[Dragaera] not really a spoiler, i don't think...

[Damien Sullivan]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 12:00:47PM -0500, Eugene Zaretskiy wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Ray Lee <ray at madrabbit.org> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Eugene Zaretskiy <eugene.zar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> 1. While the power of incoming houses has been visibly demonstrated in
> >> the books, to my knowledge, none of the three points you bring up
> >> about outgoing houses have been.
> >
> > I believe Athyra was the previous house on the throne, correct? If so
> > -- thematically speaking, at least -- Loraan's state in the book
> > _Athyra_ perhaps echoes the house. Once here, once strong, then left
> > this plane ( / throne ) only to still be hanging around after death,
> > still surprisingly strong.
> 
> Interesting thematic observation. It's too weak to support Steve's
> explanations, however. Is Loraan's state ever tied to the Cycle? I
> don't recall anything like that, but if it's there, that would help.
> Even so, there would need to be specific mentions of why Loraan
> maintained this power as a result of his house's position in the Cycle
> in order to be able to tie it back to supporting the "mundane Cycle"
> theory.

I think it's more symbolic, author/text level, not literal in-universe
level. The Cycle isn't maintaining Loraan, but Loraan is symbolic of the
Athyra at this time -- passed, yet undead.

Interesting idea, anyway, though not as convincing as Vlad acting like
an Athyra with all the mind control witchcraft he was throwing around
casually and never tells us about in other books.

-xx- Damien X-)