Farilane: Book 2 of the Rise and Fall Trilogy discussion

Discuss the chapter here.

I'm still confused about why the Horn doesn't work with twins.

The short answer is that its inventor made it for elves who generally have "few children" and never "twins" -- it wasn't until human blood was introduced that having two children at once was an issue.

When it was made, there was a provision for only one heir and one challenger. But a "twin" is literally a single entity that split into two - so given that - who plays the part of the "heir"? It doesn't know. As such it's easy for the "contract" to break which defeats the whole purpose of the horn.

Ah. I didn't realize that one of the contestants had to be the heir of the previous ruler. I think I see better how the horn works now. Thanks.

Ryan Patrick wrote: "Ah. I didn't realize that one of the contestants had to be the heir of the previous ruler. I think I see better how the horn works now. Thanks."

You are welcome.

Hi, Michael. My problem with this is that even though the horn will not recognize the fhrey blood of twins as 2 persons, it was made to give a peaceful way for another fhrey to challenge the heir or even the reigning fane after X number of years for the right to rule the fhrey. So, if the oldest twin is the designated heir or the ruling emperor/fane and someone takes up the horn and blows it, the challenge would be to that heir/emperor/fane.

Except that there is no "oldest" twin - By definition, they are exactly the same age -- (in the case of identical twins that come into being when the cells split). Which one exits the womb first doesn't mean anything.

Now, if they were fraternal (two beings each conceived separately) then it wouldn't be a problem because there would be a true "first" -- although no one would know who was first before a challenger blew the horn - which leads to it's own interesting dilemma in which case a challenger won't know until after they blow the horn who they are actually challenging ;-)

Michael wrote: "Except that there is no "oldest" twin - By definition, they are exactly the same age -- (in the case of identical twins that come into being when the cells split). Which one exits the womb first do..."

I think I brought this up in my beta read, and it really doesn't matter at this point what I think.

My logical side argues that, why does it matter about the horn not recognizing twins? It is used to challenger the next ruler with fhrey blood, or the existing ruler of fhrey blood after a 3000 year reign, no matter who it is, so if the fhrey recognized Nordyan as the next ruler, the horn would be used to challenge him and Farilane could challenge his rule with the horn.

But, what you are saying is that the horn recognizes differences in fhrey individual's blood?

Of course it matters what you think. But, being the creator of the world, I'm going to follow my own path and hope people like the route I take ;-).

As for the blood - the horn only cares that you have at least one drop of Fhrey blood.

As to who rules next...well when you can see into the future you also see certain important points in time and what has to happen to keep the timeline you are working on to stay on track - and at this PARTICULAR point - the train stays on the rails IF Farilane's brother inherits the throne. That being the case - the horn really isn't a problem. The issue is how do we make sure that Nordyan takes the throne.

Hi Michael, loved the book :) I left a more detailed set of a questions on a different thread, but after reading through this thread, I'm wondering how Farilane and Nordyan can be identical twins if they're different sexes?