[Dragaera] Phoenix/Reborn Phoenix redux

[Scott Schultz]

Howard Brazee wrote:
>The Phoenix cycle is a special animal.   I wonder what happened in 
>previous Phoenix cycles.

Nothing unusual. Zerika is special, not for being Phoenix, but for being the
first Reborn Phoenix. Tortaalik's reign is the end of the first Great Cycle
and Zerika's reign is the first of the second Great Cycle. The fact that
something cataclysmic would happen at such a potentially significant
metaphysical event shouldn't be that surprising, really. I think of it as a
kind of metaphysical singularity. What's surprising, I'd say, is that there
wasn't more of a millenial hysteria among the citizens of the Empire
regarding the event, but I suppose they were mostly concerned with keeping
their heads above water amid the growing social unrest and general disarray
of the Empire's economic systems as a result of Tortaalik's decadence.

In any case, if Sethra is still around at the end of the second Great Cycle,
I expect that she'll be preparing for Something Bad to happen when it
arrives.

Aliera says in not so many words that Adron had hoped to destroy the Cycle.
Whether he failed or succeeded remains to be seen, though Verra (via Paarfi)
implies that House Phoenix may have some mystical way of reproducing itself
regardless. (Maybe there's more to the Zerika/Laszlo romance than just a
semi-kinky inter-species relationship.) We also don't really know what
happened to Phoenix children who were rejected on the basis of there being
no phoenix fly-by at birth. There may actually be a pretty good Phoenix
gene-pool around, providing that Zerika is willing to lower the standards of
the House or otherwise raise these almost-Phoenix people to full member
status.