On Thu, 12 Jan 2006, Jon Lincicum wrote:
> Philip Hart wrote:
>
> >You're a professional sorcerer. When you were (your teacher was) young,
> >a guy nearly blew up the world using ES, but fortunately the worst result
> >beyond the immediate massive loss of life was an invasion by Es and
> >plagues and internecine warfare. One day after work an E walks into your
> >bar with one of the top five most famous people in the world at his side.
> >
> >
> Actually, it was just Vlad and Aliera (who was freshly back from the
^^^^???
> Paths of the Dead (by Dragaeran terms, anyway) so she may not have been
> that well-known to the types of folks in that particular establishment).
She's a Dragon. With golden hair and a winsome upturned nose that no one
can forget. Oh, and a GW.
> And they teleported in, so it was sudden and unexpected.
You must not have heard any "guy walks into a bar" jokes.
The suddenness makes it more likely to have been noticed.
>
> >He's got a mini-vulture on his shoulder. There's a melee, he points at
> >one of your colleagues, a friend of yours zaps him but somehow he partly
> >
> >
> Vlad couldn't point at the time, he was completely immobilized.
Hence him pointing first, before he gets immobilized. That's how I
remember events happening - Vlad pointing, Aliera swashbuckling, Vlad
resting.
Anyway, they've got memories, presumably there are ways of accessing
them. Psionics, whatever. And regardless - "This E walked into the bar.
He was wearing Jhereg colors and had an oyster on his shoulder and got
zapped and then amorphia ate Jennalyn and I split." "Oyster?" "I don't
know, it all happened fast, he was an E though, and the amorphia shot out
of him like one of those alien things that grow in your stomach." "Uhh,
maybe you mean the only male E working in the Jhereg, who's known to hang
with Aliera and wear a pocket dragon like a parrot, depicted in this
image here?" "Yeah, that's him."
> Ummm.. Mass genocide against an entire population for the actions of one
> individual isn't something that is easily achieved in a free society.
A free society?
And for that matter, given how recent 9/11 was, ...
> The population of Dragaera wouldn't put up with that. How would
> Morrolan, or Aliera or Sethra feel about that? Or, for that matter, how
> would the Empress react to that, given that her lover is an Easterner?
If your historic enemy/recent empire-corpse-vulture/current oppressed
despised underclass suddenly shows signs of having world-destroying power,
anything's possible. It's not as if StY's plans for the East don't in
all likelihood involve what we'd conventionally consider war crimes.
There would be a fight. But as was clear in the _T_/_P_ Uprising,
Vlad's friends will slaughter any number of E in defense of the empire,
even a token fly-swatting sort of defense.
I wonder about the events of _A_ - how could Loraan/Istvaan not worry
about being ESed to cinders?