[Dragaera] Gender imbalance in the Jhereg [_Dzur_ Spoiler]

[Jon Lincicum]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> 
> 
> On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Jon Lincicum wrote:
> 
> >
> >  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> 
> As far as I recall, Vlad doesn't talk about them at all.  If Vlad says
> someone is in the Jhereg, he means in the Organization - explicitly.

I would also imagine that a large number of the non-criminal Jhereg probably go to great lengths to avoid drawing excessive attention to themselves (or at least their House affiliation) due to the stigma created by the Organization.

It's possible that a number of the "He looked kinda like a Tsalmoth" folks that Vlad has run into may have been Jhereg who were shy about their House afiliation. But there's no way to prove it, of course. 

> If a large fraction of Jhereg are Unhanded, then you'd think that at
> the end of _Phoenix_ the courtiers would have been whispering not only
> about a Jhereg getting an Imperial title, but an Organization member
> getting one, and Vlad would say so.  And we have the odd situation that
> the House and its Characteristics and Cycle role seem to be associated
> with only a small portion of its members.  So for all we know there are
> scads of Dragons who have nothing to do with the military, some unknown
> percentage of Yendi who are straight-forward and above-board, a majority
> of Vallista who have no interest in engineering or architecture.

It would think it would be even odder for a non-criminal Jhereg to have done something that got him an Imperial Title... Since they are without money, power, or influence within their House. 

But really, being or not being a criminal member of the Jhereg doesn't really affect the "shock value" of Vlad getting an Imperial Title--it's not a matter of how well the bear waltzes, it's that he waltzes at all. 

> I strongly suspect that whenever a male Jhereg shows up in the Vladiad
> or Paarfiad it is assumed that he is RH.

Since these are the only ones important (or influential) enough to rate a mention in an adventure story, this makes a great deal of sense. 

Majikjon