[Dragaera] So, you're a Tsalmoth, right?

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 11/7/06, Jon Lincicum wrote:
> One of the recurring themes I've noticed in going through the Vlad books
> is that on a number of occasions, he assumes Dragaerans of an undefined
> or uncertain House to be Tsalmoth.
>
> He has done this in the cases of: Fentor (Jhereg/Yendi), Chaz/Tukko
> (Taltos), Hwdf'rjaanci (Orca), Toller (Orca), and possibly others.
>
> In at least two of these cases (Fentor and Chaz/Tukko) we have
> contradicting evidence about the characters' House (Fentor as a
> Dragonlord, and Tukko as a Teckla) from Paarfi.
>
> Is this just a quirk of Vlad's, or does it perhaps tell us something
> about the features of Tsalmoth? (Perhaps Tsalmoth share a number of
> physical traits with other Houses, making them easy to misidentify?) Or
> perhaps this is a case of Vlad's perceptions--"All you Dragaerans look
> kind of the same to me...so I'll just assume you're a Tsalmoth unless
> you've got some other extremely obvious characteristic"?
>
> Any thoughts?
>
>

Oh, only that Tsalmoth are sort of average in terms of their relation
to other Houses.  They're not obviously noble or military or
mercantile or creative or social or deceptive or intellectual.
They're tenacious?  Well, tenacious at what, exactly?  Tenacity is how
one does something, not what one does.

So if someone isn't obviously something specific, and isn't obviously
a peasant, then perhaps "Tsalmoth" is the best guess under the
circumstances.

I figure that a better guess for Hwdf'rjaanci's House is Vallista,
given that she repairs brains, and her husband carved figurines, both
of which sort of fit in as "building/making/fixing things".