Crystal Dragon – Chapter 32

Quick Passage

In which the new clan gathers allies.

Yes, I thought that was where I remembered the gambler reappearing.

And I’m thinking that what we have gathered here is the beginnings of Korval’s ally, Clan Erob. Though I’m not sure if it’s all of them, or just the red-headed ones. 🙂

This chapter shows the flip side of Solcintra’s insularity. It neatly explained why the Liadens don’t have some of the things they don’t have, but it also means that another neat explanation is called for regarding why they do have some of the things they do have. Like, as the gambler points out here, healers, seers, and others with abilities resembling those of the dramliz.

The ink is hardly dry on Korval’s charter, and already they’re showing their form as a clan who won’t meekly wait on the Council’s decisions when the right course is plain.

10 thoughts on “Crystal Dragon – Chapter 32

  1. H in W

    Oh, of course, the wind signals the arrival of Rool Tiazan, who is more than powerful enough to alter reality as he sees the need. (Or did the tree make the wind?) I like Cantra’s description: “He’s twelve kinds of twisty, and you’ll do well to weigh everything he tells you, …”.

    Mr. dea’Gauss is quite brave, but perhaps doesn’t know enough to do otherwise. Though I don’t think he would do otherwise, even if he did know better.

    I didn’t remember the gambler resurfacing, nor the others with her. The newly-minted High Houses are not very welcoming, are they? Korval is always more generous (and rather fond of the less-than-High).

  2. Jelala Alone

    I believe Clan Erob is of the line Tiazan. Rool’s line. Rool and his Gray Lady told Tree in Crystal Soldier that he has children.

    Here is a direct quote from Plan B:

    “Erob is Korval’s most ancient ally. The family diaries speak of Rool Tiazan and his life mate, leaders of the dramliz, who chose to evacuate the Old World on the ship piloted by Cantra yos’Phelium.”

  3. Paul A. Post author

    When I say “the people gathered here”, I am of course including Rool Tiazan; he is here, and red-headed, is he not?

    Line Tiazan is the primary line in Clan Erob, but it isn’t the only one. My reading of the gambler’s comment about counting Rool Tiazan as kin is that she’s going to be the founder of a subsidiary Line.

    (And I think the quote from Plan B supports the idea that the gambler’s party will be taken under Rool Tiazan’s wing and form the rest of his clan, when it talks about Rool Tiazan and his lady being “leaders of the dramliz“. None of the other dramliz-properly-so-called look to Rool Tiazan and his lady as leaders, nor have come on this voyage; the quote is using dramliz in the sense in which it is understood by modern Liadens, to refer to people like the gambler and her group.)

  4. Jelala Alone

    Your post was not clear to me; it did not indicate Tiazan’s place as head of Clan Erob.

    Possibly you are right about the gambler cohort being Erob’s subordinate line, but we have insufficient data. She could be in his primary Tiazan line, or a subordinate line, or not related at all. Here is more from the text:

    Plan B: “Tiazan is first line of Clan Erob” (Shan, talking to Priscilla).

    Also from Plan B, where Shan is telling Priscilla that breeding occurs every third generation between Erob and Korval: “Korval seems to have sent equally from yos’Phelium and yos’Galan, but Erob seems only to have sent from Tiazan, never from the subordinate Line.”

    So, we know there is a subordinate line, and it may be descendants of the gambler et al. However, they are never directly mentioned again in the entire series, as far as I recall, and Erob’s subordinate line is never given a name or an identity. However, Erob’s old general is named Win Den tel’Vosti. So that may be the subordinate line name. Have we heard that name anywhere else?

    Possibly, the gambler’s group stayed on Liad. Iin Crystal Dragon, the group of dramliz assembled on Quick Passage promised to serve as teachers, healers, sages, etc. for as long as Tree lived. The gambler strongly implied that the new world (Liad) would need just such skills, “— treasure beyond counting for the days ahead.”

    On the other hand, in Crystal Dragon the gambler calls Rool “Elder Brother.” This would indicate a direct line relationship, that the gambler is (will become) actually a Tiazan. They will count each other as kin, after they pass through the transition. A brother, not a cousin (but that could be only a figure of speech).

    Keep in mind that Rool and his Gray Lady told Tree that they have children of their own, in Crysal Soldier. We never learned anything more about those children, to my knowledge.

    Providing a clue for the gambler group staying on Liad, in Balance of Trade, Jethri learns the history of how Korval herself (perhaps Cantra herself) spoke up at Council to stop the persecution of dramliz on Liad, resulting in the decision that the dramliz could stay on Liad and be treated as citizens. Keep in mind, such persecution is exactly what the gambler and her cohort spoke of on Quick Passage — exactly what they had experienced in Old Solcintra. However, on Norn van’Deelin’s foster-mother’s planet Irikwea, where Miandra and Meicha live, dramliz are persecuted and outlawed to this day.

    So, Liad is safe for dramliz, and they promised to help build the world. But Lytaxin is safe, too, and they called Rool “elder brother”…

    This is what we know from the text, along with the quotes we mentioned in the preceding comments. It is inconclusive indeed.

    Your speculation could be right, of course. I would buy it. However, since the authors dropped that thread, it doesn’t seem important. What is important is that Tiazan is the main line on Lytaxin, and that main line breeds with Korval every third generation, and Miri is a descendant of Rool Tiazan himself. She has his red hair, and his lady’s gray eyes and small stature. Does she have any powers?

  5. Paul A. Post author

    I’m sorry if I was unclear about Tiazan being head of Clan Erob. I was focussing on what new information was in this chapter, and I didn’t think I needed to explicitly restate what we already knew.

  6. Paul A. Post author

    That’s one of the hazards of this being a re-read, I guess. The important stuff can seem too obvious and familiar to be worth mentioning.

  7. Late to the party

    Here, perhaps, is the origin of Korval’s close ties to the Liaden dramliz. What Cantra sees as “beggars, panhandlers, day jobbers, pawnsters, thieves, joyworkers” …and a gambler, of course, are to become an organized group that is powerful and respected on the Liad of the future. And leave us not forget the dea’Gausses! Korval is, indeed, fortunate in its allies.

  8. Ed8r

    In reference to Rool being “twelve kinds of twisty”: I know that later it becomes apparent that Liadens count by twelves, but apparently that number sense began in the Old Universe.

    Then Rool “as if his words echoed against the stars”: Prosper, Korval. May your name shine and your deeds endure. *sigh* Yes, may it be so.

    Cantra: Who let the cat in? I assume all of us cat-people chuckled at this inversion of the more usual frustration of who let the cat OUT?

    And what a promise for the ages from the Gambler: Grant us passage, and you may call upon us for any service, so long as Jela’s tree survives to bind us. This is going to be just a *bit* longer than anyone currently conceives of…or then maybe not, since it is said by a dramliza.

  9. Ed8r

    The Gambler names Rool as Elder Brother, and when Cantra asks about this claim to kinship, says Soon enough, after we pass through that which comes. So is it Rool and his lady’s embodiment that makes them actual kin too these “lesser” ones who are already limited by being in corporeal bodies?

    Why, when Cantra asks And are you . . . sheriekas spawn? is she seeing dragons dancing at the back of her head, tasting mint along the edge of her tongue? Is the Tree trying to tell her that it approves of them, that they do not belong to the Enemy?

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