[Dragaera] Iorich ***SPOILERS**** First impressions

[Philip Hart]

On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:

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>
> and a bit more spoiler space...
>
>

Incidentally, no doubt well-merited acknowledgement, even if I'm not 
clear how much timeline crosschecking was needed in this case.

>
>>  Are the Jhereg actually useful to the Empire at the moment?
>
> There are many ways to parse this question.  Are they performing more good
> than evil?  Dubious.  Are they *necessary* to maintain the Empire.
> Arguably yes.

What is that argument again?

> Would any attempt to dismantle them have huge negative consequences? 
> Absolutely.

Straw/begs the question.


>> doesn't call in the Jhereg and say, "Vlad will die of being an 
>> Easterner soon enough, in the meantime if any of you kill him every 
>> single Jhereg will testify under the Orb that they weren't involved and 
>> any who are will be handed over to Vlad's friends."
>
> Are you, by chance, an American?

Are you, by any chance, familiar with the state of the Cycle?


>  At the moment, our central Federal
> government is extremely strong, and the relative power of the State
> governments are weaker than ever.  In Dragaera, the situation is very
> different.  The Houses appear to have (collectively) more power than the
> Imperium.  This is probably even more true than usual during Zerika's
> reign, since she doesn't really *have* a House to back her up.

Zerika has the gods, Sethra Lavode and all of the top Dragons, and the 
traditional hatred of the Jhereg on her side.  I can well imagine her 
asking Khaavren to bring in the Tiassa representative and ask her how the 
prophets in the house feel about allowing Vlad to be killed.  Ditto the 
Lyorn representative, who she put in place if I recall - how is he going 
to react to the Empire not allowing the Jhereg to use an illegal weapon on 
someone with an Imperial title (ok, he's an Easterner, but at least he's 
not sleeping with one)?  Are the Dzur going to back the Jhereg 
against a lone hero, who they hate preciesly for his heroism?  They're 
going to screw the person who rode off a cliff for her convictions (on 
behalf of someone who climbed down that cliff to help save someone he had 
never met)?  And is now going up against the CW?  And perhaps you've 
forgotten Mellar, but they surely haven't.


> If Zerika were to do as you suggest, not only would the Jhereg scream (and
> likely perform) bloody murder, but every other House would see it as a
> completely unacceptable precedent.  Given the haughtiness and pride of the
> Dragons, it is almost inevitable that they would see this as proof the
> Cycle had turned

Here I think you've got the sign wrong (that or A, M, and N aren't running 
the house and whoever is doesn't mind setting a precedent that the Jhereg 
get to have things their way) but if not, how is this an argument that 
would or should sway Zerika?  If she's not running the Empire - if she 
can't protect the guy who's saved her bacon three or four times in the 
last few years - it's probably time for a change.


> and they would probably get support from several other Houses.  Lyorn 
> and Dzur for sure, possibly even Iorich (since this would be a big 
> breach of normal applications of justice).

Whereas allowing the Jhereg to use an illegal weapon with impunity on 
someone with an Imperial title is normal justice?


> If Zerika were to resist, a coup and/or civil war would be very likely.

As noted above the first consequence isn't convincing, and the latter 
seems very arguable to me - and do the events of _Iorich_ make that much 
less likely regardless?