Hi, Mr Stroud, We have been, erm, discussing your books here at the forums. One particular point of interest for us was the idea of adoption. We've all read your expaination, Dynasties and conflict ect, ect. But in the first Book, we see that Marriages do exist, what purpose do they serve? Are Magicians celibate? It's implied otherwise... I would think contraceptives, but those sort of things became common only by the Early mid 20th Century. Technology seems older than that in Barti's world.

Soo... that brings me to the Topic title. I don't know about you, but I would not like to employ Imps for these purposes.

*cough*

Regards,
Post

Hi Post,

Euuch. There are some things that no self-respecting imp should be called upon to do.

It's a good question and I suppose the 'official' answer is that magicians (in the British period, at any rate - it must vary in different epochs) are discouraged from marriage and kids because (a) having loved ones is a weakness which your enemies can exploit, and (b) there's the dynastic problem. The fundamental thing is that a magician's offspring might in no way be suited to follow in their parents' footsteps, and that's why Gladstone etc favoured adoption. Also a good many of the magicians, because of their upbringing, are dry, solitary, narcisistic types who are unlikely to be interested in the softer human emotions. But the 'unofficial' answer is that it must be more complicated than that. Lovelace has Amanda; no doubt Devereaux has all kinds of 'favourites'. I guess the higher, nastier magicians in general don't get married, but fool around when they want to. Lower magicians, such as Underwood, might marry - it's probably regarded as a terrible sign of weakness by their fellows (in Underwood's case it's the best thing he ever did). As to contraception, I imagine it does exist, but there are some areas which even an author should shy away from...

Best wishes,

Jonathan