Kitaloei (ThanksJam)

[MaggieoftheOwls]

So Esere is an Ezar, right?

[Kappa]

Yes.

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Posting this here from chat with Kappa because it seems like the kind of thing people would want to know:

me:
brain: "So if the last book-holder was an Ezar, and an immortal emperor Gregor started at the beginning of this world, that implies that the last world contained a natural Ezar-Serg-Gregor chain, and now I desire to know things about the Serg."
me: "I doubt *Kappa* knows things about this Serg tbh"

Kappa:
there was not a Serg!
there was also not a Gregor!
Esere put himself in the book and then made an altered copy with some changes to optimize for the relevant conditions and made that altered copy the immortal emperor

me:
...huh
that...
I am surprised

Kappa:
how so?

me:
...Gregors definitely have things in common with their grandfathers, but I wouldn't have figured you could get one by taking an Ezar and making a handful of alterations. Also, no one ever tell Siurek this, ever

Kappa:
hahahaha ilu
If you start with an Ezar and then you have that one or another Ezar do mental alterations with a fairly free hand, optimizing for competent peacetime rulership and other harder-to-articulate conditions
you end up with a Gregor
although I think it has to be "plan all changes and then implement all at once" rather than gradual self-modification

[AndaisQ]

...Definitely thought Esere was a Sherlock. This makes Vorkosiganish sense, though.