Jag <agrajag at dragaera.net> writes: Warning, nitpicks ahead! > On Fri, 2003-06-20 at 10:30, charles_sumner at harvard.edu > wrote: > >> It's important to remember that in all of the books we've >> never seen a "normal" transition of the Orb from one ruler >> to the next. > > We've seen, or seen close to two handing offs of the Orb, > where one Emperor(ess) willingly stepped down and handed it > off to the next House. This happened shortly before the > beginning of FHYA, TPG actually. > and we also know Zerika hands the Orb off to Norathar > sometime before Paarfi publishes. ... FHYA, but after the publication of TPG. If we knew how much time elapsed between those books, we'd know when the transition occurred. > And we sorta saw a 'normal' transition after the death of > an Emperor(ess). After Tortaalik's death, the Orb did stop > and process for a moment to determine who the next Emperor > should be, and settled on Andron. No, the Orb never had a chance to choose anyone. Aliera tried to claim it in her father's name, but it rejected her (or maybe that was its first reaction to Adron's spell). Adron could not be Emperor becuase the cycle hadn't turned yet. --KG