David Silberstein wrote: > > On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, James Griffin wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Spoiler Warning: these questions assume fairly complete knowlege of > >most of the Vlad books. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Keep going, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Or in other words: Vlad may live for a normal Easterner lifespan, for > another ~700 years, or indefinitely. We don't know. I wonder if > Steve knows? There are hints that if he doesn't die in a fight then his lifespan will be pretty long. Quite aside from now being one of seventeen he's also a witch and a fairly skilled one. In TPoTD the witch who initiated Morrolan into Verra's service lived quite a long life. Barring her death in sequels she may easily still be the head of his circle of witches. Now admittedly Noish-pa probably isn't that powerful and shows definite signs of age, and he's likely a better witch than his grandson, yet he seems to still be quite active for someone his age and could still hold his own in a duel. > >however, > >Verra implies (Issola) that Blackwand "might well have done more > >than that," indicating that even though it might seemed as if > >Morrollan would have been killed permanently, it didn't necessarily > >follow. (E.G. Blackwand might have still preserved his soul somehow > >beyond the three day limit, or even revivified him on its (her?) > >own.) This raises doubts about Baritt- > > > >Was Baritt not protected in that way? or did he "de-link" with > >Pathfinder to hide it in that Morganti greatsword? (Dragon) > > An argument against Baritt being the secret bearer of Pathfinder is > that bearers are allegedly chosen by the gods. If he was so chosen, > why would he keep it secret? I therefore suspect that he was using > Pathfinder's powers indirectly, and may not have known exactly why > this one Greatsword had such power, just that the power was there, > and could be tapped if he used certain sorcerous methods. The bearers are not all chosen by the gods. In Issola, Sethra Lavode mentions that some stumble into it. She *does* mention that the wielders all tend to work the *will* of the gods after becoming a wielder. She also mentions that wielders can be made quite quite miserable at the hands of the gods if they don't do the will of the gods. Verra seemed to have an idea about Spellbreaker's true nature only when it coiled itself up in Issola, and at no time prior to that did she know in spite of being Goddess of Knowledge. And yet the Serioli smith in Dragon recognized it instantly. Just some food for thought. Jacob