Dragaera

Swords, and a tolerable acquaintance with their length

Rick Castello rick at 404.978.org
Sun Aug 18 20:31:24 PDT 2002

Matthew Hunter said:
> On Sun, Aug 18, 2002 at 05:06:27PM -0400, Rick Castello
> <rick at 404.978.org> wrote:
>>      Further consider:  Noish-Pa told Vlad in _Jhereg_ that he could
>> teach him nothing else of witchcraft, and to increase his
>>      abilities as a witch, Vlad would need to get a familiar.
>>
>>      If we consider Noish-Pa to be an accomplished witch of great
>> skill who has taught Vlad everything he can (and we take it as
>> fact that Vlad has actually *learned* all that Noish-Pa has
>> taught him of witchcraft), then I think it's fair to say that
>> Vlad is an accomplished witch.
>
> While I agree that Vlad is an accomplished witch, we can't assume
> that he is on an equal level with Noish-pa just because Noish-pa
> says he can't teach him anything else.
>
> In effect, that statement means that Vlad has finished his
> apprenticeship as a witch, and has to complete his initiation
> (obtain a familiar) and go out on his own.  There are two
> ways to take this -- as a journeyman period, prior to
> becoming a master witch, or as a graduation straight to
> master witch.
>
> Since Vlad is offered a half-interest in Noish-pa's shop, I think
> we can discard the journeyman possibility.
>
> However, being a "master witch" doesn't make him equal to
> Noish-pa.  Neither of them are students or children, and that is
> most likely all that that comment refers to.  Vlad needs to gain
> experience on his own to mature in witchcraft.

     Note that at no time do I claim Vlad's talents at witchcraft
     are equal to or greater than those of Noish-Pa.

     In all else you state, we are in violent agreement.

     -Rick