(urth) TWK: Mag & Stuff I Don't Understand About Dragons

Sun Mar 27 08:19:04 PST 2005

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Alan answers my questions:

>> 3. Why do Art and Setr have to battle their way up the stairs of
>> the Tower of Glas? Why doesn't Setr simply reveal himself to the
>> Khimarae and tell them to scram?
>
>This answer I'm almost sure of -- because he doesn't want Art to
>know who he
>is.  In the form of Garsceg he's got a pretty good chance of
>manipulating
>Art into helping him take over Aelfrice.  With his cover blown, it

>becomes
>much harder, as we see.

I agree this is pretty likely, but I still feel there might be
something else going on. Why not eg just tell Art to wait
somewhere, go to the tower & tell the K. to scram, and then come
back and get him? As it is, Setr goes a long way to blowing his
cover by changing into a kind of mini-dragon thing on the stairs.
Apart from anything else, it's really dangerous - Art almost get
killed - and I would have expected Setr to take a little bit more
care of things.

But maybe Setr's idea was to put Art in a position where Setr would
save his life, and so stregthen his hold over him. Art saving
himself would fit with the idea that Setr didn't realize just how
strong Art would become.

>
>> 4. Art asks Uri towards the end of Knight how Setr expects him
>to
>> kill Kulili, when Setr + a host of Aelf couldn't do it? (How
>would
>> you go about killing Kulili anyway?) He says he knows the answer

>to
>> his question, but I don't. Setr is terrified of Art after his
>> healing; so why did he heal him? Even if Art did kill her,
>wouldn't
>> it be a net loss for Setr - replacing one threat by a stronger
>one?
>> Why didn't he just eat Art when he was weak?
>
>Only in retrospect does it become obvious that Art would become a
>threat to
>Setr.  Keep in mind Setr seems to be locked into a stand-off with
>Kulili for
>a long time, and bringing in Art is his attempt to tip the balance

>with a
>wild card.  Of course he wants Art to be as strong as possible,
>and it helps
>that Art is coming from Mythgathr also.  I don't know for sure how

>Art
>thinks he can kill Kulili, but my guess is it would involve him
>using his
>power as an Overcyn and becoming as big as Kulili before he fights

>her.  As
>we know, he doesn't defeat her, and we know he doesn't break his
>promise to
>the Valfather at that time, so I think that supports the case
>also, since he
>didn't want to win.

But Art's conversation with Uri happens before he goes to Skai - he
doesn't know he's going to be an Overcyn at that point. I'm still
stuck on how you kill something that can decompose into a huge
swarm of worms and scatter; as Art says in the name-list at the
beginning of Wizard, this makes her "pretty hard to catch".

I have a hare-brained idea that maybe Setr intended Art to fail.
Having sworn to kill her, and failed, Art would be in Setr's debt.
Setr could then use him to help take over Mythgarthr. Recall the
offers he makes later - to be emperor of Mythgarthr etc. Art
himself wonders if he might be able to get out of his promise by
doing a few other favors for Setr, after his first meeting with
Kulili. Perhaps Setr never thought that the Aelf could defeat her,
either. Maybe his intention all along was for them to be decimated
and demoralized, and thus more easily ruled.