Dragaera

started rereading _TPotD_

Mon Jul 14 16:13:53 PDT 2003

> 
> So the latest thing I don't understand about _TPotD_ is: what's Sethra's
> reasoning behind her decisions?  If I understand the timing, she sent
> Sethra the Younger to pick up Zivra, then a few days later sent Kytraan to
> pick up Piro - why not send one expedition, except to have the advantage
> of a separation and a reunion scene?  Could this be the heavy hand of
> Paarfi?

The messenger who arrives to get Piro is explicitly said to be early
by about a week (PD 113).  My guess is that the messenger who picked
up Zerika told Khaavren to expect the (second) messenger in about
2 weeks.  Surmise: Sethra wanted two weeks to train Zerika in private
before having Piro arrive and start the "expedition-planning" phase.

> Then Sethra sends Zerika et al. off to get the Orb - but if we believe
> Paarfi, the gods had at the time (whatever that means in this context)
> hardly decided whether or not to relinquish it.  In fact, they were
> then supposedly calling up the Necromancer, who only appears several
> months later.  Is there any reason why Sethra picks this moment - Piro's
> old enough?  Tazendra has blown up her guest room again? - and why
> she doesn't coordinate with the Gods?

*Can* she coordinate with the gods?  Do we have any textev for her
having any sort of direct line to them?  Not that it would surprise
me if she did, of course, I just don't think it's been demonstrated.

Methods of god-communication we have seen work:
A) Prayer, though Vlad was extremely surprised at it working.
B) Morrolan's window, plus an invocation.
C) Going to the Paths of the Dead.

A probably only works when/if the god(s) in question actively want to
talk.  B may require a resource that Sethra doesn't have (or may also
require divine cooperation).  C seems to be the "standard method" for
mortals to initiate an audience with the gods (and is, in fact, what
ends up being done).

I doubt that Piro's age had much bearing on the timing, though it 
wouldn't surprise me at all if Zerika's age did.  There are any number
of other factors (both mundane and mystical) which might have
contributed, but we haven't (yet, anyway) been told any of them.

> As an aside, we get another typical Paarfian intro to Sennya's region -
> settled in the 8th Cycle.  We ought to be able to track Dragaeran
> expansion - 100k years seems a long time to settle a continent...

There may have been multiple periods of expansion, separated by
long periods of relative stability.  Taking a quick look at my timeline,
I see that two events quite close in time to this were the founding
of the County of Arylle and the "Pioneer Wars", so the period around the 
late eighth/ninth Cycles appears to have been one of expansion.  There
is no other mention of "expansionist" activites until about 65K years
earlier, and that mention was of the *end* of an expansionist period.
Granted, our facts for anything prior to _Phoenix Guards_ are extremely
spotty, but there does seem to be support for a period of stability
between the 3rd and 8th Cycles.

Alexx

Alexx Kay
Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers
alexx at world.std.com
http://world.std.com/~alexx
Two wrongs are only the beginning.
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