> On Fri, 7 Mar 2003, Philip Hart wrote: > > As an aside to Alexx Kay, I note a possible minor error in your > timeline regarding Sethra: > > Your timeline states: > > ] The Lavodes are disbanded "before the Interregnum" (Is 199). > ] [This may be an otherwise unreferenced event, or it may refer > ] to the period (late in Tortaalik's reign) when Sethra was > ] officially removed from command.] > > Don't you mean "midway through Empress Cherova III's reign" (which > appears to be confirmed by a careful reading of the later entries in > the timeline)? <Looks over timeline some more> Hmmm, methinks you're right. It's a puzzling entry, all in all, given that the Lavodes are clearly active up until mere moments before the Interregnum (per FHYA). I think I will hypothesize (in my next revision) that this "disbanding" is primarily from Sethra's point of view. That is, there remained an Imperial organization with the name "Lavodes", but when Sethra uses the word, she thinks of it more as "My Privately Owned Special Ops Army", and it is this latter organization which ceased to exist after the Lavode Scandal. Yes, the more I think about it, the more sense this makes. She says somewhere (probably in Issola, AFB) that the function of Lavodes is to protect the Empire -- specifically seen as a distinct entity from "the current Emperor". If the Lavode Scandal cause a reorganization which put the Lavodes in a chain-of-command that descended from the Emperor, rather than Sethra, then their function would have been, to her mind, subverted. Thanks for prompting that line of thought! Alexx Alexx Kay Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employers alexx at world.std.com http://world.std.com/~alexx "I would have promised those terrorists a trip to Disneyland if it would have gotten the hostages released. I thank God they were satisfied with the missiles and we didn't have to go to that extreme." -- Oliver North