Others' Island (spoilers all books incl RWC)

[Farseer]

Another thought occurred to me, about the poison fingernails. As dragons have venomous wing-claws (and venom in general is a pretty important part of their "society") do you suppose that poison holding false fingernails could have been an Elderling wardrobe accessory? (Or had everyone but me already figured that out?

Yes, I'd definitely considered your theory before . The fingernails also made me think particularly of Fitz, given that they were suggested to have been used for storing poison...while this suggestion of poison is really only conjecture (Robin putting us even more off the scent!), if it proved true it could be a link with Fitz's use of poisons as an assassin, yes? One could say that, as a descendant of the Elderlings or the "dragon touched", or one who "dreamed of being a dragon", Fitz had possibly possessed a prediliction for the use of poison as a parallel for the use of poison by a serpent or dragon (granted it's a sketchy theory as no others seem to have this prediliction, or at least that I recall, besides Chade!).

Yet another theory...rather than used for poison, could the hollowed tips have even been used to store Skill (the silver stuff!) direct from the Skill River? This could have possibly provided a means of protection for Elderlings when creating their particulalry spectacular artforms, while still enabling them to safely harness the Skill River's concentrated magic?