Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: davids@kithrup.com (David Silberstein)
Subject: _Brokedown Palace_ and Verra
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Message-ID:
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 00:24:08 GMT

What follows is some extrapolation and interpolation of the history of _Brokedown Palace_, by Steven K. Z. Brust. There will of course be spoilers for the entire book, especially the ending.

Warning: This is all speculation and moonshine and non-canonical musings. But hey, I hear Mr. Brust gets a kick out of this sort of thing, so I'm going to write it all up anyway. Mr. Brust, enjoy. The rest of humanity - Caveat Lector, and all that.

So. Spoiler Space for _Brokedown Palace_ begins here.

Accented character word equvalencies:

Miklós=Miklos

László=Laszlo

Sándor=Sandor

Bölk=Bolk

táltos=taltos

The real stuff begins here.

This deep rumination began with the Usenet discussion at this location: http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=3B5E0672.292B3C55@worldnet.att.net

In summary, Konrad originally wondered what Verra was _really_ doing in Brokedown Palace. I was suggested that Verra was somehow tied to the Palace, and that László was in a sense her high priest, defending her abode religiously. Konrad wondered:

"Hmmm... but the palace wasn't the first palace, it was the fourth (counting the hut and fort, see page 5). So what made the Broken Palace more special than the hut, fort, and Old Palace?"

I suggested that Verra had gradually somehow infused the Palace with her presence, starting with the original hut, saying "As the rulers built up the castle, slowly but surely, they dedicated each part of it to Verra, her essence somehow combining with the foundations and walls.", and suggesting that she was sending sorcerous roots through the building as it grew.

Konrad countered that: "[...] the Broken Palace didn't just grow out of the hut; there was an Old Palace that was torn down to make room for it. ", and his general contention seemed to be that Verra was simply supporting the King, whose devotion to the Palace was completely irrational, but not directly related to Verra's influence.

At the time, I wanted to re-read the book more carefully before responding, but the article expired, and besides, I wanted to speculate on more of the story besides addressing just that issue.

So firstly, responding directly to the issue of the Palace, I got the impression (from pg 5 of BP) that the Old Palace had never been pulled down (or at least not wholly), but rather, that the current Palace had been built around it.

But even if it was torn down completely, I note that the current Palace - the newest part, which is definitely decaying in the "now" of the story - is 400 years old. I think that number may be very significant. What *else* happened 400 years previously? Well, if my guesstimates are correct (and they seem to be corroborated in this timeline: http://world.std.com/~alexx/timeline.txt ), Adron's Disaster occurred, and the Interregnum began.

Is seems like a plausible scenario that Verra, in a panic following that upset, sought desperately for new places to invest herself in, and at least one of them was in the East. Is there anything in the text itself to support this interpretation? In Andor's dream of Verra (BP pp. 59-60), she says that she has sanctified his home. I think this summarizes her attitude towards the Palace - and I also think she is too practical to consider something "sanctified" unless she gets something (mana?) out of it.

And speaking of mana, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that something very unusual is going on in the Palace. 400 years is an awfully short time for a well-constructed building to exist. There are many real-world castles and buildings that have stood for as long or longer. Even the decrepit or destroyed structures fell more to war or natural disasters, or were taken apart by locals for building materials, rather than just falling apart from the passing of time. Yet the Fenarian Castle's foundations are crumbling - and why were they made of sandstone in the first place?

So here's an extended speculative backstory to Brokedown Palace, and the history of Fenario:

About one thousand years earlier, Fenarr, seeking to end raids on the local peoples by the Faerie (Dragaerans), made a treaty with Khaavren, and by extension, with the Empire. This treaty coincided with Verra allying herself with a God (or Gods, or possibly Demon(s)) who looked out for humans' (Easterners) interests. One of these Gods incarnated in the form of a Horse, and this incarnation died during the exchange of hostilities prior to the treaty (but I feel sure that he did continue to exist). As part of the treaty and alliance, the location where Fenarr lived was dedicated to Verra. Her statue was raised there, and every structure built there took part in that dedication. Dedication to the Goddess was not that difficult, and worshipping her was not an onerous task, at first (and it was probably only the royal family that worshipped her). She is not malign or cruel out of spite.

And all was well for five hundred years, until the catastrophe.

Adron's Disaster weakened Verra. Great effort had to be made to *contain* the Lesser Sea of Chaos and prevent it from destroying the Empire and the world. And what can she do if the Jenoine, perceiving her weakness (and the weakening of the other Gods as well) try to attack?

But there in the East, far away from the Empire, not knowing of the disaster yet protected from it, there is a place of power dedicated to *her*. A Palace is about to be built there... I am not sure if she interferes at this point, yet it seems likely - perhaps she sends dreams to the King, urging him to rush through the construction, even if it means using shoddy materials (and who knows, maybe sandstone is more appropriate for what *she* needs), and then she takes badly needed power from the newly-built Palace.

I am not sure if the above is correct. Perhaps it isn't, or perhaps there's something going on in addition to the above. There are hints that the Palace has decayed more in the *recent* centuries after the recovery of the Orb and the end of the Interregnum. As an another scenario, consider this: Fenario was isolated from the Empire during the Interregnum (you'll note that there is no mention of trade with Faerie going on anymore, except far in the South), and now that the Interregnum is over, Verra is trying to incorporate it into the Empire, leeching the power to do so from the Castle, using the above method. I got this notion from BP pg 8, which mentions the Hand of Faerie (the Overcast), extending to cover all of Fenario sometimes. Perhaps if Verra were to succeed, it would cover the land permanently. It does tie in neatly with the my other notion, that the táltos' role is to bring back the Sun, the Moon and the Stars - in BP, the táltos prevents them from being taken away in the first place.

