All of these are interesting questions, but I am most curious about Devera -- on any number of levels, because Aliera doesn't know about her yet when Vlad first tells her about Devera in ... book 5, I think? At the time I assumed it meant Devera hadn't been born yet, chronologically speaking. But as of the most recent books, Aliera does know about her and talks as if she knows her well, and we also now know that Devera lives non-chronologically and actually lives (at least partly) in the Hall of Judgment -- that is, she doesn't live with Aliera, and between that and Kieron being her dad (which ... the less thought about the better), there's a pretty good chance that she was conceived and/or born while Aliera was dead. So basically I feel as if in some ways we actually know less about Devera now than when it merely appeared that Vlad had glimpsed a future child of Aliera and some unknown future spouse. She's such a giant question mark!