[Dragaera] Orca Reconsideration 1

[Sean Whalen]

--- On Sun, 2/7/10, Tom Foolery <tomasfoolery at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Tom Foolery <tomasfoolery at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Orca Reconsideration 1
To: "Sean Whalen" <stlatos at yahoo.com>
Cc: dragaera at lists.dragaera.info
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010, 3:04 PM

>>
  The list of shape-shifters we know of includes gods, demons,
were-beasts in the Paths of the Dead, and Sethra Lavode.  This suggests
that one way (possibly the only known) to shape-shift is to be from the
Paths of the Dead (or one of the types of being that lives there). 
This might be related to the ability to be in many places at once,
etc.  Divine abilities can be passed on (including being able to leave
the Paths), though they all might not be active without being "taught"
godhood, or only usable in certain places (such as Devera being able to
be in other places and times while unborn in the Paths), so I suggest
Sethra's
power is of similar origin.
>>

>
Pardon me if this was covered before, but to me the implications of
this paragraph and Vlad seem kind of staggering - especially
considering he isn't, by nature an Easterner, supposed to be able to
ever go there.
>

  Well, I believe it has been mentioned here that the real-world táltos is said to be able to travel to the world of the dead in a trance, etc. (in part from an origin in Eurasian shamanism), which might be the reason for naming the book _Taltos_, with the reasoning given in the book a sort of "fix" between the real-world mythology and the rules of Dragaera.

  As I understand it, the natural (?) rules prevent the soul of an Easterner from traveling to the Paths after death.  The anomaly in Deathgate Falls allowed physical movement to the Paths, regardless of whatever mystical ways to go there are possible (the main advantage of the anomaly, if it is meant to have one, seems to be allowing the bodies of the worthy to be sent over the Falls and allow their souls to take physical objects off their bodies and into the Paths).  So it isn't that Vlad, by his nature an Easterner, is unable to ever go there, but that the rules don't specify Easterners in any way.  Therefore, there were no rules on how to allow Easterners to come to the Paths, just as there were no rules on how to prevent Easterners from leaving the Paths.  Verra said Vlad's case was unclear, and he could leave just this once, so perhaps the Lords of Judgement changed the rules or made the rules more specific afterward.

  The name "Taltos" probably was meant to be equivalent to "witch".  I don't think Vlad is meant to have the powers of the types of being that live in the
Paths of the Dead because he was there or was able to travel there.  Those with the ability to be in many places at once may chose to be in the
Paths as one of those places to make it harder to die when only killed in one place, for some other advantage of the place (such as being near the Cycle or some other feature), or because it is the only spiritual place to gather (and the Lords of Judgement need to be there to judge souls, etc.).

>
What role would Vlad play in the Sethra-as-Merlin story idea?  Does he
even have a role?
>

  I haven't seen any parallel yet.  It's unlikely he was meant to have one, since that was background for the creation of the world, and Vlad was a character role-playing in it.