runsforcelery wrote:PeterZ wrote:This disproves your premise.
When Lilinara give Geyrfessa her sight back, she states point blank that the past cannot be changed. Wencit going back would have changed everything. He was a central figure in the Fall of the Old Empire. He shaped events. He couldn't do that if he was from the future. Besides, if that past required a character from he future to create it, then the characters that shape that time have no free will. All their choices will have been set in stone to create their present and Wencit's past.
As for Wencit going back in time, I got the impression that he could travel back to see the past happening but not actually live and interact in the past.Michael Everett wrote:I downloaded War Maid's Choice this morning. I have finished it and... Oh, Weber, you clever, clever, clever bastard! (Please note, that was in a tone of pure admiration)
What has me so impressed? The revelation about Wencit.
Seriously. If you have not read the book, READ NO FURTHER
I MEAN IT!
SERIOUSLY, STOP NOW AND GO BACK TO THE FORUMS!
Fine...
Let me note several important facts that Weber has put into the War God series in no particular order...
The children of a Human/Hradani pairing will have super-long lifespans and probably gain the power of wizardry. however, such children are sterile.
Wencit has been alive for at least 12 centuries.
Wencit has a soft spot for Hradani.
Bazhell and Leanna are married, and Leanna is happy to have kids.
Bazhell can tap into true Wild Wizardry (but can't control it, only direct the blast).
Wizards can travel backwards in time under certain circumstances.
Wencit takes an extremely dim view of anyone targeting Leanna.
Wencit is holding at least one permanent glamour on himself, possibly more.
Has anyone else put these things together?
My current theory?
Wencit is the son of Bazhell and Leanna. Born under a different name, he was tutored in the arts of Wizardry by his older self and, when he became old enough, he travelled back in time (with Tomonak's aid) to set in motion the events which denied the Dark their planned victory in Kontovar and thus set in motion the events which would lead to the colonisation of Norfressa and eventually his birth...
STABLE TIME LOOP!
I haven't been able to find anything that disproves this, but... if I'm right... [admiration]oh David, you clever, clever, scheming, pre-planning bastard![/admiration]
Wow. Just... wow.
Uh, I don't mean to be difficult, and I ain't a-sayin' anyone is right or anyone is wrong, but:
(1) I have never said the Strictures of Ottovar preclude time travel. On the other hand, Wencit has said that while time travel is possible for some wizards, only a lunatic would do it, specifically because the past is mutable. (There are some sidebars to that which I don't think have been discussed in the books, but since I'm basing the magic in Orfressa on quantum physics with non-physical means of manipulation, you can probably figure out what some of them are.)
(2) The gods have never said that changing the past is impossible for them. What Tomanak has said more than once is that the gods will not change the past. It's a hard and fast rule they won't break (in that since, it is a case of "can't" be changed, but only because the rule is unbreakable) because there would be no way to control where it all ended if they started mucking around with time. It's sort of like Mutually Assured Destruction --- the same reason the gods don't casually go around intervening so powerfully in any given universe that they might destroy it. Don't forget that they are as captive to time as mortals now, and that even they have no way of knowing how many of the fractured universes resulting from Orr's splintered creation can be destroyed before the entire thing falls apart forever as unhealable.
I have to say it's interesting reading the speculation on this thread. Of course, like Wencit, I have absolutely no intention of telling you whether or not you're even warm.
I will say Toni has agreed that my next solo project with Baen with be the first volume of the series which brings the war between Kontovar and Norfressa into the open and ends it once and for all. At the moment, I'm projecting it as a 5-volume series, and in this case, I don't expect it to grow much beyond that because I have a very tightly plotted story arc already written down and ready to go.
Couple of things:
1) about Toni having agreed that your next solo project is going to be the first novel of the series... YAY!!! (otoh, I am wondering just how many irons you got in the fire at the moment... and I wonder when the next Honor book (2d Part of A Rising Thunder will be published)
2) I said so on the Baen forums, I shall say so here: The prologue was awesome, as it explained the fight between Light and Dark, the limitations of the Gods etc... in a totally coherent fashion. Kudos to you!
3) Do you plan at some point (in the books) to drop some more details on the Artifacts of the House of Ottovar? :-) We know about the Crown (albeit it seems to have been lost, would have to do a reread to be sure) and we know that the Sword of the South exists, even though we don't know exactly what it does.