> OK, I have to admit it, I'm suffering withdrawal. It's been 24 hours > without any activity. I'm game. But don't read this email unless you've read all the Dragaeran novels, as there are spoilers for most of them below. 1. Why hasn't any action been taken against Paarfi by the Empire for publishing to the masses how to defeat the Orb? Does this provide a more sinister motive for the "Campaign to Discredit Paarfi"? 2. Should Vlad be insulted that the Imperial Title he was granted in "Phoenix" was for Szurke, which means "commonplace" or "drab" in Hungar--err, I mean, Fenarian? 3. Why does Noish-pa revere Verra, the goddess of Elder Sorcery, instead of her sister Moranthe, the goddess of Witchcraft? 4. When the Empire was founded, Kieron was, well, Kieron, Vlad was Dolivar, but who was Aliera? Aliera says she was a Shaman, and in "Issola" we hear that Drien was a Shaman/Warrior contemporary of Kieron's, and may or may not have had a sex change, so was Aliera Drien? 5. Maybe you all can help me out with my mapping project. On page 290 of the paperback "The Paths of the Death", the following exchange occurs: Morrolan: ... we are bound for my ancestral homelands, a county called Southmoor. Miska: Southmoor? Well, but that is near Adrilankha, is it not? Teldra: Perhaps fifty leagues from Covered Springs, in the southwest corner. In the southwest corner? What the heck does that mean? Is this just Paarfi getting tired of saying "to the southwest", so he mixes it up by saying "in the southwest corner," using "corner" the way we might use "quadrant"? If not, then in the southwest corner of _what_? 6. Is Grita Ibronka's (much) older sister? Consider the following: FHYA pg 66 - [Grita] was a product of the House of Dzur [and] the House of Tsalmoth. [She] was one of those unfortunates who, being the product of two houses, belong to none. FHYA pg 393 through 397 - Dunaan: You give orders to [Sennya, Dzur Heir and Ibronka's mother]? ... How can this be? Greycat: Does it matter? She'll do what she is told ... Dunaan: Yet, I cannot believe-- Greycat: Pah! It is easy to control a Dzurlord--no one is more sensitive to appearances; threaten to publicly shame one and he is yours. [...] Grita: I heard. Greycat: And? Grita: There are times when I am ashamed to know you. Greycat: How, you refer to my plan to appease the Jhereg? Grita: No. Greycat: Then you refer-- Grita: Yes. Greycat: I had not known you cared. Grita: I do not. Greycat: Well, then? Grita: Nevertheless, that you would use-- Greycat: I have not asked for your opinion. [...] Greycat: Then, I believe, there is nothing more to be said. Grita: On the contrary, there is a great deal to be said, but I do not believe we will say any of it. I have no wish to, at all events. Have you? [Greycat walks out on her.] FHYA pg 516 - "Who?" said Tazendra. "Who is your mother?" Grita did not speak. POTD pg 139 - "I have made many errors in my life," [Sennya] admitted to herself. "I have been foolish, and self-indulgent, and irresponsible, and even, on one occasion, weak. Yet I still have Ibronka ... Perhaps the gods have forgiven me my lapse, for they have graced me with a daughter for--well, the one who is lost. It must have been a gift of the gods, for ... I thought myself too old to have a child." 7. Who is Sethra referring to on page 198 of "Issola": "I am the only Lavode left. Well, there's one other, but he isn't ready yet." 8. On pages 141 and 142 of "Issola," Vlad turns to take a step towards Aliera and Morrolan, who have just appeared in his Jenoine prison. As he begins his step, he suddenly has a "mystical experience". This "experience" consists of a bunch of statements that break off strangely and are all mixed together. Or, upon further analysis, it consists of 3 separate and distinct experiences, which are jumbled up in a clear pattern. I'm calling each of these an Experience, and the pattern goes: I took a step forward, and-- --Experience 1, line 1-- --Experience 2, line 1-- --Experience 3, line 1-- ... --Experience 1, line 11. --Experience 2, line 11. --Experience 3, line 11. Pay particular attention to Experience 2, which implies that Vlad is in two places at once, and moreover that one of those places is inside of Spellbreaker. Experience 1: I took a step forward, and-- --as my footstep faded, I could almost hear-- --voices whispering in the silence, with the silence, not disturbing it-- --leaving perception, without the awareness of whence it sprang except-- --that it came from outside of self, if such a distinction is valid without time or place to hang it from, and the voices-- --came with eyes, and ears, and other things that-- --gave me the feeling that I was being studied, scanned, analyzed, and ultimately-- --discarded, and permitted-- --to stop, or resume-- --the interrupted pace, the walk, the step, which in turn permitted-- --a junction of thought and a resonance of experience, so that I managed, or thought I managed, or almost managed-- --to make contact, once more, with my familiar familiar. Experience 2: I took a step forward, and-- --an infinitely