[Dragaera] _Iorich_ random brief comments (spoilers!)

[Alexx Kay]

>
>
> On Tue, 26 Jan 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:
>
>>> a
>>> b
>>> c
>>> d
>>> e
>>> f
>>> g
>>> h
>>> i
>>> j
>>> k
>>> l
>>> m
>>> n
>>> o
>>> p
>>> q
>>>
>>>
>>> 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.

Granted, A doesn't have any *clear* textev, just implications based on
people's behavior and politeness.

B being true before doesn't make it less true now, so I don't see the
objection.

>>> 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.

When I have more time, I will check.  It wouldn't surprise me at all to
find something like "...won't take your head without a better reason than
this" or "...for such a small offense."

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

Short answer: we don't know.  Some Seriloi magical technology, which I
suspect has more than a little in common with Necromancy, and may be
identical with it.

>> (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.

I agree that the escape plan is not sensible on a simple surface level,
and that there must have been something deeper.  I don't think "making
Norathar feel better" sounds any more plausible.  As I wrote a while back,
I think that the escape was meant to be a prelude to Aliera taking actions
to clear her name, and incidentally short-circuit the Jhereg/Orca
conspiracy.

>>> 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.

Depends how common raptors are, I expect.  They might be more common out
East, perhaps.  And Vlad might be mistaken about the utter lack of
differentiations.

Alexx

Occasional lapses of omniscience are the price I pay for being implementable.
   [Seen on a Nancy Button, www.nancybuttons.com]