So who killed Penelope?

[Grey Watcher]

Their son wasn't a Step 1 victim since he was already dead, so her husband wouldn't have been a Step 2 victim either.

I thought Step 1 (unlike Step 2) was not stopped by an already dead link in the chain? Otherwise wouldn't Girard being already dead have protected the pyramid residents (and by extension their various baby-mommas and -daddies)?

EDIT: This, of course, presumes my old assumption that would make him a Step 1 victim. If the mechanics work out to him as a Step 2 victim, his son's death would indeed protect him, per Rich's post.

It's been way too long a week. This is all making me dizzy.

[LadyEowyn]

Here’s how I understand it.

Step 1: Anyone who was a blood relation of the black dragon. That includes everyone descended from Girard, including the daughter that Penelope previously had with Orrin Draketooth.

Step 2: Anyone who was a blood relative of any living member of any of the above. (By which I mean: living at the instant before familicide was cast.) Since Penelope was a blood relative of her (disappeared) daughter, she was killed by Familicide; her parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc - and her unborn child - would also have been related by blood to her & Orrin’s daughter and thus would have been killed as well.

However, for example, Tarquin was not a blood relative of Penelope & Orrin’s daughter, so there was no chance that he would have been killed by Familicide.

ABD’s (predeceased) husband was not a blood relative of ABD (assuming a lack of inbreeding among black dragons), so, had he been alive, he would not have been a Stage 1 victim. If ABD’s son and husband had both still been alive (or if ABD had had any other kids with her husband), her kid would have been a Stage 1 victim, and her husband would have been a Stage 2 victim due to being a blood relation of his kid.

[Fyraltari]

Here’s how I understand it.

Step 1: Anyone who was a blood relation of the black dragon. That includes everyone descended from Girard, including the daughter that Penelope previously had with Orrin Draketooth.

Step 2: Anyone who was a blood relative of any living member of any of the above. (By which I mean: living at the instant before familicide was cast.) Since Penelope was a blood relative of her (disappeared) daughter, she was killed by Familicide; her parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc - and her unborn child - would also have been related by blood to her & Orrin’s daughter and thus would have been killed as well.

Step is more accurately described as "anyone who has a living common ancestor (themselves inculded) with someone in Step 1). Penelope being the mother of someone in step 1 so she dies no matter what, but her siblings would only die if at least one of her parents, grandparents or great-grandparents is alive.


Basically the spell climbs the family tree of the one it is cast on back to the beginning of the world and once it has reached the first generation it climbs down the family tree of everyone it reached and kills everyone still alive. That is Step 1. Then it climbs up the family tree of everyone it killed back to the beginning of the world and for everyone still alive it kills them and all of their still living descendants but it doesn't kill the descendants of those who were already dead at this step.

[D.One]

If only there were some way of magically getting information. Like some people with a special connection to the gods who could answer any question about the future present or past. We could call them... oracles? Nah, doesn’t sound mystical enough. How about augurs?

How about Diviners?

Let's just call them The Googles...

[ElderSage]

It be a total genocide spell if it were; it have to kill anyone who'd ever want revenge on the original target. Repeat for all secondary targets. Repeat till no more targets. Usually because literally everything is dead.

I mean, if you look at like Medieval Europe and things, where the kids had to swear vengeance if their parents were killed, but then the other side had to avenge their parents, etc. it usually ended with one or both of the lines completely dying out before the problem was solved.

Let's just call them The Googles...

Spiders, perhaps? Because they create webs...