---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:08:46 -0800 (PST) >On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, David Silberstein wrote: >> On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, M J wrote: >> >I could swear that I saw at some point a reference to Noima having >> >been delivered of a child. It's a throwaway line of Paarfi's >> >> [snippitry] >> >> >Could this child have been Loudin? While it's like Paarfi to say >> >something so potentially important and then never mention it again >> >because he's caught sight of something even shinier a few hours >> >later, this was PRETTY COOL even for a throwaway. >> > >> >And now I can't find it, even though I'm sure it was in FHYA >> >_somewhere_. >> > >> >> Booksearch rocks, baby! The name "Noima" occurs only a few times >> in FHYA, and in Chapter 6, Page 73 we find: >> >> It is certainly the case that, on some occasions, her Majesty >> the Consort, Noima, would accompany his Majesty into his >> bedchamber, and it is also the case that it is only Khaavren >> who knew how often this was done. Yet this is one subject upon >> which the Tiassa has never breathed a word, and so we are left >> to engage in unseemly speculation, or not. The fact that the >> Consort was delivered of a child must be held sufficient to >> our purposes. > >Can someone remind me how long K had been in a position to observe the >Consort's sleeping habits? Well, one presumes that his duties as regards escorting Tortaalik around the Palace have stayed the same for his entire tenure as Ensign, since G'aereth (I will never spell this gentleman's name correctly; let us call him Godboss) had better things to do - so, say, ~500 years. This is certainly long enough to amass a statistically significant batch of Noima-tuckings-in-sightings. >If Sean Whalen's theory about the White >Goblets Affair makes sense, then the child in question presumably >postdates the (circa) 100th year of T's reign, which would make the child >about 400 by _FHYA_, old enough to bear a child herself and be the >financial rep of House Phoenix. So that's possible, I guess. Yes, but one of the ANNOYING things about trying to pin down Paarfi or his translator is that lots of things are _possible_. > It would >however be rather weird for all concerned to not refer to L as T's >daughter, though she _is_ a princess, I dunno. It might be considered swanking about, even for a Phoenix, to remind all and sundry that HER daddy is the EMPEROR. Conversely, if people despise Tortaalik as much as the persons on this list seem to, she might have preferred to keep it as quiet as possible. >and for no one to mention Z's >bloodline claim on the throne, esp. during the events of _TLoCB_ and >subsequent. Maybe it's just me, but I've never gotten the sense that bloodline plays _that_ much of a part in non-Dragon successions. (Notice how deftly I skirt all arguments of the Norathar Debacle! Admire, admire.) For one thing, the House of the Phoenix is too SMALL to go around faffing of bloodlines. "I'm the fifteenth-great-granddaughter of Zerika the III!" "Big deal, so'm I, and I'm also her fifteenth-time _grandniece_, too." Z's bloodline claim to the throne would seem quite sufficient as "I'm daughter of Loudin, previous Heir," with no need to drag Tortaalik and Noima into it at all. After all, that's why Aliera's Heir during some of the Vlad books - she's daughter of the previous Heir. >I can almost hear Paarfi writing, "This is the one subject the Tiassa >never spoke of", and dropping the "the" as too catty. ... HEE. At times Paarfi is almost as glompy as Daymar. ¬ mj