[Dragaera] random thoughts on recent (or not) Texts

[Alexx Kay]

> Following some threads backwards and forwards, had some idle thoughts ...

> 4. Was Baritt bonded to PF?  I can't come up with a sensible reason
> why he hid the fact he had a GW, unless perhaps he didn't win the
> struggle for control, but somehow retained partial use of it.  Does the
> apparent fact that Aliera is in communication with PF soon after
> _Dragon_ differ from Vlad's experience with LT due to PF having woken
> up long ago, and the other GW-wielders asking Vlad about it being due to
> their having acquired long-created weapons?

Beyond some very brief conversation with Sethra at the end of _Issola_,
Vlad doesn't appear to have asked anyone about the nature of Great Weapons
in general, or the implications of owning one in particular.  I believe
this is part of his general pattern of attempting to ignore/deny that he
is wrapped up in the machinations of the gods, or "Destiny".  Aliera does
not appear to have any similar hangup.

> 6. By _Iorich_ Vlad seems to have forgotten about the memory issues that
> were so central in _Dragon_ and _Dzur_.

"forgotten about the memory issues"  Heh.  Maybe he's just having more of
them.

But a simpler answer is contained in my above remark.  Vlad would really
rather not think about such things.

> 8. Why does the empire license brothels beyond checking for STDs and
> health code issues, stuff nobody would want to go visit Vlad's Valentines
> to avoid paying for.  (I wonder incidentally if he has a sideline in
> unpasteurized cheeses and the like.)  Maybe in search of violence?
> Somehow I think that would have come up - what seems likeliest to me is
> cross-house sex.  That fits Piro and Ibronka seeing a Tsalmoth.

The canonical answer is "not paying taxes makes it a lot cheaper".  But I
like your answer also.

> 13. It's interesting how many texts address the short period around
> _Yendi_ - Tag and the flash-forward in _Dragon_ seem to be about then.
> It's of course the time of one of the most important events in his
> eventful life, his being killed by, falling in love with, and marrying
> Cawti.  I see the Timeline has a few empty years before that

Not exactly "empty", more like "not yet revealed in detail".

>, at the
> expense of some explaining away apparently contradictory comments from
> Vlad, an effort I'm all in favor of since it makes Vlad older and makes
> room for the various things we only have allusions to and which surely
> didn't happen every day.

Just so.  These are collected in the Timeline under "Untold Tales of Vlad".

> 15. I can't see how Kragar could have met Mario 90 years ago through
> Aliera, who was partly living in a staff at the time.  And Aliera had very
> little time to introduce them in the few days between Mario's first and
> second attempts on Tortaalik.  Wild speculation - Aliera got Kragar fired
> pre-interregnum, this is considered hilarious in certain Jhereg circles,
> Mario hears and decides Kragar must be interesting, or can tell him
> stories of his briefly beloved.

Here's my take, from the Timeline:
~158 PI
Kragar starts working for Mario ("About, uh, ninety years, I guess", Dz
222; "About ninety years", Dz 224). Did Aliera actually introduce the two
of them? As Mendel pointed out in a discussion on Dreamcafe, Aliera was
not incarnate at this time. I suppose that Aliera could have introduced
the two of them before the Interregnum, with the business arrangement
starting later. Further, in Jhereg, chapter 4, when Kragar thinks Vlad is
considering geting help from Aliera for an assassination, he says "Boss,
she's a /Dragon/. They don't /believe/ in assassination. They consider it
a /crime/..." (Jr 55); this suggests strongly that he is unaware of the
relationship between the two of them. Perhaps Kragar is simply humoring
Vlad's guess in order to minimize the amount he betrays Mario's
confidence.

Alexx

"I've also seen people that, despite being densely surrounded by people
 with clue, manage to take more of the dense, and less of the clue."
   -- Ailish