: There's also this possibility: The cycle is a helix; a
: periodic repetition on top of a *nonperiodic*
: progression. Light and Dark ages alternate, but on the
: whole the world keeps getting Lighter. The Dark keeps
: getting easier to beat, even during the wars when it's
: supposedly fated to win. Recall that Moagim's death
: sets an "uneasy precedent" that, even if the
: Dark wins, the Leveller can still die in the battle.
: We might infer from this that, prior to that, the
: Leveller always survived when the Dark won.
: So the historical pattern might be: Late Axe Age--The
: Dark wins, handily. The Leveller survives and runs a
: Dark Age.
: Age of Reason--The Light wins, handily. Tireces survives
: and does good stuff.
: Wind Age--The Dark *barely* wins. Moagim doesn't survive,
: but enough other Dark forces are left to make it a
: Dark Age.
: Wolf Age--The Light has a crushing victory. Not only does
: Connacht survive, but he's able to take down the Dark
: *and* the Trow.
: Sword Age--The Dark *almost* wins, but the Light manages
: to triumph in the end. The Age will perhaps be an
: unsettled one, with repeated invasions by Dark lords
: and evil forces, but so far it's clearly better than a
: truly Dark Age.
: So we might expect that the Dark will continue to grow
: weaker and weaker over the next few millennia, until
: every age is a Light one--it's just that they
: alternate between slightly dangerous ones with a
: smidgen of Dark influence, and completely happy and
: peaceful ones with no Dark influence whatsoever.
: --SiliconDream
Oooh. I like this theory even more than the ones I suggested earlier ;)
--
Rincewind MoG, the former Constantine MoG
http://www.envy.nu/midlands
