>
> Nice thought re Vlad, but post-_Phoenix_ doesn't his
> Countship (Countdom? Countity? Countitude?) come directly
> from the Empress, hence he reports to her?
>
Not really. The way I see it, this just means that his lands and titles
belong to the Empire instead of to any particular House. Vlad's original
baronetcy(?) came from House Jhereg directly, awarded by the Council (or
whichever department is responsible for selling titles). There are
heirachies in the Houses and there are separate heirarchies in the Empire.
That's one of the reasons you get nobles with credentials that take five
minutes to recite. ("Allow me to present Aerich, Duke of Arylle, Count of
Two-finger, Protector of Windhome, Keeper of the Sacred Keys...") The Empire
can be thought of as an 18th "House" that encompasses the others without
pre-empting them. Any land (and associated titles) that doesn't belong to a
House belongs to the Empire. Tazendra could be quite highly placed within
the Dzur heirarchy and still be placed lower than Aerich in the empirical
heirarchy.
>From the sound of things, Vlad's county has been running things just fine
without a Count for quite a while. His liege probably doesn't care who the
title belongs to as long as he gets his proper taxes and duties paid to him.
We don't know who his "liege lord" is simply because it hasn't been germane
to any of the stories (yet). If Vlad ever visits Noish-pa, we'll probably
learn some of those details.