History Fridge / Dragaera

* Morrolan's failure to realize he's Dragaeran until he encounters Teldra makes more sense if you've read ''Brokedown Palace''. As gigantism runs in the royal family of Fenario, the existence of humans who grow to an extraordinary height is probably well-known in a large portion of the East.

&&* Cross-referencing ''Issola'' and ''Taltos'', Loraan had both Spellbreaker and a human (uhh) soul. And as a high-level wizard, he undoubtedly had access to powerful Morganti weapons. Now how is Godslayer made?

* Cross-referencing ''Issola'' and ''Taltos'', Loraan had both Spellbreaker and a human (uhh) soul. And as a high-level wizard, he undoubtedly had access to powerful Morganti weapons. Now how is Godslayer made?

* Some hints that [[spoiler:Sethra and Kiera are the same person]]:

** In ''Taltos'', when Kiera says that if Morrolan kills Vlad, he'll be dead in less than a year. This sounds like Kiera will take revenge on Vlad's behalf, but [[spoiler: it's actually a reference to information that Sethra has: Morrolan needs to journey to Death's Gate, so if he kills Vlad, he'll have to go alone and probably won't come back]].
** That revelation also makes Kiera's observation that [[spoiler: whomever the man she's investigating in ''Orca'' might be, he ''isn't'' Sethra Lavode]] a Moment Of Funny.
** ''Orca'': When Vlad and Loiosh first meet [[spoiler: Sethra Lavode, Loiosh wonders if they've ever met her before.]]
** Kiera's aversion to psychic communication makes perfect sense once you learn this about her, as [[spoiler: psychic contact is too intimate and distinctive to deceive the listener as to whom they are mentally speaking with.]]
* There's a minor digression in ''Phoenix'' in which Vlad notices that Rocza is acting a bit oddly, so he asks Loiosh if [[spoiler: she might be pregnant]]. This doesn't seem important, until you go back and re-read it after learning about [[spoiler: Vlad Norathar]], and take note of Loiosh's reply that Rocza is very close to the absent Cawti ... [[spoiler: and you realize that ''she'' must've been pregnant by then]].
* ''Issola'': Vlad inspects the Morganti blade given to him by the Jenoine, and notes that it's somewhat blade-heavy for his preferences. This foreshadows how [[spoiler: Spellbreaker wraps itself around the dagger's hilt when it's transformed into Godslayer/Lady Teldra, thus adding to the grip's weight and balancing out the weapon]].
* Also, Spellbreaker's tendency to change length and thickness each time Vlad deploys it is an early indication that [[spoiler: Godslayer will be a MorphWeapon]].
* FridgeHorror: Events in ''Issola'' may well explain the BigLippedAlligatorMoment in ''Teckla'' when Spellbreaker reared up and wriggled around in Vlad's palm while he was suicidally-delirious. [[spoiler: It has sensed his disoriented intention to kill himself, and was actively searching the room for ''a Morganti weapon'' that Vlad could use on himself, so the chain could bond with the fatal blade and create Godslayer ''with '''Vlad's''' soul inside it''.]]
* In ''The Paths of the Dead'', Morrolan, Arra and Teldra fight some Eastern villagers who couldn't understand their language, and Teldra ponders how it might not have been necessary if only they could have spoken to each other. Hundreds of years later in ''Issola'', Teldra uses her ability to speak [[spoiler: Jenoine]] to prevent a fight from breaking out. Had she been studying languages ever since ''[=PotD=]'', in hope of averting needless bloodshed?

* Vlad's reluctance to involve Morrolan and Aliera in his personal dilemma as a hunted man, even after he's been dragged into so many of ''their'' crises, makes more sense when you look back at the list of Jhereg who'd worked for him when he was running his area, and realize that [[spoiler: Kragar and Glowbug]] are the only long-term subordinates he'd had who ''didn't'' either get themselves killed or betray him. Combined with how Morrolan was killed temporarily in ''Jhereg'', it's likely Vlad is more concerned for his friends' safety if he keeps hanging around with them than he'd ever admit, especially to them.
* In ''Iorich'', a four-year-old Eastern child [[spoiler:(Vlad Norathar)]] has a ceramic hawk statue for a toy. This sounds like an accident waiting to happen, given how poor the motor skills of a boy that young are likely to be. However, ''Orca'' implies and ''Hawk'' verifies that Dragaerans who can afford it can have their glass windows enchanted to be unbreakable. Presumably the ceramic hawk was invested with the same protections, so it can't shatter and cut its young owner's hands.

* Some hits that [[spoiler:Sethra and Kiera are the same person]]:

* In ''Hawk'', Vlad briefly gripes to Morrolan that he's jealous of all the people he knows who have titles beginning with "the" - the Necromancer, the Warlock, the Sorceress in Green, the Blue Fox - and wonders why he doesn't merit one. Little does he know, but Vlad ''already has'' such a title, and has most likely had it since the events of the very first novel: Loiosh has simply never mentioned it to him that Rocza refers to him as "the Provider"!

* Loiosh's last-minute decision that Rocza shouldn't accompany him and Vlad through Morrolan's magic window in ''Issola'' makes perfect sense: the first time Loiosh accompanied Vlad to another plane of reality, the jhereg was ''only'' allowed to leave the Paths of the Dead because Vlad and his familiar share the same fate. Rocza is Vlad's companion and Loiosh's mate, but not Vlad's familiar, so would have no such guarantee of passage if they wound up in a similarly-hard-to-exit planar locale.

