On Wed, 1 Sep 2004, Rebecca wrote: #From: "Henrik Jonsson" <antuhej at hotmail.com> #> #> We read about Dzurlords and Dragonlords... What about Hawklords? #> Orcalords? Issolalords? Where are they hiding? :-) #> #> There's definitely a difference between being "merely" Dzur and #> being a Dzurlord, right? Between being "merely" a Dragon and #> a Dragonlord, n'est pas? So, why is this distinction so sorely #> lacking in all the other Houses? # #Actually, I don't think there is... there's no clear distinction between a #"Dzur" and a "Dzurlord." All Dzurs are lords; "Dzurlord" is just a polite #way of saying Dzur. The same applies to Dragons and Hawks. These houses get #the special distinction because of ease of pronunciation. It would be too #much trouble to say "Tiassalord" or "Lyornlord" just for polite #conversation. I agree with the first part of Rebecca said: there's no difference between a Dzur and a Dzurlord. Ditto for Dragonlords. But it doesn't apply to all the Houses, in my opinion: Although technically all the houses except the Teckla are "noble houses", "only a few [of the 'noble houses'] ... contain any of the aristocracy, and then only a few of that House" [Tek27; Paresh speaking]. Kelly implies that the Houses of the Dragon, Dzur, and Lyorn comprise the bulk of the aristocracy [Tek188]. The House of the Phoenix is almost certainly also largely aristocratic, but they are the smallest House and so do not count toward the "bulk". In fact, Paarfi takes for granted the existence of bourgeoisie as well as nobility [FHYA285]. Vlad, technically a noble of the Jhereg, makes his living (for most of his career that we've seen so far) as a mobster and an assassin. [http://www.speakeasy.org/~mamandel/Cracks-and-Shards/characteristics.html#table] -- Mark A. Mandel http://cracksandshards.com a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]