Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Just a thought, and it may have already come up somewhere before, but what if the Aslan "conquests" in the Marches are actually the result of political maneuvering?
Sigg,
The 'story' of the conquests in the
OTU is one of straight conquest. Government codes change from the
LBB:6 variety to those found in the Aslan alien module.
The 'story' of the conquests
IYTU can be anything you wish. You set the plausibility bar
IYTU and nothing else matters.
The 'story' of the conquests
IMTU is no story at all. I can't come up with a story that is plausible enough for
MTU. There's an uptick in the number of ihatei trying to cross the border but that is because the states rimward of Tobia are assisting the
ihatei in the hopes they'll move on. They're passing them along like US communities still do with vagrants; i.e. gather them up and drive them to the county line.
How much do we know about the duke of Tobia?
In the
OTU the Duke is human, male, and commits suicide on Tobia as the Aslan invade.
IYTU the Duke can do and be anything.
He then starts to persuade other subsector dukes to side with him rather than Norris...
In the
OTU Norris should have the forces available to evict the Aslan and keep the subsector dukes in line even if they all join the Tobia duke. There aren't that many subsectors in Tobia anyway and the defection of the dukes doesn't automatically equate the defection of the
fleet.
Norris of all Imperials knows the Zhos are no threat(1) and holding the border against the Vargr shouldn't be that tough.
MT's own "Rebellion Sourcebook" lays out the various strengths of the parties involved; Norris, Aslan, and Vargr, and the relative strengths presented 'prove' that the Invasions are baloney. There's no way the Vargr can take Corridor
as written and there is no way the Aslan can take systems as far as Glisten
as written. Going by
MT's own information, Norris should be easily able to evict the Aslan. Sadly,
MT ignores it's own materials in favor of a 'kewl' rebellion.
Again,
IMTU, that is a non-starter as Norris' forces are not pinned down by the Consulate(1) and the Vargr 'invasions' are not the disaster
MT depicts. Therefore Norris has the forces needed to handle the uptick in
ihatei numbers.
IMTU Norris even has the forces available to begin the process of fashioning another human-Aslan treaty like the one made by the early Imperium in Dark Nebula. Norris is going to kick the Aslan fleet dispatcher's furry ass up between his pointed ears and make that clueless Toon(2) start directing
ihatei fleets spinward instead of coreward.
IYTU anything can happen at all. An Aslan duke at Tobia, high treason, Norris without the forces he needs, Toons finally working together, all of it. You determine what is plausible or not.
Simply put:
- In the
OTU the invasions are utterly implausible and must be accepted as editorial fiat.
- In
MTU the invasions are utterly implausible claptrap inflicted on the setting by DGP while GDW was asleep and are explained away into irrelevence much like IRIS.
- In
YTU the invasions can be anything you want.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - The Zhos have fought 5 wars in 500 years to first limit and then halt 3I expansion. For the most part they've succeeded. The Consulate is also non-expansionist itself. It's reached the size it feels it can control and all expansive energies are directed down the Core Route. The Zhos do prefer a 'buffer' of small states along their borders however and the Frontier Wars have been a long term effort to recreate that buffer in the Marches.
Seeing the Imperium split into factions is the Consulate's dream come true. Attacking one of those factions when the Zhos don't actually need to and possibly uniting the factions into a 'crusade' against the Consulate would be outright idiocy. The Domain of Deneb is safe from the Zhos and Norris knows that.
2 -
IMTU the Aslan are complete pains in the rectum. They're obsessed with their deliberately convaluted 'honor' code and utterly untrustworthy to those they choose to believe do not follow said 'honor' code. Actually it doesn't matter whether you follow it or not, if they decide to attack you they'll find some 'honorable' reason to do so as their code is set-up with all the excuses they ever need.
The Toons are much more like
actual samurai than our silly Western mythos samurai and are very akin to the Central Asian horse peoples or Bedouins. Individually they can exhibit a certain charm, collectively they're vermin.
It's not that they can't comprehend the beliefs of sophont other than themselves, it's that they do not want to comprehend the beliefs of sophont other than themselves. Unless you buy into their 'worldview' you're beneath their contempt. Diplomacy is useless as agreements are seen to last only as long as the people who made them or as long as the party they treated with remains strong. Finding a good reason to break a treaty within the bounds of Aslan logic is seen as a honorable thing and is much admired. Their logic will always find a loophole because they want to find loopholes.
Dealing with the Aslan is more a case of maintaining good fences than maintaining good relations. They won't keep any agreements so you'll have to kill a lot of them every so often to keep up the scare in the rest. The Heirate avoids expanding into Dark Nebula not because of some treaty but because they know they'll get stomped. You'll notice the most powerful Toon clan sends lone assassins (terrorists) after Dulinor for killing their ambassador. (Although they'll kill an ambassador without batting an eye if he uses the wrong salad fork.) This not because sending assassins is more 'honorable', it's because they know they will get their furry asses kicked if they invade Dulinor's Federation and that their honorable fellow Aslan will fall on them in their now weakened state like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
Aslan pressure on the Domain of Deneb has been slight because of the distances involved but, as the Trans-Rift Toon populations increase, that pressure is building. The 'invasion' during the Rebellion has more to do with that than any belief the Imperium is dead. It's merely a statistical blip coupled with the usual Aslan duplicity.
