Posted by Lyall on June 16, 1999 at 15:13:55:
In Reply to: IOUN Stones posted by Donna on June 16, 1999 at 14:38:24:
: Nick wrote:
: : "In the context of "Morreion", the "I Owe You Nothing" reading of IOUN does make some sense: after all, the story revolves around the paradoxical warning "Nothing Threatens Morreion" - the Nothing in question being an extra-cosmic zone of nullity that is about to destroy the planet where Morreion dwells. By cutting open the stars, Nothing renders the IOUN Stones retrievable by humans and archveults - it has a close bearing on them."
: That's the best explanation yet! Cheers Nick. However, I'm still confused as to why one magician should owe the other magician "Nothing", and how that translates to the stones. If you understand - please explain. ** Donna **
Its not a question of one magician owing another "Nothing"; in the story "nothing" is the zone at the end of the universe.As the universe moves outwards stars and planets are consumed, but occasionally recoil as it were, half-consumed and exposing the pockets of dust in which the IOUN stones were embedded, allowing them to be retreived by archveults, magicians or whoever. The I owe you nothing tag is never explicitly delineated, the stones serving only to motivate the characters through greed, as the stones apparently augmented the magicians powers by storing ideas and emotions but also apparently warding off spells cast by others.Its interesting that JV explains the mechanics of his 'magic' system and uses the same ideas in several books( eg. sandestins(is that the right spelling?) in both the dying earth and Lyonesse series) but the use, function and meaning of IOUN stones is never further explained.