* Loiosh's last-minute decision that Rocza shouldn't accompahy him and Vlad through Morrolan's magic window in ''Issola'' makes perfect sense: the first time Loiosh accompanied Vlad to another plane of reality, the jhereg was ''only'' allowed to leave the Paths of the Dead because Vlad and his familiar share the same fate. Rocza is Vlad's companion and Loiosh's mate, but not Vlad's familiar.

* In ''Iorich'', a four-year-old Eastern child [[spoiler:(Vlad Norathar)]] has a ceramic hawk statue for a toy. This sounds like an accident waiting to happen, given how poor the motor skills of a toddler are likely to be. However, ''Orca'' implies and ''Hawk'' verifies that Dragaerans who can afford it can have their glass windows enchanted to be unbreakable. Presumably the ceramic hawk was invested with the same protections, so it can't shatter and cut its young owner's hands.

* Loiosh's last-minute decision that Rocza shouldn't accompahy him and Vlad through Morrolan's magic window in ''Issola'' makes perfect sense: the first time Loiosh accompanied Vlad to another plane of reality, the jhereg was ''only'' allowed to leave the Paths of the Dead because Vlad and his familiar share the same fate. Rocza is Vlad's companion and Loiosh's mate, but not Vlad's familiar.

* In ''Iorich'', a four-year-old Eastern child [[spoiler:(Vlad Norathar)]] has a ceramic hawk statue for a toy. This sounds like an accident waiting to happen, given how poor the motor skills of a toddler are likely to be. However, ''Orca'' implies and ''Hawk'' verifies that Dragaerans who can afford it can have their glass windows enchanted to be unbreakable. Presumably the ceramic hawk was invested with the same protections, so it can't shatter and cut its young owner's hands.

* In ''Iorich'', a four-year-old Eastern child [[spoiler:(Vlad Norathar)]] has a ceramic hawk statue for a toy. This sounds like an accident waiting to happen, given how poor the motor skills of a toddler are likely to be. However, ''Orca'' implies and ''Hawk'' verifies that Dragaerans who can afford it can have their glass windows enchanted to be unbreakable. Presumably the ceramic hawk was invested with the same protections.

* Vlad's reluctance to involve Morrolan and Aliera in his personal dilemma as a hunted man, even after he's been dragged into so many of ''their'' crises, makes more sense when you look back at the list of Jhereg who'd worked for him when he was running his area, and realize that [[spoiler: Kragar and Glowbug]] are the only long-term subordinates he'd had who ''didn't'' either get themselves killed or betray him. Combined with how Morrolan was killed temporarily in ''Jhereg'', it's likely Vlad is more concerned for his friends' safety if he keeps hanging around with them than he'd ever admit, especially to them.

** The lyorn, which embodies the House of tradition and order - hence, of the bedrock of civilized life - is the only Cycle animal based on a domesticated species.

** The chreotha, a ''web-spinning fox'', seems like one of the more arbitrarily-bizarre animals from a slate of Cycle-associated creatures. But when you consider that the House of Chreotha has sly cunning as its Hat, it makes more sense: both foxes and spiders are [[AnimalStereotypes traditionally portrayed]] as TheTrickster in folklore and fables.

* In ''Orca'', the various bank and business officials have titles like "pointer" instead of being called president, chief executive, etc. Such titles in RealLife are strongly associated with representative government, and the only time that Dragaera is ever governed by such a system is when there's a Teckla Republic: the very regimes which ''oust'' the Orca from power. Naturally, business-minded Orca wouldn't consider such titles appropriate as a mark of authority or prestige.

* In ''Orca'', the various bank and business officials have titles like "pointer" instead of being called president, chief executive, etc. Such titles in RealLife are strongly associated with representative government, and the only time that Dragaera is ever governed by such a system is when there's a Teckla Republic: the very regimes which ''oust'' the Orca from power. Naturally, business-minded Orca wouldn't want anything to do with such titles.

* Morrolan's casual use of Blackwand to destroy souls makes more sense after ''Hawk'' reveals that Great Weapons need to feed, either on souls or on energy from the Orb. While Blackwand can get by on the latter nowadays, Morrolan first acquired her before Zerika retrieved the Orb, so he ''had'' to get used to letting her eat souls before an alternative became available, shaking off whatever Eastern-style distaste for the practice he might've been taught by his foster caregivers.

** ''Orca'': When Vlad and Loiosh first meet [[spoilerr: Sethra Lavode, Loiosh wonders if they've ever met her before.]]

** ''Orca'': When Vlad and Loiosh first meet Sethra Lavode, Loiosh wonders if they've ever met her before.

** In ''Taltos'', at a point where Vlad is unwilling to climb Dzur mountain to meet with Sethra, Kiera shows up out of nowhere and gives him a peptalk.

** That revelation also makes Kiera's observation that [[spoiler: whomever the man she's investigating in ''Orca'' might be, he ''isn't'' Sethra Lavode]] a MomentOfFunny.

* In ''Five Hundred Years After'', the chaos-stirring events that culminate in Adron's Disaster take place in the month of the Vallista: the House whose Hat is "creation and ''destruction''". The first days of the Interregnum, during which the mortally-wounded Empire fell prey to unrest, brigandage, invasion and economic collapse, took place in the month of the Jhereg: a House whose heraldic animal scavenges the carcasses of the dead.