>It seems much more likely that she's the woman from Brokedown Palace who >went into Faerie (AFB, forgot name). Now, *her* father was a demon. >Can Verra change genders? Was it Barlen, Verra's lover and enemy? >I haven't seen any theories on this. >Mia While connections between Brokedown Palace and the Vladiad are pretty much speculative, the general consensus seems to be that Brigitta(?) is most likely Cawti's mother. It's clear that Vlad's father is second-generation. (It's possible he was a boy when Noish-pa moved the family to Adrilankha.) I misplaced my copy of Brokedown Palace years ago, so I can't be terribly confident in my recollections of it but I have the impression that when Brigitta left at the end she was already pregnant. That would preclude her from being Vlad's mother, I'd think. In any case, I don't think there's ever been any indication that Vlad's mother was a "native" Easterner. Most likely she was a second or third generation Dragaeran brand Easterner like his father. The problem I have with the idea of Verra being Vlad's mother is that it doesn't fit what we know of her personality. She makes no bones about Aliera being her daughter. The gods have different relations with Dragaerans than with Easterners (when they bother with them at all) but I don't see why she'd treat differently with Vlad than with Aliera (and Devera). For that matter, Vlad's father, who rejected all things Eastern including religion, seems like an unlikely candidate to attract the attention of a goddess who would then pretend to be a normal person long enough to court him, marry him, bear his child, and pretend to die. Noish-pa would be a lot more likely candidate for that sort of treatment. Besides, having a goddess for a mother would just about be crossing the line between "believable" (we're talking fantasy after all) and "unbelievable". It would pretty much brand Vlad as a munchkin at this point. As for Verra and Barlen - Barlen is not a demon that I'm aware of. Verra might have been a demon at some point in the past (there's a reason she's called the Demon Goddess, after all). Gender switching is always possible but it's not a trait that's been associated with her as yet. Brigitta's father was probably just some random demon and nothing to do with the gods at all, barring evidence to the contrary.