As to your reply on point 1) I think you're probably right--while Steven Brust mentions that a Phoenix isn't accepted unless a phoenix flys by overhead at the time of the birth, he says nothing at all of the frequency of this not happening. Perhaps it is a sorcerous connection, and the lack of a fly over is brought about by extremely unlucky circumstances. For Question 2, I have just been struck by a most interesting idea. Wouldn't it be interesting if Phoenix (Phoenices?) always had Eastern lovers, sometimes as acutal lovers, sometimes using the title just as an excuse to be near the Phoenix in question--but the Easterners were always witches who could summon, via witchcraft, an actual phoenix bird to be present at the time of birth. We know that both male and female easterners can be witches and therefore can call familiars, and therefore can commune with animals. As to their house enemies, I don't see the Phoenix having enemies except by circumstance. Think of the magical creatures here, and realize what that means for the house. What in mythology kills a Phoenix? A Chimaera? A Basilisk? A Griffin, Harpy, Cockatrice or Giant? Or perhaps a Dragon...No it doesn't seem to me that phoenix (phoenices?) have natural enemies, perse, but are the victims of conflicting interests, as in FHYA. I find it odd that House Phoenix, to put a little bit of a Herbertian phrasing to the nomenclature, has not been the target of more political intrigues that bring the house to near extinction. Political creatures have no natural allies--everyone else is a natural enemy, and the only way to survive is to make alliances of convenience which may at some point or another become INconvenient. So with all the intriguing going on, it's a wonder there's a House Phoenix at all. As to easterners breeding with Phoenix. I think that this is unlikely merely because recessive traits tend to out. If you have a Phoenix who has dominant Phoenix genes and recessive easterner genes, all you need is another set of easterner genes to make those recessive genes expressed. Needless to say, an easterner, or at least, eastern traits appearing in the noblest house in the empire would cause a massive, and I mean MASSIVE scandal. On the other hand, seeing as how all the houses are descended from Easterners to begin with, perhaps the Dragaerans just don't realize that the traits that they find most noble (ie, those of the Phoenix) come about because of breeding with Easterners. But still, I don't really see this happening. As to the cycle, I have no idea how Brust is going to get out of this one. (I haven't read LoCB or PotD whichever one is out, because I can't afford the hardcover) My best guess is that they release a soul from deathsgate and allow it to breed with the one remaining Phoenix. But even that is a band-aid solution that would need to be constantly repeated. Jon Carey _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail