Ydwyr has reconditioned Djana to see him as a father-figure. This and her mental power should make her useful to Merseia. If they do not, then she can be killed. Ydwyr refers to Aycharaych's techniques. We first see Aycharaych in The Day Of Their Return. Flandry first meets him in "Tiger By The Tail," captures him, only to see him released in a prisoner exchange, in "Hunters of the Sky Cave" and finally neutralizes him in A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows but we at last see the full fruits of Aycharaych's techniques when we are informed of the conditioning of Olaf Magnusson in The Game Of Empire:
"Toward the end, Aycharaych took him in charge, Aycharaych the Chereionite, he of the crested eagle countenance and the subtle, probing intellect. Merseian masters had laid a foundation in the boy: knowledge, physique, purpose. Upon it Aycharaych now raised the psychosexual structure he wanted.
"The Golden Face, the uttered wisdom, the Sleep and the Dreams and the words that whispered through them...carefully orchestrated pleasures of flesh, mind, spirit...dedication to a God unknowable -"
-Poul Anderson, The Game Of Empire IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 189-453 AT CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE, p. 436.
Well, neither the Merseians nor the Chereionite are helping Magnusson to be a free intelligent being who can inquire, learn for himself and make his own value judgments!
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course not! The Merseians and Aycharaych were indoctrinating, training, remolding, and conditioning Olaf Magnusson to be their instrument and weapon against the Empire.
It was darn fortunate for Terra that the harassed and embattled Empire had to contend with only one Chereionite!
Ad astra! Sean
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