[Dragaera] Orca Reconsideration 1

[Tom Foolery]

>   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.


Thing is, isn't Vlad's soul recycled?  He was in deathgate falls, was
he not, in soul form?  He was then returned to life as an easterner,
if I recall Jhereg correctly (though I may be misremembering).
Wouldn't that make him a very interesting case, not withstanding what
has happened since he returned to life?

>
>   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.).

I am not so sure I agree with the idea of Taltos meaning witch (or
rather, ONLY that) - I see Vlad, overall, as being a catalyst for
change, as he embodies the cycle throughout his life as an easterner
(the more he changes things, the more things stay the same).  Maybe
it's punishment, or maybe it's his role which makes him a special
case. Plus, isn't there evidence that memories have been altered and
changed - also touching on the evidence of the changes that Vlad dealt
with in the paths?

I don't know, I feel like I am tickling an idea that may very well
been well trod (or full of bunk).

>
>>
> 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.
>

Me either, but I was hoping.

Thanks for the reply.