[Dragaera] Tiassa -- Chapter the Sixth vs Epilogue -- spoiler

[Scott Schultz]

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>Acknowledged by who?  [Paarfi is]  popular, certainly.

Er, well, that popularity doesn't count as acknowledgement? Color me
puzzled. 

>It provides a simple solution to a difficult problem - how does Paarfi know
what 
>he writes about?  It's acute wrt Vlad, who's likely dead at the time
Paarfi's writing (in the simplest scenario).

Consulting a magic oracle is a simpler solution than interviewing the
eyewitnesses? Even if Khaavren declined to be interviewed, Lady Saruchan is
available (barring mishap in the intervening years) and she would have  a
vested interest in the matter. Savn would even be available if Paarfi is not
too elitist to interview a Tekla.

>> In fact, there's this - Thanks to Devera, the Silver Tiassa is not 
>> pursuing a strictly linear path through time. Since Paarfi has 
>> stewardship  of the Tiassa before Vlad becomes its steward

>I think this is wrong.

How can it be wrong without Devera being a bold-faced liar to her sweet old
Uncle Vlad? Note that she avoided bringing Aliera into the matter because
she didn't want to have to explain or, presumably, lie about her possession
of the tiassa. What reason would she have to lie to Vlad about it when she
just told him the entire history of the dingus? (Sam Spade could have used a
Devera.)

>> Paarfi could NOT have used any
>> stored knowledge in the Tiassa to describe the events in Special Tasks.

>A chunk of a god wouldn't, presumably, be so constrained, if there were a
constraint.

Can you explain why you believe that a "chunk of a god" would be so
unconstrained? The eye and the hand ARE symbolic, just like everything in
the Paths and the Halls are symbolic. The Gods are symbols personified.
Avatars, if you will. Vlad comes to a reasonable conclusion about what the
symbols represent. Nobody in the story ever actively employs the tiassa as a
device. Even Savn is only shown to be carrying it with him. How do we jump
from passive artifact to magical scrying device?

The only time that we see it employed in an active sense is in Conception,
and we are never given a clear idea of just how it is employed. However it
works, the end result is not the least bit oracular.