Book 2 – Page 46

[Nihila]

A long time back, there was a LOT of speculation that the creation of Parson's summoning scroll was part of a plot by Magic Kingdom, or at least by Janus. See http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F141.jpg where Janus says that if Parson breaks enough things there will be peace on Erf. Later on, she expressed Dismay that Parson was taken off the front lines, demoted to the tower. She must be glad that he's going into the fray again, and I don't think he's doing it to surrender. He's in this to win.

IMHO, Janus wants GK to conquer all of Erf, so there will be peace. Or is it more sinister? Janus is the two-faced god of Greek legend. Maybe she's actually evil, and Parson is simply her tool for world conquest. Or maybe world conquest is something her good and evil sides can agree on! (Head swims!)

The kicker: MK could have built in all sorts of secret conditions to that summoning scroll, like "Obey Janus, above all."

Well, while "Janis" might be some weird code for "Janus," that's not her name.

But Janus is also the god of doors, opportunities, and new beginnings. Which is entirely fitting with Janis's goals--to have a new beginning of peace for Erfworld.

[Dr Pepper]

IMHO, Janus wants GK to conquer all of Erf, so there will be peace. Or is it more sinister? Janus is the two-faced god of Greek legend.

1. Her name is Janis, as in Janis Joplin, the rocker. Look her up sometime, it is appropriate that her namesake in Erf is leader of the hippiemancers. Her title is Grand Abbie, as in Abbie Hoffman the revolutionary.

Nothing to do with Janus.

2. Janus is a roman deity, not a greek one.

3. Janus is twofaced but notin our sense of the word as being hypocritical or duplicitous. His faces looked in two different directions because he was the god of beginings and ending, of boundries between spaces both physical and conceptual. Doors for example, which connect the inside and outside of a building. Hence the word "janitor" which orifginally referred to a doorkeeper. And "January", while not always the first month on the calendar, always fell near the dividing point where winter began to recede and life in a seasonal environment could pick up again. In very early times, before Rome emerge as first among the latin peoples, little stylized representations of Janus were used as boundary markers.

If there were an erfling named Janus, he'd be an impassimancer, someone able to stop people form crossing a hex boundary, no matter how much move they had.

[robak]

If there were an erfling named Janus, he'd be an impassimancer, someone able to stop people form crossing a hex boundary, no matter how much move they had.

Or a turnamancer, allowing you to cross a hex off-turn or end someone else's turn to start a new one.

[Goshen]

@Dr. Pepper and Nihila:

Derp! I stand corrected about Janus vs Janis. I still think Janis has an agenda for parson though.