Namergon: Hi,
I'd like to know what kind of follow-up exists to the dragon's death. I mean, a commission was created, in order to investigate on the President's death. What happens with this Commission between its creation and 2060? Is there some official information on that subject?

Mike Mulvihill: The official government response is that while the investigation continues, it looks very likely that there was some sort of accident. Nadja Daviar has asked the Commission to disband, and let the former President rest in piece.

Namergon: That seems logic. But it leaves me with some questions: How did Dunkelzahn die? By the novels, we know he sort of committed suicide. But how? Did he just think of it, or did cast some magic against himself, or did he design some bomb which would kill him in time? Was it magic which caused his death, or a more mundane mean?

Mike Mulvihill: He had always planned for it in a magical ritual. But the bottom line was he was blown using a small tactical nuke while he was in human form (a weaker form) and astrally projecting.

Namergon: And so was the "mana warp" that he left at the location of his death created by the destruction of the body of the dragon, resulting of the death itself, or created by the mojo which killed him?

Mike Mulvihill: It was side effect of the warp the manasphere suffered when so much magic was ripped from the physical world at one time and that Dunkelzahn also channeled the fallout into astral space.

Namergon: Why didn't he prepare some kind of "suicide letter", explaining his death, rather than risk to tear apart all what he wanted to build with his election, because of all riots all over UCAS exploding due to "his murder"?

Mike Mulvihill: He didn't figure he would need to. Again his arrogance led him to believe that his solution would only be used in an emergency. It was a last ditch effort. He assumed he could beat everyone. But those pesky metahumans have a way of upsetting even the most carefully laid plans of the Immortals. Heck, he was fixing a mistake that Harlequin made years before so - no one's perfect. When dragons err though the consequences are huge.
He didn't plan on suicide. That was the final answer. He created his will which he thought was enough. He made plans for what he wanted to accomplish and that is all spelled out in his will. Plus doesn't he really want to let everyone know he committed suicide. If so then will any dragon ever be safe, how do you tell people of a dark danger 2500 years in the future...plus he had a flair for the dramatic and assumed he was right in him methods and that's all that matters.

Namergon: In case of Dunkelzahn making somebody else killing him, who could be in charge of such a incredible task? Was this person teached how to succeed in this task by Dunkelzahn, or was this person able to succeed by him-herself (brrr, frightening thought!)?

Mike Mulvihill: It was all Dunkelzahn.

Namergon: For the method/weapon/whatever used to achieve the death of the dragon, what in the hell was it? I'm very confused about that, because Dunkelzahn decided to die in order to release a sufficient amount of mana to activate the heart. But if magic caused such an effect, this magic must have spent an amount of mana similar, so what the point? If a mundane mean killed the dragon, what kind of technology could have done this without leaving any hints about it?

Mike Mulvihill: Magic didn't cause it. A tactical nuke did. But the result (the fallout) of the nuke left with Dunkelzahn into astral space (thus the manawarp). Mana didn't really get used up.

Namergon: Well, that's a lot of questions, I realize!
But I think they are heavy in consequences.
For example, a great french site has started a sort of chronicle, in the form of the transcripts of the justice action concerning a potential assassin, who would have ties with Ares... It is very well written, but the action seems to assume that Dunkelzahn has been murdered, and with the two sides arguing on the possibility that Dunkelzahn could have been killed by a mundane weapon, like an orbital weapon or something else (well, actually Damien Knight is wondering why all the eyes are turning on him, he-he)...

Mike Mulvihill: That sounds great...very interesting. Knight has done a lot of bad stuff in his life...so he has the right to be paranoid, but in this case he's just as confused as everyone else. A dragon was already killed by an orbit bombardment in an earlier product, so we wouldn't do that again.

Namergon: Let me know if I understand correctly: Dunkelzahn had long before prepared a magical ritual in case he had to kill himself, but when Ryanthusar told him about the situation, he felt that he had not enough time and instead get shot by a small tactical nuke?

Mike Mulvihill: He hadn't been planning the ritual for a long time...he just had been planning on it since the events in Harlequin's back were told to him. But it was no further along than planning stages...there was no ritual site etc. He figured he wouldn't need it and that he was in control of the situation...he wasn't, but his arrogance would never let him believe that until it was too late.

Namergon: How did he make the shot done? Was he always carrying that kind of thing in his limousine?
:)

Mike Mulvihill: Once D heard that the blood mages were collecting together he prepared for a quick way. My guess is that he probably had it near him at most time. If you want to know how long he had been thinking about it...the first notation that he might be planning something like that can be found in the adventure Dry Run in Super Tuesday.

Namergon: And how hasn't this nuclear weapon been detected after the explosion? Or maybe it has?

Mike Mulvihill: That is why there is a magical rift...his magic contained the blast and sent it into astral space...thus creating the rift.