: The " ...had been the second or third most powerful
: sorcerer... " sort of suggests that the position
: is no longer so ambiguous, and then the following
: statements seem to confirm it (Leave it to me, the guy
: who gets raw scores of 100 on his English midterms and
: finals after 5 minutes or so of studying for each, to
: overanalyze like this).
Of course he HAD been... he's dead now! You can't very well be, presently, the second or third most powerful sorceror of a given time period (in this case "living memory") if you're dead. Now you could still clearly argue that of the sorcerors currently remembered he was the second or third most powerful... but you have to use the past-tense WAS, because he no longer IS anything (except dead).
I write thesis papers in one sitting and get full marks on them, so nyah ;-)
