Cracks
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[2005-01-14] This web site now has its own domain, cracksandshards.com (no punctuation or spaces). Please use http://cracksandshards.com from now on. It will enable you to find this site despite any changes in hosting that may occur. If you have bookmarked this page as anything else, please change your bookmark to http://cracksandshards.com. On the Acknowledgements page of Paths of the Dead Brust does me the honor of mentioning this site. Unfortunately, the URL contains a misprint, and I am no longer using that ISP. Use http://cracksandshards.com instead; it will always point to the correct page. I would even ask you to correct it in the text, if you are willing to write in a book in a good cause. |
| New email address: As of Valentine's Day, 2008, I am using a new email address for this site, which I will be able to monitor more frequently. I will still check the older one for some time. |
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This is an assemblage of some of the material I have gathered about the world of Dragaera from Steven K. Z. Brust's books about it. I hope you will enjoy it. It is intended for the Brust reader who is interested in details. There are details about time and Houses and other institutions of Dragaera: shards of knowledge, some of which I have assembled into such imperfect wholes as their incomplete state and my incomplete knowledge allow. And there are (real or apparent) contradictions and inconsistencies within the texts: cracks, which I have tried to patch when possible, or expose as real otherwise.
This site is not an introduction to Dragaera. For that, I recommend that you read the books, which are available at any good bookstore. (The others should be willing to order them for you.) You can also order any of them from Amazon.com through the direct links on this site, each of them specific to the title or edition you are looking for. It will cost you no more than buying direct from Amazon, and it will help support Cracks and Shards.
The contents of this site are organized into "Shards", "Cracks", and this introductory page, which is arranged as follows:
[Last update: 2006-04-10]
A dagger or obelus ("†") marks a site that is still
around but hasn't been updated in a long time.
The Dragaera Page. "Authorized by Steven, and run by Corwin Brust, David Dyer-Bennet, and Felix Strates". Lists most or all of the pages listed below, as well as this one :-). It is also the home page of the Dragaera mailing list, which Steven Brust subscribes to and sometimes posts to.
Dream Cafe, Brust's own home page, is both entertaining and informative. It includes a page of links to other Dragaera sites, including (glow with pride) the one you're visiting right now.
The Dragaera Webring allows you to visit a number of Dragaera websites:
| << | join | Dragaera webring | random | >> |
The Lyorn Records, a Dragaera wiki. Very good.
Steven Brust Fan Page, by Phoenix (Damien R. Sullivan). Apparently the original Brust page. Very good. Not limited to Dragaera, as Cracks and Shards is, but covers Brust's other work as well. Also hosts some pages originally written by others, notably (IMHO):
† Dragaera page by Jake Kesinger. Does not seem to have been updated since 1998. Its chief feature that, by now, is not also available elsewhere is a list of Dramatis Personae, with (according to Jake) 356 entries covering Brokedown Palace, Jhereg, Taltos, Teckla, Phoenix, Athyra, and Five Hundred Years After.
Personal book reviews, including the Vlad and Khaavren series. "Rage" (Chad Underkoffler). The man's got excellent taste [*]. Visit his home page, too.
Alexx's Steven Brust Page. Alexx S. Kay. A valuable resource for the Brust fanatic.
Steven Brust page. BOFH (Jot Powers). Apparently last updated Dec. 5, 2002. Includes:
Steven Brust FAQ. Very miscellaneous, far from exhaustive, and fun.
Terics Academy is a fanfic site, explicitly outside canon: "[T]his site does not confine itself to the information contained in the published books about Dragaera, and should therefore be considered non-canon fan fiction. There are numerous inventions, additions, extensions, and otherwise completely arbitrary pieces of information developed (with neither Steven Brust's knowledge nor input) exclusively for this site."
Brust directory on the dmoz Open Directory Project. Lists a number of these sites. Last updated August 31, 2005.
†† Small
Invisible Lights. "Sabia of Borg" created this site March
7, 2002, and apparently stopped maintaining it 6 1/2 weeks later, on
April 22, 2002. K'sozhaleniju,
the site no longer exists; its
last words to the Web are "December, 2005 : Small Invisible Lights
has been turned off. Farewell." In memoriam and for the record, I will
keep here my description of what it was: Sections on the books, the
world, the people, the Empire, notable locations, other kingdoms,
curiosities, and fandom. Includes lists, e.g., all the plants and
animals mentioned in the books (I tried to do that once but never got
very far).
The Dragaera Mailing List has a number of active participants, including Brust himself. To join it without using the web, send email to dragaera-subscribe@dragaera.info and reply to the confirmation message you receive.
† Yahoo Brust discussion group. Comatose: most discussion seems to have migrated to the Dragaera Mailing List. All of 16 posts from Jan. 1, 2005 through April 8, 2006.
These logical sections are divided up into several physical pages, and there are a number of hyperlinks from one into another. To help you recognize where you are, this main page and all the "Shards" pages have a white and gold background, and all the "Cracks" pages have a white background with light gray cracks.
I am always way the heck behind with this page. So, many of these facts about Dragaera appear here without the citations that I know exist. ("The truth is in there.") Some references are place-holders, like this [] or this [Jrgxxx]. Many of the earlier place-holders have been filled by observant readers, to all of whom my thanks, but more remains... and, of course, truckloads of stuff is still in there that isn't catalogued out here. My lords, I beg your indulgence while I continue my research.
The name "Dragaera" is a bit problematic. Narrowly, it seems to refer to the Dragaeran Empire, and before the Interregnum also to the capital city [TPG 335]. But we have no other decent name for the entire world in which these stories take place, which includes some areas (the East, the islands, and possibly beyond) that are explicitly outside the Empire. So when I speak of "Dragaera", I mean the whole world, and I will try to remember to speak of the Empire and city explicitly when referring only to them.
