The Reign discussion

I find myself once again wondering about the power of lie detection. Ardon makes a comment somewhere that he's a decent lie detector himself, but it's only ever mentioned that the skill of lie detection is in females. Does he have the skill because of his succession or is it a developed talent of his, completely unrelated to his bloodline? *SPOILER* And when they were telling Denzik to bond Sarah to an agent so she will pass on her talent to her children, who would be agents...is is possible for her to pass it on to the boys or only if she has girls? And if it is related to succession, how can she have such a strong ability when she is ineligible to become Overlord based on her bloodlines? Where DID the lie detection come from? Sarah thinks it's evidence that agents and the aristocracy can retain their powers, thinking the lie detection came from an agent. But is that another one of the things Denzik studied and covered up?

Ardon's comment is only because he has a naturally sharp eye for noticing when people are lying, much like an observant person on our planet might have. It's nothing more than that. As usual, Ardon's being facetious.

With the lie detecting talent, it is generally strengthened when a female has a lot of royal blood in her bloodline. It was originally thought that Sarah had such a strong ability because her father, Darnell, was Overlord (so had a strong royal bloodline) and her mother, Misilina, was fifth in the line of succession (so had a decent gift herself). What no one realised, including Denzik, (as this information had been lost) was that when a Verindal royal conceived a child with a Vendel, any girls born in that generation had an extremely strong gift for lie detecting, as the Vendel's supernatural abilities boosted the power. However, the more subsequent Vendel blood that is added without any new royal Verindal blood being added dilutes the ability, until it eventually dies out. No one is aware of this in Sarah's time, though. Keridan makes the suggestion because he thinks it's quite possible that any children Sarah has with a Vendel would be able to detect lies, and they probably would have, although not as well as she, and if these children married other Vendel and had their children without a further infusion of Verindal blood, the power would continue to lessen.
The ability was something the Verindal evolved with, much the same as the Vendel developed the Safety Zone. However, it had varying degrees of strength from the start and many thousands of years ago a leader amongst the Verindal separated their race into those with strong lie detecting gifts and those whose gifts weren't so strong. The ones who could detect lies formed a royal family; the elite, the ones who weren't as strong became the common people, and eventually the skill died out in them altogether.

So...if Sarah's daughter and Ardon's son were to marry, their child would have a strong lie detecting ability?

Yes she would. It would definitely be stronger than Misilina's (as in, Sarah's daughter Misilina). Because Misilina's father (Keridan) is not Verindal, her lie detecting talent will be less than her mother's. However, if Misilina marries Jolan, that will inject some new Verindal blood into the equation, so if they have a daughter, the talent will be strengthened. I don't think it will be stronger than Sarah's, though, because Keridan's blood coming through his daughter, will have weakened it.
That may sound strange, given that Sarah's talent was increased by her Vendel parent, but it's sort of like the first generation cross situation. Because Sarah was a first generation cross between Verindal and Vendel (by that I mean that there was no Vendel blood on Sarah's mother's side; although Sarah's mother Misilina does have Vashta in her family tree, all the Vendel blood that came with her has been bred out over many generations). First generation crosses between the two species are the strongest. If more Vendel blood is infused over coming generations, then the skill lessens. This means because Sarah married Keridan, his Vendel blood in their children starts diluting the ability, so their daughter, Misilina, does not have as significant a talent as her mother's. Now, if she does marry Jolan and they have a daughter, that will give a new injection of Verindal blood into the equation, which will give any daughter they have quite a gift, but because Misilina (Sarah's daughter) had a lesser talent than Sarah, even that injection might not make their daughter's talent better than Sarah's, although it might be on par.
Of course, as with anything like this, ultimately it has to do with how much the children get from whom. Even two daughters born to the same parents might have a different level of lie detecting ability, although it wouldn't be a huge difference. It depends on which parent contributed most to that aspect of their gene structure. So it can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to exactly how strong the ability is.

And I don't suppose you'd tell us whether Misilina and Jolan marry?

I haven't really thought that far ahead, but I do like happy endings. :-)