[Dragaera] Is Kelly foolish?

[Louis Eastman]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:23 PM, Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com> wrote:

> >with numbers? Did the Guard get caught off Guard? Did they have the aid of
> trained fighters?
> >I think the most likely reason is that Zerika hesitated to crush them and
> if the sailors
> >hadn't changed sides, the Cycle would've changed and Norathar would've
> crushed them.
> >All that aside, Zerika wasn't willing to use the Orb. If she had, battle
> over, game Imperium.
>
> Given that the Orb can be used as a weapon but practically speaking is
> rarely used as such, it raises the question "Why?".  Maybe the use of the
> Orb in such a fashion has consequences that are harmful, undesirable, or
> otherwise unpalatable. As you rightfully point out, Tortaalik had a
> full-blown revolution on his hands and he didn't burn out Adron's brain
> with
> the Orb.
>
> It might be argued that Mario iced him before he had a chance to act. 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. The description of what happened
> vis-à-vis the consequences of Mario's assassination of Tortaalik could very
> well be true, just the same. That's the kernel of truth at the core of
> Paarfi's colorful and genteel prose. Khaavren might know, but we don't get
> to hear the story directly from him and it seems likely that it's a story
> he
> doesn't relate to anyone who can't command him to relate it.
>
> I think, in any case, that it's incorrect to assume that the Orb gives it's
> wielder much in the way of omniscience. It's a tool and in some cases, a
> weapon. It's probably a weapon similar to the way that a flail or a scythe
> are weapons, in that you can hurt or kill someone effectively with them but
> their primary purpose is an agricultural labor-saving device.
>
> There's no indication that the Emperor even has the ability to sever
> someone's link to the Orb. When the Orb reappears at the end of the
> Interregnum, it effectively touches the minds of everyone who ever had a
> link to it and that link is re-established as a simple decision on the part
> of the individual who had the link. The establishment of a new link doesn't
> seem to be any particularly big deal, aside from following House protocols,
> and it had nothing at all to do with Zerika or her desires in the matter of
> who or who should not be allowed to establish a link.
>
> My point being that the Emperor doesn't appear to have any particular
> involvement in these affairs just by virtue of being the Emperor. The orb
> is
> not a genie's lamp that lets him do whatever he wishes at his mere whim.
> The
> Athyra Emperor may be able to perform miracles with it, but your typical
> Emperor may be able to use it primarily to detect lies and tell time and
> not
> much else. Kana wasn't so much worried about being killed by Zerika if he
> accepted a link, as he was concerned that his intentions would then be
> discernable to her.
>
> Imagine if the Emperor COULD burn out everyone's brain, but that he had to
> do it one person at a time, and he had to overcome each individual's mental
> defenses in the process. That makes it potentially very dangerous on a
> small
> scale but basically useless on a large scale. It also implies a command of
> sorcery that your average Emperor may not actually possess.
>
> Tortaalik, a decadent Phoenix, may have avoided burning out Adron's brain
> simply because he was incapable, either of the spell itself  or, more
> likely, simply lacking the power for battering down the defenses of a
> master
> sorcerer who is prepared for such an eventuality and is also armed with
> pre-Empire sorcery.
>
>
The knowledge on how to burn out someone's brain would be recorded in the
Orb, along with all the knowledge of previous Emperors. The seventh Jhereg
emperor used it, and Jhereg are not renowned for sorcery. It would also be
foolish for one of the more skilled Emperors not to record how to utilize
the Orb. Additionally, your tool analogy is insufficient- this is a device
that nullifies natural disasters and is on par with the most powerful Great
Weapons and presumably exceeds the lesser ones, among its many other
functions. I don't believe Zerika could wave her hand and destroy everyone
opposing her in the Siege-the Orb can't tell when Vlad is selling it the
Chain Bridge- but frankly if any of the Orb's hype is true it doesn't really
matter how many Teckla/Easterners there are, if they directly fight the Orb
and they're not next in line in the Cycle, they lose.

I suspect using the Orb directly is effectively taking control of the Empire
for a moment, and causes havoc politically due to the interests of the
Houses being shoved to the curb.

It seems remarkably foolish of Zerika the First to not have conceived of the
ability to sever links to the Orb. What happens if you get kicked out of a
House? Or do exactly what Adron did and try and destroy the Cycle?

Additionally, and this would probably earn me a look from Ms. Manners, but
the rebels winning seems to have no basis in fact, unless it was shaping up
to be a Pyrrhic victory. They're sorcerously inadequate at best, they have
very little experience with weapons, they're not organized like an army is.
Sure, they have revolutionary fervor but a good amount of them are going to
be chewed up by Blackwand/Iceflame, and watching a few hundred of your
comrades get their souls eaten is in the top ten demoralizing things. In
addition to that, the Palace was under siege, which means jack squat when
you have teleportation. All the supplies you need could be teleported in, as
well as additional troops since the headquarters of the Phoenix Guard in
within the Palace, and it's mandatory to serve in the Guard for Dragons. The
office might be taken, but the point I'm making is clear that a prolonged
siege would end in defeat for the rebels. I really don't see how they could
be any threat at all unless they managed a surprise attack while most of the
Guard was isolated from each other.