Reader Question Day #74 – additional character duels
I didn’t do a Reader Question Day last week, since I focused on finishing GHOST IN THE MASK, so let’s have one this week!
(Note that the answers have SPOILERS! for GHOST IN THE MASK and DEMONSOULED.)
Joseph N asks:
A sorcerer of ancient Maat vs a high king of Old Dracaryl (nonspecific general scenario…since I can’t think of much specific ones in the stories other than Randur).
A showdown between a high lord of Old Dracaryl and a Great Necromancer of ancient Maat would be fairly epic, and would probably reduce most of the surrounding countryside to molten waste. One on one, a high lord would likely prevail over a Great Necromancer, since the high lords tended to be more individually powerful.
In a group, however, (like if Old Dracaryl and the Kingdom of the Rising Sun went to war) the Great Necromancers would defeat the high lords of Old Dracaryl. The Great Necromancers were always fairly collegial with each other, while the high lords were viciously cutthroat. The Great Necromancers, after all, believed themselves representatives of a divine order, while the high lords tended to be ruthless megalomaniacs. Because of that, they chronically could not cooperate with each other at critical moments, which was why Randur Maendrag’s Great Rising failed and destroyed Dracaryl in the first place. (And why Dracaryl never managed to conquer, say, Knightcastle and claim the Door of Souls under the castle, or why they never managed to conquer Deepforest Keep and claim the Door of Souls atop Mount Tynagis.)
The Great Necromancers, by contrast, cooperated collegially right up until the Moroaica destroyed them.
Vance S asks:
Who would win in a fight between Ridmark and Mazael?
As of the end of FROSTBORN: THE GRAY KNIGHT, Mazael. Mazael has Demonsouled strength and speed, and Ridmark, for all his skill and strength, still has the limitations of an ordinary human man.
That may change as the series goes on, though. 
Demonsouled or demonborn?
Demonsouled.
Unless the demonborn is an Adept of the Conclave of Araspan or a blood shaman. A demonborn magic user in the world of THE THIRD SOUL is very dangerous (in practice, demonborn infants tend to be killed). Raelum from THE BLACK PALADIN and THE TOMB OF BALIGANT is a bit of an anomaly, I hope to have the chance to write a bit more about him next year.
-JM
