reading old mail... On Sun, 29 Feb 2004, Bryan Newell wrote: #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"? Maybe the gods protected the Orb against that form of attack in the upgrade during the Interregnum, so revealing it creates no threat. #3. Why does Noish-pa revere Verra, the goddess of Elder Sorcery, instead of #her sister Moranthe, the goddess of Witchcraft? Tradition. #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_? Maybe in the SW corner of the province/duchy/district/whatever that Covered Springs is in, which is also called Covered Springs, as everybody knows. Or which is called something else, but everybody knows that's what you mean when you say "the XY corner" with relation to the name of a place. Or something else. #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! Ah, yes, back to the reality we live in. -- Mark A. Mandel http://cracksandshards.com a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website