"Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 06/23/06 12:04 PM To "'Dragaera List'" <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject RE: How is House Jhereg governed? >>But, given that he was a Tsalmoth, the idea of his giving up on regaining >>his former position and accepting life as a Jhereg seems pretty unlikely. > >"Tsalmoth maintains, though none know how." Interesting, I'd never >considered that aspect of his personality as part of his motivations. Almost all the characters in Dragaera are driven by the characteristics of their House... SKZB is pretty consistent with that. >I suppose a "bad" Tsalmoth (in the sense that Teldra describes young Issola >as "obsequious to the point of annoyance") would be one who set his heart on >some goal to the point of self destruction and/or the destruction of >everything and everyone in his way. I wonder how many Tsalmoth reigns have >ended because of the near destruction of the Empire as a result of some >inability of the Emporer to back off and see reason about something he >wanted? I've put together some mild speculation on the wikicity on how the cycle changes for each house, based on their strengths and weaknesses. It's a surprisingly natural transition in most cases; in almost every instance a staid and restrained house takes over from a very aggressive and active one (and vice versa, of course). Tsalmoth emperors, in this hypothesis, typically cause their own downfall in exactly the manner you have suggested. (After taking over from an Issola emperor who has become paralyzed into inaction by being overly gracious.) Read more in the Lyorn Records: http://dragaera.wikia.com/wiki/Tsalmoth >I guess I'd picture Abdiel as the archetypical "bad Tsalmoth". (Abdiel was >the antagonist in _To Reign in Hell_ who catalyzed the destruction of Heaven >because his plan to gain favor with Yahweh ran out of control and snowballed >into something much bigger than he'd ever originally planned.) Yes, Abdiel was a bit like a Tsalmoth... But I'd say he was even more like a Yendi. In any case, his plots eventually fell apart, and it was Satan and Yaweh's philosophical disagreement that really caused the war to spiral out of control. I would contend that even without Abdiel's shenanigans, this philosophical difference would have eventually caused a war between Yaweh and Satan anyway. Majikjon