On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Jeffrey Kiok wrote: #Just throwing this out there with really no evidence. We know from #scattered references that at one point, there were 20 houses prior to #the formation of the empire (or, as Aliera wryly remarks, 19 and one #tribe of teckla). Since Sethra's House seems so difficult to place, #perhaps she is a member of one of these "lost" or destroyed Houses? For that matter, iirc, we learn somewhere that there were originally something like 38 Houses, or proto-Houses, but most did not survive to the formation of the Empire. -- Mark A. Mandel http://cracksandshards.com a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website