*** Nitpick alert! *** On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Matthew Klahn wrote: #It seems to me that Great Cycles wouldn't merge nicely if you had #discreet endings of Phoenix reigns and discreet beginnings of another. Would you explain what you mean by that? Tortaalik's reign certainly didn't end discr<eet>ly -- "unnoticeably" or "unobtrusively", according to M-W Online. Adron's Disaster was about as obtrusive as you can get. And two consecutive Phoenix reigns could be discr<ete> -- "constituting a separate entity", "individually distinct", or "consisting of distinct or unconnected elements" -- as long as there was a clear break between them. Wouldn't that be the case in an intra-House succession as with the other Houses? say, the Lyorn, who are certainly going to do things "right and proper"? One Emperor dies and is taken to Deathgate Falls with appropriate mourning, and the House's Heir takes the Orb with proper ceremony. Clearly distinguished, as part of a smooth transition. -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel