[Dragaera] Is Kelly foolish?

[Scott Schultz]

From: dragaera-bounces at lists.dragaera.info
[mailto:dragaera-bounces at lists.dragaera.info] On Behalf Of Jerry Friedman

> > The problem is that it's all supposition and we don't really know 
> > the whole story anyway. To hear Aliera tell things, Adron wasn't 
> > trying to grab control of the Orb, he was trying to break the Cycle, 
> > which probably means that he was attempting to destroy it.
...

>Where's that?

When Aliera is reborn in the Halls of Judgement, in _Taltos_.

--------
Aliera nodded, and I saw a tear in her eye. She said very quietly, “It is
the reign of a reborn Phoenix, isn’t it?”
Morrolan nodded, seeming to understand.
“I told him it would be,” she said. “A Great Cycle—seventeen Cycles; it had
to be a reborn Phoenix. He wouldn’t listen to me. He thought it was the end
of the Cycle, that a new one could be formed. He—”
“He created a sea of chaos, Aliera.”
“What?”
I decided that “he” referred to Adron. I doubted that he was to be found in
these regions.
--------

Reading that now, I'd say that destroying the Orb probably was NOT on the
agenda. I had thought that I remembered Aliera, upon hearing that Zerika was
the last Phoenix, saying that Adron had succeeded after all, but she only
comments that the Cycle is broken, from the look of things.

In any case, she makes it clear that Adron wasn't just trying to "turn" the
Cycle. He was trying to break or remake it, which amounts to almost the same
thing as breaking it.

>I agree that for the reasons you gave (and I snipped), it's hard to see how
the rebels in Phoenix could have been close to winning, but Steven can >make
it any way he wants, and he might eventually tell us how it worked.

I think that "winning" is relative. Kelly's crew wanted control of South
Adrilankha and concessions that, on the face of them, were a matter of
simple justice. The primary resistance was the Guard, which is more or less
a police force. It's not as if they were trying to invade the Palace and
tear it down. 

There are almost certainly many more Easterners than Guardsmen. If they had
support from the Teckla and Orca in the area as well, then they'd stand a
decent chance of ejecting the Guard. Especially if the Warlord was concerned
with a looming war with Greenaire and Elde Island, rather than the posturing
of a bunch of Easterner rabble.