[Dragaera] The Desecrator [spoilers]

[Davdi Silverrock]

A few thoughts, here and there.

Spoilers ahoy.

I sometimes wonder if Steve has dreams of Dragaera.  There was
something oddly dreamlike about this story; I'm not sure why.

When I saw the word "desecrator", I was put in mind of the rather
specific sense of desecrating the altar or idol of one of the
Dragaeran gods, as we've seen Miklos and Morrolan do, to the sacred
things dedicated to the Demon Goddess and Trinagore (respectively).
Seeing "desecrator" turn out to be synonymous with "archeologist" (or
perhaps "ethnoarchaeologist" -- does Daymar focus on non-Dragaeran
cultures?) was thus rather jarring.  Given the tendency of the
Dragaeran language to be literal, I would have thought "revealer" or
"finder" would be more apropos.

But maybe that's just me.

If Sethra did know that Daymar would be there, not telling him that
Telnan would be arriving seems rather silly. Although...  Did Sethra
*know* Daymar at this point?  Vlad meets Daymar through Kragar in
"Dragon", and introduces him to his other friends later.  So maybe
not.

If Sethra didn't know that Telnan would find a Great Weapon, then why
send him on a route that would cause him to interact with the lower
classes/innocents, that he (at least) seemed to think was done to
prevent him slaughtering them with the Great Weapon once he got it?

Well, perhaps her abilities in divination steered her that way,
regardless of Telnan thinking that it had been useless. *shrug*

Seeing Daymar so easily override Telnan's will, and the follow-up
discussion about mind being material, made me wonder if there might be
a connection between that and what we see of Telnan in "Dzur".  Given
that there Telnan is so relaxed and cheerful, and ever-paranoid Vlad
gets no hint that Telnan is a barely-controlled bloodthirsty
berserker, perhaps Sethra, either on her own, or with Daymar's help,
altered Telnan's general emotional state.  A regimen of
sorcerous/psychic mood enhancement, as it were.

Who can say?


Shout-outs, references, in-jokes:

"It wouldn't be polite" was an obvious reference to Daymar of Patricia
Wrede's "Talking to Dragons".  So there's that.

I got the faint impression that the illusionary animal might have been
a reference to the -- whatever the *hell* -- on the cover of "Iorich".
 Stephen Hickman does very interesting covers for SKZB's books, but
sometimes I wonder if the animals portrayed can even close their
mouths without puncturing their upper and/or lower jaw. Dear Mr.
Hickman: Please study vertebrate dentition more carefully.  Thankyou!

There seemed something familiar about the illusionary man "wielding"
Nightslayer.  Elric of Melnibone would have been somewhat appropriate,
but the description fails utterly to match.  Blue eyes and and brown
hair could be anyone, really, but the golden skin seems like a detail
meant to reference something.  I don't know what, though.