Speculation talk:Drien
From the Lyorn Records of the Dragaeran Empire
Do we even know if Aliera was male in that incarnation?
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"We were brothers, Kieron, Dolivar and me." -Aliera e'Kieron (Jhereg, Chapter 9)
Sounds like she was a male to me.
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Wait. Are we reading the same Jhereg?
My copy (and also Amazon Look inside, for The Book of Jhereg) says, at the end of chapter 9:
- "My brother," she repeated. "We started out as one family. Kieron, Dolivar, and I."
Sounds like her gender at that point in time is never referenced.
--Davdi 20:08, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
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Hmm.. True. I find it interesting that she says she was a Shaman, however.
Drien's name kind of springs to mind... So perhaps the gender question in this case is even more complex? Perhaps this is an example of deliberate ambiguity in gender to mask the fact that Drien was Kieron's brother? (Which has never been established, just a notion of my own.)
--Majikjon 20:23, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
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I think it is reasonable speculation, though (hence my updates to Speculation:Drien).
Actually, an argument could be made like this:
- Kieron was an important early Dragon, founder of the Empire and of a proud old lineage of Dragons. He's accounted for, as being still in the Paths of the Dead.
- Dolivar, sibling to Kieron, was also an important early Dragon, who became the first Jhereg. He's accounted for, as being reincarnated as Vlad.
- Drien was an important early Dragon, a Shaman, a "contemporary" of Kieron, and the founder of a proud old lineage of Dragons. We know that Drien died (came before the Lords of Judgement), but we don't know what became of Drien's soul.
- Aliera was the sibling of Kieron and Dolivar, and she remembers being a Shaman. Neither her name nor (original) gender are specified. Did she have no offspring in that incarnation? If she did, would they not also be a proud old lineage of Dragons?
While there may very well have been two Shamans contemporaneous with Kieron, I think it makes sense to suggest that there was one particularly important Shaman, who was Drien, whose soul is now in Aliera.
On the topic of Drien, a quote from Verra: "[Drien] had the ability to bring disparate forces together, and to forge powerful combinations. He did this in battle, and in politics, and in the subtle social weavings where small things can have great effects."
The quote implies that Drien was male when he died, but of course, this is the translation, which is via Paarfi anyway, with all the unreliability that that implies.
--Davdi 21:47, 17 April 2006 (UTC)