Philip Hart wrote: > On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Jose Marquez wrote: > > >>I hate to keep carping on this, but... Paarfi may not necessarily have >>his facts straight. While Vlad may be unreliable, I still don't see >>Zerika and Morrolan and Sethra just agreeing to be interviewed by this >>fellow. > > > Carp on... There was some discussion about Paarfi not wanting to get > Aliera's dander up (btw are Dragaerans subject to dandruff and acne and > the other little ills of life or did the Jenoine kindly breed those out?) > and toning down what he said about Adron - this would apply to M's dander > too. On the other hand the method Mario used on the Orb should be a state > secret unless somebody (Khaarven, Sethra, Mario, Aliera - not a loose-lips > bunch [usually]) spilled it in public, so what's Paarfi doing talking > about it? I never gave that much thought, but now that you mention it... it makes sense that the Empire wouldn't want anyone knowing exactly how to fool the Orb in order to assassinate the Emperor/Empress. Maybe Paarfi knowing how to fool the Orb is like Tom Clancy knowing how to build a hydrogen bomb: He's got a lot of details right, but he's leaving out enough that you can't use his text as a manual. Then again, the theory behind what Mario does is probably not readily available to the average Dragaeran (or probably even the above average Dragaeran). > But most likely he's actually just making up stuff he doesn't know. Maybe > if we're smart we can find some internal contradictions that SKZB threw > in for that reason - maybe this list has already. Well, I don't think I've seen anything about this already, but... In the Vlad books (and I'm pissed, because I can't find the exact reference in the books; help, anyone?), someone describes Zerika as having taken the Orb from the shade of the previous emperor (Tortaalik, I presume), but in Paths of the Dead, she's supposed to receive it from an ancient god who resembles a Serioli. I believe this might be one of the internal contradictions that Steve purposefully threw in... possibly to undermine Paarfi's credibility. Of course, if I could properly attribute the first account of the recovery of the Orb, I could then try to evaluate its reliability... Oh, well. I'm hoping someone chimes in and helps me out. Jose -- Jose Marquez | Never settle with words jhereg69 at earthlink.net | what you can resolve http://home.earthlink.net/~jhereg69 | with a flame thrower.