On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Peter H. Granzeau wrote:
>At 14:14 02/22/2003, Philip Hart wrote:
>>As an aside, Sethra is part Dzur, right? It would be nice to see
>>her in full hero-mode.
She has the partial appearance of a Dzur. We don't know for certain
that she actually *is* part-Dzur.
She has defeated so many Dzur heros that she is almost certainly an
honorary member of that House, though. In fact, I wonder if that rule
of defeating 17 Dzur Heros to enter House Dzur was specifically
created to account for her consistently beating the best that House
Dzur had to offer. That is, the House Elders said to themselves,
"Damn! She keeps beating Dzurs. How can we say that we are the House
of Heroes if she keeps on beating us? Hey, how about we make a rule
saying that if you defeat 17 Dzur Heroes, you *become* a Dzur Hero?
That way there's no shame if she *keeps on* beating up Dzur Heroes."
>I think of Sethra as so old that many of her characteristics are
>anachronisms.
>
I think she has lived through so many Cycles that she has become
intimately familiar with House characteristics, and adjusts her
behavior according to the House of whomever she's dealing with.
Speaking of Sethra, I note that the Vlad books make it clear that
Sethra the Younger looks very much like Sethra herself. Vlad seems to
think that Sethra Jr. is just some Dragonlord who took Sethra's name
when she became Sethra Elder's apprentice, but Paarfi, in describing
Sethra the Younger, makes it appear that she shares certain character
traits with Sethra Elder, especially when Sethra Elder says that
Sethra Younger reminds her of herself when she (the Elder) was herself
young.
All of which make me wonder if perhaps Sethra the Younger is Sethra
the Elder's daughter, perhaps through parthenogenesis or cloning.
Sethra' (the Elder) lineage block ("downward-pointing arrowhead or
triangle, entirely self-contained, with no lines entering or emerging,
as if her maternal and paternal ancestor had appeared from nowhere at
all, begotten her, and vanished.") makes me wonder if perhaps Sethra
is herself a (parthenogenetic) clone. Or perhaps the offspring of
time-travelers. Or all of the above.
Yes, I know Paarfi says in the next line about avoiding "uncalled-for
speculation", but speculation can be amusing.