[Dragaera] _Iorich_ random brief comments (spoilers!)

[Philip Hart]

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:

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>> Water transport - why bother, when teleportation is so easy?  Maybe it's
>> still practical to move heavy loads by river somehow?
>
> Teleportation is 'easy' to highly-trained sorcerers.  Vlad finds it
> difficult, and a lot of Dragaerans can't do it at all.
>
> Also, most of the teleportation we've seen has been of sentient beings
> (and their personal effects).  It's conceivable that teleporting
> non-living matter is more difficult.
>
> Lastly, transport by water is *astoundingly* cheap.  If you haven't done
> the research, you'd be amazed at how much cheaper than ground transport it
> is.  Even in the modern world, with airports, freeways, and railroads,
> shipping by water is very often the cheapest option.



>> Pg. 26 - "Given what the ugly thing is famous for" - what's this?
>
> Steven Brust being a tease, that's what :-)

Still we ought to be able to come up with a sensible other end.  Famous 
for never looking backwards doesn't do it for me.

Another such thing we should come up with is Loiosh's possibly treasonous 
comments about Zerika, pg. 50 I think, AFT.


>> Pg. 29 - "House?" "Imperial."  - This is the sort of thing that led me to
>> keep emphasizing that Vlad has an imperial title and as such a good claim
>> on independence from the Jhereg, which is anyway something of a fiction on
>> several counts.
>
> Note that he is still a Baronet of House Jhereg; the "Imperial House"
> applies to his Count-ship.  And he still self-identifies as a Jhereg.

Could he not resign his baronetcy?  Maybe exposure to the Iorich will lead 
to him getting the idea of doing so.

"he still self-identifies as a Jhereg"

He does and he doesn't, I think.


>
>> Pg. 39 - how is Vlad positioned to harass Lady Ardema?
>
> A) Imperial title gives him a certain base amount of weight to throw around.
>
> B) He probably knows about some unethical behavior in her past that he
> could potentially reveal.  (Presumably implicating himself in the process,
> but he's been well-established as someone who won't let a little thing
> like that stop him if he cares enough.)

B) was true before - A) is unclear to me.


>> Pg. 45 - Capital punishment - we've been told before that Zerika, as a
>> reborn Phoenix, doesn't go for this.
>
> Not that I disagree, but do you happen to remember where we learn this?  I
> know she's willing to do it under sufficient provocation (e.g Kana).

In an early Vladiad book I think - I seem to recall a conversation about a 
crime including the comment, "Zerika is a reborn Phoenix and so won't 
take your head".  Maybe I'm wrong.  And certainly Kana disproves the 
claim.


>> Pg. 49 - Here Vlad says "Jhereg" and not "Imperial", interestingly.
>
> As I said above, the "Imperial-House-ness" attaches to one specific title,
> not to the person as a whole.

Well, but we know nothing about imperial titles.

>> Pg. 68 - "they have taken Pathfinder from me" - this is a weird
>> formulation - no one else can touch Pathfinder, for one thing.
>
> Really?  I mean, under most circumstances, it would be suicidally dumb,
> but I don't recall anyone saying it's impossible.
>
>> And Aliera is able to make amorphia, it's silly to disarm her.
>
> Symbolism matters.

Sure, I'm quibbling, but again, there is probably plenty of literary 
precedent for allowing such a high noble to retain her sword, and as 
discussed in the novel Zerika is probably (supposed to be) trying in 
part to placate the noble houses.


> Also, a person might be willing to fight their way out of prison, where
> they wouldn't be willing to use Elder Sorcery to destroy the prison.
> Especially when what they're charged with in the first place is Elder
> Sorcery...

The GWs are powered by ES, no?  Or do we not know?


> (Hm.  Given Pathfinder's special abilities, I expect that having it might
> let Aliera find the secret passage that (I presume) the Vallista architect
> must have put in :-)

That's better.


> (Hm further.  Maybe that's where Zerika's plan went wrong; she hadn't
> intended for Pathfinder to be taken away in the first place, but a zealous
> and/or finicky Iorich did so.)

The escape plan is just not sensible, that must be something dreamed up to 
make Norathar feel better.


>> Pg. 113/4 In Dragaeran "Hawk" is something like "raptor", of which there
>> are various sorts named in Fenarian.  It's odd to have a house named
>> after something vague.
>
> Perhaps in the language of House Hawk, there are finer distinctions.

I would think that such distinctions would percolate into the common 
tongue.