Howard Brazee wrote: > We know that things *have* changed over time. Technology (including > sorcery) has changed. Assuming that a house's brand of feudalism > remains the same from cycle to cycle seems presumptuous. Thinking Orca > instead of Dragon can make this evolution easier to perceive. But even > the warrior classes find it useful to have a productive underclass - which > may or may not be feudal. They've changed in many ways, but to move from feudalism to socialism, I feel, isn't possible without the consent of the Cycle, if not the Noble Houses themselves. And can you see Dragons, Dzur, Athyra, or Phoenix allowing their aristocracy to be pushed aside in favor of a total Teckla revolt, destroying the Cycle itself? I don't think so. The Houses allow the Teckla to have their little Republic every Cycle because they know it'll last, at most, 17^3 years before the Cycle pushes them aside for the next House in line. The brand of feudalism may change, but it's still feudalism. What Kelly wanted was the destruction of the Cycle, and Verra seemed to think it wasn't possible on this planet, and certainly not in Kelly's lifetime. Yes, things change, but much stays the same. Sorcery can grow more powerful, bows and arrows can be invented, warfare can change, but the Cycle still moves on. It's been what, 200,000 years and the Cycle is still going strong? (Well, there was that little Interregnum thing, but...:) If I was unclear, I apologize. Change happens, sure (um, it *is* the only constant, is it not?), but Verra's comment about Kelly's aims and the documents he unearthed indicated (from what I recall. I'm a few miles away from my Dragaera books:) that Socialism, as a Dragaeran political system encompassing the whole of the Empire, wasn't possible as long as the Cycle was around. This is, of course, my interpretation of Verra's speech, but everyone hears something different when the Demon Goddess speaks....:) ChrisO "If you can't live without me, die already." ~Cynthia Heimel