Dragaera

Vlad & Cawti & (Lesser Orca Spoiler/ Dzur speculation)

Thu Jul 13 09:26:44 PDT 2006

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>Will VN be a 4-year old revolutionary?

I'm not sure it's possible for a child that young to have any grasp of the
sorts of complex social issues that Cawti was wrestling with. I'd think
parroting slogans would be about the extent of his awareness, and that only
if Cawti exposes him to them. 

I wonder if she's still living in the upscale part of town or if she moved
into South Adrilankha? Kind of hard to be a revolutionary if you're one of
the bourgois.

>Will he be living in Szurke with Noish-pa? 

Granted that Cawti doesn't appear to have any family of her own, the only
reason for him to be living with Noish-pa would be that it's unsafe for him
in Adrilankha. I can't see her dumping him because she has no time for him.
Kiera's letter to Cawti in the closing chapter of _Orca_ doesn't seem
indicative of Cawti living one place and Jr. living in different place.

>Will he be showing any unusual signs due to his parentage/ancestry?

Like a proclivity for flipping knives? ;-)

>Will he already be a witch?

Unlikely. Noish-pa never traveled much when he lived in Adrilankha. It
doesn't seem like he'd move out of Szurke once he established himself there.
Of course, he may have moved back to Adrilankha. There wouldn't seem to be
anyone else around to train Jr. Cawti has some skill as a witch, but she
seems to have primarily practiced it in the role as Vlad's "coven" rather
than spending much effort doing it on her own. We might find out differently
if any of the stories ever centered around her, of course. 

In any case, Vlad was about age 10, as I recall, when he began training as a
witch. Generalizing from a single example we could assume that's the typical
age for beginning such training. 

>What will he think of Loiosh?

What do small children ever think of animals, especially those intelligent
enough to play with them? I'd expect Loiosh's snake-like qualities to
frighten him for about ten seconds, as long he's never had an unpleasant
experience with one of the wild jhereg that hang around Adrilankha.

>What will Loiosh think of him?

Good question. Probably just about the same as he thinks of Cawti or any of
Vlad's close friends, with the caveat that the child would be more annoying
due to the various sorts of accidental mistreatment that children perform on
their pets, and Loiosh would probably think it beneath him to act like a
pet. If Jr. didn't attempt to dismantle him, then I'd expect him to feel the
same sorts of parental protectiveness that Vlad would.

>Will Vlad relate his recent experiences with Savn to his own son?

Given Savn's condition, I'm having a hard time imagining how it would
relate, except that Vlad might have learned to have a bit more patience than
otherwise.

>Will the Jhereg be trying to get at VN in order to get at Vlad?

No, I don't think so. Firstly, Jr. is completely innocent. Cawti became a
target because she was directly involved with Kelly's people and continued
to be a rabble-rouser despite several clear warnings. Secondly, I have to
think that some clear-thinkers on the Council must realize that the whole
business of Vlad's betrayal was caused because the rule about attacking
someone's family was broken, in a sense. The actual "rule" applies to
targets of assassination, but the end result of _Phoenix_ illustrates why
the rule exists at all. Endangering Jr. would be like mailing an open
invitation for Vlad to attempt to slaughter the entire Council.

To the left, given the apparent semi-autonomous nature of the Left Hand, I
shouldn't be surprised if Vlad comes into direct conflict with them as
result of something they do that endangers Cawti and/or Jr.