>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. It seems that I must once again defend my writing. I am aware of the great numbers of dragon dead through wars, but I thought that the explanation I am about to provide was unnecessary. If you study warfare (esp. those fought hundreds of years ago), you will note that during most of a war, no battles take place. Casualties (in real life most from disease, but in the Vlad era soldiers would not die from illness because of sorcery.) would only occur when these battles occurred. For obvious reasons the bodies could only be shipped away during a break in the hostilities. You should now see that the number of casualties is not at all important for my purpose, which is to explain why Vlad met no one on his quest to deathgate. If I must explain this to you it is thus. Although a great number of bodies would be shipped they would all be sent at the same time. This can be seen at the end of Dragon. So Vlad did not meet a bunch of wagons of dead because he was not there after a battle. The issue of dragons dieing in war rather then being a problem is a solution to the amount of traffic to deathgate. If you believe that everyone must die then having them die in large groups reduces the number of shipments to deathgate. The Dzur would also die in these battles, and would indeed be required to by their house to earn deathgate. As for the other houses I believe you are assuming too much. Consider the house of the Lyorn. In the Vladiad most of Lyorns encountered are clerks in the Hall of Records (or whatever.) I'm not implying that most of them are clerks, just pointing out that not all Lyorns would go to deathgate. I would imagine that, very few would. Lyorn has so many codes of honor and traditions it would be hard to qualify. Same probably goes to Issola. Not all Tiassa would be worthy. K. was very poor and that’s why he joined the guard. As you stated, most orca are seamen. There are no plans made for the issola that dies. The fact that it would be pointless is not important because it is obviously done anyway as seen from dragon. Jhereg bosses would be sent over the falls, but I believe that the highest ones stay in their positions for a while. Only the toughest could survive the climb. (The Demon and the number 1 having been in the high council for a while) The lower Jhereg die more frequently. Besides Jhereg aren't that in to sentimental things and non-work (in both meanings) related traditions. As for the expense of revification, if they can't afford it, they probably aren't going to deathgate. It would appear that the majority of each house don't go to deathgate. This is even considering that 16 of the houses are noble. If you don't pay close attention you might forget that the people that have been the focus of both series, that is powerful figures, are not that common. Every time a tavern is mentioned the majority of people in it are ignored. A last reason for the low traffic to deathgate. Adron. The great people that would be dying when Vlad made his trip, died instead in the disaster and the years that followed. Let me finally state 3 things. I am aware that some members of each house go to deathgate. Deathgate must be "earned", by deeds or high birth. Everyone should now see why I don't like defending my writing. If I write, I write too much. I hope that clears things up. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software