Beginnings

We first see Adzel as a student, David Falkayn as an apprentice, Dominic Flandry as an ensign and Manson Everard, although more mature, as a new recruit. By contrast, we first see Gratillonius as a centurion and Nicholas van Rijn as a company owner and Master Merchant. However, we are told something of Grallon's and van Rijn's origins and early days.

Everyone begins his career at the beginning but, while any one of us is beginning, others are middle aged or retired. All stages of a profession coexist. Now that I am retired, I see other people working and keeping the world going but also know that, barring accidents, they will in future be as I am now and that I will by then be dead.

Another factor: in this part of the world right now (two important qualifications), life expectancies are increasing (although that may recently have slowed down) and the retirement age recedes before some people who wonder if there will still be a retirement age by the time that they are in old age. Poul Anderson imagines two characters, Manse Everard and Hugh Valland, who face no old age and who just continue to work indefinitely.