"Davdi Silverrock" <davdisil at gmail.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 06/15/06 10:55 PM To "Dragaera List" <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject Re: Multi-jointed fingers (and houses) >On 6/15/06, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote: > >> It doesn't make sense in this model for House Jhereg to alienate the >> tax-paying members of their own house by requiring each generation to >> "re-up" on their titles. > >But I can definitely see the Jhereg instituting special rules for >Teckla and Easterners who want to join the House fresh - whom they >wouldn't care about alienating, just about squeezing for money. > >And if the Easterners don't like being squeezed, they can just swear >fealty to someone and be Teckla. Well, making the title non-inheritable would make the whole prospect a lot less attractive to the potential buyer. Perhaps they sell both kinds, and the non-inheritable ones are at markdown prices? In this case, I would suspect Vlad's Father of springing for the more expensive kind, given that his concern was as much for his son to be "Dragaeran" as for himself. You don't make money by driving away business, though, and telling Easterners that if they don't like the terms they can go be Teckla is going to alienate a potential market of title buyers, thereby not *allowing* the Jhereg to squeeze money from them. >I believe that the suggestion was not that the title passed "one >generation and no further", but rather, was purchased for the both of >them. Okay. Kinda like Vlad's father bought a Peerage for both of them? But in this case, why was the medallion of office "inherited" by Vlad? He should have already had one of his own. >And a couple of trivia points: Knighthoods are not usually inheritable >- but according to Wikipedia, the title "baronet" was specifically >created as an inheritable knighthood. So there's that. Interesting, and applicable, I would say. >I disagree. Textev: (Paresh speaking, in /Teckla/:) 'Of all of the >"Noble Houses" [...] there are only a few which contain any of the >aristocracy, and then only a few of that House.' > >> A Jhereg with no title is a Teckla. Or worse. > >Nope, just a Jhereg. Ah, but "aristocracy" does not mean all people with titles--it means landed gentry who don't have to work. In the text you cited part of, for example, Paresh says that basically the Lyorn, Dragons, and Dzur have all the aristocrats. Fine. But we've met dozens of Issola, Orca, Jhereg, Vallista, and other House members who have titles, but are not aristocrats. This doesn't mean they're all land-holders. Quite the opposite, Paresh comments on which houses use empty titles and which ones always have land attached, how the Lyorn use "knight" for all landless gentry. Khaavren can still use the title "Marquis", even though his land was sold back to the empire a millenium ago. >Paarfi, in tLoCB: "Where between conception and birth falls the moment >when the Orb insinuates itself from a mother who is a citizen to an >infant who is to become one? We cannot, in this brief work, take the >time to explore this question with the thoroughness it deserves, so we >will say only that it seems to be the case that the connection comes >somewhere toward the end of the mother's term of pregnancy." Well, Paarfi's not a doctor or sorcerer, so far as we know, so his speculations on this are extremely suspect. Still, it seems reasonable enough that I'm not going to disagree with it. >Note how Piro and Ibronka, et al, received Orb links: They swore >fealty to Zerika, and it just worked. > >It may be a sneaky secret that getting an Orb link is as simple as >that, and the reason that Easterners in the Empire don't get links is >simply because they are disinclined to swear fealty, and/or because >they don't realize how simple it is. Well, given that the Orb is a reliable lie-detector, it may simply be that when a person tries to contact it, it determines from the person's own mind whether or not they truly believe they are entitled to a link, and if so, allows them in. This would keep out Easterners in general who *know* they're not supposed to have links without becoming Teckla or buying titles in the Jhereg. But once they *do* believe they're entitled, the link is just there. Majikjon