Chris Lemens
> Maybe, but I see his magic as being giantish, not draconic. He can fight draconic things using echoes of the war between the giants and the dragons.
True...
Still makes me wonder what brand of mysticism (or probably failed mysticism) Jaldon acquired. Sheng Seleris underwent a Kralori method of extreme austerities, which may or may not have had underlying draconic elements. As a Praxian, Jaldon was surrounded by mystical methods - EWF schools of draconic mysticism and short cuts, Kralori/God Learner schools of short cuts, Teshnan mystics, and Godunya for orthodox Darudism. Not sure whether Sun County had some brand of Solar mysticism available, too.
Pavis City was fairly free of strong mystical activities. Judging by the role of e.g. Opili, the magical researchers there were strongly into the Genert revival project, maybe with Tada as a side order. That may remind us of other divine rebirth programs (Dorastor, Rinliddi, effectively also the EWF overdragon with the Oslir as backbone and the Rockwoods as the wings, mentioned in older sources), but may have been more harmless like the efforts of the Unity Council in the Silver Age. Most people of Pavis rather followed their own purposes - internal power struggles, keeping out the nomads.
(Maybe the Unity Council efforts were only "more harmless" because there was no Compromise and no Time yet? The magical effect combined with the Lightbringer Quest activities and corroboration in other quarters was several magnitudes greater.)
I wonder what would become of the Praxian beast nomads if someone succeeded in returning Genert's fertility to the land. Would they become semi-civilized overlords of numerous agricultural people with Waha only a quaint survival cult of the ancestors? Those clans who settled in Dara Happa went the way of acculturation, except for the Sables of Kostaddi who had their carefully maintained chaparral reservate atop Hungry Plateau.
Back to Jaldon: he uses some tooth magic. Other known tooth magicians of the era are Varankol the Mangler and Ingolf Dragonfriend, both in the EWF. (Ingolf used the war teeth after Jaldon gnawed at the Pavis walls. Varankol possibly led the Aramites into accepting their Tusker steed tusks making them into the "half-troll"-like demihumans.) Teeth remain a hot topic in Pavis afterwards, with Argrath of Pavis providing the tooth part for Argrath White Bull (possibly the Jaldon of the Hero Wars) on his assault on Pavis.
Giants' teeth may be big, but there is nothing special about them in the known stories. The Elder Giants of the Rockwoods use whatever body part comes in handy to vanquish their foes (one sits on the chaos wolf, applying his butt end).
The makers of the Plateau of Statues are forgotten since Genertfall (at least). Genert himself isn't known for vast appetite, only for vast fecundity. (There may have been a dark side to him that would have been forgotten, too - male earth kings often are associated with inhuman practices, the more primal the worse. Pamalt is different from Genert, he is the late-comer god-of-all-trades, comparable to Lugh Lamfada, a bringer of civilization - rather a Tada figure.)
The power Jaldon brings is unknown (or forgotten) in Prax before 940. It is neither tied to Tada nor to the Black Eater.
If Jaldon is a mystic, he might be one of the sudden revelation types - meet the unknowable, and somehow survive it without going entirely mad. Exposure to the statues may have triggered this. Gaining an applicable power from this may have been a different proposal. That may have been a process of either introspection or a series of additional confrontations (like Fantazadar, the last 7 stages of the Long Mountain Dragon school detailed for Ingolf's path to dragonhood, which gave Ingolf one-use dragon - or rather mystical - powers if used outside of the context of mystic confrontations).
There won't be a school of mysticism founded by Jaldon. But it is possible that Jaldon underwent some mystical training after his revelation, tutored by someone experienced. And Godunya probably is the single most powerful mystic known to have been in the region at that time.
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