On Sun, 9 Nov 2003, Jag wrote: > > Morrolan: "Have you met Vlad's assistant, Kragar? He's as much of a > > Dragon --" > > > > Aliera (interrupting Morrolan): "That snake? He was thrown out of > > the House, as you well know." > > This quote seems to support the Skinter idea for another reason. As we > know, there's no way Morrolan and Aliera could have both been around > during the time when Kragar was thrown out. It had to either happen > before the Interegnum, when only Aliera was around, or after (and before > Aliera was brought back), when only Morrolan was around. Since Aliera > says 'as you well know', it leads me to believe that Morrolan was either > intimately involved with it, or at least around enough to hear about > it. That sets the time-frame up for it to possibly be Skinter. Even > more so if Morrolan was intimately involved with it. I don't see "sometime in the last 250 years" as any sort of evidence for the Skinter (what's below hypothesis?) - though it's clear here (and in _Dragon_ - 'forgive me if I don't bow') that M and K do have some sort of history, even if it's not direct. For instance, it seems perfectly possible that M won some famous victory because K's troops failed to show up for the battle. Note that in _Taltos_ K doesn't evince much history with M when the name first comes up. Also note there that M did some background checks on Vlad and his operation before Operation Aliera's-a-stick. Finally note that K has plenty of dealings with Dragons in the Vladiad, and there's a significant lack of him getting hacked to death on sight. In fact, I'd have to say that when Vlad meet K he's rather a nobody, despite his extraordinary abilities - K seems rather more a recent Jhereg than a 250-year veteran.