Flandry And Merseians

Dominic Flandry's education about the Merseians continues while he is their prisoner on Talwin. He explains to his aristocratic master, Ydwyr the Seeker, that:

he was electrocrammed with Eriau in haste;
his stay on Mersiea was brief;
his Academy training dealt mainly with the Merseians as military opponents.

I suspect that, in accordance with his own earlier reflections, Flandry downplays the extent of his existing knowledge first to make Ydwyr underestimate him and secondly to gain the opportunity of learning as much as he can in this new situation. He had been unfamiliar with Ydwyr's rank of datholch because it is civilian, not military, although Mersians separate these roles differently and less clearly than Terrans.

A datholch is an aristocratic leader of an enterprise to expand the race's frontiers and it probably does not matter whether the frontiers are scientific, commercial, territorial etc. So a philosopher and an entrepreneur might be accorded the same status? Ydwyr is the Roidhun's nephew and a xenologist, currently studying the Domrath and Ruadrath, two intelligent species on Talwin. He learns from other races, and has even studied under Aycharaych in his castle at Raal on Chereion, but unfortunately he does still regard all other races as inferior and manipulable. Djana thinks that he has befriended her but he says that he has reconditioned her and he is prepared to see Flandry die in order to clinch his hold over Djana, who can be made useful to the Roidhunate.

Ydwyr sounded good but he remains an implacable adversary.