I don't know what it is she takes from the Palace. Call it mana, call it sorcerous energy derived from accelerated entropy. But take it she does, and the Palace breaks down much faster than would have been the case without her interference. (Note that sheer desperation may have also been what drove her request/demand for human (or were those Dragaeran?) sacrifices.)

At any rate the damage is already *done*. The Palace is decaying, falling apart, and Verra is not helping nor relinquishing her hold on Fenario. Perhaps she can't?

So some other Powers, who seem to have the interests of humans (Easterners) at heart, oppose Verra. Note that this opposition may be mutual, and may have been going on for a long time - Sándor, who is in many ways Verra's representative, has always hated the River (BP pg 160).

I just want to take a few paragraphs to point out how appropriate these Powers seem to be:

• Verra is a God of the long-lived Dragaerans, and of their stable, long-lived Empire, and she seems to be a reactionary, highly static force in BP.

In complete contrast, the Gods (or whatever they are) of the short-lived humans are very changable:

• the River flows and changes every moment. It seems to have a personality and powers all its own, befriending those who live along its shores, and healing Miklós (and maybe others?)
• the Horse named Wisdom changes physically, sometimes even into a Bull (BP pg 104), and also dies and reincarnates (his 38th, as noted on BP pg 246, being very different from his previous ones). Also, I note that the Horse calls himself "Death" when speaking to László and Sándor (BP pg 162), which reminded me of the Tarot symbolism of the Death card, which is change, not necessarily Death, although for those two, as well as for Verra herself, he *was* Death, which is interesting - and there's also the Apocalyptic symbolism in that he's a *pale* horse),
• the Tree is obviously the personification (arborification?) of directed growth and transforming strength.

These entities may have other forms and other names - I can't help but wonder if one of them is supposed to be Barlen, Verra's lover and foe.

So this coalition of Powers - River, Horse, and Tree - decides to Do Something about the situation. I don't know if any single one of them would have been enough, yet working together (and including Miklós), they break Verra's power *and* repair/replace the palace. Note that even though this action ends Verra's ability to manifest in Fenario, it seems to be percieved as a Good Thing (or at least, as regrettable but Necessary) by Verra's own grand-daughter, and at the end, it seems that Fenario is cut off completely from Verra's influence and the Power of Faerie itself (although this last is extrapolating from Sándor being blocked, which may have been an individual or one-time thing - perhaps whatever was transforming the Palace at the time needed all available energy, and Sándor was like a userspace app trying to run while root is running a CPU hogging application).

Whoof. This took a long time to write, and I haven't even gotten into Brigitta's backstory, or the political allegory I realized was hidden in there, or the comparison I wanted to do with _The Gypsy_...

Oh, well. Maybe another time, if anyone is interested.

Konrad Gaertner wrote:
>
> David Silberstein wrote:
> >
Spoilers for _Brokedown Palace_

[these couple of lines are from an old post by me (Konrad)]
> > "Hmmm... but the palace wasn't the first palace, it was the fourth
> > (counting the hut and fort, see page 5). So what made the Broken
> > Palace more special than the hut, fort, and Old Palace?"
> >
> > I suggested that Verra had gradually somehow infused the Palace with
> > her presence, starting with the original hut, saying "As the rulers
> > built up the castle, slowly but surely, they dedicated each part of
> > it to Verra, her essence somehow combining with the foundations and
> > walls.", and suggesting that she was sending sorcerous roots through
> > the building as it grew.
> >
> > Konrad countered that: "[...] the Broken Palace didn't just grow
> > out of the hut; there was an Old Palace that was torn down to make
> > room for it. ", and his general contention seemed to be that Verra
> > was simply supporting the King, whose devotion to the Palace was
> > completely irrational, but not directly related to Verra's influence.
> >
> > At the time, I wanted to re-read the book more carefully before
> > responding, but the article expired, and besides, I wanted to
> > speculate on more of the story besides addressing just that issue.
> >
> > So firstly, responding directly to the issue of the Palace, I got
> > the impression (from pg 5 of BP) that the Old Palace had never
> > been pulled down (or at least not wholly), but rather, that the
> > current Palace had been built around it.
>
> There was something else (can't remember where, Bolk and Miklos
> talking about how the palace was replaced last time) that I assumed
> meant that _everything_ was replaced except maybe the furniture and,
> of course, Verra's idol.

Okay, found the lines I mentioned above (page 203):
"What has been done before?" [to replace the palace]
"The King has ordered materials taken from the Riverbed, and sent in from east and west. And salvaged material from the building he was replacing."

Okay, so I was wrong, and some material was saved, possibly even dating back to the hut. But it still doesn't explain why Verra didn't try talking Laszlo into replacing the palace. I can't help thinking that Verra might be only able to see through his eyes, and so doesn't really know how bad it is now. Of course, she should know that part of it fell already, crippling the previous king.

[snip]
> > I don't know what it is she takes from the Palace. Call it mana, call
> > it sorcerous energy derived from accelerated entropy. But take it
> > she does, and the Palace breaks down much faster than would have been
> > the case without her interference. (Note that sheer desperation may
> > have also been what drove her request/demand for human (or were those
> > Dragaeran?) sacrifices.)
>
> Hmm... power from destroying the castle... but what if the royal
> family was killed? I can't see that being good for Verra.

You know, very few people in Fenario believe in Verra these days. In fact, I think Sandor and Laszlo are the only ones who _truly_ believe, and Sandor doesn't really worship her.

I wonder if her inability to manifest there anymore is actually due to the deaths of the last two people to really believe in her.

--KG