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