Well, we know that Sethra hasn't been undead for all this time--she died before the interregnum, but not before, say, 10000 or 50000 years beforehand. I'm not sure of the specific dates, or whether there even IS a specific date. We do know of some scandal which basically was the Empire finding out that she *was* undead at that point, and resulted in her getting booted out of the position of Warlord, but... Anyway, if she wasn't undead, ie, wasn't a Vampire, then how could she have lived the 150000 years beforehand? Obviously she's more than just Sethra Lavode. Perhaps Vampires are not techically "undead" to Steve, or to Dragaerans. Perhaps undead means to them only that they have returned from the Paths of the Dead, or never went there when they "died" and were able to basically revivify themselves because their soul was separate from their body when they died. Perhaps even by Morganti means. Jon