More Sunbane Questions : Faster v Slower ... which & why
Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:49 am
Ok Its been a while since I read the books (approx January).
The Sunbane existed.
Sunder, Hollian, etc, did their best to manage the Sunbane.
Blood was taken from the Land to feed the Sunbane.
The idea was to slow it down, extend the length of every stage in the cycle.
(correct me if I'm wrong)
Now, what was going on again? At one stage we seemed to learn that the blood actually sped up the Sunbane, rather than slowing it down.
In addition, I believe I read somewhere that slowing down the Sunbane was actually a bad thing, that the Clave and the people of the Land were triple-crossed. Am I dreaming that? Might TC have seen it is in his soothtell?
Wouldn't it have been better to speed up the Sunbane? Get it to a point of changing suns every billionth of a second? So that the average moment, second, minute, day, etc was actually an average sun with bits of everything in it? Nothing long-lasting enough to damage anything?
(Refer Andelain, it fought off the Sunbane as well as it could after Caer-Caveral's passing, resisting, eventually losing small sections, which would of course eventually grow larger and overtake. It seems to me that a moment's Sunbane doesn't do you in, its exposure over time that wears you down. Same probably applied to all flora and fauna, and the earth itself).
The alternative, extending the length of the Sunbane, would actually just give a week's pestilence instead of a couple of days! Well, maybe it only put a stock standard of pestilence into a pestilent sun cycle. Maybe if it was a week long, the same amount of pestilence had to be spread over a longer period, and therefore the effect was diluted. Maybe the best idea was to make it one long stand where the cycles were the length of Ages, a pestilent age (couple of extra mozzies), a rainy age (bit wetter than usual), a desert age (a basic drought) and a fertile age (just a bit more photosynthesis).
Perhaps both are good results, perhaps Foul and Gibbon were hoping to maintain it at around 2-3 days, because that was the most upsetting to the Land, enough potency (not diluted over enough days), but spread enough so that resistances would have to concede.
What was the history of the Sunbane? I think from memory that eked in slowly (was this in the soothtell?) more or less like a bit of bad weather, couple of droughts and couple of etceteras, that slowly grew in potency until the very Mother Nature itself could not resist anymore, and gave in to become a vassal to the atrocity. Is that how it happened?
So what was going on? Which was the best result for the Land? Did the Clave believe they were achieving good by feeding the Banefire, in slowing the Sunbane, when actually they were speeding it up, as Gibbon knew it would make it worse?
Or was it actually slowing down the Sunbane (the blood), and Gibbon didn't realise this?
Or was it speeding it up but Gibbon thought this was bad for the Land yet the speeding up would actually eventuall become ok to exist in if it was taken to its furthest extremity, a fact not known to Gibbon nor to Foul?
Any assistance offered would be greatly appreciated!
PS : Did I mention the photosynthesis issues of recent tests in biodomes on any other threads here? It rings a bell but it might just have been me reading about it.
The Sunbane existed.
Sunder, Hollian, etc, did their best to manage the Sunbane.
Blood was taken from the Land to feed the Sunbane.
The idea was to slow it down, extend the length of every stage in the cycle.
(correct me if I'm wrong)
Now, what was going on again? At one stage we seemed to learn that the blood actually sped up the Sunbane, rather than slowing it down.
In addition, I believe I read somewhere that slowing down the Sunbane was actually a bad thing, that the Clave and the people of the Land were triple-crossed. Am I dreaming that? Might TC have seen it is in his soothtell?
Wouldn't it have been better to speed up the Sunbane? Get it to a point of changing suns every billionth of a second? So that the average moment, second, minute, day, etc was actually an average sun with bits of everything in it? Nothing long-lasting enough to damage anything?
(Refer Andelain, it fought off the Sunbane as well as it could after Caer-Caveral's passing, resisting, eventually losing small sections, which would of course eventually grow larger and overtake. It seems to me that a moment's Sunbane doesn't do you in, its exposure over time that wears you down. Same probably applied to all flora and fauna, and the earth itself).
The alternative, extending the length of the Sunbane, would actually just give a week's pestilence instead of a couple of days! Well, maybe it only put a stock standard of pestilence into a pestilent sun cycle. Maybe if it was a week long, the same amount of pestilence had to be spread over a longer period, and therefore the effect was diluted. Maybe the best idea was to make it one long stand where the cycles were the length of Ages, a pestilent age (couple of extra mozzies), a rainy age (bit wetter than usual), a desert age (a basic drought) and a fertile age (just a bit more photosynthesis).
Perhaps both are good results, perhaps Foul and Gibbon were hoping to maintain it at around 2-3 days, because that was the most upsetting to the Land, enough potency (not diluted over enough days), but spread enough so that resistances would have to concede.
What was the history of the Sunbane? I think from memory that eked in slowly (was this in the soothtell?) more or less like a bit of bad weather, couple of droughts and couple of etceteras, that slowly grew in potency until the very Mother Nature itself could not resist anymore, and gave in to become a vassal to the atrocity. Is that how it happened?
So what was going on? Which was the best result for the Land? Did the Clave believe they were achieving good by feeding the Banefire, in slowing the Sunbane, when actually they were speeding it up, as Gibbon knew it would make it worse?
Or was it actually slowing down the Sunbane (the blood), and Gibbon didn't realise this?
Or was it speeding it up but Gibbon thought this was bad for the Land yet the speeding up would actually eventuall become ok to exist in if it was taken to its furthest extremity, a fact not known to Gibbon nor to Foul?
Any assistance offered would be greatly appreciated!
PS : Did I mention the photosynthesis issues of recent tests in biodomes on any other threads here? It rings a bell but it might just have been me reading about it.
)
