[Dragaera] Dragaera Digest, Vol 115, Issue 7 Sethra

[Calisto via Dragaera]

As I understand Sethra predates the Empire and she states at that time when there were 17 tribes she was still living.  
We do not know when or how she came to possess the great weapon Iceflame but we do know she was offered Godhood.  It seems safe to say she was offered godhood while in the Halls of Judgement.  If that is true than it might also suggest the reason she was offered godhood was because her soul had become linked irrevocably to Iceflame and Dzur Mountain.  Dzur Mountain being significant because of it’s ability to help defend against the Jenoine.  

Sethra declines becoming a god and thereby retains her mortal form.  Verra at one point tells us that being a god is to be fundamentally different than a mortal, Verra’s blood is not that of a mortal and it is that difference, and probably other factors as well, that allow her (Verra) to come and go from the halls of Judgement.  The Lord Morrolan was only able to walk out of the Halls of Judgement because of Verra’s interference and her using Vlad to cheat the system as it were to infuse Morrolan with a small amount of her blood.  
This leads me to believe Sethra became undead because she had to in order to leave the paths of the dead after deciding not to become a god. 

This would have been about 250,000 years ago as of the time Pari of Roundwood is writing about Adron’s Disaster.  As far as becoming part of Dzur Mountain I believe that is just an expedient way to pass the ages without going insane with boredom.  Basically go to sleep until Dzur Mountain detects a threat by the Jenoine may be eminent, after all 250,000 years is a long time to spend rearranging the furniture.    

Just my two cents…

> On Dec 27, 2016, at 4:03 PM, via Dragaera <dragaera at lists.dragaera.info> wrote:
> 
> Send Dragaera mailing list submissions to
> 	dragaera at lists.dragaera.info
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> 	http://lists.dragaera.info/listinfo.cgi/dragaera-dragaera.info
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> 	dragaera-request at lists.dragaera.info
> 
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> 	dragaera-owner at lists.dragaera.info
> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Dragaera digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Re: Speculation about Sethra Chapter XCLVIX
>      (Scott Schultz via Dragaera)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2016 09:32:58 -0800
> From: Scott Schultz via Dragaera <dragaera at lists.dragaera.info>
> To: <dragaera at dragaera.info>
> Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Speculation about Sethra Chapter XCLVIX
> Message-ID: <02a701d26067$442db5b0$cc892110$@cjhunter.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> 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. 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Subject: Digest Footer
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Dragaera mailing list
> Dragaera at lists.dragaera.info
> http://lists.dragaera.info/listinfo.cgi/dragaera-dragaera.info
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> End of Dragaera Digest, Vol 115, Issue 7
> ****************************************