On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 Gaertk at aol.com wrote: > Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> writes: > >>> 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. > > > > We've talked about this recently - the Orb picks Adron. > > The Disaster is caused by his spell trying to wrest control > > of the Orb from the Emperor and give it to himself - but it > > segevs since he himself is the Emperor, at least in his > > view and Tazendra's. > > Does Tazendra talk about this during TPOD? (Time for a > reread I guess.) Not that it matters, only Adron and the Orb > have firsthand knowledge, and Paarfi can't interview Adron. > And for Adron to be Emperor, the Cycle has to turn to Dragon, > something *Paarfi* explicitly states didn't happen[1]. This > means either Paarfi doesn't believe Adron's claim, or he > simply doesn't realise he contradicted himself (again: see > Khaavren's trial in TPG). You've snipped the gist of my argument, which is that you've conflated "being chosen by the Orb" and "being Emperor". You were arguing about the former and here argue about the latter. The reference to Tazendra above is to page 528 of _FHYA_ the paperback, where she concurs with Adron's assertion that he is now the Orb-Emperor. We don't know if he is the Cycle-Emperor (aka the Emperor) as far as I know - maybe the Cycle can grind backwards (again, I'm arguing the Orb makes a local choice which under extraordinary circumstances not programmed for may be wrong, so this isn't pertinent to the question you addressed above). As to what Paarfi knows or doesn't know, he has asserted talking to Sethra (though I find it to believe she would submit to an interview), and she may have an informed opinion on the subject of Orb-choice. Now, the above is one reading of the Text in question - it's of course possible the fatal crash described by Adron as reported by Paarfi occurred differently - but until we have more definitive info on the matter, I think it has to stand as the default explanation. - Where does Paarfi contradict himself in Khaavren's interrogation?