[Dragaera] Orca Reconsideration 1

[Philip Hart]

On Mon, 8 Feb 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:

>>   How would Sethra change her height, her eyes, conceal her fangs, arrange
>> her hair beneath a wig in a suitable way, and change her face and voice
>> enough to fool people who know both for extended periods of time?
>
> I admit that I am poor at noticing details of physical description of
> characters in books, so I may have missed some things.  But do we actually
> have textev that they *are* different heights?  Or that their eyes and
> hair are significantly different?  Or that Sethra has noticeable fangs?

The fang part is a joke, I think.

I'm going to be pretty skeptical of any height comments based on Vlad's 
judgement, beyond stuff like "About as tall as Aliera", given the delta.


> As to 'people who know both' -- until the events of _Taltos_, that was an
> empty set.  Even after that, the only person who knew them both with more
> than a passing familiarity was Vlad -- who eventually *did* see through
> the disguise.

Maybe Cawti too, nothing like as much of course.  I have a vague 
recollection that Aliera and Kiera are supposed to be friendly in _Jhereg_ 
but whatever.

On the subject, I always suspected Mellar would have hired Kiera to steal 
the book from Morrolan the return of which allows him entree into Castle 
Black, and maybe there's a touch of textev in the scene where Sethra 
learns why it matters.


>>   In a world with magic, when the subject is so associated with magic, a
>> magic explanation shouldn't be unusual, and there are too many problems
>> with a mundane disguise to consider it seriously. 
>
> I don't say that a magical answer is impossible, or even unreasonable.  I
> just think that a mundane answer makes more sense.  Though, as I said, I
> may be missing something, I don't see these problems of which you speak.

Why not a combination?  Maybe it's hard to conceal a drapery of orb 
sorcery about one's person, but Sethra might well be able to manage the 
pre-empire version too.