originally posted by Joseph Lindsey
Janny,
Thank you for responding! It's a first for me, talking to an author, in any forum. I understand your focus on Stormed Fortress
I didn't miss To Ride Hell's Chasm, it's on my
Christmas list at this time 
I'm currently re-reading from Curse of the Mistwraith to refresh my memory in time for Traitor's Knot. I bought CotM YEARS ago, and picked up the rest as the came out and I've never read them all back-to-back. New questions and ideas are coming to me as a result of this. Thus, my post about Dari
Thanks again for all your work and for your response. It gave me a big smile this morning.
Joe
originally posted by Trys
Welcome to the board, Joe.
originally posted by Laneth Shadow-Walker
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Janny,
I was wondering about Dari recently, as my copy of Fantasy Masters just arrived from the US at my local bookstore (after my having found the title for a WoLaS short story!).
As I read about her wild prescience, (esp. after Arithon's recent flare-up in raw talent after his stay with Davien), I believed I was seeing the grandam of Dakar, being that he would've been born-ish around the time of this story (this being my non-researched guess).
When it was revealed that Traithe named her s'Ahelas, I nearly flipped I was so excited…then the story ended.
Ye certainly have a gift for leaving people hanging!
My question also relates to Joseph's question a couple of years ago, with regards to Sethvir's training.
Being that around her time when she was just pregnant the last Paravian Centaur was still standing vigil at Atainia, Sethvir was free of the Earth-sense to be as Asandir - a field agent.
In my view, it was the tie to Athera that humbled Sethvirs personality, him being a little less the scholar and more of an … 'active' Sorcerer (for lack of a better term).
Ok, question: When Dari s'Ahelas undertook her training with Sethvir, was he tied to Athera or was that yet to come?
Had the last Paravian stepped from the soils of Paravia, and had Dakar been born yet?
These are my questions in relation to Dari.
One last question: Sethvir being referred to as Calum Kincaid at various intervals by different members of the F7 makes me wonder at their past.
Do each of the F7 come with Older names, taking them back past their time in Athera?
Calum Kincaid is such an Old Earthern name - a name that any human child could have had. However, with the arrival and settling of humans on Athera / Paravia, the naming and indeed, speech shifted to encompas all that was their new world.
I imagine the other Six to have Old names as well, bespeaking their past.
This leads me to conclude that certain others would have to know them for who they were, like Dakar when Kharadmon used his body in Rockfel.
This also leads me to ask about their whole philosophical world of Athera and it's spiritual foundery:
Ath Creator; Dhakaron Avenger; Daelion Fatemaster. They all speak of terms that either Human or Paravian have garnered for a belief system that supports higher powers.
However. The Fellowship make reference to Ath and the Law of the Major Balance (a question for another time) and various other things heavily hinted at by your writing as being things that began with them when they arrived on Athera.
I can't imagine having come from wherever they did, and for however long they actually had been there, and completely changing their entire selves for the world they were in now.
Then again, this could have been a steady and natural progression over the tens-of-thousands of years they've been under the Drake's bindings.
Janny, I apologise for the length of my ramblings - I just got excited as I typed and more theories and hypothoses just kept coming!
You Asked - and this is a right mouthful of questions!!!
some are going to be answered in the text, some in outlying material. I've a Light and Shadows short story forthcoming in Jana Paniccia and Julie Czerneda's anthology, Under Cover of Darkness, that will be out next spring, and I just signed a contract for another related Light and Shadows short story to appear in a British Anthology, probably slated for next year.
To Answer what won't spoil other material -
Dakar is of no relation to the s'Dieneval clan lineage. His is a wild talent, not tied by bloodline.
The uprising began in 5018.
Dakar's prophecy of West Gate in 5061. He was four.
The last Paravian departed in 5100.
Sethvir received the gift of the earth-sense - but it was a MAJOR shift for him. He would have spent a LONG time at Althain Tower preparing for that responsibility.
The first slaughter of the old blood swept the western kingdoms first. Those to the east - quickly followed.
Meiglin s'Dieneval was born just AFTER the fall of Tirans. She was fourteen at the opening of the story - and eighteen when the story ended. Dari was born in her nineteenth year.
These events occurred - AFTER 5018, but far before 5100.
Dakar and Dari - never met. She would have been sent thru Westgate by then.
Sethvir would not yet have his earthsense, but would have proclivities - been in training for the post while at Althain Tower, during Dari's raising. He was also, as you guessed, on and off, in the field. His central post at the Tower would have become fixed after 5100.
The Sethvir prior to the earth-lined awareness was in no way accountable to the person he "was" prior to arrival on Athera in the Second Age.
The Seven once went by other names. the changes in their nature happened drastically - upon their arrival at Athera, or at least, was begun to be set in train the moment they "connected" to the dream of the dragons. this is Another Story and far more complex than you imagine. Paravian presence and the dragons were catalysts for what already existed in potentia - but - the Sorcerers are not what they once were - important to realize this, that their past isn't relevant to where they are NOW.
Dharkaron Avenger/Daelion Fatemaster/Sithaer - all these ideas originate with Mankind's beliefs. You won't find them in Paravian mythscape - though the concepts are given Paravian terminology, their origin is not of Athera.
The law of the Major Balance, Ath Creator - these are terms for a concept that is not human centric. These concepts were not brought in by the Fellowship, or by Man, but would reflect to some degree human effort to ascribe meaning to what cannot be defined in a linear fashion.
You will certainly want to see Under Cover of Darkness's entry for more direct access to the material.
originally posted by Sandtiger
Having read Janny's story for Under Cover of Darkness (The joys of being the anthology editor) I can definitely echo Janny's comments.
It's one of those stories you will read and go, "Wow!" No doubt in my mind.
