[Dragaera] (no spoilers) The 17 [Great Weapons]

[Jose Marquez]

Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote:
> Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> 
> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
> 08/11/06 06:48 AM
>
> To
>
> cc
> dragaera at dragaera.info
> Subject
> Re: [Dragaera] (no spoilers) The 17 [Great Weapons]
>
>   
>> On 7:42 AM Gaertk at aol.com wrote:
>>     
>>>  Vlad (who, of course, is never wrong about anything) said "legend
>>>  says 17". Since their creators don't have any reason to find the
>>>  number 17 special, I'd say the actual chances of there being exactly
>>>  17 at any time are practically nil. I also believe there are at
>>>  least a couple Great Non-Weapons.
>>>       
>
> Heh. Referring here to the Orb, perhaps?
>   
The Orb was not created by the Serioli. While they might have a name for 
it, I doubt it is part of the 17 Great (Morganti, and therefore 
Serioli-created) Weapons. They probably also have a name for Morrolan 
(Tall-pretentious-wizard-for-creating-death-in-the-form-of-&c.), but 
that doesn't make him a Great Weapon either (he's an Awesome Weapon! Uh, 
never mind).
>> He's not the only one to refer to "The 17", meaning Great Weapons.
>>     
>
> 17 is not only the mystical number of Dragaerans, it's the mystical number 
> of the cycle itself, which has (apparently) existed since long before the 
> creation of Dragaera (the planet itself). 
>
> Saying that 17 means nothing to the Serioli, just because they're not 
> "Dragaerans" is ludicrous. They're the only true natives on the planet. 17 
> means, if anything, MORE to them than to any of the "alien invaders" 
> (Easterners, Dragaerans, Jenoine, etc) who have arrived over the years.
>   
That could be; the original Dragaeran tribes were 31, and the Easterners 
do not seem to have any particular attachment to 17. I imagine that an 
Empire built on top of a mystical, catastrophic event as harnessed by a 
powerful artifact might take on the characteristics underlying it. So if 
the Empire is built on the Greater Sea of Chaos, which is harnessed by 
the Orb, which is a gift from the gods, who have hitched their train, so 
to speak, to the Cycle, a speculation based on the common knowledge 
among Dragaerans that the physical representation of the Cycle is that 
wheel in the Halls of Judgment, which is where the gods hang out, well, 
then you end up with a really long run-on sentence. But the main idea is 
that all of that would pararectally put the Empiricals in sync with the 
Cycle. I wonder when the number 17 really took hold in Dragaeran 
society. I bet Sethra knows...

Jose

-- 
Jose Marquez             | There are 10 types of people in
jhereg69 at earthlink.net   | the world: those who understand
http://www.hackwater.com | binary, and those who don't.