> From: Scott Schultz [mailto:scott at cjhunter.com] > Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 4:28 PM > To: dragaera at dragaera.info > Subject: RE: Vlad and Kiera *Spoilers for _Orca_* > > On Tue, 29 Mar 2005, Joy Jennifer Nicholson wrote: > > > If the Cycle is stronger than the gods, then WHAT is the Cycle? Did > > it exist before the creation of the empire, but in another form? Is > > it like a law of physic? Is it sentient? > > > The Cycle is a fairly specific artifact/force of nature. It drives the > Empire. The existence of the Empire, in some mystical fashion, helps > protect > the world from incursions by the Jenoine. If you're not a citizen of the > Empire then the Cycle has no hold upon you at all. To my mind, that makes > it > rather less than a law of the universe. If the Gods didn't create it > themselves, then it may be some piece of Jenoine technology that they > adapted to their own purposes. Ultimately, we have to shrug and say "Too > little data." Just as idle speculation, it may have been a part of the Jenoine experiments that the gods adapted to their own uses. The gods may not have been able to control the Cycle, but they may have been able to add or replace (more likely replace) a spot in the Cycle with a new House, the Jhereg.