On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote: > Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> > >This I rather doubt - the discussion in _FHYA_ would have ended abruptly > >if someone could just throw a rock at Tortaalik to see if the Orb would > >catch it. > > Who "throws the rock"? Who risks the executioner's star to find out if the > cycle has changed? How does this person overcome the more mundane defenses > (such as the Imperial Guards) to get at the emperor in the first place? > What if they're wrong, and the cycle hasn't changed? While a Dragonlord > like Adron or a Lyorn like Aerich may not care about their own deaths, > they would certainly care about their honor; being branded a traitor would > not appeal to either of them. To stop a war? Of course Aerich would undertake that. Esp. since there would be a tradition to back him up. And esp. since (unless I'm mistaken) he doesn't think the Cycle has turned. Or Aliera. Or Sethra. Or maybe even Khaavren. > A subtle distinction here. Is it more important to the Orb that you are > the heir of a specific House, or that your individual name is at the top > of the list? Is the selection of the emperor the work of the Orb itself, > or of the cycle? Or is it the cycle at work *through* the Orb? Who knows? Which is why I asked. But you can look up the long discussion of "Cycle-Emperor" and "Orb-Emperor", some under my name, in the archives for a variety of viewpoints (and an attempt to make sense of the events at the end of _FHYA_).