[Dragaera] Vlad's Birth

[skzb]

Wow.  You're good.  I'm going to use those figures too, until I have a 
reason to change them.

Alexx Kay wrote:
> Remember, months back, when we were arguing about how old Vlad was?  And I
> said that when I did my revised Timeline, I'd try and work out why I
> thought what I did about that?  Well, I've spent a large number of hours
> over the past few weeks collating information, and have come to some very
> different conclusions than those that are in the current release of the
> Timeline.
>
> Vlad almost certainly *is* older than I (used to) claim, by some 2-4
> years.  Here's the section I just finished writing:
>
> Vlad's Birth
>
> We don't know when in the year Vlad was born. There's only a single
> reference to his birthday (Tt 31), and that contains no seasonal
> information.
>
> Vlad acquires the egg that will hatch Loiosh at age sixteen (Jr 3). We
> don't know exactly how far into his sixteenth year he was, but we can make
> some inferences. In "the following week" (Jr 9), there is a near-accident
> which prompts Vlad to sell the restaurant. "About two months after I had
> sold the restaurant" (Jr 10), Loiosh hatches, and the next day Vlad ends
> up joining the Organization. "I was seventeen years old the first time I
> was paid to kill a man" (Tt 97), and at that time "Loiosh explained to me
> that he was now more than a year old. I allowed as to how this was true"
> (Tt 115). Loiosh is only *just* over a year old, since a few weeks
> earlier, Vlad says "I had been in the Organization nearly a year" (Tt
> 103). From all this, we can put his seventeenth birthday at between 2 and
> 15 months earlier.
>
> Vlad's first assassination is part of the war between Welok and Rolaan.
> That war "lasted for several months" (Tt 137). "several" is vague, but I'm
> going to guess between 5 and 7 (Y 44 suggests that this is a bit on the
> long side, but not atypical). The war had been going for at least a month
> when Vlad was hired for his first 'work', so say between 3 and 6 months
> passed between that job and Rolaan's death. "About a year and a half after
> Rolaan [died]" (Y 14), Welok dies in turn; let's figure that at between 24
> and 27 months. Tagichatn takes over (Y 14). After 2 months (Y 14), Vlad
> kills him and sets up in business for himself. This is only "a few months"
> before Taltos begins (Tt 2-3), say between 2 and 4. Assuming none of this
> is grossly wrong, it adds up to a total of between 31 and 39 months. Thus,
> Vlad's age at the beginning of Taltos could be anywhere between 18 years,
> 16 months, and 20 years, 3 months. Splitting the difference gives us an
> age of 19 years, 10 1/2 months.
>
> Figuring backwards from Jhereg, which multiple references place in 243 PI,
> Taltos begins in 239 PI. (See notes for each individual book for more
> details on that derivation.) It's "summer" (Tt 113), which we know begins
> a few days into the month of the Hawk (5), and presumably continues until
> halfway through the month of Vallista (9). Let's say, for the sake of
> argument, that Taltos begins in the month of Issola (7). That would put
> Vlad's birthday somewhere in the month of the Orca (14), the winter of
> late 219 PI.
>
> I fully realize that the previous two paragraphs are full of wild
> assumptions, and have error bars of about a year either way, in total. But
> until such time as I get better data, I'm going to use these figures. That
> very use may help highlight further data...
>
> Alexx
>
> "Parents who tell their kids that all their atoms get replaced every seven
>  years should instead say -over- every seven years, so as to avoid undue
>  anxiety over Total Atom Replacement Day."   -- James Nicoll
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dragaera mailing list
> Dragaera at lists.dragaera.info
> http://lists.dragaera.info/listinfo.cgi/dragaera-dragaera.info
>   

-- 
Steven Brust
skzb at dreamcafe.com
MENTES INDIGNORVM FRANGERE