Yeah, the mating with gods idea was really cool--that seems to work quite well. We know it can happen (ahem, Aliera) and that it produces perfectly viable members of whatever house the human was. But again, I also like the mystical explanation. Perhaps, when House Phoenix lies in ashes, it will be born from the fire of those ashes and rise again. Perhaps when there are no more Phoenix left, various children in various houses will have phoenix fly overhead at the time of their birth, thus removing them from the house of their birth and placing them in House Phoenix. That could actually work very well, as it means the noblest house in the Empire is therefore a combination of all the houses, and (probably) expresses all the best traits of each house. Sufficient interbreeding of these reborn Phoenix would probably rarify those traits to complete the House. Jon _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail