Teddywolf <foodgod at pobox.com> writes: > David Silberstein wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> Spoiler Warning: these questions assume fairly complete >>> knowlege of most of the Vlad books. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> >Keep going, >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > [Vlad] > There are hints that if he doesn't die in a fight then his > lifespan will be pretty long. "And if he has not died, he is still alive to this day." I can't remember what those hints were... > Quite aside from now being one of seventeen Heh. To quote Vlad, "legend says seventeen". Could these legends be from a certain race who bases their whole society on that number? Who even think that the Cycle is a fundamental part of the universe? Seventeen would imply one per House, yet all of them that we see (except Godslayer) are in the hands of Dragons. We haven't seen any evidence that the Serioli place any importance in that (or any other) number. Mr. Lung in _Dragon_ doesn't say how many were made (and uses the word "artifacts", enabling the possibility of Great Non-weapons). > 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. Arra (is that right?) is a priestess, not a witch. > Barring her death in sequels she may easily still be the > head of his circle of witches. We're told who heads the circle in _Issola_. I'm pretty sure it wasn't anyone mentioned in tPotD. > 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. Being a witch does help noticably, but probably not enough to increase life expectancy by an order of magnitude. Note that sorcery likely can (Sander in _Brokedown Palace_). > 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 Which is odd, since she watched it wave around and heal Vlad's hand in _Phoenix_. > in spite of being Goddess of Knowledge. Magic, not Knowledge. Not sure if there is one (Nyssa is the most likely candidate). > And yet the Serioli smith in Dragon recognized it > instantly. What makes you think Mr. Lung is a smith? Hmmm, it just occurred to me that I'm in an awfully nit-picky mood today... --KG