Graydon wrote:If the hypothesized Torren Sword-Arm has been flung forward in time, getting them to Norfressa is much, much easier to explain. Stasis sort of implies they were transported in that state, presumptively in Wencit's luggage, which makes explaining where the Emperor went -- it's not like Wencit flew through O'Hare -- kinda difficult.
It's becoming overly complicated to imagine Torren both being flung forward in time and having his memory selectively adjusted, both to subtract identity and too much Kontovaran knowledge and to add relevant knowledge regarding Sothoii garottes and such. I think I'll go with someone contemporary, at least until other evidence surfaces.
Graydon wrote:Except Wencit's said they want wizardry to go away, or at least so I recall Warmaid's Choice. And the Carnadosians had to have got started somehow, and Wencit's been enforcing the strictures for the last fourteen hundred years. (Presumably on the basis of the continuing authority of either the Empire or the Council of Ottovar.)
Wencit's been enforcing the Strictures more or less in the way a Marshal in the Wild West enforced the law -- on an ad hoc basis as he can apply personal force.
Above, though, Wencit says "But, yes. I spoke the Word of Unbinding, yes, and freed the Council from the Strictures to let us strike our enemies." That sounds as though the Strictures had a certain amount of self-reinforcing power (although obviously not inerrant) power on their own, not as though Wencit just made a simple legal declaration that they were in exceptional circumstances.
It also depends, I suspect, more on what Semkirk wants (or is working towards) than on what Wencit wants. (Which raises the question: wizards are to Semkirk more or less what warriors are to Tomanak, or bards to Chesmirsa. What corresponds to a Champion of Tomanak?)
Graydon wrote:The big theme of this series is redemption; redemption of the Hradani in several respects through all the Bahzell books, the (social, at least) redemption of the War Maids, Vajon's personal redemption, there's a pile of examples.
Are we going to see a redeemed Carandosan sorcerer? We don't know why a group of people with lots of magical talent in the Ottavaran Empire wanted to escape the strictures. It's not impossible someone had a defensible reason, or that in a thousand years, someone is trying to overcome their cultural background and be basically decent.
It's worth remembering that Weber is a Methodist Lay Minister (who started out Episcopalian). As someone who's an Anglican with an (originally, pre-1926) Methodist minister as a grandfather that tells me a certain amount. Methodists don't tend to think in terms of things like the Fortunate Fall (more of a Catholic/Anglican trope) but they certainly think in terms of God bringing good out of evil, and very much in terms of personal redemption narratives. So, yes, redemption (as well as personal responsibility, which he's talked about as being a religiously inspired theme) is likely to be a continuing major theme here.