On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > > >Ok, thanks. I'm going to suppose that Dimma needed something to call > >her and just made that up - or rather that the title is just > >conventional and used for this particular purpose only (Sethra can't > >enter unless announced, no one without a title can be announced, > >so...) > > > > Err, why do have this wish for Sethra to be a commoner? Not that > there's anything wrong with being a commoner, but Sethra is, after > all, rather uncommon. Yeah, that's my point, she's sui generis, outside the system, ... No noble title makes sense. Nobility derives from the emperor (or the empire, I guess Aerich would say). What could the emperor give Sethra? (Well, she has a link to the Orb and is hence a citizen so maybe I'm just being ornery). > I am not sure what the distinction might be between having a noble > title, and being considered a noble, and actually being a noble. Yo, Aerich, field this one, would you? > Besides, as mentioned, she is known to have served as Warlord. Do you > really think that someone who was not a noble would be given this > position of high responsibility, and *not* also be made (at least an > honorary) noble? Sure, if someone's Sethra. Plus, that was when they thought she was alive, right? I'm thinking Sethra doesn't consider herself as a noble (or maybe even as noble.) Maybe Paarfi thinks it's in his best interest to assign her a title, but it doesn't fit my sense of reality.