Dragaera

Dragons

Thu Aug 29 09:44:54 PDT 2002

Dennis wrote:
> That was sort of my point.  If all Dragons are nobility (and we know they
> are), why would there be one set of Dragaons with last names and another
> set without?
>
> _Dragon_ has the most Dragons in it, obviously, and there is a
> wide enough
> cross-section of Dragons with surnames to make me think that having one
> isn't a deliniation of "high" nobility.  We know that Napper is e'Drien
> and Virt is e'Terics, and Napper, at least, doesn't strike me as a nob on
> the level of Morrolan e'Drien or Fornia e'Lanya.  I don't remember if
> Aelburr's line is given and I'm fairly sure that Ori's wasn't, but that
> could just as easily be because Vlad didn't know or feel like sharing
> their lineage.

Mark replied:
> *If* you have a famous ancestor, you can claim him or her in your
> surname.  But what if you don't have an ancestor who is great enough to
> inspire respect from other Dragons? You're S.O.L. You don't want to be
> known as Lord/Lady Floop e'Shnorgle, descendant of Shnorgle the So-so,
> who defeated four hundred rioting Teckla; so you're just (relatively)
> plain Lord/Lady Floop. This, I submit, is a plausible explanation for
> why there might be Dragons who don't use a surname of lineage.

What's interesting to me is that there is discussion I think in _Yendi_ that
the Dragon Council had met prior to the interregnum and decided that the
next Dragon heir should be e'Lanya, which is why Norathar becomes the heir,
but before she resurfaces, Aliera e'Kieron, and Morrolan e'Drien had been
the Dragon heirs to the throne.  Seems to be all a bit arbitrary.  There
seems to be a mixture of personal selection of surname (as evidenced by the
e'Barritt line) and simple passage of the surname from parent to child.
What I haven't noticed is a) if any lines are named for female heroes, and
b) any evidence of a Dragon taking their mother's surname as opposed to
their father's.

See also a discussion on Drageran surnames (including a bit on Dragon
surnames in particular) on Mark's site
http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/names.html#Dragaeran