David Silberstein wondered aloud to the group:
>I have been wondering how the Heirship swings
>over to Morrolan - was it decided that the e'Drien line was the
>nextmost acceptable after the e'Kieron (and he's the head of the
>e'Drien line), or does he inherit that from his mom (whose name we
>still don't know, I think), since she was an e'Kieron daughter?
We know that Morrolan's mother was e'Kieron?
I inferred from the text in Yendi (to the effect that "it was decided that
the e'Lanya line would be the next to take the throne") that there was a
sort of turn-taking among Dragon lineages. One could presume that this
would be to forestall all-out war among the lineages. Probably--these are
Dragons, after all--"decided" is an understated way of describing a small
war or two and a politically-charged vote on the Dragon Council.
Certainly, that it is not always the e'Kieron line necessarily implies that
the Dragon heirship is not strictly hereditary. Heredity does, apparently,
matter, though; the heirship can pass from Norathar's mother to Norathar,
or from Norathar's mother to the e'Kieron (not another
e'Lanya). Identically, we have Adron to Aliera or the e'Drien, and,
similarly, from Rollondar to Morrolan.
One wonders if the heirship can pass more than one step of direct
descent. Would Devera have been Aliera's heir-in-waiting if Norathar
hadn't appeared?
How often is the succession shuffled? We can presume that there was a
Dragon heir during the 17th Athyra reign--Houses apparently always have
heirs, regardless of how removed they are from the throne--but we can also
presume from Yendi that the Dragon heir of the Athyra reign was replaced by
Norathar's mother early in the reign of the 18th Phoenix.
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