[2002-12-16] In fact, Brust seems to use the word this way at least twice: Vlad says that his receptionist "may well be the highest-paid receptionist on Dragaera" [Jrg 49], and Brust the author speaks of "my other works set on Dragaera" [POTD, Acknowledgments]. We use "on" with place names only for islands or planets, or other complete bodies in space such as moons or space stations. The Empire certainly isn't an island or on one -- it occupies a very large area, but it still shares its continent with the lands of the Easterners. And there's no reason to think of space stations here! So Vlad must be speaking (to Brust the interviewer) about Dragaera as a planet: just the use I describe in the paragraph above.)
Since Dragaerans and Easterners -- meaning members of those respective species, wherever they live -- both think (the Dragaeran symbol translated as) "human" refers to themselves, I'm avoiding the word entirely and speaking only of, um, "Dragaerans" and "Easterners".
Then again, "Dragaeran" can refer to the language(s) of the Dragaeran Empire, as in the parenthesis in the previous paragraph. But let's hope that care and context can resolve all ambiguities. If not, please let me know!
Cracks and Shards is full of references to pages in the Dragaera books, using the abbreviations given in the list of books. In text, page references appear in brackets, thus: [Jrg 87]. But the cells in the tables are too small to accommodate page references, even abbreviated. For these, and in a few other places, I have turned HTML inside-out. If you click on a link and it doesn't take you anywhere, it may be such a reference.
Usually a hyperlink's importance to the reader is in the contents of the material it points to, and its actual value as a string, such as "http://www.dreamcafe.com/main.html/" (Brust's home page URL) is unimportant. But since I can't provide hyperlinks to the actual text in which I've found these facts -- after all, it's in Brust's copyright, and it's his living! -- the page references in the tables are in the form of hyperlinks that don't link to anything, but are useful only as strings.
Your browser may show you the link itself when your cursor is over the linked fact. If your browser recognizes the TITLE or ALT attribute in hyperlink references, it will show you the abbreviation of the book's title plus the page number: in the following example, "Jrg 87", i.e., "Jhereg, page 87". If your browser shows you the string value of the reference, you will see the abbreviation preceded by an http reference to the full pathname of the file you're looking at, plus a "#": "http://cracksandshards.com/index.html#Jrg 87". (Actually you'll get the name of my ISP in there because so far I'm too cheap to buy the full name service.)
Put your cursor on this exampleThe reference may appear next to the cursor; the full bogus link may appear on the status line. If your browser doesn't show you the link in any form, you'll have to look at the HTML source of the page; try your browser's "View" menu. Clicking on such a link won't take you anyplace useful; use your "Back" button to return to where you were.
Page references are to the editions listed in The Dragaera Books.
Some references are marked with asterisks; these link to footnotes on this site, usually on the same page so your browser won't need to load another page. And remember, this "note on notes" only applies within tables; so far I have only one that it applies to, Characteristics of the Houses.
As I welcome you to Cracks and Shards, I welcome your additions, corrections, comments, or just plain greetings; click here. (Spammers, get lost.)
Scattered through these pages you'll see dialogues in maroon italics, if your browser supports them, between me and a certain wise-ass character whose personality is much like that of his namesake.
("Is that supposed to be an insult, boss?"
"Well, if the shoe fits, wear it."
"Dragons don't wear shoes.")
See what I mean? This Loiosh appeared in my mind, much to my surprise, while I was working on this site several years ago. Some time later he acquired a body (see picture): not a jhereg, but a red-and-white "Beanie Baby"-like dragon. He has been through several such bodies so far.
("One advantage of being non-biological.")
I've come to value most of his advice.
("Then why don't you take it more often? You're staying up too late again!")
Fortunately, our mind-link doesn't require physical proximity. It would be embarrassing at the office.
("And you're right, pal. I'll just finish this line, and off I go.")
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 1998 09:25:23 -0700
From: Steven Brust
Subject: Cracks and Shards
Well, I just finished perusing the page, and I'm delighted and flattered. If you don't mind, I'll put a link to it on my page if and when I ever get around to updating it.
[...]
Again, good show. (And feel free to use any of this note you wish).
All my best,
Steve
On the Acknowledgements page of Paths of the Dead Brust does me the signal honor of mentioning this site, among the various Dragaeran fan pages. He writes:
I continually found myself using this site as a reference to avoid tripping over my own feet, especially with such matters as timing and geography. Thanks to this, most (or at least, many) of the inconsistencies between this book and my other works set on Dragaera were introduced maliciously, rather than by accident.
(Unfortunately the URL of this site is misprinted there -- see discussion above -- but it should be fixed in the second edition.)
I wrote to him on the dragaera discussion list, beginning as follows:
An open letter to Steven K.Z. Brust, P.J.F.My lord:
I wish to express my warmest thanks for the honor you do me in the Acknowledgments of Paths of the Dead. It gives me great satisfaction to know that my compilations relating to your works, intended only for the amusement and information of myself and others of your readers, have proved useful to you in the work that provides you with continuing income and us with continuing pleasure.
Much of the content of Cracks and Shards is due to the research of others that they have sent to me and permitted me to share. The site is as much to the credit of the entire community of your readers, as it is to mine.
| Books | Houses | Peoples | Languages | Names | Time | Seventeen | Jokes & Allusions | Acknowledgements | Assorted Shards | Cracks |
Each of the major divisions of the following list (Houses, peoples, languages...) is a page unto itself.
In discussing contradictions and inconsistencies and bringing in evidence from apparently unrelated text, I can't avoid important plot points. So if you haven't finished the series as published so far,
| DON'T READ | THIS SECTION!!! |
[Rage's taste] I.e., he likes a lot of the same books I do. ;-)\
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last modified 2008-02-14
