[Dragaera] Vassals

[Jon Lincicum]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> N-P isn't exactly nice in the sense of, Will roll over if pushed,
> won't push even if necessary, is he?  He'll kill to defend his property,
> as shown in _Teckla_ iirc.  And he doesn't have to do anything.  He can
> just show up, be wise, solve issues, and become appreciated.

It's a bit difficult to judge Noish-pa objectively, since we've only ever seen Noish-pa through Vlad's eyes. Maybe he's a complete jerk to other people and steals the lunch money from Dragaeran schoolchildren? Maybe he runs a money-laundering business on the side and likes to eat raw puppies for breakfast?

Somehow I doubt it, but Vlad would likely never let us know if those were the case anyway. 

To me, "Nice" in this sense means "Actually interested in the welfare of his constituency" as opposed to "out to wield power for his own selfish ends". This is not to imply that he's a pushover. He's just not greedy to the exclusion of all else.

> > But we really don't KNOW much about the administration that Noish-pa 
> > replaced. Sure, there was no count, but SOMEone was running things in 
> > the region.
> 
> Why?  There might be a travelling judge who administers justice once
> a year, and some sort of constable in the nearest town, but otherwise
> I would think the locals can manage on their own.

Well, again, we don't KNOW. In the absence of other authority, however, someone will have assumed the authority over the residents of the Szurke region. Even if the authority is a collective arrangements of all the residents over themselves, the fact of Vlad's appointment and Noish-pa's arrival means a change in management, and however and whoever was running things previously may not be very happy about that. Or maybe they're fine with it. We just don't have data yet. 

> 
> Are there tax collectors, if there's no local aristocracy?

A fair question. However, I find it difficult to believe any human or human-derived society could exist for very long without someone in authority finding some means and excuse to levy taxes on the residents. This would call for tax collectors. Representing who? The Empire? The Duke of Eastmanswatch (Szurke's presumed leige-lord)? Some local town council? It doesn't really matter. 

Majikjon