On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, Toubib wrote: >Personally I think it's more likely that wizards during the >Interregnum got stronger from the strain of preforming the most >minimal task during the Interregnum. [...] >But you are correct that in POTD the Lords of Judgment say they have >an opportunity, although it's not clear if they took it. Perhaps the >increase is a combination of both better sorcerers and a altered Orb. I believe that this last is what certain scenes in LoCB (ch 46, pp 155-156, & ch 47, 159-161) were meant to portray. Consider: Oidwa, a sorceress who had not used any magical arts whatsoever since the Disaster, drew on the power of the Orb once it had returned, and used it, with no problems. On the other hand, Tazendra, who had been relying on Elder Sorcery all that time, tried to make a fire, and caused a combustion which was a bit more rapid than she had intended. For that matter, she even went so far as to state definitively that the Orb had changed, and, well, since she had been practicing magic of one sort or another for the past 800 years (or so), I should think that she would have the experience on which to base that assertion. And to hammer the point home: Grassfog, who knew some healing sorcery before the Interregnum, agrees with her entirely. (LoCB, ch. 47, pp 161-162)