[Dragaera] New member introduction

[Scott Schultz]

> Here's an alternate view:  The easterners grow in size, look at the 
> empire,
> and get smacked down in force by the Dragaerians - an effective way of
> keeping the barbarous neighbors in check.  Of course, that is too 
> simplistic
> a view.  Your idea seems intriguing.

I think the real question these days is "What do we actually mean when we 
say 'The East'?" Over time, the East has gone from being this blank spot on 
the other side of the Eastern Mountains to being a kind of pseudo-Europe. 
"The East" doesn't really exist. The people behind the Eastern Mountains (or 
Western Mountains, depending on your viewpoint) don't appear to be a single 
people or a single nation. Fenario is a nation with its own customs and 
people and it's purposely given a Hungarian flavor. Blackchapel is not all 
that different from the Empire; it's got a more cosmopolitan generic 
European  feel to it and it seems that it is not part of Fenario (though no 
relationship between the two is ever actually stated). The place of the 
Trinagore(?) worshippers is seperate from both Blackchapel and Fenario. Vlad 
jokes with Teldra about retiring to be a Caliph with a harem. The 
implication is that such a kingdom exists someplace in the East.

In short, the appearance is given that "The East" is a fiction. It's really 
just the point where the three nations of Dragaerans (The Empire, Greenaire, 
and Elde Island) meet the unspecified number of nations of Terran-stock 
humans. Sethra the Younger doesn't make fine distinctions. To her,they're 
all Easterners and everything on the other side of the mountains is The 
East. She's an equal opportunity conqueror. *heh*

The whole relationship between the East and the Empire appears to be a bit 
strange on the face of it. What drove the Easterners to think they could 
find sancturary in Faerie when the plagues drove them out of their homeland? 
What made the Empire open its lands to their hereditary enemy even if it was 
to exploit them as cheap labor (though they don't really even seem to do 
that except for the most offensive of tasks, like the tanneries)?

I've sort of come to the conclusion that the problem of trying to define the 
The East in relation to the Empire is that you can't avoid doing it without 
distorting it through the lens of the ruling House. We as readers, and Vlad 
as someone whose friends are primarily Dragon, see it through the lens of 
the Dragon, who are people the make war on each other recreationally. The 
East is the "enemy" because they NEED an enemy to vent their agression 
towards and The East happens to be handy. According to legend, that's 
supposedly why Kieron left them alive and autonomous. So that they could 
provide an outlet for Dragons needing a war, rather than the more likely 
reality that the East is simply too big and spread out to actually conquer 
much of it or hold it for very long.

In any case, when you aren't looking through the eyes of a Dragon, I suspect 
you see the East in a different light. The official policy of "The East is 
our enemy" only seems to get lip service when there's no active border 
skirmishes and there's not a Dragon holding the Orb.

>
> "According to prophecy, Godslayer will kill Verra."
>
> Isn't the actual translation of Godslayer to be "remover of aspects of
> deity"?  And while it could be a deadly thing, it doesn't mean it will
> destory the god.  Couldn't there be other applications of that? 
> Especially
> considering the soul used?
>

Hey, I didn't make the prophecy!  Take it up with Sethra! :-P