More Questions from an L.E. Modesitt Fan

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gollum
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Post by gollum »

Locke wrote:I'm looking for a certain quote. I think Werlyn said it in The Death of Chaos or The Order War, though I could be wrong. It went something like "Each song is sung a last time, when it regains its power and purity." I remember the actual quote flowing much more smoothly; I'm mangling it and it's been bugging me for awhile now. If you'd be so kind as to post it, I'd certainly appreciate it.
I think it's 'tDoC', though I haven't got my copy here to check.
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Post by lmodesitt »

From The Death of Chaos [mass market], Chapter LXXVIII
"All songs are sung a last time," offered the old singer. "A last time when the words regain their purity and power."
Page 381.


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Post by Locke »

Thank you!
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Post by Lucent »

This just hit me, I was always wondering if Werlyn is Nylans son and if so, man he lived a long time.

The whole Gray mage interlocking ther order and chaos to live forever thing was interesting. I must admit I always wished Cerryl could of learned that trick, seems it would of made the world a better place for em if he had, but then Justin never would of melted fairhaven and perhaps Lerris wouldn't of ever needed to Lock the free chaos and order of the world into the balance. boo
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Post by fortyseven »

Greys don't live forever. Druids don't even live forever.
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Post by gollum »

Lucent wrote:This just hit me, I was always wondering if Werlyn is Nylans son and if so, man he lived a long time.
...
All manner of speculation on Werlyn/Nylan & others... viewtopic.php?t=113431&start=0
Last edited by gollum on Sat Sep 08, 2007 4:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Lucent »

fortyseven wrote:Greys don't live forever. Druids don't even live forever.
If you remember when Justen showed Gunner how to interlock the choas and order by demonstating on the turtle Gunner made the comment that Justin had just made the turtle imortal, and Justin said it might live forever but could still be killed or eaten by a preditor.

-Matt
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Post by CodeBlower »

Lucent wrote:
fortyseven wrote:Greys don't live forever. Druids don't even live forever.
If you remember when Justen showed Gunner how to interlock the choas and order by demonstating on the turtle Gunner made the comment that Justin had just made the turtle imortal, and Justin said it might live forever but could still be killed or eaten by a preditor.

-Matt
gollum is better at finding previous discussions but, I believe - somewhere in here, we had a rambling conversation along this line and there was something brought up (maybe by Mr. Modesitt) that Lerris changed a few of these rules. Also, I think that Gunner and Justen (at the time of that conversation) were pretty new to the whole "management of the balance of chaos and order" .. and may have thought something was true that later they found to be dependant on several other variables.

Or .. quite possibly .. I'm insane .. do you happen to remember better than I, g-man?
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Post by gollum »

CodeBlower wrote:gollum is better at finding previous discussions but, I believe - somewhere in here, we had a rambling conversation along this line and there was something brought up (maybe by Mr. Modesitt) that Lerris changed a few of these rules. Also, I think that Gunner and Justen (at the time of that conversation) were pretty new to the whole "management of the balance of chaos and order" .. and may have thought something was true that later they found to be dependant on several other variables.
As you said, there is a rambling discussion - and it's all over the place ... so I'll just venture my own opinion - feel free to shoot me down if I'm wrong.

Justen said "Besides, just because its system is ordered without chaos, that doesn't make it immortal"
... he did add that it was easier with water creatures - see The Basis of Order here & here

In the same conversation with Gunnar...
"And by the way, dealing with chaos unravels the effect rather quickly."
"How quickly?"
"Unless you rebuild the order image of your body within a few days, death is not far away. Something about the body knowing how old it really is."

As for Lerris changing the rules, he did lock away all the free order and chaos that those "ancients" reliant on the order/chaos balance used/manipulated to live longer lives.
CodeBlower wrote:Or .. quite possibly .. I'm insane ..
You may well be ... I'm not qualified to judge :P
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Post by Lucent »

Good point there Gollum, I was actually just picking my brain when I put that statement up. As we all know when it comes to reading sometimes we read what we want to see and remember it the way we interpreted the situation. Of course going back and referencing it now I see that my memory and statement was hair brained lol.

/slap, the new guy :oops:
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Post by CodeBlower »

No slapping required.

I know I like having my brain picked too now and then ... and ... that whole discussion (obviously, from gollum's thorough answer) has been of interest to several of us ..

