On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Mon, 10 Mar 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > > > > >In the letter itself I found it interesting that Pel writes "The > >Enchantress intends to oppose us" and not "oppose you". I think this > >is extremely familiar on a linguistic level (it should be "oppose > >Your Majesty and me" if anything) as well as conceptually, conflating > >Pel and Skinter. I suspect the translator is unfamiliar with courtly > >language conventions or Paarfi is telling us something about the > >depth of Pel's ambition. > > > > Or Pel may have been influenced by Sethra's opposition into thinking > of Skinter as a mere pretender, and himself, a mere opportunist. I > don't think Skinter, or even his cousin, are adept enough to notice. > > I wonder if Pel is thinking of trying to bail out? I think we've seen that Skinter is not emperor material - imagine Norathar "looking around nervously" - Paarfi more or less tells us that his "cousin" is the driving force in his expansion. Surely Pel has some aesthetic sensibility - how much better to be the Discrete for a real Phoenix (who conveniently skips out of town with her squeeze) than for a Dragonling already saddled with a trusted advisor. As an aside, what prevents Zerika, impervious to harm under the Orb, from walking up to Skinter and chopping off his head? Or walking up to him and blasting him with the Orb? What keeps Sethra from teleporting someone there to do the job? Perhaps they prefer to use Skinter as a convenient way to pacify the various warlords before they step in. Maybe Pel could be convinced to help manipulate this into happening. On the general subject, is the emperor able to a) monitor all spells cast using the Orb? b) monitor sorcerous psychic communication? c) deny the use of the Orb to specific sorcerers? d) mindblast specific users? I have a memory of someone telling Vlad that anyone can phone up the emperor to complain but runs the risk of getting fried. A related question: are those with links to the Orb now relinked? Does this happen automatically when one joins a House or reaches a certain age? Did Vlad have to do something special or was the Orb just aware his father had bought a title? > >Does someone understand why the Necromancer, who comes from an > >entirely different world, shows up in a Dragaeran body? > > Well, we have seen some shape-shifting (Devera->Dragon), so that might > explain it. Or possibly, the Gods might have shown her the corpses of > Dragaerans that had come over the Falls, and said "Pick one". Heh. > > I note that Vlad has mentioned that Sethra and the Necromancer have a > similar appearance. Perhaps Verra found it amusing to suggest that > the Necromancer use Sethra's body (which they might have the > information for from Sethra's adventure on the Paths) as a template. Where does Vlad make this comparison? Note that StY looks like Sethra, as does Kiera - if the N does too, then it's operetta time, or maybe Vlad isn't that good at distinguishing Dragaeran (women's?) faces (remember his face tends to be directed a bit lower than their faces.) > > (the World of Seven Doors [see Chapter 18, and by the way are we > >getting some indicating of seven as a mystic number? In _Athyra_ > >Savn browses The Book of Seven Wizards if I remember correctly.]) > > I thought you were satisfied that the Book of Seven Wizards was > explained as a Scribblies in-joke? sure. > > Hmm. Perhaps the World of Seven Doors is a similar in-joke. Seven > writing styles? That or it's a coincidence... Note that the N knows about 6/7 and maybe the 7th too, and she's undead (accords with your go-to-the-source-of-this- river-and-try-one-on-for-size theory). Note also that she shows up in Argyle - are the gods fond of Aerich?