Spoilers for Issola >Hi, everyone! Hello back! >I've been a huge Vlad fan ever since I picked up Phoenix many years ago. I >really find that I'm enjoying this board, but there is one thing that's been >really bugging me and I thought I'd throw it out for you guys to dwell on. > >In Issola, Sethra tells Vlad that there are 17 Great Weapons. That statement >leaves a lot of unanswered questions: > >1-When 4 Jenoine attempt to hi-jack a small lake of chaos, only 3 Great >Weapons (Iceflame, Blackwand & Pathfinder) show up to do battle with them. >Where are the others? It's left unsaid. Generally speaking, those who possess GWs are nominally in the business of helping the Gods deal with the Jenoine (exact ref. escapes me but I believe Sethra might have said it in Issola). That being said, one might speculate that the other GWs were protecting other areas. Or, it might be the case that if Sethra, Aliera, Morollan, the Necromancer, and half the Lords of Judgement couldn't fend the Jenoine off, then a few more GWs wouldn't make any difference. >2-If Dragerea's been around for a couple hundred thousand years, isn't >Morrolon a little young to have a Great Weapon? Or are they handed down as >family heirlooms? From what little we've seen of Vlad, it looks more like being in the right place at the right time. I'm sure that more info will be forthcoming in tLoCB, since at the end of tPotD, Morollan didn't have Blackwand (If memory serves - always a dicey proposition). >3-Why did Sethra insist on calling Lady Teldra Godslayer? It didn't slay a >God, it slayed a Jenoine. There is a big difference. I find if rather >abrupt and forced. In Dragon, Vlad meets a Serioli who identifies Spellbreaker as one who will be Godslayer. I won't say any more if you haven't read the book. As I recall, it was again Sethra who discussed the original purpose of the GWs, which was to kill the gods, not the Jenoine. But, as Vlad says, if you've only got a club, everything looks like a kneecap (favorite quote, favorite quote!!). Or, if it's good enough to kill a god, it's probably good enough to kill a Jenoine under the right circumstances. Mike == Michael Mattoni Ph.D. Candidate Materials Department University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5050 Phone: (805) 893-8374 Fax: (805) 893-8971