On Sat, 2003-06-21 at 15:50, Philip Hart wrote: > 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. It is mentioned in one of the books (_Taltos_, I believe) that there is some disagreement as to what is cause and what is affect. Some believe that the Cycle turns and causes worldly events to change who is Emperor, while others believe that worldly events cause the Cycle to turn. I prefer to think that it can work both ways. For sake of argument, lets assume that worldly events can cause the Cycle to change. So, we have a Dragon Heir at the head of an army that is taking Dragaera City. The Emperor dies. The Orb sees these events and decides that the Dragon Heir should now be Emperor, so it goes to him. If Adron had not been using his spell, then we could look at events as causing the Orb to chose a new Emperor, which then causes the Cycle to turn. However, as we all know, Adron did have that spell going, so before the Cycle could turn, chaos took over and the Cycle stopped. Paarfi did indicate that there was a question on if the Cycle had turned or not, but I think I'd consider Morrolan and Aliera's views on the Cycle slightly more enlightened.