and every time so far, after some of these tests but not all, takenegi/moonson's unique person-bits are made manifest and incarnate. ever since sheng killed off a bunch of the original egi some of moonson is different each time he becomes manifest. so some of moonson's unique self is continuous, and some discontinuous... varying. the egi might vary, but moonson/takenegi seems to vary independently of the makeup of the egi.
the ten tests don't seem to have any effect on moonson's incarnation. they are only taken after moonson establishes his identity with everyone who needs convincing.
by the way, takenegi implies that the egi took something. what did they take, and what does it have to do with moonson incarnate? could it have anything to do with his body? we know that the lunars and the egi in particular are able to take normal people and infuse them with the stuff of magic and chaos and somehow transform them into demigods and gods and the like. they did it with the first takenegi. could the process of creating the new moonson have something to do with that ability?
in addition, moonson/takenegi does not always appear at the center of a ritual summoning circle as directed by heroes, demigods, deities, the egi and friends. he appears in the lunar empire, so far, but that's about the only requirement. there's no need to assume that the egi or anyone else have infallible control over how and where and when he manifests. perhaps his unique self chooses a form to inhabit that best fits his next life. perhaps the form he inhabits influences him. perhaps the coupling works both ways. it's not something you can determine as an observer, and it isn't something that moonson himself could answer meaningfully, since if he was influenced by his base form then error is possible and if error is possible then it's possible in lots of things.
in fact, the fact that moonson sometimes chooses to destroy his current mask and take a new one implies that the mask is important, and that the mask influences moonson's unique self. he can't simply reform it into a new mask, but needs to scatter the old one and go through hell, literally, to manifest into the new one.
combine the influence of the corpus of the mask with the varying goals of his unique self and there is no reason to suppose that takenegi/moonson might not manifest as a shoe salesman named albundi who hates shoes and everything about them and spends his time grousing and watching porn, and then spend the rest of the manifestation/incarnation living a small life without taking the emperor tests or even letting anyone know that he's manifest. in the meantime the egi and everybody else are wondering why all their rituals went so well and seemed to climax only to fizzle out. and now, their rituals are fruitless... none of them are working at all, as if the moonson were back as emperor again.
did moonson manifest a brand new albundi body and personality, or did he inhabit a pre-existing albundi body and personality, that appears to be the crux of the argument between Martin and everybody else. imho, it makes a lot more sense for moonson to inhabit a pre-existing body and personality. he has 6 other equally important soul-parts to differentiate himself from a hopped up version of the body/person. i know that if tomorrow i were 6/7ths different from myself today that my wife and everyone around me would notice. it would be as if i were a completely new man, and only a small reminder of the former me would remain. not only is the composite moonson/takenegi sufficiently unique, but it also doesn't multiply entities needlessly. thanks to william of occam.
this is consistent with the stories about moonson/takenegi. it is also different from pharoah, as pharoah's self completely suppresses the old self. it is also different from the emperors of kralorela, who are created out of whole cloth when the old emperor dies. when the old emperor dies, the new dragon-emperor is born and the mandarins search him out. sometimes it takes a long time to find him and he is a retired belt-buckle salesman before they submit him to the tests.
back to moonson, there are plenty of other masks he might have incarnated into if he wanted to hide. he could have become a demon of the fifth hell. he could have become an intelligent fish of the oslir. he could have become a hollri, a broo, a vampire, an ogre, a walktapus, an evil sorceror, or anything he wants, in any world that is part of the lunar empire. he could even have inhabited the dreamworld, by incarnating as the dreams of his subjects. the possibilities are endless, and do not require any restriction whatsoever of takenegi/moonson's unique self-ness or his freedom of action.
that is why i agree with the world against Martin's Greggly position. moonson is reborn as takenegi when his mortal vessel is chosen and taken. the mortal so chosen remains, but is a much smaller personality than moonson, so seems to have a minor effect on the composite self that is the new emperor.
cheers,
Loren
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