[Dragaera] Gambling/Drug Use in a Jhereg Reign

[Jon Lincicum]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com>
> Does the Emperor make laws? I'm not sure we've ever seen an instance of the
> Empire's government actually attending to the day-to-day operations of the
> Empire. Our peeks into the inner circles have primarily been for the purpose
> of understanding the political intrigue that happens there.
> 
> In any case, the Emperor can't just remake the laws of the Empire
> willy-nilly. Doing so would disrupt the social order and almost certainly
> end up offending various other Houses whose good will is required by the
> Emperor. At any given time, the government is a coalition, albeit sometimes
> a silent or "invisible" coalition. 

Well, I'm not sure if our own history records any examples of a supreme executive acting against what is, strictly speaking, legal. Heh.

In any event, I got the impression from the way Tortaalik carried on that the Emperor is, more or less, empowered to enact his own laws by decree, if he so chooses. 

Whether or not these decrees will lead to political turmoil, of course, is always a potent consideration (at least, among a responsible chief executive, such as Zerika) but a Jhereg Emperor, if offering the other Houses enough political concessions, may well be able to remake the laws to a greater or lesser extent.

> My guess would be that a Jhereg Emperor would probably not upset the normal
> laws all that much. Rather, he'd appoint officers in the Imperial Guard who
> are corrupted or easily corruptible and create an environment where the
> justice system tends to look the other way.

This is pretty much how the guard operates anyway, yes?

> The first job of an Iorich Emperor would be to cleanup the mess left behind
> and root out said corruption. Of course, an effective Jhereg Emperor would
> make sure that the really good corruption was hidden effectively enough to
> survive such a purge. *heh*

Well, even after their reign is over, the Jhereg would still be high on the cycle for quite a while. 

Majikjon