Dragaera

[Dragaera] Vlad and the Organization

Tue Mar 22 14:25:15 PST 2005

The only way out for Vlad is to either die permanently or to somehow to
contrive for the Organization to save face. 

Anyone in the Organization with knowledge of Vlad and the circumstances
under which he went rogue will understand that he did it for personal
reasons; i.e., to protect his wife, not for personal gain. There are reasons
why the Organization has the unwritten rules about keeping violence away
>from an employee's home and the were-gild style system of life insurance to
compensate the family members when an employee dies. As a kind of idealized
Mafia, the Organization respects and protects family. The whole mess that
ended with Vlad turning informer began with a Jhereg boss who broke the code
that says that family is sacrosanct. (Of course, the Organization would say
that Vlad broke the code himself by not controlling his own family.
Everything's relative...)

That won't excuse Vlad in anyone's mind but it may mean that if The Demon
wakes up to find Godslayer poised two inches from his left eye and an
ex-Jhereg Easterner telling him "I'm about to make you an offer you can't
refuse" that he'll listen and even honor whatever agreement he's being
coerced into if it looks like it will profit the Organization in the end.

Great weapons aren't neccesarily a big secret, just something that doesn't
get talked about outside of the social circles of the owners. It's only a
few years since Vlad left, a blink of an eye to a Dragaeran. The whole thing
could be settled by a convenient lie. The Council spreads the news that Vlad
has returned with not just a Great Weapon but one of the Greatest of them
all. They welcome him back with open arms and smirk about how this was the
plan all along. That turning informer was a cover as part of a bigger plan
to increase the power of the House versus Houses like the Dragon that had
multiple Great Weapons in their arsenal. Now House Jhereg has an assassin in
the fold who can even assassinate a God. With the right spin-doctoring, it
could sell. 

Alternatively, it could be a matter of Vlad arranging his own death (or a
facsimile thereof). We've already seen Aliera stabbed with a morganti weapon
and survive. When Aliera was nothing more than a soul in a staff, Sethra
implied that the Necromancer could create a new body for her. Vlad could
hide the existence of Godslayer from the Organization entirely and arrange
to be "killed" by a morganti weapon. Even if he was made unrevivifiable to
boot (should be considered a waste of time after a morganti killing but
possible nonetheless) his friends should be able to bring him back. At that
point he changes his face or goes back East or whatever.

It comes down to learning what sort of life Vlad wants to have. If he wants
to live openly in Adrilankha then he'll have to make peace with the
Organization, convince the Council that they CAN'T kill him, and do
something that shows the entire House that his turning informer was actually
a good thing in the end rather than a bad thing. Given that the Council has
shown it's willing to destroy the Organization and rebuild it rather than
lose face, any plan Vlad comes up with has to be one that allows everyone to
feel like the Council was actually doing something clever by letting him
testify. Otherwise, his life isn't worth a plugged nickel. I don't imagine
that the unwritten rules apply to a traitor...