--- Dennis Higbee <den at epia.monger.net> wrote: > On Fri, 4 Jun 2004, trevor laughlin wrote: > > > > > > At the very least, he'll have his Baronacy <or > > > > > whatever his title was> stripped. But that is a > > > slap > > > > > on the wrist given what the empress gave him. > > > > > > > remember what one of his rewards was for stopping > > > the war? i believe it was > > > an imperial rank/title given by the empress, so i'm > > > not sure the jhereg can > > > kick him out of the house. I think that was Trevor's point, "given what the empress gave him". > > I believe the Jhereg can remove THEIR baronacy from > > him, but they cannot remove the dutchy <?> the empress > > gave him. > > County. > > > Technically he is the baron of 'A' and the duke of 'B'. > > He's Count Szurke, Baronet Taltos. And just to finish up, the position of a baronet is a baronetcy. It's an interesting idea that the Jhereg might have been petty enough to strip Vlad of his title--or maybe it wouldn't be mere pettiness, if cashiering him is enough to obviate the rule against going after his family. After _Orca_, I wondered whether some bounty hunters might try to hold Vlad's family hostage. I decided that the problem with that as a plot device would be that the bad guys would have to be really stupid. Not only would they get Vlad angry at them-- think of all the people might easily take a hand to help Cawti, VN, or Noish-pa. The Empress, the Heir, Morrolan, Aliera, and, oh yeah, whatsername, that vampire... Then when I finished _Issola_, one thing I thought was, "Okay, so much for the hostage-taking plot." I admit I wasn't considering that the Organization as a whole might try it, but it still seems like a poor idea. This of course connects with the "Monty Haul" image that Scott Schultz brought up. If I may quote myself (even to the spelling mistake), 'In fact, Vlad may be coming in for a case of Superhero's Syndrome: it could get harder and harder to come up with reasonable conflicts for him. He's remarkable powerful, he has even more powerful friends, and he's saved the Empire once and the world once. (Or twice--getting Pathfinder into the right hands may also prove to save the world.) What will he do for an encore? 'On the other hand, after he saved the Empire in _Phoenix_, what he did for an encore was in that masterpiece _Athyra_, which was concerned with much "smaller" issues.' <http://tinyurl.com/ywf6l> So I'm quite happy if Vlad faces problems he can't solve by brute force, as in _Taltos_, _Teckla_, _Phoenix_, _Athyra_, _Orca_, and even _Jhereg_. I don't think of any of those as "wallowing in angst". On the other hand, an occasional spot of physical danger would still be fine. Jerry Friedman __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/