On Mon, 2 Sep 2002, Steve Simmons wrote: #The more I think about it, the less sure I am that Fenarian and Easterner #are the same thing. Here's some of the reasons. They're not. There are numerous nations of Easterners, and the Fenarians are only one of them -- well, that's my opinion. Here's what I say at http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/peoples.html#Easterners : === There are numerous tribes or nations of Easterners [FHYA12]. We don't know the names of any of them except Vlad's people, the Fenarians: Fenario, east of the Pepperfields, is named for its legendary founder, Fenarr. Legendary to the Fenarians of Vlad's time, that is; Khaavren, who is Brigadier of the Guards in Vlad's time [Tek201], made the Treaty of Pepperfields with Fenarr [TPG376-380]. The different nations of Easterners look different to each other, but not to Dragaerans (though Kiera is an exception), or so Vlad thinks [Orc71]. All we know about them, except for the Fenarians, is some of their personal names. That is, although we meet some of them, I haven't noticed any characteristics besides names that would distinguish them. In Brokedown Palace the Fenarians had occasional trouble with raiders >from other Eastern lands. Alfredo, the Palace sorcerer, is a foreigner. See also the sections on Fenarian and Easterners' names. === The section on Easterner's names says, in part ( http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/names.html#Eastern ) : === Eastern names are taken from languages of our world: "Vlad" and "Cawti" ("Kati" or "Kathi") are Hungarian (i.e., Fenarian). So is "Laszlo" [Phx157] (acute accent on "o"), the name of Zerika's lover. "Szandi" looks like a Hungarian spelling of "Sandy". The books that Vlad borrows from Morrolan are both by "someone called Fekete Szuszi (u-umlaut, i-acute), which I knew to be a Fenarian name"; it's Hungarian [Drg52-53]. [See note on Hungarian names.] Padraic Kelly [Tek48,121] has an Irish name; Vlad uses "Padraic" as an alias [Orc30,71,178]. We also see names that are traditional English: Margaret [Orcxx], Gregory [Tek10] American: Sheryl [Tekxxx] Russian: Natalia [Tek19] Spanish: Tomas, Oscar, Ramon [Phx97], Ricardo [TPG120] Italian: Mario, Alfredo [BP] and Chinese(?): Yain Cho Lin [Tek140] And what is "Maria Parachezk" [Phx183-4]? === Between the textev and the linguistic evidence, I'd say you are absolutely right. #Also in BP is are several discussions of 'wizardry'. I put the word #in quotes because I don't think the Fenarian use of the word matches #the Dragaera. Consider: # #Miklos, Sandor, and Brigetta all learned wizardry in Faerie. All are #non-Dragaerans. None seem to have any link to the orb. They don't think of it in those terms. Whatever Alfredo has, the Tree or the power behind it cuts him off from. But I don't see why it's not straightforward Orb sorcery. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website