(catching up......) --- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > 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? > > I see it as an embodied symbol of the will of the Uebergod of the > Dragaeran universe, Whom we refer to as Tetragrammaton or SKZB. > The will presumably predates the universe, the embodiment perhaps not. > > I don't think "sentient" really applies to Something like that - > too much knowledge is involved (any philosophers out there interested > in Alvin Goldman and the Halting Problem?) - so I'd go with law of > physics. Remember, the gods of the Vladiverse are not like the Greco-Roman or Hindu gods, let alone the all-powerful Creator of the Abrahamic tradition (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). They originally were, well, mortals, or anyway biological sentients of various species, and went through assorted changes -- at least, if we can trust Verra on it. We have no clue AFAIK as to who or what created the universe (multiverse) that they *inhabit* but do not *rule*. m a m ______________________________________________________ Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/