> > Hey all... > I was reading _PotD_ and came across a couple items of interest that left me > in a bit of a state of uncertainty. First, there was the matter of assorted > references to "Eleventh Vallista reign" "fifteenth Tsalmoth reign" > "fifteenth Chreotha reign" etc... > > I thought that the Cycle has only gone through one complete revolution, > ending with Tortaalik and being reborn into Zerika. Even if Tortaalik was > the end of the second Cycle, I'm still at a loss to explain numbers that are > in the teens.... Not quite. There has been only one complete *Great* Cycle (that is, a period of 17 Cycles), ending with Tortaalik. One might have argued, pre-Interregnum, that Tortaalik's reign actually marked the beginning of the Second Great Cycle. > It also says during the brief history of the Sorceress in Green that she did > some fairly impressive stuff back in other Reigns--and while she *is* called > the "oldest living" something or other, putting her all the way back into > other reigns REALLY makes her old... Yes indeed. My estimates place the ealiest mention of her at about 33,000 years before the Interregnum. Note that Sethra Lavode *was* alive for much longer than that, at least 200,000 years, possibly more. But she died and became undead before any of the books we have currently (though not that *long* before, relatively speaking). > This next question is just a simple matter of curiosity: Why did you, > Steve, choose to not have Morrolan accompany Zerika to Deathsgate? It would > have been so easy to write them in, especially having had them pass so close > to each other, that excluding him, especially after Morrolan's comments in > _Taltos_ seems peculiar. Theory 1) To bug me. Theory 2) Because he has a cool plan to resolve the apparent contradiction, which will be revealed in the final volume of Viscount. Note that these theories are not mutually exclusive... 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 "That is one of the Laws of Usenet, up there with 'You can tell when a Usenet discussion is getting old when someone drags out Hitler and the Nazis.'" -- David Goldfarb