Scott Schultz writes: >that's a sign that the Cycle has turned. By example from the Paarfiad, Which is fiction... >was a pretty short one by Dragaeran standards. Despite this, the Orb moved >to Adron once it had determined that the Emporer was dead beyond all recall. >It didn't seek out the next Phoenix in line. It sought out the heir of the >next House in line. However, what we've heard from Sethra on the subject contradicts Paarfi on this matter directly. Paarfi made a guess based on the historical evidence, and was wrong. >Basically, I see a lot of evidence that the Cycle changes when the sitting >Emporer dies or abdicates, while I've seen no evidence that the Throne is >passed from one Emporer to another within the same phase of the Cycle. The existence of a Tekla Republic itself would seem to contradict this. So would a Phoenix scheming to take the throne from another Phoenix (as we saw evidence for in the Paarfiad, in something that presumably -is- in the historical record, unlike Sethra's speculations about magical theory) by poison. Check your spellcheck on "emperor", btw. -- Joshua Kronengold (mneme@(io.com, labcats.org)) |\ _,,,--,,_ ,) --^-- "Get your mind right and you can make a stick /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;' /\\ your wand and the sky your hat and a puddle |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\ /-\\\ your magic..." -- Granny Weatherwax '---''(_/--' (_/-'