--- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Sean Whalen wrote: > > > > --- 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. > > > > > > Good point. To the left, Vlad might be making > > > up > > > the 189 year limit. > The 17**2 (=289, incidentally) might be folk wisdom. > The (perhaps less > than highly educated) Dragaerans Vlad likes to taunt > may believe it (or > accept Vlad's assertion as fact), but that doesn't > prove anything. > And the Orb might be programmed to > prolong natural life > in office to 289. The likelihood of handover due to > crisis may be high. I've reread some parts that may help my theories, mainly page 483 of _The Phoenix Guards_ and page 6 of _Five Hundred Years After_. Illista's plan was to get Allistar as Noima's lover and then get rid of Tortaalik through a crisis he couldn't handle. Allistar would be able to deal with it, marry Noima, and continue the Phoenix Reign. Tortaalik's sister was the prime mover in the plot to poison him (White Goblets). It seems unlikely that it would be meant to keep him comatose and rule as regent (especially in Dragaera where someone who controls the Orb is a necessity). > > > 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. > > Maybe he has a sharp sense of smell - it might go > with being a Dzur. > Maybe the presence of a hunk of Phoenix stone > disturbs the psychic or > sorceral ambiance enough for an adept to notice and > become curious. Rereading, the goblets had been specially prepared to be immune to the Orb's abilities but not Gyorg's. This may mean his sense of smell or psychic senses, but it doesn't seem likely. Preparing goblets with black and gold phoenixstone seems almost impossible. In _Phoenix_ the Orb detected the invisible area created by Aibyn's phoenixstone. If the goblets just blocked the area around them the poison would be detectable as soon as it left the goblets (and into the Emperor). What would the Orb normally do when it detected poison nearby? Even if it just informed and took no action others could cast spells to get rid of the poison. The Orb probably just destroys the poison (or else the Emperor would be extremely vulnerable to Elder Sorcery that did nothing but shoot a poisoned arrow at him). __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com