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

[Jon Lincicum]

tom sausman wrote:
>> 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
>>
>>     
>       I thought that the Jenoine tested on the natives ( Easterners ) as 
> a control, and thus created the Dragaerans and the Serioli .
>   
Read this section of /Issola/ again. (Page 36, paperback)  Easterners 
are *not* natives to Dragaera. They came along before the Dragaerans 
(and the Jenoine, as well) but the Serioli were there waiting when the 
humans first arrived.
>> 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)
>>
>>     
>                 But weren't there only 16 houses/ tribes before the 
> Empire, so the Cycle has to be new, in a fashion.
>   
Yes, but then the Jhereg were founded--thereby making 17 Houses.

But the cycle was there all the time, influencing events. It was *fate*, 
the fate of the Cycle itself, that influenced the events to cause there 
to be 17 houses instead of 16 (or 31, or 35, or whatever other number 
you might find Paarfi waxing on about). This is *my* theory, anyway.

Majikjon