On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:18:24 -0800, Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com> wrote: > '"You are fully of Faerie blood, are you not, Devera?" '"Yes."' [snip] > There are two conclusions to be drawn from Miklos' question. The first is > that it's possible for a person to have "partial" Faerie blood. The second > is that it's difficult to tell the difference between a young Easterner and > a young Dragaeran or at least between a half-breed and a full-blood. Interesting speculation. Note that it only requires that Miklos _believe_ in the possibility of cross-breeding for him to ask the question. That is, legends of crossbreeds don't necessarily imply their reality, any more than Merlin's mythical half-demon origin implies the existence of demons. He does sound pretty matter-of-fact about it, though. I haven't read Brokedown Palace, so I don't know if Miklos can be trusted to know whereof he speaks. > My, what a lot of deduction from one line of one book. *heh* It does make me > wonder if we'll ever get a definitive look at what happens when Dragaren > culture and Eastern culture come together instead of segregating themselves > from each other. Has anyone ever read Dragon's Egg, by Robert Forward? He's got creatures called cheelah that live on the surface of a neutron star; their biochemistry is based off of nuclear interactions instead of chemical ones, thus they live life about a million times faster than humans. The arrival of a human space probe stimulates them to grow >from a primitive hunter-gather culture to a spacefaring culture superior to the humans over the course of a few days. So--my first thought was that it would be very hard on the Dragaerans, who are used to building houses of stone to last for 1000 years, etc. However--Paarfi's histories show that Dragaeran society is going through a radically new phase post-Interregnum, due partly to the new and improved Orb. Teleportation, psychic communication, and resurrection have become commonplace--at least among Vlad's circle of friends but also among dwellers of Adrilankha and pretty much all Athyra. It looks a lot like our Industrial Revolution, except that the Dragaerans have been adjusting as individuals and not generationally--it's an 80-year-old American farmer deciding to take up a new trade as computer programmer instead of leaving that to the college kids. Anyway, that makes me think that Dragaerans may be much more flexible than my first thought led me to believe, so I guess Dragaerans/Easterners_would_ be an interesting combination. Max Wilson P.S. How long have Vlad and Aliera known each other? ~6 years? And for the last two or three of those he's been on the run. That's a long time in our terms, but only 1% of her lifespan so far. Ditto for Aliera and Morrolan. She's adjusted very quickly. P.P.S. If Devera _looks_ 8 or 9, how old is she? 19? 40? -- something funny