Dragaera

the honing of Vlad

Davdi Silverrock davdisil at gmail.com
Wed Feb 1 11:46:58 PST 2006

On 1/31/06, Shawn Burns <shawnb at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
> > [mailto:dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info] On Behalf Of Davdi Silverrock
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 2:47 PM
> > To: Dragaera List
> > Subject: Re: the honing of Vlad
> >
> > On 1/31/06, Jon_Lincicum at stream.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Stephen Shafer wrote:
> > > >
> > > >Why would a witch want to create amorphia even if he or she could?
> > > >(since witchcraft does not use the stuff, nor, as far as we know,
> > > >does it allow for the control of amophia.)
> > >
> > > Maybe if that witch happened to also *be* an elder sorcerer?
> > >
> >
> > Sudden pararectal notion:  Perhaps that is what Verra meant
> > by her response of "We shall see" when one of the other Gods
> > (Kéurana, I see from search-inside) points out that Morrolan
> > does not have the "bloodlines to use such powers fully".
> > That is, not that he somehow is secretly an e'Kieron, but
> > that witchcraft combined with Elder Sorcery can do the tricks
> > that ordinarily the "proper bloodlines"
> > would require.
> >
> > Hm.
>
> Or that Verra knew about the infusion of her blood Morrolan was going to
> receive in the future, and that her blood is either similar to or identical
> with the e'Kieron bloodline so that it will enable its bearers to use such
> powers fully.
>

Ah, but there is also the point that the infusion was possible
*because* Morrolan is also a witch.   Aliera couldn't have done it
because she was not a witch, and Vlad was too exhausted from the
process of just getting the bottle.


Changing the discussion to a somewhat meta-mode, I have recently read
Teresa Neilsen Hayden's comments on story efficiency:

   http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007172.html

(and the original essay she is commenting on:)

   http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2006/01/09/3317.html

And I have to wonder, yet again, why Verra took such a rather
roundabout way of allowing Morrolan to survive his trip to the Paths,
instead of just taking him aside at some point and saying to him "Make
a cut in your arm.  We're going to do something that will allow you to
leave the Paths without dying."

I suppose there are additional handwaves possible, such as fresh blood
not doing the trick properly, and/or maybe the trick doesn't work if
you know that the stuff is (indeed, perhaps Vlad's continual refusal
to tell Morrolan what the stuff was is an idea planted in his head by
Verra). Oh, well.