*My* memory's bad enough that I usually rely on others to help me reconsider stuff .. even completely aside from the whole notion that I get a lot more out of some of these books after I've heard others' opinions of different events / places / people.

(I usually have to re-read every couple years too. When I finally get beyond the "Magic" series, that's gonna add up to quite a RE-read ..)
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Post by gollum »

For more on Immortality (or being effectively immortal) read Gravity Dreams, and the paired works - The Parafaith War [see one viewpoint in the Farhkan Colloquy] & The Ethos Effect

Note: tPW & tEE can definitely be read stand-alone, though I suggest reading them in that order ... cultural background, timelines, Farhkans, etc.

--Greg

EDIT: Ahhh, almost forgot - also read The Forever Hero series (available now in an Omnibus edition) for a not so rosy picture of immortality ... saying any more would be a spoiler. :wink:
EDIT: added links to the IBDoF book entries in the database.
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Post by ironwill96 »

Yay, coming back to a topic I started over 3 years ago! I am still reading and loving Modesitt's work. Just finished Flash finally last week (very little time to read of late!) and can't wait to read the 2 new Recluce books (am going to wait for the 2nd one to come out so I can read both back to back - i'm impatient in that respect!).

Thanks for keeping in touch with your readers over the years Mr. Modesitt and me and my friends still love your work! After seeing your comments on how Flash is a prequel for Archform: Beauty it made more sense why I thought the setting seemed similar to another of your books but couldn't quite place where!
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Post by Mantyluoto »

I'm not sure if this has been asked before so i'll ask now. Most of the stories run for two books per character, except for Creslin. Is there plans to go back and do another Creslin book?
ive got a signature but its unreadable most of the time :D
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Creslin

Post by lmodesitt »

Actually, there are three characters who appear as major characters only in a single book: Creslin, Dorrin, and Justen.

At this point, I have no plans to write a second book about any of them. While I haven't foreclosed any possibilities absolutely, a second book about Creslin is highly unlikely.


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Post by Spectralfire »

I never imagined Werlyn was Nylan's son i always thought he would be a grandson or great grandson... does anyone know if modesitt has replied to this question before? I'm sure it gets talked about all the time.
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Post by lmodesitt »

This has gotten scrambled. Weryl -- not Werlynn -- is Nylan's son.


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Post by Spectralfire »

i was referring to Lucent's post saying:

This just hit me, I was always wondering if Werlyn is Nylans son and if so, man he lived a long time.

I was sure they weren't the same guy but, the names are so similar and druids have long life-spans, and werlynn is a druid it would not be crazy if he was weryl's son or grandson. Is the case?
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Post by Spectralfire »

sorry i just read the link gollum placed and i saw modesitt say that creslin is a direct descendant of nylan so no replies necessary
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Post by BobH »

I'm curious about what a "ryall" is (as in the Recluce flag). Did a few searches and came up blank. It seems familiar but I can't place it.
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Ryall

Post by lmodesitt »

The ryall is a flower, similar to the fleur-de-lis, except that the tips of the petals are rounded, rather than pointed. It's always depicted in black and white, and there are references to it as the emblem of Recluce in a number of the books.


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Post by BobH »

Thank you, Mr. Modesitt!

This flower seems to be disappearing from the lexicon - perhaps the plant is disappearing? The only reference I've found on the internet is in some Old English herbalist texts, though the word is not unheard of as a family name of english descent.

Do you have a back story in mind on your selection of this as an emblem for Recluce? In my mind it creates a hint of swashbuckling romance. :) (I may go back and re-read "Towers" to find some history.)

Bob
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Post by Telonius »

I have a question regarding eight days, seasons, and years in Recluce. Because they use the eight day week instead of the seven day week, how many eight days are there per season/year? Is it still a ~365 days per year or is it a completely different length?
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Seasons, etc.

Post by lmodesitt »

I was operating on an 8 day week, with 10 weeks in a season, and five seasons in the year.

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Post by CodeBlower »

Do the seasons have names/purposes?

(I guess it'd never occurred to me before that you could have anything except four seasons. Although, I don't rightly know why I would think such.)
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The gelding is what the gelding is, unlike people who change in response to their perceptions of events that may benefit or threaten their power. -- Lorn, Chapter LXXXII, Magi'i of Cyador
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