[Dragaera] Some speculation on Spellbreaker

[Steve Rapaport]

And now for something completely different.

Spellbreaker has occasional episodes of acting semi-sentient and active.
I've seen very few discussions of what ties those episodes together, so
here's my take.  Majikjon once proposed that Spellbreaker started acting up
(threatening Verra, for example) because it was "about to" re-form into
Godslayer.  I objected strongly, since no witch, wizard or artifact (even
the Orb) can tell the future in this world.

Destiny, however, is another matter.  We know that the great weapons are
linked to Fate, or Destiny, to paraphrase Sethra and Zungaron. So
recognizing the presence of one's soulmate or destined partner is well
within the capabilities of a decent witch and likely of Spellbreaker too.
Now let's look at the times when Spellbreaker sits up.  They're all tied to
its destiny.

* When Vlad first meets Spellbreaker, in Loraan's lab, it's sitting up.
Probably for him, since their destinies are bound together.  This isn't
prognostication, it's recognition of one's soulmate.
* Next time it starts to act on its own is in Issola, immediately after Vlad
takes possession of the Jenoine's powerful Morganti dagger.  Spellbreaker
immediately starts to act funny.   Heck, any Easterner can sense the
proximity of a Morganti dagger, why not Spellbreaker?
* As soon as Spellbreaker and the dagger are on Vlad, he starts to feel the
personalities of nearby Great Weapons.  He'd never done so before, but now
suddenly he can tell the gender and sense the personality of Blackwand and
Pathfinder just as they are unsheathed.   Of course he can.  He,
Spellbreaker, and the dagger are all present, and they're destined to be a
Great Weapon themselves.  (Teldra's nearby too...)
* Spellbreaker sits up and threatens Verra. Why?  It's currently close to
its partner dagger, (Destiny) in the possession of its soulmate, (Destiny),
nearby to its future soul (Destiny), and near the Goddess it's supposedly
destined to kill.  How could it NOT react?
* Spellbreaker crawls back to an unconscious Vlad and up his arm.  Proximity
to the partner dagger is bringing its sentience closer to the surface, and
it wants to be near both the dagger and Vlad.  Great Weapons protect their
people even when unconscious.
* Spellbreaker protects Vlad from some funny Jenoine sorcery by inviting him
in, psychically (a' la Zelazny's Jewel), leaving Vlad mentally cleansed
(again like the Jewel) as well as momentarily in 3 places at once, like a
god.  (The passage where Vlad first traverses Spellbreaker mentally,
reminiscent of a Zelazny shadow walk, has been pointed out to be three
simultaneous experiences for Vlad, if you read every third line.)
* Spellbreaker touches the special dagger for the first time and immediately
goes to work recreating Godslayer, dragging Vlad along with it.

So what am I saying that's new?

1. Spellbreaker wakes up in the presence of its partner, the dagger, and its
soulmates Vlad and Teldra.  Not because it can see the future, just because
it has a strong feeling these are its destiny.
2. At that point Spellbreaker becomes an active participant in the story,
and is perhaps more in charge of what happens from then on than Vlad
suspects.
3. All the episodes where Spellbreaker acts independently are related to the
proximity of the dagger and Vlad (and sometimes maybe Teldra and Verra), and
the more of them that are present, the more Spellbreaker awakes.
4. Spellbreaker recognizes other Great Weapons and partial Great Weapons,
which should be no great surprise given what we know about GW's and
particularly Godslayer and Pathfinder.


Jon may say that this is what he was trying to say all along.  If so, I've
finally just understood it.
-- 
\Steve