(urth) Dorcas and Fechin (and Catherine)?

[Jeff Wilson]

Dave Tallman wrote:
> In Shadow XI, it says, "She was tall and slender, though not so tall nor 
> so slender as Thecla, dark of complexion, dark of eye, raven of hair." I 
> don't see that being shorter than Thecla excludes her from the 
> exultants; there must be some height variation in that class.
> 
> My take on the exultant/armiger distinction is that exultants are 
> descendants of space colonist stock, and their families probably had 
> power under Typhon. That explains their intrigues against the new source 
> of power, the autarchy. The armigers are probably descendants of 
> high-ranking military officers of Urth stock. I don't remember the text 
> saying they have an intermediate height between exultants and commoners.

I think it's been pretty well established that higher classes are 
literally heads above those below them, as average heights go. However, 
the exultants seem to do this artificially by creating a companion clone 
("khaibit") of each exultant and using the clone as a source of 
additional growth hormone ("royal jelly") to achieve an extra several 
inches of height. Thus exultant's aren't really of greater stature than 
armigers, and their bastards and other cast-offs will be equal in height 
as armigers. This also makes them pretenders to nobility who literally 
must put others down to raise themselves up.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >