[Dragaera] Paarfi's Whitewash of Adron

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: Alexx Kay <alexx at panix.com>
> To: scott at cjhunter.com
>>  Getting back to Paarfi - I'd need to get my books to quote something, 
> but
>>  he
>>  writes that when the Orb came back online, that it circled mournfully over
>>  Tortaalik's body, and then it searched out the next appropriate 
> candidate
>>  for Emperor and it chose Adron, setting the feedback loop into effect.
> 
> You misremember.
> 
> FH, p.425: The Orb was once again floating—only now above the Emperor's
> body, emitting grey for mourning while it interrogated the Cycle and
> searched, in its own way, for the new Emperor; Aliera disengaged her arm
> from Mario and took the Orb into her hands, saying, "I claim the Orb and
> the throne in the name of my father, Adron e'Kieron. The Reign of the
> Phoenix is over, and the Reign of the Drag—" she stopped, and a puzzled
> look crossed her features. The Orb began to emit red sparks. Aliera let
> go, but it stayed where it was, only now there were blue and green sparks
> as well, and these became brighter, larger, and more frequent. Then,
> abruptly, it stopped, and became the Orb again, glowing white and angry.
> 
> The Orb doesn't physically travel to Adron (or anyone else).  And its
> reaction to Aliera's claim sure doesn't read to me like passive 
> agreement.

First, I don't think Scott misremembered so much.  Nothing specifies 
that the Orb was circling, but it did search out the next Emperor and I'll argue that it did choose Adron, somehow or other.

Also, I don't think it's clear whether the Orb's reaction is passive 
agreement.  Maybe it did agree that Adron was the new Emperor, which 
caused the division by zero (I may have unconsciously remembered Scott's
 jokes about that), and the resulting error condition caused Aliera's 
puzzlement and letting go and the sparks, followed by the Orb's anger 
now that it's too late.  If we take "angry" as literal (and how would 
Paarfi know?) rather a way of saying that it would look as if the 
Emperor were angry, maybe it was angry at Adron for making it choose him
 and thus causing the destruction of the Empire.

Here's where I disagree with you, Alexx, and with Scott.  The book makes
 it clear that the Cycle doesn't coincide perfectly with the holder of 
the Orb.  In Chapter 10, Khaavren thinks about the state of the Empire 
when neither the Emperor nor the Prime Minister has his mind on his job:
 "If I were the Dragon Heir, I should take it as a sign the cycle had 
turned, and march into the city with--"

In Chapter 24, Adron talks with Aerich about what he's doing.

"'It is not rebellion if the cycle has turned, my dear Lyorn.'

"'On the contrary,' said Aerich, 'Rebellion is exactly rebellion, until it succeeds, which is how one knows the cycle has turned.'"

Later,

"'It is possible that I shall simply win against His Majesty.... Do you know what that would signify?'

"'That the cycle has turned, and Your Highness is meant to have the Orb.'"

In Chapter 25, Sethra suggests that Tortaalik "'abdicate the throne and give the Orb to the House of the Dragon, accepting that the Cycle has turned...'"

So if the characters believe Tortaalik can still be the Emperor and have the Orb although the Cycle has turned, I'd believe Vlad that someone new can gain control of the Orb and be the Emperor although the Cycle hasn't turned yet.  In the timeline, Alexx, you wrote, "Tazendra (and Adron's) understanding of what is going on is almost 
certainly mistaken.  The Cycle has not actually turned, so Adron is not 
truly Emperor."  But I don't think this follows--Adron could have briefly been the Emperor, enough to cause the paradox, even though events two hundred years later proved the Cycle hadn't turned.

The parts where the position of the Cycle can't be determined till after the fact sound rather like Schroedinger's Cat.  We could also imagine that while Adron was briefly Emperor, the Cycle was in some superposition state of Phoenix and Dragon, which was resolved only when Zerika regained the Orb and then confirmed each time Kana's attacks failed.

There's still the question of how active or passive a role the Orb takes.  It must at least check that the new Emperor is of the right House.  If Mario had picked up the Orb and claimed it, presumably he wouldn't have been the Emperor.

Beyond that, I don't think we know anything.  In particular, we don't know whether the Orb took into account that Aliera claimed it for her father.  We don't know whether it can reject whoever the House considers its legitimate Heir.  We don't know what happens if a rebel defeats the Emperor militarily, as both Adron and Kana hoped to do.  Can the successful heir just take the Orb by force, because it recognizes that the cycle has turned or is about to turn?  Can the Orb ever hold out and keep protecting the defeated Emperor?  Can it go to a new Emperor of the current House?

Scott mentioned the story of Jamiss I, the Vallista engineer who was supervising the building of the Palace (/Phoenix Guards/, Chapter 3).  He took the Orb's failure to protect his predecessor from falling masonry [*] as a sign that the cycle had turned, and claimed the Orb.  But we don't know how the House of the Vallista determines who its Heir is.  Maybe he was already the Heir (and maybe that's connected with his having this top job), or maybe the Vallista lets anyone claim the Orb who can, or maybe the Orb took his claim into account in letting him replace the legitimate Heir.

By the way, the text says Jamiss's reign "encompassed, in its nine hundred years, the entirety of the Reign of the House of the Vallista in the First Cycle".  This strongly suggests that an Emperor can succeed another of the same House in one Reign.

[*] Suspicious indeed, as when the scullery boy in /Bored of the Rings/ became Steward of Twodor after the last king and several of his relatives fell or threw themselves backward on salad forks.

Jerry Friedman




alik "at once abdicate the throne and give the Orb to the House of the  here?