On Tue, 14 Mar 2006 Gaertk at aol.com wrote: > Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> writes: > > > We should consider a point about the end of _FHYA_ I was > > neglecting: the deal to cover Tortaalik's abdication did not > > envisage a substitute Phoenix. As best I recall, there was no > > particular need for a Dragon emperor at the time, just a competent > > one. Yet the options discussed by Aerich and Adron do not include > > setting a reasonable Phoenix on the throne. > > Remember that this deal was written by Adron Was it? I figured Sethra was in on it. > who was Willing To Bet His Life that the Cycle had already turned. But surely Sethra wasn't interested in seeing a war over this. Adron wasn't interested in seeing a war - he (says he) wanted the Empire to be goverened in a strong coherent way. If another Phoenix was an option, we would likely at least some small mention of the possibility of avoiding what people could already sense was likely to be an epochal conflict. The deal in particular was an affront on its face - a more palatable would likely have been considered. If by Aerich if no one else. > He did not believe that another Phoenix would improve matters any. Is there any reason but a view of him as entirely overtaken by ambition to think that? I think either Paarfi is deliberately obscuring this scenario or it just doesn't apply. In the former situation we have to imagine his readers saying to themselves, "Gya, the real tragedy here is that everybody was too dumb to suggest the obvious compromise - Sethra, Adron, Aerich, Aliera, Pel." I can hear Morrolan ribbing Aliera about it regularly.