On Mon, Nov 03, 2003 at 04:12:29PM -0600, bonham15 wrote: > must kill this one... the reason sorcery got so advanced was simply this... > people had essentially been lifting sorcerous weights during the > interregnum, trying to do fractions of what they could before... the people > themselves had more knowledge due to the intense period of study etc etc... You can't kill this because the text is inconsistent. Vlad in _Phoenix_ reports Verra as telling him sorcerers got better with practices. But in _Paths of the Dead_ Paarfi has the gods upgrading the Orb. Which makes sense -- for most people, the Orb doesn't make sorcery easier, it makes it *possible*. But I personally prefer the idea that Zerika is an awakened reincarnation of Zerika I and upgraded the Orb herself, adding new routines for teleportation and revivification. That, or the Orb itself learned from being teleported and spending time in the Paths. But cute as that is, I think I'd go with an original programmer upgrade. The Orb using the Lesser Sea both contradicts _Issola_ and doesn't make much sense to me -- the Orb's energy supply seems well-nigh infinite, whereas the big improvements seem more a matter of control. Although... I suppose if the power of the Greater Sea were finite, and used mostly for Imperial protection with sorcery as a luxury, then the Lesser Sea might be lagniappe. On the other hand, the old Orb could support multiple floating castles. Maybe that's why sorcery's more powerful -- the load went down, literally... -xx- Damien X-)