Dragaera

[spoiler?] Great Weapon speculation

Fri Jul 8 08:24:45 PDT 2005

Wild speculation follows.

Howard Brazee sez:
>
>We saw a powerful ability of Godslayer when we saw it being used - which 
>does not appear to be its primary purpose.   This was in an 
>extraordinary circumstance, where it was created, well used - and was in 
>proximity of a huge source of power.   I wouldn't be surprised to 
>discover that such abilities aren't easy to evoke in lesser circumstances.

I should probably be quoting book text here (afb, at the moment) but I think
there's another way to read this. Vlad is not wielding an artifact full of
sorcerous energy. (Well, he actually is, but that's a side effect of it
being a Great Weapon.) He is wielding an artifact that gives him a unique
ability to see the structure of sorcery algorithms. 

As we've seen explicitly, this allows him to "deconstruct" a spell by
"slicing it up" with Godslayer. The converse of this is that he is also able
to see the forces used to build a spell. Where he formerly might not have
comprehended the mental gymanstics required for advanced spells, now he can
simply "draw a line" from point A to point B and figuratively weave a web of
sorcery that leads to his desired result. Godslayer does not heal Vlad's
arm. He heals it himself, commenting about the simplicity of it. I believe
that this is thanks to his new viewpoint rather than because of any unusual
sorcerous activity resulting from the battle or the creation of Godslayer.
Vlad may potentially be one of the  greatest sorcerors alive, subject only
to his understanding of the theory behind it. (Said understanding being
fairly elementary at the moment thanks to his being little more than a
casual "everyday stuff" sorceror.)

To apply a computer programming metaphor, the rest of the world is
programming in assembler language but Vlad now has an Integrated Development
Environment that lets him see sorcerous "programs" as flow charts. He can
either disrupt the flow chart, or create a new spell from scratch by drawing
the flow chart and letting the IDE (Godslayer) take care of converting it to
assembler.

The interesting thing about this is not neccesarily that he might become a
powerful sorceror overnight. It's that it offers him a vehicle to "see"
sorcery through the filter of his witchcraft training. He might not
understand "structured programming techniques" used by a master sorceror. He
could, however, understand how to use Witchcraft to put "flowchart elements"
together in certain ways "because it feels right".

Rather than becoming the world's greatest sorceror as someone like Loraan
might become, he will become the first and only person to practice a new
kind of "wizardry" that melds the science of Sorcery and the art of
Witchcraft together into a new and unprecedented kind of magical effect.