On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Mark A Mandel wrote: >On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > >#During that window visit in _P_, Veera reveals (in a conversation in >#which she is bizarrely deferential to Vlad, or rather he presents >#her that way) > >I think she's his mother. > I find that exceedingly unlikely, but some recent musings along those lines are that perhaps Verra had a deliberate hand in bringing about Vlad's birth (which may perhaps amount to the same thing). For example, Arra is a Priestess of Verra and a witch. Assuming Arra is still alive, Verra might have instructed her (or if she isn't alive, a different Easterner Priestess of Verra) to marry this one Easterner who is the son of a witch, and conceive a son. In addition, the gods are in charge of Dragaeran souls. Perhaps Verra said to Dolivar's soul "You have caused us *so* much tsuris, but you're pretty damn clever, so I'm going to reincarnate you into an Easterner, and see how you do for 60 or 70 years. If I find your performance acceptable, perhaps I'll let you reincarnate into Dragaeran form when your Eastern body dies." And perhaps Verra tipped a word to Sethra to keep an eye out for *this* particular Easterner. After all, how likely was it that Sethra met, and scanned the soul of, this one person reincarnated from her days of the founding of the Empire? Although it also occurs to me that Sethra may have super-secret soul-recognition powers - she knows who Devera is on the battlefield of the Gods. Hmm. Anyways, it is amusing to speculate about.