[Dragaera] Spellbreaker, again

[John Dallman]

In article 
<2ddbda5f0804281638m6a50cb7eg261612115c691e42 at mail.gmail.com>, 
wilson.max at gmail.com (Maximilian Wilson) wrote:

> It's possible that SKZB has some more linear view of Godslayer/Lady
> Teldra, and presumably if that's the case we will at some point see
> some evidence of it and I'll change my mind, but for now I'll go with
> the simple hypothesis that minimizes the number of mental cortortions
> required[1].

It seems perfectly possible to me that the sequence went like this:

1. Godslayer created, far in the past.
2. Godslayer dismantled, broken or otherwise "sundered".
3. Long pause. 
4. Goodslayer's soul reincarnates as Lady Teldra. Hey, it's little 
   less plausible than Vlad's previous identity. 
5. A fragment of Godslayer is found.
6. Vlad, who is sometimes a puppet of fate, finds the fragment, and names 
   it Spellbreaker. 
7. Lady Teldra has an "unfortunate accident".

This allows for Vlad's impression of Teldra's personality from Godslayer 
to be accurate. It also fits what we know about the ending of the Vlad 
stories. "The Final Contract" clearly has to be to kill the Emperor, or 
a god, or maybe even all of the gods... Oh. That's it. Isn't it? 

That makes sense to me, in all my impressions of the Vlad stories. 

They come from a game, at one level, and unlike more visibly game- 
derived fiction, they are not afraid of reaching to the logical 
conclusions of the setting and the game. And a fundamental issue in 
role-playing games is the conflict between player and character, between 
levels of control. The gods are often stand-ins for the players and the 
games-master. 

Vlad's whole life has been about breaking out of external control. He 
has accepted various kinds at different stages: the disciplines of the 
Jehreg, marriage to Cawti, the authority of the empire ... but he breaks 
out of them all. He is loyal to those who are his friends, but those are 
controls he places on himself; he refuses to be controlled by others. 

Lastly, SKZB was a Trotskyite once; he may still be in some way. They 
don't like controls. 

OK, that's my theory. It's pretty woolly; it largely comes from one of 
those shock moments of insight, as I was typing "maybe even all of the 
gods", and then trying to fit facts to a conclusion. 

So, Vlad will have to kill all of the gods at the end, I theorise. This 
may be Vera's scheme, but in the end he will kill her too. He'll 
probably have to kill Morolan to do that. 

In the end, Vlad is always alone. 

-- 
John Dallman, jgd at cix.co.uk, HTML mail is treated as probable spam.