >25 >26 >27 >28 >29 >30 >31 >32 >33 >34 >35 >36 >37 >38 >39 >40 > >Peter H. Granzeau [I think] wrote: > >> The situation of the Phoenix puzzles me, and Chapter >> Eighteen of _The Paths of the Dead_ don't help me a >> single bit. Parthenogenesis? > >Is anyone up for a close reading of the passage on >page 195 of _The Paths of the Dead_ where Verra and >her two sisters discuss the problem? I'll reproduce >it here for easy reference. > >] "You explain it," said Verra to Kéurana. "The >] breeding of humans is your domain; I cannot explain >] why two that are hidden can produce one that is >] seen." > >] "Let Moranthë explain, because she understands the >] phoenix and its significance, and how it lives when >] it dies, and creates when it destroys, and >] prophesies while making its prophecies come to >] pass." > >] "No, let Verra explain," said Moranthë, "because >] she comprehends the Cycle better than I, and >] moreover knows how, to preserve itself, it can >] summon the phoenix, and even cause people to fall in >] love who otherwise might not have met." > >I suspect that this exchange will turn out to describe >the solution, although we may not have enough >information yet to figure out how, and it may also be, >as others have commented, that SKZB never intends to >nail all the details down. > >I will present a few wild speculations. > >1. In the first passage, at first I thought the "two >that are hidden" were the two living Phoenixes. On >reflection, the theory that I like better is that >Verra is referring to Mendelian genetics: crossing two >carriers of a recessive gene ("two that are hidden") >may result in an offspring that displays the recessive >trait ("one that is seen"). This reading makes sense >of the "breeding of humans" reference. That could >mean either that a Phoenix can be produced through >genetic engineering, which is plausible but not >elegant, or that a Phoenix can be produced through >sufficiently methodical breeding of Dragaerans of >other Houses. One additional twist to this "hidden" business. Forgive the fuzziness, but I'm AFB right now: I recall Vlad discussing souls and genetics with Aliera, and Aliera saying all this stuff interacts "oddly". So possibly a reincarnation could subtly alter the genetics? -- lazarus "Therefore, my Harry, Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, may waste the memory of the former days." -- King Henry IV, Part ii Act 4, Scene 5