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

[Jon_Lincicum at stream.com]

Jose Marquez <jhereg69 at earthlink.net> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
08/11/06 08:36 AM

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Dragaera <dragaera at dragaera.info>
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Re: [Dragaera] (no spoilers) The 17 [Great Weapons]




>Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote:
>> Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> 
>> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
>>
>> 
>>> On 7:42 AM Gaertk at aol.com wrote:
>>>      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. 

Well, the Orb is *credited* with creation by Zerika I, but she never 
revealed how she did it. Perhaps he method was to let a Serioli smith 
create the thing, then wack him over the head with Kieron's greatsword and 
make off with it?

>> 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. 

Exactly my thinking. The reason the 31 dwindled to 16, (then increased by 
1 to 17 when the Jhereg were founded) is due to the influence of the cycle 
on events. "Destiny" if you will. 

>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...

I'm beginning to thing what Sethra knows and doesn't know is very 
different from what Sethra suspects, or doesn't suspect.

But she's certainly the only one left around who *might* know. (Unless you 
count memory-regression, I suppose, which has always seemed a bit iffy to 
me, since memory can be like a whatchacallit.)

Majikjon