Jon_Lincicum at stream.com writes: >I find it interesting that at the end of FHYA, the Orb sought out Adron >(the Dragon Heir) not Loudin (the Phoenix Heir) despite the fact that we >found out later that the cycle never changed to that of the Dragon. >(Despite the fact that Adron was apparently the legitimate Emperor for a >few minutes.) Did the cycle change to Dragon, and then get "reset" during >the disaster, or the end of the Great Cycle? Did it rotate through the >other 16 Houses rapidly during the Interregnum? Or did Adron simply have >control of the Orb, despite the fact that the cycle never actually turned >away from the Phoenix? > >Am I missing any other possibilities? Yes -- the idea that Paarfi's work may be historical fiction. Clearly, it contradicts Vlad's tale on several occasions. Clearly this intentional on the part of the Author. This makes it rather hard to determine what is Text and what is Speculation -- in Paarfi, one can assume that anything he assumes the reader will know is, more or less, Text (which is why his terminology for reigns is on-limits, just as we wouldn't expect a historical fiction writer to talk about the Earl of Los Angeles). But given that we've gotten very different descriptions of Adron's disaster from Paarfi and Aliera (via Vlad) I'm inclined to take Aliera's depiction as more accurate -- after all, she was there. -- Joshua Kronengold (mneme@(io.com, labcats.org)) |\ _,,,--,,_ ,) --^-- "Remember the Doom Team code!" says Tom. /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;' /\\ "You don't have to die just because some |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\ /-\\\ people think your existence is evil!" '---''(_/--' (_/-'