Yeah, it's quite easy to get taken in by Vlad's view of himself, if one isn't careful. Because you're absolutely right -- not only do I also seem to recall Easterners being nervous around him (in Teckla, I'm pretty sure, and maybe elsewhere too), but Savn's POV in Athyra also hardly shows Vlad as a poor little underdog. (And I do think Vlad himself is getting a bit better about being self-aware, and not just seeing everything in terms of him vs the Orca bullies who used to beat him up as a kid. But I do think he still has to fight against that self-perception of himself as an Easterner kid who managed to stick it to the Dragaerans armed with nothing but his wits and his Eastern fencing tricks, despite the fact that most of the top powers in the Empire now have his back (where their honor and/or millennia-spanning plans permit, of course) and the Empress periodically asks him around to lunch. Thus, the general Badass Normal attitude he projects, which is so fun, it's hard not to buy into (especially if one likes Badass Normal characters, and I do).

but Vlad doesn't spend the time on this that he does on Valabar. (Which in itself says something about whom Vlad spends time with, and whose opinions he values or considers worth noting!

Very true! This and related Vlad blindspots is one of my favorite things about rereading these books. Oh Vlad, so Easterner with his mustache and his rapier and his witchcraft and his pride in Fenarian cooking, and his one (1) whole Easterner friend he is not related to by blood or marriage. :P