Talk:Dragaeran

From the Lyorn Records of the Dragaeran Empire

In reference to edits made 10/15/08:

Information regarding the Jenoine and relationship between Dragaerans and Easterners is taken from the second chapter of Issola. The information provided by Aliera in chapter nine of Jhereg contravenes this to come degree, making the additional statements later in the article pertinent.

The data from Aliera is suspect, given public statements made by SKZB in interviews and on the Dragaera Mailing List. --Majikjon 03:13, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

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There is a reference in 500 Years After regarding the higher incidence of halfbreeds during the Interregnum; it is implied that this was because of the difficulty of sorcery without the Orb.

You know, it's never mentioned specifically, but I can't help noticing that everyone assumes that Dragaerans (and even Easterners) are all Caucasian-looking. Discuss. --Steve and Jock 15:24, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

While it is never conclusively put this way, the physical descriptions of characters throughout the books does tend to support generally caucasian-looking characters. Additionally, while not very authoritative, all the cover art depicting series characters supports this as well. (Including the blond Vlad who looks like a Hitler Youth on the cover of The Book of Taltos.)

I believe Steve has indicated that while not all the cover art should be taken as valid, there is some that he considers quite accurate. I could be wrong about this, and I don't have any specific citations for this, however.

Personally, I consider it likely that different "races" of Dragaerans and Easterners have different racial makeups. Perhaps this is not as distinctive among Dragaerans as, say, telling a Malaysian from a Scottsman, but they seem to be able to tell a person's House based just on facial features in many cases. (Perhaps a Dragon and a Phoenix appear similar, or a Tsalmouth looks vaguely like a Vallista, but NO ONE would confuse a Phoenix with a Vallista.) Perhaps this is similar to how NO ONE would confuse a native of Japan with one from Sweden.

I cannot recall any single examples of especially dark-skinned individuals of any kind, however. But then, there are rumors of distant lands across the sea where strange and exotic civilizations thrive, (see the first chapters of /Phoenix/), so keep in mind we have only seen a small portion of the world of which Dragaera is a part. --Majikjon 00:16, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm. My mental image of Aerich is as a 'darker' skin fellow. Something about his brown hair matching his skin or something? Could be a false memory. - Attjen

Possible, I suppose. Of course, an "olive" complexion can still be a bit darker than say, a Swede, and not really be what we would define as "Black" (or "African American" if you're being PC (African-Dragaeran? Heh.) ). I've seen people try to make a case that Beethoven was "black" on this basis (which I would strongly dispute) because his skin was described as "olive" colored in some contemporary accounts.

Frankly, one of the characteristics of the Dragaeran world that I find interesting is that skin color itself does not seem to be an issue. There is certainly racism, but it's based on other factors (House, height, longevity, ear-pointyness, whatever). I would certainly be interested in seeing Textev on Aerich's description, (probably somewhere near the start of TPG?) to see if there's anything more specific here. --Majikjon 17:53, 2 May 2008 (UTC)