As preparation for a certain imminent threat, I just started rereading
_TPotD_ and came across a few minor things I don't understand, e.g.:
It seems to me that I'm rereading Book One of The Viscount of Adrilankha,
aka TPotD. So what happens after chapter 17, when Book Two is announced?
How does Paarfi know that Chapter One begins on a Homeday, and is this a
Dragaeran name for the day (which seems odd to use in the East)?
On page 31, "SB" complains about Paarfi referring to a "two-story
stone bungalow", which my dictionary calls "a small house or cottage,
usually with one or one and a half stories". Whatever that means.
So does this reflect more on "SB"?
Miska names Morrolan in the language of the Silatan - who are they to
Morollan? And why does Morrolan not stick with a name in a language he
speaks - maybe Paarfi simplifying? Note that later (pg 82) Teldra calls
them the Silites.
In Morrolan's dream (pg 44), he sees a fish with jewels for eyes (green
and red) - are these the e'Drien colors?
On pg 46, Paarfi refers to 17 tribes (culturalist), or 16 (biologist), or
21 (rationalist) in "the earliest days of the Empire". Huh? Ok, the
Jhereg weren't a distictive mishmash yet, so that makes 16 (assuming there
weren't any noticeable remnants of the 33?-17 tribes the Jenoine made).
But what's 21? Kieron and non-Kieron Dragons? Sethra is a tribe unto
herself?
Chapters 2 and 5-7 - Arra starts referring to M. as "milord" in Chapter 5
(though not "Lord Morrolan"). Why is this? Why does Lady Teldra do the
same? Arra certainly isn't part of the Empire, and T hardly more so.
What's up with the depiction of M as a figurehead? Arra seems to be doing
all the work and having all the visions, while M is single-minded and
celibate and busy not getting older or being curious.
The instructions to the Circle ("have them meet us there as best they can
in their own time") seem comically vague, given the lifespans and
geography involved, and the fact that many chapters (and a few years)
later, M&Co are still stuck in the East without any of the Circle showing
up - wouldn't a few have tagged along? (Maybe Paarfi is simplifying the
tedious truth here).