David Silberstein wondered aloud to the group:
>Sethra' (the Elder) lineage block makes me wonder if perhaps Sethra
>is herself a (parthenogenetic) clone. Or perhaps the offspring of
>time-travelers. Or all of the above.
It has been said that Sethra will one day return to the rock of Dzur
Mountain, and that she has some kind of connection to Dzur Mountain itself,
so I've always assumed that she's an oread. Possibly she was an ordinary
Dragaeran who died and returned as a vampire oread, perhaps not.
She also predates the formalization of the Houses, which means she's not
necessarily as much a Dzur as Tazendra is. It's been said that she's a
Dzur, and her generalship indicts her as a Dragon [1] (as does Paarfi's
rendition of her initial encounters with Aliera, which may be license), so
I've also always assumed that she was a crossbreed from a time when being a
crossbreed wasn't such a big deal.
However, all else being the same, I'd rather not see Brust do a
"Dragonsdawn" and give us the origin of Sethra and the Empire
directly. Occasional exposition satiates me well enough.
[1] At least, I would be fairly surprised if Dragons would let a non-Dragon
be their general, regardless of how good she was.
--
"Let's assume the semester's over, so dying is a bad thing."
--Prof. Ralph Noble
mailto:Dr.Elmo at whiterose.org
http://www.whiterose.org/dr.elmo/blog/