Dragaera

If I were the Demon...

Fri Jun 4 10:36:14 PDT 2004


On Fri, 4 Jun 2004, Dennis Higbee wrote:

> 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?


This seems like a good point to me - so good that it's rather surprising
to me that Vlad has had an opportunity to take a squealer out.

More generally, I think Vlad wasn't at the time aware how much the
Organization is part of the Empire.  There may officially be a Chinese
wall, but I suspect that the right hand, I should say, the right wing
doesn't need to be ratted to in order to know what the left wing is doing.



Extremely vague Piroiad minor spoiler:




Hope this discussion isn't bumping SKZB's keyboard.  I may always wonder
if the Orb-indexing problem described in the later Piroiad was written
with the express purpose of stomping on my cherished insistence post
_PotD_ that the Orb gives the Empress unlimited brain-burning
assassination ability (hence the major conflict would be moot).