It certainly knocked my socks off.
Jana
(In her capacity as co-editor of Under Cover of Darkness - coming out in February 2007)
originally posted by Laneth Shadow-Walker
My goodness Janny,
Now, if there was any doubt as to your dedication to anything regarding this series, and/or your fans, this completely sinks those ships!
Your answers served to sate my appetite to devour the Atheran mythos…for as long as it took to read what ye wrote! I am now bordering on obession about the history of the Seven.
Not the before or after stories, but the /i{transition} between them.
To be one person & then dreamed into a whole new being…amazing. Simply amazing.
I have dreams myself of this kind of thing happening…not as 'celtic-knot intricate' as your design, but the same kind of profound change from one life and person to another.
Thank ye so much Janny, ye have just served to set in heart & stone your place as my favorite author.
There was never any doubt, but this destroyed the possibility of said doubt's ability to form.
Hope this comment finds ye well and happy,
Laneth
originally posted by Laneth Shadow-Walker
BTW, I've got my local bookstore keeping peeled eyes out for the launch of Under Cover of Darkness.
I don't think I can pre-order it here in AUS, otherwise I'd have it down.
originally posted by Mark Timmony
"Your answers served to sate my appetite to devour the Atheran mythos…for as long as it took to read what ye wrote! I am now bordering on obession about the history of the Seven."
Join the club Laneth 
And you can pre-order Under Cover of Darkness at Galaxy Bookshop in Sydney (I work there so I've made sure we're getting it!).
originally posted by Blue
"Your answers served to sate my appetite to devour the Atheran mythos…for as long as it took to read what ye wrote! I am now bordering on obsession about the history of the Seven."
Perhaps we should address questions to Don about how it feels to be married to a modern day Homer - and I don't mean Simpson!
P.S. In case you can't tell, I love that little smilie!
originally posted by Trys
Blue,
DOH!!!
Hi Janny,
Sorry to revive this old thread, but a possible timeline issue was just brought up on the Paravia Wiki and I said I would bring it up here in the Chat Area:
Based on your post in this thread, Dakar would have been four in 5061 when he gave the West Gate Prophecy. However, the glossary of Stormed Fortress lists this under Dakar's entry:
"…it was Dakar who forecast the fall of the Kings of Havish in time for the Fellowship to save the heir…"
Wouldn't the fall of Telmandir have occurred at the time of the rebellion, before Dakar was born?
The timeline I've formulated is here:
https://wiki.paravia.com/wiki/Atheran_Timeline#Third_Age
and the poster's concern is here:
https://wiki.paravia.com/wiki/Talk:Atheran_Timeline#Timeline_of_t he_Rebellion
Regards,
BU
Ah, Brian, I LOVE it when readers dig deep enough to see these things……The answer is material for a short story; and I'm trying to recall back to the scene in Stormed Fortress - when Dakar crosses the Skyshiels, and his seer's gift "sees" the future meeting at Alestron (I won't say which characters, this is not meant to spoil).
Before the book was "split" to Traitor's Knot, and Stormed Fortress - that scene was puzzled into the action slightly differently - and there was a Fellowship insight into that vision - which said something about Dakar's wild talent being one of Athera's mysteries, that even years of Fellowship effort, and applied study, could not fully unravel…I cannot recall if that insight stayed in the cut/paste/splice rework of that sequence from and "ending" build to an "opening" build…I think the depth to it got cut, but a reference may still remain.
That reference will be expanded, later, depend on it. And that little (hoots to you!) "apparent" anomaly in the glossary of Stormed Fortress will come to count…watch for it in the next books!!
And let's see if that little reference point in Stormed Fortress survived the maceration.
Ah - I checked - the reference in a vastly abbreviated form does still exist, but it's no longer a Fellowship observation, viewed direct, by Kharadmon's observation - it's now been juxtaposed into the following scene where Koriathain are analyzing Dakar's vision.
The key paragraph in question occurs on Page 93 of the mass market paperback, at mid-page. That would be on page 82 if you have the large format trade paperback.
I KNEW I had to leave that bit worked in…one of the reasons these books take so long to write - the "transplant" of that snip from one scene to another had to be made seamless.
I do recall it was "shortened" from the more expanded take, via Kharadmon's view, written in an earlier format.
Still chortling, Brian… still chortling.
Okay, I reread the section. No need to confirm or deny, but I guess my theory would be that Sethvir's ability to see a multiplicity of future possibilities via the earth link allowed him to discover (before the rebellion) Dakar's future prophecy concerning Telmandir… The hole in that assumption would be that then, Dakar would just have been spouting known history instead of a prophecy at the actual time he did so.
So maybe his prescience exists outside of the normal timeline some how… lots of food for thought!
Thanks,
BU
You will find out.
originally posted by Clansman
*Clansman raises his weary head from piles of files and the debris of renovation (don't ask, the story is too long to tell)*
Aaah. Something to watch for on my re-reads this summer! I love the back story in The Wars. There is so much darn context to this story that with every other page, you trip over it constantly.
I have always loved history, and this is precisely why. Nothing happens without something else having happened before that led to the current happening. If you catch my convoluted meaning.
originally posted by Trys
Clansman, I think I understand what you said: "Nothing happens in the past without a future event requiring it to happen." Right?
originally posted by Clansman
Exactimundo.
Was that Herb Tarlek from WKRP in Cincinnati, or J.J. from Good Times?
Or that guy from Chico and The Man.
Welcome to the 1970's Sit-Com Festival.
originally posted by Mark Stephen Kominski
All right, Clanny; if you start staggering around the joint and exclaiming, "Esther! I'm coming!", I'm buying you cable!
*Shudders to think about the cause and effect diagrams that must cover the Talespinner's walls*