Do we have much of an inkling about how House Jhereg (as opposed to The Organization) is governed? It seems as if the House is divided into three branches. The Organization, the Left Hand, and for lack of anything better to call them, The Nobles. These last I imagine as the "respectable" face of the House, being those who aren't directly associated with the other two branches and/or those who function as the House representatives at Court and, presumably, in other positions of political responsibility. Given that the Organization members like to refer to the Left Hand as "The Bitch Patrol", there's clearly no love lost between The Left Hand and The Organization. Vlad certainly shows no compunction about dealing with Left Hand sorcerors as harshly as the situation requires. I'm left with the impression that, despite being ostensibly part of the same House, that the Left Hand and The Organization are autonomous rivals at best and Cold War-style enemies at worst. The question I got thinking about today, based on this, is who actually runs the affairs of the House? I'm pretty sure we've seen references to a Council at the top, but not much info about who's on it or if said Council is just the heads of the Organization. Have we seen any references to the people who run the House as a whole? If there's one guy at the top, whether by force of will or political maneuvering, he must be a truly frightening individual. Someone with the amorality of the Left Hand, the deviousness of the Organization, and the political acumen to keep those two branches played off against each other and still monitor and control as much of the Court as possible with his "courtier network". Tangentially, it raises the question of whether there is, in fact, some branch of House Jhereg whose job it is to act like the other nobles as far as managing estates and tithing to the Throne and otherwise providing the façade of respectability required for political dealings with the other Houses. We don't see any direct evidence of such, it's true, but I wonder if that's because it doesn’t exist or if it's simply that Vlad never has occasion to mingle with that side of the House, being a member of the Organization himself? I'm reminded of Legend of the Five Rings. For those unfamiliar with it, L5R is an ostensibly Asian game setting in a mythical land called Rokugan. The people are divided into clans with signature traits, much like the Houses of Dragaera are people with genetic traits unique to the House. The analog to House Jhereg is The Scorpion Clan which, interestingly enough, is even divided into three branches which break down roughly to the mafia, the sorcerors, and the politicians. (I'm not suggesting that Steve copied anything from L5R. It's more likely he's never heard of it.) Despite the involvement of The Scorpion Clan in just about any intrigue that's the least bit illegal, they're allowed to exist (within bounds) because they also serve as The Emperor's Underhand. That is, when the Emperor needs something done that it would otherwise be dishonorable and/or dangerous for him to order done himself, the job is given to the Scorpions to handle. The Scorpions are the ultimate spies, as well as cutthroats and thieves, but they consider themselves honorable (as a clan, anyway) because what they do is ultimately for the good of the Empire. If they line their own pockets or increase their personal power along the way, well, there's no harm in that,surely. So, getting back to Dragaera, who does the Empress turn to if she needs someone dead and a war is the wrong way to go about it? If someone needs assassinating for the good of the Empire, how does the job get parceled out? I just wonder if this hypothetical Noble Branch of House Jhereg exists to take care of this problem? Perhaps this "Noble Branch" is a front for what amounts to the most extensive spy network in the Empire. It would certainly help explain where Vlad and Kragar get some of their more esoteric information when they need it, and how the leader of the Jhereg Council manages to keep control of the other representatives on the Council and, by extension, the organizations underneath them. As a side benefit, the other Houses have someone marginally respectible to go to as an intermediary when they need something unsavory done. What do you think? Is there anything in the stories that might support the theories I've outlined?