"Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 03/13/06 02:33 PM To <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject RE: Multiple emporers in a reign, revisited > Am I missing any other possibilities? Part of the answer may be to rely on other sources. Aliera's version of events, related in _Jhereg_, has it this way: [Snip - Jhereg Adron's Disaster Story] >Now, Aliera may not be the most dependable narrator either, but she's at >least an eye-witness. Wherever Paarfi got his information, it's all >second-hand. The interesting thing, from the perspective of this discussion, >is that Aliera claims that another Phoenix, who would almost neccesarily be >Loudin, "tried to grab the Throne", and thusly forced Adron to make his move >before he was fully ready. I seem to recall a post or interview where skzb claimed that Aliera was simply mistaken on this count, and was actually thinking of the Affair of the White Goblets? Can anyone else recall this posting? >To me, this has the ring of truth to it. On the one hand, it appears to be >some independent evidence that a House doesn't neccesarily give up the Orb >just because the current Emperor has died. It also jibes with the recurring >idea that someone has to decide that the Cycle has turned or not and >actively make a claim upon the Orb. Paarfi's notion of the Orb seeking out >the next Heir is not only in direct contradiction with events (i.e., the >non-turning of the Cycle at the time of Tortaalik's death) but also with the >general description of the transfer of the Orb from one House to another. Of course, the fact that someone in Tortaalik's own House tried to kill him (presumably to take the Orb for him/herself) during the whole White Goblet thing lends credence to the theory that a reign doesn't always end with the life of the current Emperor. >If Aliera is telling the truth, then there would have been another Phoenix >Emperor sitting on the Throne barring any interference from Adron. As it >was, Adron's spell was probably intended to do exactly what Paarfi described >it doing, but unlike in Paarfi's version, the real Adron hadn't mastered the >spell properly and the result was the Lesser Sea. <sigh> I suppose it was inevitable that this discussion would end up coming back to the whole unreliable narrator thing (again). Can we just mark this as "Unresolvable Due to Unreliable Narrators" and move on? (Is UDTUN or UDUN a better term for this?) Majikjon