[Dragaera] Speculation about Sethra Chapter XCLVIX

[Scott Schultz via Dragaera]

My understanding of Sethra's history is that she predates the Empire, and
she is probably one of their original experiments. She has mixed ancestry
because there weren't any tribes or Houses around to enforce genetic
conformance.

Her longevity is a personal trait. The only reason she ever died is that she
finally got tired of living and chose to die. 

Since she was already legendary, and nobody ever returned alive from Dzur
Mountain (or at least so the legends said), few ever visited Dzur Mountain
to realize that she was gone.

>From the standpoint of the management of the Empire, she was on a long
sabbatical. It seems unlikely that any ruling Emperor other than an
exceedingly decadent Phoenix would presume to order Sethra to appear at
court and expect her to comply if she chose otherwise. Her absence would be
interpreted as rejection of the invitation. Maybe Tuko was even covering for
her absence.

Since she DID die, and her soul went to the Paths of the Dead, there was no
coming back, not even for Sethra, unless she defied death itself. Someone
convinced her that she did, indeed, need to come back. So she did. That's
Sethra for you. Apparently death wasn't even enough to separate her from
Dzur Mountain and Iceflame, or at least it was not an insurmountable
obstacle to reforming that bond. Presumably that means that she is in
possession of her soul, regardless of her other circumstances.

We don't really have a clue what vampirism means on Dragaera. We've seen
hints of Vlad noting Sethra drinking "something red" that might be wine but
might be blood or something else. We've seen jokes between Vlad and Loiosh,
but otherwise we really don't have much clue what "undeath" means, other
than it being "sometimes inconvenient".

Since the discovery of her Vampirism was a scandal (as Undead cannot hold
public office), and a relatively recent one in terms of Empire history, it
could be presumed that her re-emergence was also relatively recent.