On 11/8/05, Bryan Newell <bryann at bryann.net> wrote: > Be warned there be Spoilers ahead for the following books: > > Sethra Lavode > Brokedown Palace > Issola > > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * spoiler space * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > * > > > 2. Verra is slain (or, perhaps more accurately, "banished" from the East) in > Brokedown Palace. Why can she still manifest in the Empire (see Issola)? > Is the Empire a different "plane of existence" than the East? Tri'nagore is > also slain in the East, and yet there seems to be little doubt that he is > banished from the Empire as well as the East. Does this imply that Dzur > Mountain and the Lesser Sea of Chaos (the two places Verra manifests in > Issola) are on different planes of existence than the rest of the world of > Dragaera? > I don't think that it would make sense to conclude that different locations, which we know can be reached by simple physical motion on the surface of the planet, are on different planes of existence. Therefore: (this may go into Speculation:God at some point) While the nature of the gods is less than entirely obvious, I think that there may be enough bits and pieces here and there to at least speculate on. So I would suggest as follows, based partly on the Paarfiad and partly on the Vladiad, and partly on Brokedown Palace: 1) Gods have power proportional to the number of people who worship them (although a better phrase might be "dedicate themselves to" rather than "worship" - "worship" being an Easterner concept, which doesn't feel quite right given other stuff we've seen about the gods). 2) The Gods can enter into a location when persons who are dedicated to them invite them (request them?) to enter (which is how Verra was able to enter the Jenoine's Place -- Morrolan, bearing Verra's blood (and being otherwise bound to Verra); Aliera, being Verra's daughter; Teldra, being Verra's priestess; and I think even Vlad, initiated by his grandfather to worship the Demon Goddess from an early age -- are all dedicated to Verra, for certain values of "dedicate") 3) A God who has been invited into a location can request that those who performed the invitation dedicate the location itself, with some sort of physical monument, which may be something provided by the God, or by the people, or something which requires a cooperative effort- quite possibly, a sacrifice; possibly even a blood sacrifice. For the Demon Goddess in Fenario, this was her statue; for Tri'nagore, this was something described as an "icon", which sounds like something similar to a statue. This physical monument might act as an anchor, making the location it exists in a 4) When the monument belonging to a God is desecrated, it is the first step in a ritual of *de*invitation, an expulsion. If the God can then kill the one(s) trying to perform the expulsion, then the expulsion is incomplete, but if the God is killed, the expulsion is final - for that location. We may also speculate that if the expulsion is to be permanent, then all who are dedicated to the God, and might therefore re-invite the God, must leave (or be forced to leave) the location or perish. 5) If a God has multiple monuments dedicated to him/her, then being expelled from one location does not mean that that God cannot manifest any longer on that plane of existence - only from that location on the plane of existence. We might speculate, therefore, that a God may manifest anywhere within a certain radius of the monument (Thousands of miles? Hundreds of miles? Seventeen miles? Who can say?), and an expulsion creates a locale, again of a certain radius, where a God may *not* manifest. While most of the above is speculation, I think it accords well with what we've seen so far. Tri'nagore, for example, only had the one monument/icon; most (all?) of his worshippers/dedicators in the East were killed; and Skinter and Habil, who might have performed a ritual of dedication in order to summon him, are also dead. Thus, he has nowhere else on this plane where he can manifest now. Verra, on the other hand, has a lot more worshippers/dedicats, presumably still in the East and definitely in Dragaera, and can therefore manifest in many places in Dragaera, but one fewer in the East. Thus, she can still manifest on this plane in areas still dedicated to her. Of course, we might also speculate that Verra can actually only manifest on Dragaera close to *persons* who have dedicated themselves to her - so she always shows up near Aliera, or Morrolan, or Vlad, or one of her priests/priestesses (Teldra). Which could also explain how she was able to show up at Dzur Mountain and near the Lesser Sea of Chaos. There. That is tolerably clever speculation, I nearly think, if hardly conclusive.