>> the Battle of ?Water beats Fire?;
>Tanien's Victory?
Nope, the one in the Entekosiad. Blew up one of the volcanos to form a lake (?Lake Oronin?) - but my mind is clouded by lack of sleep and distance from my books and the need to be at work.
>> Fire and Air are *not* inherently superior to each other
>One would be forgiven for thinking otherwise. In Praxian elemental
>dominance, Thunderbird always defeats Sun Hawk; Orlanth's slaying
>of Yelm seems as clear an example of elemental succession as one could
>wish. The "vicious circle of five" may hold true in some instances (I
>wonder if the Broken Council, the Kaethelans or the God Learners are
>to blame for this one?), but I don't think it holds universally true.
>(Indeed, one might argue over how universal the five elements are.)=20
Ah, a little background, I was working off a quick sketch and chat with Greg (detailing the birth of the elements and the "superiority" circle). This may be a more recent Greg Theory than the Three Feathered Rivals (he has had a few more years to greg himself...). He seemed to indicate that the "VCo5" was pretty universal.
Orlanth was able to slay Yelm with "Something New (tm)" and, as we have seen from the various Unfinished Manuscripts, it was not all done as told by the Orlanthi. Now if Wachaza or Magasta or some other Big Water Diety had killed Yelm, we might not have seen the Sun again... I will admit that Greg's earlier works do not have the VCo5 as prominent in them (well, Fire beats Darkness is there...) but his later works (the Unfinished manuscripts) tend more along those lines.
Roderick
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