Hans suggests that only a few persons from the noblest houses go to Deathgate. Yet, Dragaera seems to have no shortage of wars, nor of Dragons to man their armies and die (yes, I know, Teckla are also conscripted.) In Dragon alone, if we extrapolate from the few soldiers that Vlad was close to, there must have been dozens to send to the falls. Then, there are enough Orca to man all the ships, aye, and conduct trade ashore, and some number of them are wealthy and respected enough to go, one would conjecture, to Deathgate. I would imagine most Dzur would. Undoubtedly most Lyorn would. Tiassa. Issola, for it would be the courteous thing to do. Even Jhereg bosses, for it would be the pseudo-respectable and ostentatious thing to do; and that fellow Taltos assures us that they die quite frequently.. If you consider all the duels fought in Paarfi's historical novels, there should, at least at that time, have been a positive highway to serve the travellers. I concede that, after the Interregnum, this may have lapsed with the availability of revivification, but revivification is difficult, expensive, and not always successful. And, there are still wars, and whole platoons of Dragon soldiers. Your humble correspondent remains puzzled. Yr ob't etc. . .