Actually, yes he IS more fragile...see, the norse gods were never immortal like the 'normal' type of god, and Balder even less so than the others, since he was MEANT to die...that's what brought on Ragnarok in the first place. And, as I remember the story, nothing and no-one on Cephiro had promised never to harm him.

Not Chip, Saionji.

Nobody. As far as the general public knows, Cephiro ranks up there with Wonderland, Oz, and Narnia on the list of places that should be sent an ambassador.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."

I'm amazed that if you mentioned it that people might not just believe in it. Considering Kozue has traveled all over the place by now, nevermind Utena, there has to be a few hundred ppl that know about Cephiro just from her alone, and then they talk...

Btw, could anyone point me out to which story it was that had Len & Achika's bokken disaster?

A planet of living machines that mostly keeps to themselves, and when they go out into the greater universe, they're just as likely to be mistaken for rush hour traffic....

>Sith, Jedi,

Two parts of an ancient order that have been hanging on by their fingernails from total extinction for millenia, and even now can't count their numbers in the hundreds (and only if they're considerate, and decide to count the variant users, like the Jyurian Jei masters, K-Ryuu, etc.)...

>Plantia itself (a freaking Dyson
>Sphere! with seemingly only one city ever mentioned which is highly
>odd),

For a place that's only been settled for 35 years (2375-2410), New Avalon is actually quite reasonably sized for a still-growing city. Sure, it doesn't have much in the way of suburbs or far-off satellite cities, aside from the production facilities for the WDF shipyards and the WDF's central command, but come back in a few centuries, and I bet you there'll be more cities than just New Avalon there. :)

> Demons, and lots of magic users...

Not as many as you suppose, publicly known and announcing their presence to all and sundry.

>I'm amazed that if you mentioned it that people might not just believe
>in it. Considering Kozue has traveled all over the place by now,
>nevermind Utena, there has to be a few hundred ppl that know about
>Cephiro just from her alone, and then they talk...

You are correct in stating that both Kozue and Utena are well-travelled and slowly becoming higher-profile in the Grand Scheme Of Things. But consider in return -- the populated known galaxy at the turn of the 25th century is pretty darn large. As in, ressurecting Carl Sagan to state "billions and billions" in relationship to the populace would be severely underestimating their numbers.

The majority of the general galactic populace would react to the news of, say, Gryphon's jobs in the "present day" much like modern Americans react to the news of the doings of the Queen of England or her Prime Minister -- potentially interesting, but out of their social and political sphere. And the news of some of the more believable doings of Utena or Kozue -- weird and strange, but those Zeta Cygnans will try anything, y'know?

In essance: if you consider the whole of the populated galaxy as a bucket of water, and the total cast and crew of the entire UF storyline as food coloring added to that bucket of water via an eyedropper -- yes, the molecules of food coloring are there, and they interact with the molecules of H20, sometimes quite often and in noticeble concentrations, but it gets diluted elsewhere very very quickly.

>Btw, could anyone point me out to which story it was that had Len &
>Achika's bokken disaster?

Symphony of the Sword : Third Symphony : Second Movement - Per Ardua

Hope this helps!

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "And we're talking very small drops in the bucket, here..."

I'm not saying that the general public will find it interesting beyond something like "Oh wow, thats different." and then fade out 15min later. Its the ones in power that are the ones I'm more interested in, in how they're reacting.

Oh and thanks for pointing out the story. I've been looking for that one for days.

That was, in fact, the story that was being used early on in the Symphonies.

>And if anyone was trying to find her homeworld for some reason,

Like, say, Liza Shustal, before she first showed up at DSM?

-- Bob
-------------------
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

Why would I come up with original explanations when there are already explanations in SoS?

"I'm from Cephiro, the Tenth world. No, it's not an alternate universe, and I didn't arrive through a dimensional crossrip. It's between Svartalfheim and...look, I'm serious!"

That's what it might sound like if somebody tried to explain Cephiro.

>
> Considering Kozue has traveled all over the place by now,
>nevermind Utena, there has to be a few hundred ppl that know about
>Cephiro just from her alone, and then they talk...
>
Interlude on Titan:
"You're one in a million, Kozue," (Corwin) said.
"More than that, I hope," she replied with a little smirk.
"I'd hate to think there were fourteen of me in Avalon County alone...."

That's the kind of numbers you're comparing "hundreds of people" against. And the people from Cephiro probably don't talk about it very much. I'd bet that most people think that Utena and Kozue come from New Avalon, others think they're from some obscure Outer Rim colony that was destroyed by raiders, and only a tiny group have even heard of Cephiro.

Peter Eng