[Dragaera] Dzur spoilers - 17 thoughts

[Davdi Silverrock]

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1)  True heroics must be carefully planned -- and strenuously avoided.

I am somewhat surprised at those who appear to think that Vlad did
nothing Dzurlike.  He did a lot of careful planning, and quite a bit
of strenuous avoiding.  And he also did a lot of Heroic stuff.
Confronting the Goddess and threatening her, with an unsheathed weapon
that is allegedly destined to kill her, and convincing her to help him
out?  Pure Dzur.  Walking straight into a situation where he's
outnumbered, and at least closely matched, if not overpowered?  Very
Dzur.  &c.


2) [...]

I was amusing to note all of the elliptical writing.  I am not sure if
it was Dzurlike of Vlad to be so jumpy and/or angry, but it was rather
Dzurlike to only refer to it by implication.


3) dewd, vald will like totaly killinator the jereg bcuz he got an awe
sum great weapon!!1!!!

I think Steve is, in some sense, taking care to acknowledge some of
the more wild speculation from his fanbase by putting a big, heavy
boot on it and stomping it out.  Some of the dialogue about just how
invulnerable (or not) Great Weapons make one seemed just a tad
deliberate.  Good, say I.


4) Kieron

The suppressed memories that Vlad has of the Paths include a statue of
Kieron that Morrolan made obesieance to, and this statue apparantly
responded to this with aid.  Out of what little we know about Gods, it
can be noted that stone shrines and idols appear to have some mystical
connection to them.  Since Kieron has a stone statue of himself that
he appears to have a mystical connection to, we might pararectally
speculate that he has, over the millenia, learned to at the very least
bilocate.  This might also explain why Kieron has not returned to
Dragaera; as with all of the Gods, he prefers to hang out in the
nether realms of the Halls of Judgement.  He might also be a very
young and/or weak God, and so therefore in danger of being made into a
demon.


5) Verra taking some of Vlad's blood

Vague notions of vampires and mind control via blood absorption come
to mind.  Although, to the left, there is the manner in which Granny
Weatherwax dealt with a similar situation.


6) Deleen

I seem to recall that there was some mailing list member who actually
seemed to enjoy performing intensive research, although perhaps not as
much as the Tsalmoth of the Imperial Library.  His name was rather
long, and if one were to knock out a bunch of letters from it, and
change one of the vowels to an "e", well, it yeilds "Deleen".  This
other individual self-identified as a Hawk, though.  But what does
*he* know?  Besides, this list member disappeared, *never to return in
any way shape or from*. . .

And it is probably all just a coincidence anyway.

Anyway, it is absolutely magnificent that Dragaeran sorcery can grep
dead trees.  That's just too cool.


7) Nightslayer

It occurs to me that a more formally correct name for this weapon,
given its Serioli name, might be "Soulbinder".  That's just a guess,
of course.


8) Valabar's

Either Valabar's has very very small portions, or there is a lot of
wastage (Vlad seems to imply the latter).  I know that only one or two
of the dishes described might very well fill my own stomach up to the
limit - and I would be avoiding the meat and the fish.

Who are the lucky beggers and/or rats and/or jhereg who feast on
Valabar's leftovers and scraps, I wonder?


9) Devera

I had wondered if Devera was near Vlad's age; and we now have
confirmation that she is indeed older that he is.  Or at least Vlad
thinks so, and he would have a reasonable idea of how Dragaerans age.


10) Telnan

Well, now we know who Zungaron is, and who the Lavode-in-training is,
so big swaths of Speculation can now be removed.  But if Telnan just
means "student", then do we actually know his real name?


11) Lady Teldra

It occurs to me that now art can be done of Vlad holding *any sort of
edged weapon at all*, and it will just be Lady Teldra in a different
shape.  Hmph.

Oh, and while it has been Speculated that Godslayer represents House
Jhereg (because slaying==assassination), or House Issola (Teldra,
obviously), perhaps the shapeshifting might be meant to indicate that
that weapon really represents House Jhegaala.

Note that Teldra's response to the attack on Vlad might be described
as "reflexive".

Despite the sorceress' death being from afar, it was still classified
as being Morganti.  I wonder how they know?  What do they look for
that says "the soul that was originally in this body isn't *anywhere*
anymore"?


12) Mario

It is interesting that Vlad somehow knew that this harmless-looking
person, of all the people in Valabar's, was dangerous.  Perhaps one
professional intuitively recognizing another?  Do assassins have some
sort of "killdar"?

Since Mario is a great deal older than Paarfi suggests, perhaps he
spent a few millenia on one of those worlds where time runs at a
different rate.

To the left, perhaps Mario just is that old.  That might well make him
old enough to have been the one who shined Sethra, maybe?  Or perhaps
it was his activities that inspired Sethra to keep a closer eye on the
Jhereg?


13) Kragar

One of the things that /Dzur/ made clear, when describing the history
of the Left Hand of the Jhereg, was that being evicted from one's
House is not necessarily a matter of having mixed ancestry.  So that
greatly weakens one of my more speculative speculations.  Still, now
we have as a further Speculation that perhaps it was because Kragar
was aiding the assassin of the previous Emperor (and/or the assassin
of someone else important) that got Kragar kicked out of House Dragon.

Hm.  Still no explanation of why he's so hard to see.


14) South Adrilankha

It was interesting to see the place so carefully depicted; to see Vlad
having nostalgia for his grandfather's former residence, and hanging
out with Easterner friends and aquaintances.  Perhaps Vlad will find
it within himself to help fix the place up a bit?

It's also interesting to see that Kelly's Organization isn't
mentioned, that I can recall.  Perhaps the hints that Easterners are
interested in buying land is a hint that he's trying to form a commune
or a collective farm of some sort?


15) Tukko

"How old is Sethra?"
"Younger than I am."

Hmph.  I think Steve likes *messing* with us.


16) Courtesy

A minor observation:  The opening of /Issola/ mentioned the different
codes of conduct that each House has, and that while it might be
polite in one House to stand to greet guests, it is polite in others
to stay seated, and that as a complication, a member of one House
might greet someone of another House using that other House's standard
of conduct.

Anyway, it was interesting to see that mirrored in the prologue of
/Dzur/ where Vlad stands to greet his Dzur guest.

Was Vlad just slightly more courteous to people than he would have
been normally?  I'll have to try and look for that on my re-read,
although I note that there's a point when he has a chance to mouth off
to Aliera, and stops himself.

Although I just checked the exact wording in /Issola/, and it says
that Dzur remain seated when greeting guests.  So was Vlad being
inappropriate to Telnan?  Or was he unconciously following the rule
of, say, House Issola?


17)  Vlad Norathar and Cawti

It is perhaps appropriate that the story ends just as Vlad is about to
meet someone whose very existence he did not suspect, and that it is
this meeting that perhaps affects him the most, out of all of the
confrontations that he's had.

Note that Cawti did notify Noish-pa about VN, but consider the
implication:  Vlad said that he visited Noish-pa during his travels.
That could mean his own grandfather didn't tell him about his son
(unless the timing wasn't quite right, in that the visit was before
the birth, which I suppose might be possible).  Hm.

I wonder, will Cawti/Vlad hold off taking VN to see Noish-pa, given
the prophecy about VN?


More thoughts later, perhaps.