(originally a reply to me, now replying back to list, since it seems appropriate) On 11/15/05, Robert Pierce <phoenixrave at sc.rr.com> wrote: > Do we know for a fact that the orb can't revivify Easterners? Actually, we know for a fact that the orb can indeed revivify Easterners. > I would assume that, as the bearer of the orb, Zerika could > heal and revivify Lazlo to her heart's content, effectively giving > him her lifespan. > Well, I am of two minds about this. To the right, in the world of Dragaera, while sorcery can indeed extend life, sometimes by a very great amount indeed, for the most part, sorcery does not seem to be able to extend life to the degree suggested above. Sorcerers are often described as being old, and looking old. So, too, are witches described as being old. Well, one witch (Noish-pa), anyway, and I'm generalizing from one example. So it does not appear that magic can easily "cure" old age, for whatever reasons. In addition, despite having the Orb, Zerika does not seem to be a sorceress herself, and Emperors are not noted as being granted extended lifespans simply by bearing the Orb. To the left, I would posit that the decrepitudes of old age are indeed nothing more than accumulated damage at the cellular and genetic levels. If sorcery can heal disease and trauma at a larger physical level, it *should* be possible to simply heal old age - if not in oneself, then in another, and sorcerers could simply take turns in making sure that they are all effectively unagingly immortal. And as an example, there is the Sorceress in Green, whose lifespan seems to be unusually long even for a Dragaeran, since she is apparantly recorded as being in operation several cycles before the current one, which is indeed a long time. But the SiG is mysterious, and perhaps there have been several persons with the same appellation. There is also Sethra Lavode, who is older than the Empire, but she is special in many ways, and I sincerely doubt that her long life is *solely* due to the benefits of the Orb. So, ultimately, who can say? > -The no-longer lurking Bobby G > You might want to keep in mind that the list defaults to replying to sender; if you want to be sure that the list sees it, you ought to do a "reply all". Or just copy-and-paste the list address.