On Wed, 12 May 2004, John Klein wrote: > > > > > > > > doo dee doo > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, 6 May 2004, Mark A Mandel wrote: > > @> On Wed, 5 May 2004, Caliann the Elf wrote: > @> > @> >>> > @> One of the reasons I believe this is that, in Paresh's telling, he > @> states that Aerich said to him, "Inform your master that the Duke of > @> Arylle will see him." > @> > @> <<< > @> > @> We can also hypothesize a grammatical explanation, similar to one that > @> has already been proposed and has gained Steve's stamp of approval > @> (http://cracksandshards.com/deaths.html#Zerikas_Parentage). Briefly, > @> Vlad and Paarfi seem to disagree about Zerika's parents, swapping the > @> names Vernoi and Loudin between the father and the mother. The passage > @> in Five Hundred Years After speaks of Loudin's pregnancy, but the one in > @> Taltos has only the names and the pronoun "she". > > Personally, I believe Paresh's account. John Klein is on fire today, but I disagree with this. Aerich just wouldn't chase a Teckla or fire off lightning bolts. > Let us examine the credibility of the witnesses: on the one hand, we > have Paarfi, who is a damned liar. No, he's the mouthpiece of Sethra Lavode. > On the other hand, we have Paresh, who certainly did not give me any > such impression in Teckla. And you would have gotten such an impression from a few pages of reported dialogue how? Actually, I seem to recall speculation here that Paresh had met Aerich's heir, because the story we extrapolated (and have seen verified) made little sense otherwise. > And, in fact, Paarfi's version simply does not square with the character > that Vlad met, who was not particularly cowardly or deferent in any way. Sure it squares. Just imagine Paresh making up the chasing bit. > Furthermore, Vlad is working from a primary source (albeit one with a > specific agenda), whereas Paarfi is, as has been pointed out, either > getting his information from Paresh and manipulating it to his own ends, > or dealing with a secondary source (that is, someone who heard Aerich or > Paresh's account of what happened and then made their own story). Alexx suggests a letter from Aerich. That seems a rather more reliable source of info than Paresh. Another possibility - Paarfi exaggerating A's death - perhaps he received a lingering wound from which he succumbed in a few weeks after recounting his story to Khaavren. Piro is another possible source of transmission. > Of course, for all we know someone asked the Necromancer to go talk to > Tazendra and Aerich in the land of the dead or something, but that > doesn't seem terribly likely. They may well have been reincarnated; Sethra may have given them a tour of their past lives; Paarfi could have done the interview in person... > Keep in mind that, nice as Aerich is, he has already been revealed to have > no shortage of disdain for the lower classes. Which is why he wouldn't play ring-around-the-roses with Paresh. > As Paarfi's character, he embodies the virtues of the Dragaeran > nobility, but those virtues are not necessarily the virtues of > present-day Americans. Oh, I thought SKZB wanted us to admire the bloodthirstiness of Vlad's noble friends. Seriously, one of Vlad's main functions is to provide an viewpoint half-way outside noble Dragaeran society; he can thus comment on Morrolan's willingness to torture his guests when they insult Adron or mock the Dzur liability to blackmail. In a similar vein, this is why SKZB shows us scenes like Piro refuses to follow society's dictates in questions of marriage while happily exploiting the Teckla, who end up eating the nobles' scraps. Unpiroic. (http://dragaera.info/mailinglists/archive.cgi?1:mss:13333:nhbbcbifapghhleidfni)