POWER PLAYERS: The Annotated Aztlan ![]()
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Full text of Aztlan annotations
[HECATE] Pobre? Anyone we know?Here HECATE uses the in-group "we": the immortal eleves and (barely) Dunkelzahn. It does not include LADY OF THE COURT (who after all could not possibly know anything Alachia does not), JUNGLE CAT (whom she avoids addressing at all and whose comments she occasionally dismisses -- does she even really think of him as fully sentient?), or UMSONDO (from whom she isn't expecting an answer unless she asks it directly -- as she will on later occasions). If neither she nor this in-group does not know an answer, her comments on several later occasions (ie. her repeated shrugs as to Aztlan's blood magic) seem to suggest it is either irrelevant or not worth knowing.[THE BIG 'D'] A lesser, by my reckoning.
[JUNGLE CAT] Perhaps in form, but not in spirit.
Dunkelzahn also dismisses Pobre out of hand: the feathered serpent is a lesser, nothing more ... and this well after it has become utterly obvious that "Pobre" is a nom de guerre. More importantly, to Dunkelzahn, Pobre himself is irrelevant to the point: and so Dunkelzahn doesn't bother to give him anything of true consideration at all. I don't know whether this is typical of draconic thinking, but it is a pattern of Dunkelzahn's thinking here that he has a goal for his audience in mind, and anything not directly related to his audience discovering that goal seems to come across to him as irrelevant: "YOU HAVE GONE OFF THE TRACK HERE" (p.61). So strongly is Dunkelzahn focused on that intended goal that there are times when he cannot see what is right in front of him because he doesn't see it as being important. This leads to his jumping to a possible misconception which, if it is left to stand, will mis-shape all that follows, especially the knowledge which is being sought.
If UMSONDO is the Passion of Truth and Knowledge, he cannot allow this shrugged dismissal to stand ... and so indeed UMSONDO does:
[UMSONDO] Judgment in this instance is hampered by the power of mask and illusion. That which seems is not, and scrutiny reveals naught but deception and change.The concept of judgement includes any conclusion upon which future actions are likely to be based. Here Dunkelzahn has leaped to such a judgement based on inadequate and incomplete evidence, because the truth has been hidden behind mask and illusion.
A brief speculation on Passions: that they cannot perceive except through those Name-givers whose own, living passions define their existence; and that they cannot know except what those same Name-givers are potentially capable of knowing. The Passion cores within the lives and beliefs of the Name-giving races, and can have no existence independent of those races. Incidentally, this line of speculation suggests that Passions might be at least parallel in nature to free spirits, who cannot grow unless they are given the fruits of another's experience (karma).
Within this speculative context, if UMSONDO is a Passion, he would not be able to perceive what the Name-givers in his audience cannot ... only what they are potentially capable of seeing based on their own self-knowledge. No amount of scrutiny by UMSONDO changes the fact that none among these commentators has bothered to identify the deception here, let alone try to see through it. Maybe some among them could, and maybe they couldn't, but the point is that none of them have tried, and until UMSONDO speaks none of them even saw that it was in fact a created illusion, let alone that maybe they should be bothered to discover the truth behind it.
[THE LAUGHING MAN] The Watcher cannot see! Our host is misguided and reproved. Are apologies in order?Dunkelzahn was wrong in so easily dismissing, and Harlequin recognises that UMSONDO has called him on it. Being Harlequin, how could he possibly resist the instinctive, stinging retort?
[LADY OF THE COURT] Laughing Man should hold his tongue if he has nothing worthy to say.And once again LADY OF THE COURT tries the repost against Harlequin -- maybe she'll get it through this time, now that Harlequin has overstepped? And once again she is cut down, this time by Dunkelzahn. It has to hurt. Will she ever understand these people? Will she ever be able to take the place among them that is supposed to be hers?[THE BIG 'D'] In this instance I do not take offense. Let us continue.