> Once again, since fierceness is so prized, I'd suspect that > anyone who fought their way into the House of the Dzur would > either qualify or very nearly qualify as a Hero and probably > be prime marriage material. > IMO, definitely not. Racial purity is a huge thing to the noble Houses. No-one ever has mixed-blood children unless it's somehow unavoidable or they're so stupidly in love that their hormones get the best of them. (My memory, faulty thing that it is, says that Dragaerans can choose when they conceive; making conception of a half-breed both unlikely and simultaneously a huge social faux-pas.) Simply being accepted into the House wouldn't change the social taboos regarding mixed genetics. > I believe that we saw Tazendra at least having flings with > members of other houses - Dzur might well just be less strict > about that. You'll note that it always seemed to be soldiers > and other fighters she flirted with. > "Affairs of the heart" occur regularly between Houses. There's nothing wrong with harmless flirtation or even love affairs within certain limits. Even Zerika's Easterner lover is considered harmless, if perhaps of questionable taste. Marriage, though, is about children and the continuation of the family line and of the House. Look at Khaavren's reaction to Piro's proposal. He would have ignored a simple love affair, but marriage was a different thing altogether. If Piro's fiance (yeah, I'm avoiding names just to minimize the spoilers) had somehow managed to defect from her House and gain membership in House Tiassa, Khaavren would STILL have been against the marriage. It isn't the colors of her clothes that matters, it's her bloodline. The only way that our hypothetical Dzur-turned-Vallista would get a wife would be if they agreed up-front that there would never be children. An heir would be acquired through adoption, most likely. Even then, there'd be a certain amount of social scandal in the arrangement.