Huh. So does this mean that Tortalik, for all his faults, was basically a good emperor, and Zerika, for all her apparent charms, has been a bad one--and anything we think to the contrary is just due to bad (and/or politically motivated) historical work by Dragaera's historians and a general misunderstanding of Pre-Interregnum history by Vlad? Perhaps, of course, I'm mis-understanding in the bleary moments of an early Sunday morning.... Any rate, it's great to know that Steven is up and about and on the mend. Dusty Steve Brust wrote: >This is most emphatically not a crack. > >On Sat, 2005-04-09 at 19:56 -0700, Mark A. Mandel wrote: > > >>>At 10:12 04/09/2005, Maximilian Wilson wrote: >>> >>> >>>>According to the poem, a reborn Phoenix (if it's different from a >>>>decadent Phoenix) should come at the very end of the Great Cycle, >>>>followed then by a decadent Phoenix. But with Tortaalik/Zerika, we saw >>>>just the opposite, and then Zerika handed off power to a Dragon. >>>> >>>>Any comments? >>>> >>>> >>Cracks and Shards! I have been reading these books for how many years?, and I never even >>noticed that. Mr. Wilson, you have pointed out a notable Crack. >> >>-- Mark A. Mandel >> http://cracksandshards.com >> a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website >> [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.] >> >> >> >>__________________________________ >>Yahoo! Mail Mobile >>Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. >>http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail >> >> >> -- J A Dusty Sayers Home Page http://www.sayersnet.com/~dusty/ Rescue the Princess http://www.sayersnet.com/~dusty/rescue/ 'Woe is me, I think I am becoming a god.' --Last words of Titus Flavius Sabinus, Emperor of Rome