>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? Honestly, I think that people are just reading too much into the poem. The Phoenix is the symbol of death and rebirth. It sits at both "ends" of the poem because otherwise it wouldn't be a cycle. Here's my view of things: A Great Cycle is a new cycle of cycles. The House of the Phoenix is doubled at this time because both Great Cycles, the one just past and the one just beginning, must begin and end with the House of the Phoenix. A normal transition of Phoenix to Dragon would simply be a continuation of the previous Great Cycle. The Great Cycle is when the rebirth aspect of the Phoenix becomes active. Ordinarily, all Pheonix Emperors start out strong and then decay into decadence. A Reborn Phoenix is one who has emerged out of the death and decay OF HIS OWN HOUSE, revitalized and strengthened to the point that he (as Aliera defines things) doesn't fall into decadence. (or at least has the sense to pass on the Orb before that happens.) The demarcation between the Decadent Phoenix and the Reborn Phoenix, symbolizing the death of the old order and the birth of the new order, is the true demarcation between one Great Cycle and the next. Zerika is the first Reborn Phoenix. When the next Great Cycle rolls around, we can probably expect some other event as cataclysmic as the Interregnum to mark the occasion and to provide the opportunity for the Phoenix and, symbolically, the Cycle, to rejuvenate itself and achieve the next stage of growth for the Empire. Basically, it's a Y2K bug that, when it hits, allows the Lords of Judgements to make a few needed upgrades to the system before rebooting it and starting over.