Re: Yelmic Illumination

From: Simon Phipp <soltakss_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:01:02 -0000

David Cake:
> > DHS is not canonical despite its good quality. In particular the
> > Fortunate Succession's depiction of Karvanyar as a legitimate heir of
> > the last non-draconic Emperor is a fiction
>
> Do you think Karvanyar is not the son of Urvanyar, or that
> Urvanyar is not the son of Dismanthayar, or that Dismanthuyar was
> not a legitimate emperor, or that all of this does not add up to
> him being a legitimate heir to Karvanyar?

That's the beauty of having to prove descent - other people might oppose the proof. The Emperor's Tests were put in place partly to counter false claimants.

> Because Karvanyar as 'the Poor Woman's Son' is of course an issue
> of legitimacy, but otherwise it seems straightforward enough.

The Red Emperor seems to have used the Poor Woman's Son as a HeroQuest to create The Conquering Daughter while in hiding from Sheng Seleris.

> > while I strongly doubt that
> > the Dragon Sun's reign over Dara Happa was in any way illegitimate.
>
> I don't think Dara Happa Stirs tries to represent the reign of the
> Dragon Emperor as particularly illegitimate, just deeply unpopular
> with traditionalists - rather, it is only once the dragon itself
> conveniently shows it rejects true Justice that it becomes
> vulnerable.

The beauty of the Dragon Sun was that it passed all the Tests and was therefore the Emperor by all definitions. The fact that the Darra Happans couldn't understand how it passed the tests was beside the point.