On Sat, Aug 30, 2003 at 02:13:05PM -0500, Heather Fleming <wikdtrib at bellsouth.net> wrote: > I'm curious. I may be wrong, as a matter of fact it is quite > possible that I am, but I think I will ask my question anyway. > So, here it is: if sorcery was limited before the Interregnum( > limited, that is, as compared to after the ascension of Zerika > the Fourth) in such a way as to require citizens to travel by > foot or horse or wagon or what have you, and it was common for > Dragonlords of the e'Drien line to have floating castles, how > would one get from the ground to said castle and back again? > Once again, I may be wrong but I was under the impression that > teleportation was a relatively new skill, even for the likes of > Sethra Lavode. A couple points. First, according to Paarfi, Sethra was able to teleport the Orb, Aliera, and presumably herself out of harm's way before the Interregnum, in a situation where there were only seconds to act. This suggests that teleporting was possible, but very, very difficult -- ie, only a sorceror such as Sethra could manage it with any chance of success. However, were it something Sethra had never attempted before, her chances of success three times in a row under extreme pressure would be fairly low. Thus, I think it was possible before the Interregnum, merely very difficult, and possibly requiring Elder Sorcery rather than the Orb. Now, on to your question, which is an answer much shorter than the above. In fact, it is so short that a single word will suffice to bring forth in your mind all of the associations within the text of the work known to us as _Lord of Castle Black_ and cause you to instantly comprehend the full glory thereof. What is this word, you say? What? You claim you have been asking for nothing else for an hour? Very well then. The word is "Levitation". -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp