[Dragaera] Vlad's passivity--getting long

[Alexx Kay]

Philip Hart:

> Second, I figure he means to drown L in a butt of dark water.

Going from Hamlet to Richard III, eh?  :-)

First Murderer

    Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy
    sword, and then we will chop him in the malmsey-butt
    in the next room.

Second Murderer

    O excellent devise! make a sop of him

>> He also communicates psychically
>> with Savn, so he could communicate with others.
>
> Is this consistent?  I assumed he couldn't safely do this,
> esp. after L has called in the Jhereg.

When he gives Savn a lesson in psychic communication, he visibly hesitates
before taking off the black Phoenix Stone, clearly aware that he is taking
a risk.  But this is relatively early in the book (p. 72), and I think
before Vlad is aware that the Jhereg have been alerted to his presence. 
Through the rest of the book, he never does anything which is definitively
Witchcraft, nor engages in psionic communication (except with Loiosh, a
known exception to the BPS).

>> Anyway, Aliera has often demonstrated that she'll fight
>> over nothing.  I feel sure she would fight someone who
>> used her soul as experimental equipment and refused to
>> stop when he was offered compensation for it.
>
> She might be of the he's-already-been-killed-over-this
> persuasion too.

That's my take on it.

>> Although he has told Savn that Loraan is
>> undead, and Loraan might kill Savn if he finds out he
>> knows that (to speculate without evidence).  But until
>> later in the book, Vlad hasn't shown a whole lot of
>> concern with innocent bystanders.
>
> How is that?  Is it consistent with _Jhegaala_?

At least one significant difference: in _J_, the innocents are Easterners,
and many of them are even Vlad's blood kin.  In _A_, they are Dragaerans,
and in no way related to anyone he cares about.

> Vlad should be famous among Easterners - those who don't
> think saving the Empire at the time of _Phoenix_, which
> is all Ric should know about, was a bad idea.

Again, it is probably public knowledge that Vlad got a medal/Title, but
*not* why.  Those who follow politics might infer that it had something to
do with the Greenaere war.  Then again, they might believe it had
something to do with suppressing the riots in South Adrilankha (an issue
which Vlad was at least somewhat known to be involved in).

Alexx

"I insisted upon treating demons, angels, and giant talking God-Snakes
 as if they were a part of my normal everyday existence... and thus by
 extension a part of general everyday existence.  Nobody argued, and,
 indeed, a large percentage would timidly venture some bizarre experience
 of their own, as if relieved to finally have someone to breathe it to.
 I insist that Magic /is/ Real Life.  I behave as if it is, and everybody
 just sort of, you know.  Goes along."
    -- Alan Moore, in correspondence with Dave Sim about _From Hell_