On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Jon Carey wrote: >SPOI > > > > > >LERS > > > > > >PACE > > > >So, there I was, reading FHYA, when I come across two interesting >comments, and both on the same page! First was the comment that >Kathana e'Marish'chala wedded a Dragonlord of the e'Lanya line >sometime between TPG and FHYA. Of course bells went off in my >head--could this e'Lanya possibly be father to a certain >Dragonlord-turned-Dragon Heir in the Vladiad? Not really. Norathar's mom was named Miera. Besides, if Kathana had married the Dragon Heir and gotten herself killed in a war over the scandal of cross-House bastardy, I rather think it would have been a well-known event. > Steve seems to really like loose ends to be tied up, You must be reading books by some other Steve. >Thirdly, I have a suspicion about Mario. I'm still reading (to >refresh my memory) FHYA again, so I can't say for certain what >behaviour I will see regarding this subject, but I was interested to >recall Aliera's behaviour towards Mario. Was she warm, or was she in >debt, or what? why did she act so nicely towards him, a Jhereg >Assassin? It would hardly be honourable to develop a relationship >with a JHEREG ASSASSIN! You seem to have entirely misunderstood Aliera's nature. She doesn't care in the least for convention or propriety. As long as it is not actually forbidden, she'll do it - and quite often even if it *is* forbidden - e.g., Elder Sorcery - she'll do it if she wants to. She is what is quite often described as "willful". If she finds Mario attractive, she will, without a shadow of a doubt, boink him regardless of his House. > But then, we know that Dragonlords can find it within acceptable >limits to lower themselves to becoming assassins--going back to that >e'Lanya dragonlord mentioned above. She grew up as a Jhereg, and so had no idea whether or not Dragonlords would find it acceptable, and probably would not have cared. > We also know, from the same example, that dragonlords make >extremely competent assassins, to boot. Because of course we always generalize from one example. > So is it possible that Mario is a Dragonlord in a situation like >Norathar's? Unlikely. Norathar's situation was very unusual indeed. > Unjustly expelled from the house, and forced to survive as an >assassin? How do you even know that it would have been unjust? Maybe he *is* a crossbreed bastard. But it is far more likely that he is simply a Jhereg (although it occurs to me that to the other Houses, perhaps *all* Jhereg are crossbreed bastards). > He certainly can be said to possess greater abilities and resources >than your standard Jhereg assassin--something an accomplished >dragonlord wizard might have to hand... Not really. He's clever and skillful, but he's also exceedingly lucky, if Paarfi is anything to go on. And of course, Paarfi might be wrong. >But I have not yet re-read the descriptions of him in FHYA, so >perhaps this third speculation is based on whimsy :P It is even as you say.