extended moment, nothing happens, taking forever, but much too fast-- --a foot almost descending, simultaneously in one place and another--occupying two places at once, but that's what movement is all about-- --all life is movement, which is to be here and not here and the same time, or here and there simultaneously, or to deny time, or to deny place-- --is to be, in fact, nowhere, and nowhere is-- --everywhere is here and there and there ought to be a way-- --to seize control, or least to act, or at the very least to make a decision-- --to be holding a chain of gold light, in my mind if nowhere else, so that in and through the shield of swirling gold which suddenly-- --seemed to me to be a place, not a thing, that I could-- --enter into and go through and be changed by-- --spinning corridors of gold that were within and without and then through once more, leaving me-- --somewhere real at last. Experience 3: I took a step forward, and-- --was instantly aware-- --that Loiosh was no longer with me. Even before-- --I realized that my surroundings had changed, that I was uncertain where I was, that-- --Teldra and Aliera and Morrolan had cross-stepped while I lunged, I knew-- --that I was out of touch with my familiar and it-- --had been years since I had come so-- --close to panic-- --but that, like so much else, is self-defeating, so I-- --tried not to think about it, but trust in him and me, and just do-- --and I guess it worked because what was before me became behind me, and here became there, which was all right, because I-- was back. He then returns to consciousness, and discovers his little "single step" took about 8 hours of "real time" and ended with him lying face-down on the floor. Is that the same as "being in two places at the same time," which Sethra explained is what makes a god a god? Is Vlad a god, or was he a god for that single step? He appears to have had three distinct experiences simultaneously. Maybe this is a pre-Godslayer hint at HOW Godslayer can kill a god (by making its user a god, in at least some sense). 9. During Teckla Reigns, the Empire is referred to as a Republic (search for "Republic" on the Booksearch for text--it's mentioned in a number of places, mostly "The Phoenix Guards" and "Five Hundred Years After")? On page 275 of "The Book of Taltos (Phoenix)", Verra says, "Kelly has his hands on the truth about the way a society works, about where the power is, and the cause of the injustice he sees. But it is truth for another time and another place [and] has no such strength in the Empire. Perhaps in ten thousand years, or a hundred thousand, but not now." Has she forgotten the Teckla Republics? Or is that what she's referring to by "another time and another place" "in ten thousand years, or a hundred thousand"? The "another place" makes me think she is talking about somewhere BESIDES Dragaera (wherever she came from, or the "small invisible lights" the Easterners came from), which again begs the question, what about Teckla Republics? Maybe what Kelly wants isn't the same as a Teckla Republic? 10. In "The Lord of Castle Black", on page 318, Clari has a conversation with "a certain Dragonlord of middle years distinguished by a large build, and a bright, animated face beneath a head full of unusually fair hair" who wonders for whom he is a soldier. He is sitting in a chair that "collapses by removing this pin and then pushing here" and says, "I did some garrison duty for [Morrolan's] father before the Interregnum" and further that "I will be able to discover which army I am in, and, if I am not then in Morrolan's service, I can enter it again." He likes the soldier's life, and doesn't want to be promoted. In "Dragon", on page 183, Vlad sees a soldier named Dortmond, who's "been in the company for most of two hundred years" and has a chair that "collapses". He is described as "a very large man, of middle years, with long hair and good features for a Dragon" and is sitting in "a canvas-and-wood chair, complete with back." On page 214 of "Dragon", Dortmond goes on to say he's not looking for a promotion. Is this the same character? Almost 250 years had passed, but for a Dragaeran, he might still be considered "middle aged", and the chair seems rather specific, as is the size of the man himself, and his lack of desire for a promotion. Well, really, that might describe half the professional soldiers out there, but the passage in LOCB is odd, and feels a bit out of place, almost like the scene was worked in for a reason not readily apparent. 11. Having recently watched the first four seasons of "The Sopranos" back-to-back-to-back-to-back, as it were, I find myself wondering: Where are the strip clubs in Adrilankha? Maybe strip clubs only exist where looking is legal, but touching is not, and in places where touching is legal, why would you pay just to look? 12. I intended to do 17 of these, but I find that it's now 1:30am CST, and I grow weary. Also, this email has grown quite long enough, I think, so enjoy! Bryan Newell Tomorrow my name is Oblivion. Two eyes, two ohs, you believe in the end?