On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 11:16:03AM -0600, Howard Brazee wrote: > > There are different ways to be corrupt. They might be interested in going > through the motions, in getting the Orb to record the transaction, or had > other interests that could be served by this scripted interrogation - for > wide varieties of reasons. Corruption may be "doing what an empress or > goddess wanted". It might be "keeping the powers that be happy", or simply > "saving us from having a situation that would be bad for our people". It might even be that they don't know how to do interrogations properly. I get the impression that police in the US didn't learn how to build cases well until after they were forced to start giving people Miranda warnings. If your standard practice is to intimidate Teckla into confessing, you'll probably be a fish out of water in court with an educated suspect and a bunch of high nobles breathing down your neck. I get the feeling that a lot of things in Dragaera are more primitive than we give them credit for, just because Vlad comes across as relatively educated and sophisticated.