Dragaera

Aliera's companion in the Paths of the Dead

Joy Jennifer Nicholson jjnichol at MIT.EDU
Mon Apr 25 13:05:47 PDT 2005

I wonder whether Dragaerans have incest taboos. After, Kieron is
both her brother and her ancestor. 
 
> >I seem to recall that a physical description is given in Five Hundred
> >Years after, which puts him as a fairly nondescript jhereg and not an
> >obvious Dragonlord. Whether this is because he actually looks
> >nondescript or because Paarfi has no description is an open question.
> 
> It seems like a moot point. We're talking about Adron's daughter. She'd =
> no
> more have a child with a Jhereg than with an Easterner, no matter that =
> he
> might be a Dragon genetically. In any case, Steve has explained Devera's
> time and space skipping ability by claiming that she was conceived in =
> the
> Paths and born in Verra's Halls which pretty much rules out Mario as a
> father (presuming that he's still living at the time).
> 
> Being essentially a demi-god, Aliera COULD visit the Paths herself to =
> meet
> Kieron there and have a hope of leaving. Such a visit would still be =
> frought
> with peril since the Gods would likely try to prevent her from leaving
> again, blood or no. Whatever brings Aliera and Kieron back together =
> again
> must be something of great moment in order for her to take the risk. I'd
> imagine the Gods must be getting a bit tired of living people coming and
> going from the Paths of the Dead.
> 
> Of course, we don't know what Morollan and Aliera were doing while Vlad =
> was
> creating and performing his summoning spell. I suppose that Aliera could
> have excused herself and run off for a quickie. Keep in mind, though, =
> that
> in Yendi Vlad mentions that he's known Morollan for four years, which is
> roughly the same time he's known Aliera. The later stories add a couple =
> of
> more years to that. Given their lifespan, it's possible that Dragaerans =
> have
> a gestation period of decades rather than months, but we don't have any
> information at the moment that would lead us to believe that. (Granted =
> that
> we don't have any information at all about Dragaeran gestation, AFAIK, =
> other
> than the fact that many of them have problems conceiving at all.) Still,
> you'd think with Aliera being an accomplished sorceror she would have =
> some
> way of knowing she was pregnant and she wouldn't take some of the risks =
> that
> we've seen her take.
> 
> It just doesn't seem likely that she was impregnated during or before =
> the
> events of Taltos, and we have yet to hear of any opportunities that have
> occurred since then.
> 
>