Both, according to the Thaumatarchy, but the scriptural concept refers plainly to the former, of which the latter is arguably a fulfillment.
Certainly the latter. We’ll see about Irduin.
[response redacted]
Different poisons, different sources, I think. You may be able to get poison in Grand Shayard.
Nope, it’s known that the ocean separates them all the way south.
Um, possibly, but I’m not sure I’m on track to write that as an actual option. 
A Range is a territory held by a particular Gara’u, and into the Core of which other Seracca may come only with permission.
Yes… the egg isn’t quite pure elemental stone, but close to it.
In her late thirties.
Nope. And the MC doesn’t have access to enough of the relevant records even to form a theory on the basis of “hey, we have no mention whatsoever the Dead in this history from ~360 years before present, that’s odd.”
I think I’ll need to give that option, given the range of ways things can end in Irduin.
That will certainly be possible.
I was thinking more along the lines of what @idonotlikeusernames was positing earlier:
So no, not so woe-is-me.
We’ll see! I have a soft spot for faking-death plots, so quite possibly, but I also need to keep variation manageable. @apple is also right that it could be counterproductive for most “rebel leader” strategies.
Coastal Shayardenes identify themselves as very different from Erretsins despite their similar linguistic heritage. A Homelander can try to bring the nations together either on the basis of “let’s help each other free our respective nations from Karagond oppression!” or “we belong together because of our cultural affinity,” but will be perceived seen as somewhat more Cosmopolitan for arguing the latter. If you want to try for a strong and lasting union of nations, though, the latter project may be more fruitful.
It means that where people of that class across Shayard have heard of you, they’ve heard stories with a positive or negative spin. It doesn’t mean that they have (all or mostly) heard of you or support/oppose you yet.
AFAIR you’re right that this hasn’t been discussed before – at any rate, I don’t remember answering, “That’s not something I’m going to answer yet.”
I’ve talked elsewhere about how I don’t expect there to be massive leaps, though a high-INT character should be able to make one or two discoveries in one helpful direction or another.
Well, a lot of what I’d posted to the other thread was taken from the dialogue I’d already written for Cerlota. But yes, some of the questions the MC asks are obviously ones you the readers asked, and in those cases Cerlota’s responses will echo mine rather than vice versa.
Yes. I could see good reason for a MC to exclude either or both of the weird foreign powers, but if you’re trying to deepen your relationship with Halassur, it seemed to me there was nothing diplomatically to be gained by cold-shouldering their cousins with an existing relationship, which Erjan clearly values enough to keep it up despite the culture clash on gender. Alya can curtail the dialogue with Jev as briskly as possible to protect her (i.e. your, the reader’s) time, but I couldn’t really see grounds to exclude the Nyr if you’re not excluding one or both of the foreign “diplomats” as well.
Fair enough. Sure, we can do that.
Yes – one of the things that I didn’t get around to adding in Sojourn is a shift not just in the skepticism meter but in how sincerely you hold your religious identity (i.e. the “religion” stat which can shift from sincere faith into doubt or cynicism) on the basis of all you’ve learned and experienced in the Xaos-lands. That’ll be added in a future update.
The most educated class isn’t always at the top of the ruling pyramid. In Central Asia, for centuries there was a Persian-speaking class of literati who served as administrators to successive emperors–but, outside of Persia, they were very rarely the emperors themselves. That fell to the military leaders, mostly speakers of Turkic languages, who succeeded each other as conquerors and found the Persian-speaking educated class indispensable for administering what they’d conquered.
That’s not a perfect parallel for Halassur, of course; both Theurgy and the gendered nature of Halassur’s divisions alter the picture significantly! But it’s one of many historical examples of how the best-educated class is generally close to power but not always dominant. When the MC meets and talks to actual Halassurq women, they’ll get a better picture of the dynamics involved than either Erjan or Cerlota could provide.
I don’t think Sphinx will be on the list, no.
Finally, I’d just note that my first stab at implementing paths for trans and nb MCs is inevitably going to get things wrong, so please expect it to change as I listen and learn.