Dragaera

Some observations on Fenario vs. the Easterner homeland

Tue Sep 3 18:16:22 PDT 2002

On Tue, Sep 03, 2002 at 01:52:14PM -0400, Steve Simmons wrote:

> 116, it's clear that the Communist documents that Kelly found and read
> were originals, and therefore not something translated into modern,
> er, Dragaeran or Easterner.  So we're talking millions of years with

250,000 years, under odd conditions, and Kelly's bright enough to follow
linguistic scholarship and use Rosetta documents, if there are any.  Which
there probably are at least with the Lyorn.  And who knows about Serioli
scholarship... Verra didn't say the ancient documents were written in modern
X.

> Sandor more.  But the training can continue (as per Sandors offer to 
> Miklos) and the power can grow outside of Faerie.  It seems to only awaken

Sandor can teach Miklos what he knows, having been taught more in the first
place, and having had more time to figure things out.  You haven't presented
any evidence for it "growing" as distinct from better skill through practice.

> I can give you a couple of reasons why it isn't.  First and foremost,
> everyone we've seen who has a link with the Orb is either Dragaeran or
> has purchased a title.  There was some brief discussion here a week or

Or is Teckla.  Well, Vlad hasn't introduced us to any Teckla Easterners.  But
he does say to Cawti "they can move to the countryside and serve some lord and
get a link" (paraphrased, but I'm pretty sure he says something like that.)
Not that Vlad is Mr. Expert, but at least Cawti doesn't disagree with him on
the technical point.

> Orb.  From everything I can see in the text, Vlad is the *only* easterner
> who has one.  Cawti doesn't.  Noish-pa doesn't.  I really can't believe

Noish-pa wouldn't; he's just one of the urban Easterner shlubs.  I thought
Cawti clearly did have one.  She's certainly a titled Jhereg; her title gets
announced in the palace in _Phoenix_.

What she doesn't seem to have is a familiar.

> And the link to the Orb includes things that the Fenarians with power
> don't seem to have, like a clock, immediately knowledge of the Empress,

Immediate communication with the Empress.  Vlad didn't know about it until
someone told him.

> etc.  All of this seems to be blank to Sandor, Miklos and Brigetta.  So

As someone said, what good's a clock in Fenario?

>   [[ An aside: I've made the claim that the increased sorcerous powers
>      post-Interregnum are not due to skills honed during the low-power
>      Interregnum days; that's just plain silly.  If it were true, folks

I agree that explanation never made sense.  But I don't think the Orb now is
drawing on the Lesser Sea, else _Issola_ wouldn't have happened the way it
did.  I nominate Zerika upgrading the Orb's programming.  One could be mythic
and wonder if it picked something up from being teleported and hanging around
the Paths, but I prefer Sethra and the Necromancer just coaching Zerika on new
routines.  Hmm, unless it can learn from experience on its own.

BTW, the description of using the Power in _Brokedown Palace_, with the rigid
mental pathways and such, sounded kind of like programming as described by
someone with no knowledge of computers.  (I.e. Sandor or Miklos or the
medieval narrator; Steve's programmed in his life.)

> Yes, sorry.  And if his name means he's not a native Fenarian, that
> shoots a lot of my conjectures above in the head.  But we don't know

We're told by the narrator he's not a native Fenarian.  He got shipped off as
a kid by some village south of Fenario hoping for a new priest, and went for a
cushier job instead.

I want to know more about that village, and its religion.

> Dragaeran sorcery always requires contact with and drawing power from the 
> Orb.  I've submitted my case above that Fenarian wizardry doesn't draw on
> the Orb, but will admit it's not a definitive case either way.
 
Remember Sandor got cut off from his Source by the River.  (Which had also
inhibited the spell he gave to Vilmos.) 

> Others have made the claim that Cawti is Brigettas daughter, and this
> might give her stamina far beyond the abilities of mortal man (sorry, got

Vlad refers explicity to witchcraft/shock, and I think Morrolan says "yes
Vlad, I know".

> carried away).  But life extension is (IMHO) a killer difference.  The
> Jhereg have been selling titles for a long time, and I deeply doubt that
> the Taltos family are the first Easterners to get one.  There's no mention

*shrug* Someone has to be first.  The first restaurant in the Empire wasn't
started that long ago, probably within one Dragaeran lifetime.

> that it causes life extension in Easterners, and that surely would have

You'd probably have to use the sorcery the right way, too; not just have a
link.  And maybe it doesn't work for Dragaerans because the metabolic tricks
Sandor can do with sorcery were built into Dragaeran genes in the first place.

> there is such a thing) a fifth.  Serioli magic was mentioned on the list,
> but I don't recall a reference to it in the books.
 
Yeah, while I recall a vague reference to Morganti weapons as objects of elder
sorcery.

-xx- Damien X-)