On Fri, 4 Jun 2004, Ken Koester wrote: > > > Dennis Higbee wrote > > >Right. If it was about the Demon, he'd have no reason to go after Vlad at > >all. Vlad took out someone who was quite possibly a rival and the Demon > >is plently smart enough to make sure Boralinoi was succeeded by someone > >who would fit the Demon's plans. > >I don't think there's an explicit rule for going after stool pigeons. > >Sure, it's good business, but that doesn't make it a rule. > It's pretty clear that everyone who has squealed in the past has bought > it big-time, and usually pretty quickly, too. It may not be quite as > important as getting the treasury stealers, but it's close, and for > analogous reasons: if someone gets the idea that you can squeal to the > Empire & live, the possibilities for blackmail are endless & the rewards > potentially astronomical. The House would never be able to do business > again without having to look over its shoulder; probably its most > important pieces of business couldn't be done at all. It would have > much the same effect as someone stealing the treasury & getting away > with it. The Demon may or may not be personally involved in the search > for Vlad, but he's unlikely to call it off or starve it of resources. No. It's not. Mellar going after the treasury was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. At least that's how I read JHEREG. People just don't Do That, because they know they're going to die if they do. Mellar getting away with it totally changes things. Now, the unthinkable becomes thinkable and people have a motivation (to the tune of millions of imperials) to try it. Over the course of a couple thousand years, even if the Council has an insane success rate at stopping these attempts, the Jhereg is going to break. And once they do, the Organization is dead. Consider this against going to the Empire. People go to the Empire all the time. The Jhereg likes to discourage this behavior and, to paraphase on of the Vlad books, "make a 'zample outta dose sonsabitches." Hence Morganti weapons, asssassins, and all sorts of unpleasantness. But, if the Jhereg has a success rate for punishing stool pigeons of, say, 90 percent (and it's likely much higher), what are the consequences? Are people really going to use the threat of going to the Empire as a lever for blackmail, when they have a one in ten chance of not having their soul eaten? Also, the successful outcome of going to the Empire and living isn't that good. Like Henry Hill in GOODFELLAS, you go from being a player, a big wheel--or at least a medium-sized wheel--to a nobody, a schnook. Cut off >from crime and without the skills conferred by membership in another House, your survivor is going to effectively be just another Teckla eking out a meager life. Sure, Vlad got land and income, but Vlad stopped a war. Most Jhereg are just doing it to save their skin. As long as the Jhereg can say, "You leave the Organization feet first or not at all," and be right in an overwhelming majority of cases, a few people escaping to the Empire isn't going to matter. As Erik pointed out, the effect of Vlad's miraculous escape and reappearance is less likely to inspire others to do what he did than to make them accord him the same legendary status as Mario. -Dennis