----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> To: "'Dragaera (E-mail)'" <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 8:24 AM Subject: RE: [spoiler?] Great Weapon speculation 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. *************************************** So in short, he can see the Matrix? Vlad: So, are you saying I can dodge spells? Sethra: No. When you are ready, you won't have to. Heh. Jeff