A'right, I have finished Wiz 8 or BoDP (see the subj), and I now have something to tell...Yes, Phoonzang=Dark Savant, so relax everyone. But I did not see it coming, because... it was not coming!
Let us look at the entire story:
1) Phoonzang made CM, AD, and DD, and the Cosmic Lords banished him, like Olympic gods banished Prometeus. So far so good.
2) Suddenly Phoonzang looses his temper and bends totally on revenge. For me, this is rather suspicious, I think that Cosmic Lords (even banished ones) should be more mentally stable. But this is still tolerable.
3) What should the Cosmoc Lords do after that? They should know everything in the universe (in fact, it is they who define everything with their Cosmic Forge
), so they should know that if someone uses the Trinity and starts a new destiny, they will be gone. They also should know that Dark Phoonzang is sharpening his knife. But the idiots of the Cosmic Lords do nothing! Here, I like the plot less and less.
4) Some time passes, and the Cosmic Lords, who are as vigilant as Lorrac the Arnika absent-minded bank clerk, have their Cosmic Forge stolen. They send their henchrobot Aletheides to recover it, and it takes him(it) 120 years to find it barely beating a gang of thugs. Aletheides takes the pen, and commission them to recover "the most powerful artifact". Brilliant
, but I already "do not believe".
5) For a moment, I shall skip the CoDS story...
6) ...Now even with Cosmic Forge recovered, the Cosmic Lords do not prevent Ascension, and as the result they are gone. This is... just stupid.
But it turns even more stupid if we recall CoDS. So Phoonzang was known there as a mortal man, who created AD, left the power of unlocking it to his descendants and died. Quite naturally. But if Phoonzang becomes Dark Savant, then why should he create the Guardians of the Key??? I cannot see any reason. He has difficulties locating AD (although we know that it was he who created Guardia!), and he is not able to unlock it himself (he even does not remember it when he tries to take AD
), making Vi do it.
Well, anyway, if a bunch of idiots rule the Universe, apparently, only another idiot can challenge them
.
The storyline would be much better, I think, if Dark Savant were not identical with Phoonzang. Say, DS used to be an apprentice of Phoonzang, but Phoonzang mistrusted him (quite justly) and did not pass to him all his knolwedge. The he died, leaving Savant just able to Darken and set out to retieve AD and other stuff to become a Cosmic Lord. The Cosmic Lords knew little of him, so they did not take measures until it was too late. The rest is what we all know...