--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > > On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Sean Whalen wrote: > > > I definitely believe that there can be multiple > Emperors during a > > reign. The orb doesn't prevent all forms of death > (the Emperor can die > > of old age, magical trickery, or for all we know > choking on his dinner). > > If an Emperor died before 189 years had passed > we'd definitely need > > another, and even if more time had passed there's > no necessary change > > that's ever been indicated. > > Good point. To the left, Vlad might be making up > the 189 year limit. It's always a possibility but I don't think Vlad makes things up in the stories very often. Even if he did there's no reason for this I can think of. Now, he's mistaken a lot more. However, he first mentions the limits (as far as I can remember) when he discusses having a sarcastic conversation with a Dragaeran about the importance of numbers to Easterners. When the Dragaeran sneers he just starts to mention all the examples of 17 he can think of and the Dragaeran doesn't disagree. > To the down, > that's not long to a > Dragaeran, and the emperor can only die a natural > death. Since the heir isn't chosen for his or her age (they can never be sure how soon it is until the Cycle turns) I'm fairly sure some Emperors have died only a few years into their reigns. I'm fairly sure the Orb doesn't help longevity. If it did I think there would have been more time between the beginning of the Empire and now than 250,000 years. > Plus the Orb > may have something to say about his longevity. Plus > the House Apparent > may be careful to choose an heir who's not too > decrepit. Perhaps the 189 > year limit is an estimate based on a sample of > short-reigned emperors. > Tortaalik is in the 532nd year of his reign at the > time of _FHYA_, and the > affair occurred some 400 years previously. Whether > > I don't recall any reference to p-E sorcery > concerning the goblets in > question - I imagine that they were made of Phoenix > stone. Maybe, but Gyorg Lavode was able to detect the poison. I think the goblets used a specific spell not powered from the Orb in order to fool it. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com