[Dragaera] House Phoenix

[Alexx Kay]

> So, I was thinking.
>
> What happens to those Phoenix (Phoenices? :P) who do NOT have a Phoenix
> fly over their head at the moment of their birth?

Alternatively, they may still be Phoenix from the point of view of the
Imperial bureaucracy, but not by the standards of the House.  Probably
ineligible to hold House offices, definitely not eligible to be Heir.

> Also--I'd like to present the opportunity to resolve the Phoenix paradox:
> Perhaps someone from ANY house is eligible for entry into House Phoenix
> (sorry, been reading Dune again) if a Phoenix passes over at the moment of
> their birth.  (by the way, how precise are we talking here?  The same day?
>  As the baby is delivered?  During labour?)

Interesting (and possibly Cool) notion, but strikes me as unlikely.  We
know that there are physical (and thus presumably genetic) characteristics
associated with the House, which suggests (though certainly doesn't prove)
that there isn't much random mixing with other Houses.

Hm!  In previous discussions (at least the ones I remember), we've assumed
that the Phoenix-flying-over event is random chance.  But unless the House
has a strong taboo against the idea, such an event could be engineered.  A
Phoenix-summoning spell would almost certainly be invented (if at all
possible in the first place.

If this is true, then the *lack* of a Phoenix-flying-overhead would be a
rare event, and probably indicative of carelessness, bad luck, or extreme
poverty on the part of the parents.

(We haven't ever 'met' a Dragaeran Phoenix-bird, I think.  How common/rare
are they?  Are they intelligent?  Can they be raised in captivity?)

> That's actually something I'd really like to see, and something I think is
> quite likely to happen in the remaining novels:  Vlad meeting a phoenix
> (and having it connected to the birth of a new one, and the resurrection
> of the House---this must happen before Zerika dies, or else the house is
> destroyed, and the cycle falls.

It doesn't *have* to happen before Zerika dies to preserve the Cycle; just
before the next Phoenix Reign.  (Between 5,000 and 83,000 years in the
future.)

Hm, again!  The House must have some remaining physical assets (their wing
of the Palace, at least).  Does Zerika oversee these personally, or has
she delegated the task?  Has she perhaps set up the delegation in such a
way that they House assets will be 'kept in trust' somehow, if she dies
before another Phoenix turns up?

Alexx

Old soldiers never die.  Young ones do.