[Dragaera] The Desecrator [spoilers]

[Jon Lincicum]

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----- "Philip Hart" <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:

> 
> Perhaps the difference is that the gods or the Cycle or fate declared
> that Godslayer/Pathfinder would go to soul-siblings Vlad/Aliera, while
> Telnan just happened to be the most recent Dzur to knock on Sethra's
> door so he's the one she set up.

It's not clear at all to me that Sethra expected Telnan to find a GW. 
Certainly, she sent him to find /something/ unusual, but I think it's a 
stretch to say that we know that she a) knew that a GW in particular was the 
"blip" she had detected, or that b) it would bond with Telnan, rather than 
simply destroy him (as it nearly did). 

There's the line about sending him "to find something he'd lost" (ambiguous
Sethra phrasing if ever I've seen it), so it's clear she knew that somehow it
was important that Telnan himself go, not some other person (herself, 
Morrolan, Khaavren, etc). 

But this reminds me more of how she knew there was something up with 
Spellbreaker, without knowing exactly what it was. Or how Verra knew it
was important to get a vial of Vlad's blood at one point, without knowing
why, exactly. Or that Kiera would know it was important to give that Vial 
to Vlad. 

> Also, the swords are aimed at the gods in particular ways - presumably
> Nightslayer has some property like pathfinding or spellbreaking which
> is of particular usefulness, and "not the least clue" could refer to
> that.

In the prelude to /Dzur/ Telnan gives a literal translation of Nightslayer's
Serioli name, "Loci for different levels of energy from various planes of 
existence" which sounds very much like what The Necromancer talks about in 
/Dragon/ to me. Seems to imply Necromantic powers. 

> > Zungaron has no idea what to do with Nightslayer, he just likes to
> > randomly kill people with it. I'll bear this in mind next time I
> > re-read /Dzur/. He's not annoyed because he's being denied a heroic
> > death, he's being annoyed because he doesn't get to kill anyone. :)
> 
> 
> I take it this is tongue in cheek, but there is a clear conflict of 
> interests between weapon and wielder, and surely that will lead to 
> conflict at some point.

Prelude to /Dzur/ again, where Telnan talks to Vlad about "what everybody 
knows about the Great Weapons". He mentions a struggle for control. This 
appears to imply that this struggle is part of the fundamental basis of the
relationship between any GW and its wielder.

Majikjon