[Dragaera] States and violence (was Re: OT: Ray Bradbury)

[Howard Brazee]

Jon Lincicum wrote:
>>  Their internal 
>> battles and/or battles against the East help keep them occupied with 
>> thoughts about something other than how much better the Empire would run if 
>> the current government was overthrown.
>> </opinion>
>>     
>
> Complete agreement. 
>
> This appears to be consistent to what we have seen, both from Paarfi, and from Vlad.
>
> Majikjon
>
>   

The guys on the bottom of the cycle are happy fighting their own 
battles. But we have seen a tendency to assume cycle changes when that 
means moving *me* to the top.

And occasionally someone will go for glory with attacks that aren't in 
the Empire's best interest. A wise emperor will want to deflect that by 
providing a more acceptable alternative - there's always some vassal too 
big for its britches or some Crusade that could keep them occupied.

One advantage of the Orb is that it suggests Machiavellian political 
solutions. We have seen that the Emperor with the Orb is not always as 
clearly honest as the people have been led to believe. But in feudal 
societies, the armies belong to the vassals - power is kept by other means.