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I quite deliberately debunked some of the legends Boy quoted early in the zine. Assume the rest of the common knowledge 'facts' about Talora, and the other Masters, are as inaccurate as Talora's Laws, starvation strategy, and her cruel malignant habit of blocking victory. Above all, the first rule of Masters is that none but another Master might possibly understand what is going on. This is in part because they are twisted, and in part because they are deliberately misleading.
For example, even after the story is done, how many people know what is going on? Glenn thought I had left a few holes in the plot line. I had to describe several points he either missed, or which didn't come out in the story before he would buy in to this mess. That's the difference between a story and the game. In the game, Glenn couldn't explain without blowing secrets. This left me in perpetual confusion, let alone the other players.
Then too, it seems an unwritten rule of the Great Game that the Masters never explain anything. Talora is the major and perhaps only exception. There is a tendency for Glenn's characters to try for clever, while my characters will try to turtle. Talora usually tries to build large alliances by explaining why they are in everyone's interest. Glenn's Masters will trick or manipulate people while keeping them in the dark. Do you know how in some games the PCs seem awake, alert and intelligent, while the NPCs tend to bee sheepish drones following PC promptings rather than common sense or their own interests? While there is much to find interesting in Glenn's scheme, I sometimes have trouble accepting the way the stupid, tame or emotional ordinary NPCs are consistently manipulated by the GM's favorite elite seven.
Thus, a major reason for bringing Talora and Jackie together was to get Jackie briefed in the Great Game. While Dardan, Imyr or Jalek could have done it, it seems absurdly out of character for one of Glenn's Masters or dragons.
Some clarifications. Itharias / Jalek is a mixed breed dragon, with some of the social instincts of the orientals. Thus, he is capable of friendship, while a pure occidental dragon is not. The emotional bond between Itharias and Boy is thus quite real. This is something Talora missed. Itharias also was aware quite early that Boy wasn't. He just found he could push Boy beyond her normal physical limits easier without the human's feminine mystique.
Another 'missing' fact is that Dardan never does anything without long planning, nor does he involve himself in little things. That is why Talora fell silent after Dardan appeared, as she was trying to figure the situation through on a much larger scale than simply recruiting another used virgin. Dardan gene spliced Jackie. She is a half elf, though on the surface and emotionally she is quite human. It's no coincidence that she shares Dardan's gift for illusions. She also has a latent talent for teleporting and gates. Dardan has two objectives for Jackie, should she live up to potential. The humans need a Master. Talora means well, but she is too concerned with maintaining balance among the races to do the humans justice, and the short human life span blocks true humans from picking up enough knowledge. Jackie will likely also be stuck with the dragon slaying key of the next crisis. She has much to learn about both human and dragon before then. The 'friendly' Masters also have to decide who is going to forge Tail Biter, the weapon of Jack the Dragon Slayer. Aren't heroes fun?
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