[Dragaera] Vlad as an Earth name

[Alexx Kay]

>
>
> On Wed, 13 Jan 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:
>
>>>
>>>> There's a few new ones in Iorich and some of them are Earth names,
>>>> too.
>>>>
>>>> I guess a good follow up question, if it hasn't been discussed before,
>>>> is WHY the Easterners have managed to keep their Earth names for so
>>>> long. The answer probably ties into the same reason they have kept
>>>> many other Earth-originating cultural aspects, such as knocking on
>>>> doors and Hungarian cooking. :)
>>>
>>> My personal theory on this is that contact with long-lived Dragaerans
>>> has
>>> encouraged humans to make efforts to preserve their own history and
>>> traditions to a greater extent.
>>>
>>> 250,000 years (at least) does seem like a long time to maintain some of
>>> these cultural aspects, otherwise.
>>
>> Given what we know about human history on Earth, that degree of
>> continuity
>> over 250,000 years is not *remotely* plausible -- without some serious
>> mitigating factors.  Two that come to mind are "the gods" and "The
>> Cycle".
>
> Well, there's the translator too.  Maybe Vlad -> Blad -> Blod -> ... ->
> Myxtlplyx but SKZB went back to the starting point for familiarity a la
> Tolkien.

In _Phoenix_, Verra strongly implies that Kelly got hold of a Terran book
about communism, and was able to read it.  There's plenty of wiggle room
for translators on that side as well, but it's another (weak) data point
in favor of the languages on Dragaera actually being stable.

Alexx

DEEP THOUGHTS by Jack Handey:
"Sometimes I think the world has gone completely mad.  And then
 I think, `Aw, who cares?'  And then I think, `What's for supper?'"