Dragaera

Vallista

David Silberstein davids at kithrup.com
Wed Dec 31 10:09:31 PST 2003

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003, M J wrote:

>
>From: David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com>
>Date:  Tue, 30 Dec 2003 18:14:45 -0800 (PST)
>

>>I dreamed that Morrolan's flying castle slipped through
>>a time-warp to the 14th Vallista Reign.  

Oh, and I nearly forgot:  It's hard to tell in dreams, but I think
Daymar was there as well.  There was no glomping that I can recall,
but perhaps they were all distracted by being elsewhen.

>Tangent: are Dragaerans _allowed_ to time-travel?  Wouldn't 
>the gods put a pretty heavy stricture on that sort of thing?

Well, Devera does it fairly often, but of course, she's a special
case.

I note that while she observed what was going on in /Brokedown
Palace/, she made no attempt to interfere with the events, despite the
drastic fate of her Grandmama.

And when Morrolan and Vlad met Baritt in the Paths of the Dead, Baritt
even told them (well, he told Morrolan; he was not on speaking terms
with Vlad) not to warn his past self.

So there may be a tacit "no interference" clause that Dragaerans just
know about.

>
>>They spoke to a woman very close to the Emperor - possibly

Oh, and I think it might have been an Empress rather than an Emperor.

>>a Prime Minister, or similar.  She seemed to be one of a
>>pair of such ministers - one of them was in charge of tearing
>>things down, the other was in charge of building things up.

>Ah, the Ministers of the Interior and the Decorating?  The 
>Ministers of the Raising Up and the Casting Down?  Cain and 
>Abel?

She who Shapes / She who Destroys?  A Zelazny homage might be apropos.

>>After 200,000 years, they've just barely invented bows & 
>arrows?
>
>didn't Steve say something about how, when it comes to 
>warfare, they really do prefer the up-close-and-personal 
>approach of sword, knife, and whacking-sticks?  And then 
>something further about how toxology is ill-suited to the 
>jungle-like environs of the first tribes and armies, and the 
>Dragaerans being too sot in their ways to figure out something 
>new?

Well, I seem to recall something along those lines, but that never
made sense to me.  Plenty of jungle-dwellers in our world use/used
bows-and-arrows.  And of course, Dragaerans eventually moved out
>from the jungle.