Dragaera

Speculations about Sethra and the Lavodes (Was RE: TEST)

Jon_Lincicum at stream.com Jon_Lincicum at stream.com
Wed Feb 15 06:28:24 PST 2006

Kenneth Gorelick <pulmon at mac.com> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
02/14/06 07:07 PM

To
Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com>
cc
dragaera at dragaera.info
Subject
Re: Speculations about Sethra and the Lavodes (Was RE: TEST)




>On Feb 14, 2006, at 6:53 PM, Scott Schultz wrote:
>
>>> Until Vlad, you mean...
>>>
>>
>> Vlad as Sethra's offspring? I'd be interested in hearing where that 
>> theory
>> comes from, especially given that Sethra would have been (un)dead 
>> at the
>> time that Vlad was conceived.
>
>But think how much that explains about Vlad's father...the interest 
>of Sethra and her alter ego...and what does being undead have to do 
>with getting pregnant? The undead can't foster life? Do they have 
>intestinal flora? I have never heard any compelling evidence that an 
>undead vampire cannot conceive and bear a child.

Well, I don't think you'll ever find "evidence" as such about a 
mythological creature.

Every mythos about the undead is slightly different. For one example, as I 
learned the last time this possibility was raised (fairly recently), the 
Buffy Vampire universe says that it's possible for a Vampire to get 
pregnant, but the birth would be stillborn unless the vampire sacrificed 
themselves for the child (or some such. I'm not a Buffy fan). Other types 
of "Vampires", such as the Larry Niven variety seen in /The Ringworld 
Engineers/ are not really "undead" at all, and seem to have no problems 
reproducing.

/Agyar/ doesn't really comment on the reproductive capabilities of the 
undead, though Kellem implies (on page 28 of the latest paperback edition) 
that she wants to "have children in the conventional sense". This is 
hardly a rock-solid case, and it is not Dragaeran, though it is Brustian.

At the same time, the undead in /Agyar/ do not eat. (Well, not in the 
"conventional sense"). How does a child gestate in a being that cannot eat 
without becoming physcially ill?

I imagine a being that has little (if any) blood in her system would be 
unlikely to be able to produce offspring. This just does not seem like a 
nuturing environment for a developing fetus.

This is all, without question, speculative. But Sethra-as-Vlad's-mother, 
whether it's biologically possible or not, is not a theory that I 
subscribe to. It just doesn't seem "right" to me, for the course of the 
story.
Majikjon