At 10:08 AM 6/20/2003 -0400, Jag wrote: >On Fri, 2003-06-20 at 09:52, charles_sumner at harvard.edu wrote: > > This got me thinking, how does one actually get a "link to the > Orb?" After > > an Easterner buys a title in the Jhereg, is there a ceremony that connects > > him and does that pass on to his family? This gets even more confusing in > > the Teckla scenario where all one has to do to be a Teckla is be a > > peasant. So if a Dragerean peasant from Greenaere or Elde moves to > > Adrilankha, do they automatically get a link to the Orb, or do they > have to > > be formally recognized as a member of House Teckla first? > >In one of the book (I think BP or FHYA) there was an Easterner who came >across the mountains, became a Teckla, then later went back. From what >I remember of that, I think that 'becoming a Teckla' isn't as much about >being accepted by the other Teckla, as much as it is one of the nobles >controlling the land accepted him as a peasant to work on his land, and >thus he became a Teckla. Perhaps it was automatic after that, or maybe >the noble actually caused the link to happen. A valid point for the country Teckla, but what about the ones who live in the cities. An employed Teckla who works as a servant can still follow your model, but I don't think that they lose their link to the Orb if they're fired or their employer is killed (or do they)? >The Orb is very smart, and able to pry into social standings. The >Dragon Council choses which line the heir should come from, then when it >comes time for a Dragon to take the throne, the Orb immediately knows >which Dragon to go to. Given that it can pry into human affairs in this >way, I would not put it past to Orb to know who should and shouldn't >have a link to it. Now this argument, as nebulous as it is, I accept. I've wondered at times if the Orb might be fully sentient, so saying that it simply knows who it's supposed to be connected to or not isn't hard to posit for an artifact of unimaginable power. On a tangential point though, we don't know for certain that the Dragon Heir's claim to the throne works as smoothly as the Dragon Council wants it to as we've never really seen it happen, just the manipulations that go on behind the Dragon Council. It's not hard to imagine that when the cycle shifts, the Dragon Council would say Person X is the heir but then a bunch of members of another line would argue that point with their armies, Dragons are like that after all. It's important to remember that in all of the books we've never seen a "normal" transition of the Orb from one ruler to the next. Charley Sumner charles_sumner at harvard.edu "Let's not jump to any conclusions." "I didn't jump. I took a tiny step, and there conclusions were." Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "Phases"