Superb discussion gentlemen. Well worth reading. Some comments off the top of my pointy head:
- Wolf, about your WW1 analogy; Bin it, it's a non-starter. First, GDW weren't hacks as Alan correctly points out. They were/are historians and history buffs so they wouldn't have been as clumsy as you imagine them to be. Kaladorn correctly cautions us to avoid extending our analogies too far because they baggage they bring ultimately upset the setting. The OTU is it's own beast. Certain aspects in it may resemble historicla events, just our Real World history seems to 'repeat' itself on occasion. Trends and basic parallels yes, repitative minute details no.
Chuck out the Soviet analogy for the same reasons.
- The nature of the Rebellion: Jon Crocker has it nailed; GDW/DGP wanted a rebellion, they wanted a rebellion that fractured the Imperium, and they wanted a rebellion that lasted a long time. Consequnetly, they tortured plausibility to achieve their desired results. Any discussion of the whoppers surrounding Dulnor's plan, Windhook's escape, Lucan's murder of his brother, all the rest must keep that fact firmly in mind. The Rebellion is going to happen whether it makes sense or not. We also keep in mind that the chaps who had guided Traveller through the CT era stepped down from day-to-day control of the game's 'soap opera' in order to tackle other projects. DGP invented, wrote, and applied the Rebellion's broad brush strokes. Everyone else just worked in the margins.
- The soi-disant 'Right of Assassination': This one has had everyone's knickers in a knot ever since DGP trotted it out as the purported ace up Dulinor's sleeve. We need to look at the RoA in it's original CT terms, how the RoA came about in the the Third Imperium, and how it was used.
Guess what? The RoA was used successfully ONCE. That was when Porfiria rid the universe of Cleon III, aka Cleon the Mad. It was never brought up seriously since, even counting Dulinor's fling at it.
What of Olav 'I've got a nice big dreadnought' Plankwell you ask? Well, Olav and the rest of the Barracks Boobs used the RoA as their legal fig leaf for seizing power the old fashioned way; i.e. with the muzzle of a gun. Olav was able to ride the tiger for less than five years before he ate lead and his Barracks Boob buddies stayed aboard for even shorter periods of time. None of them made it stick because the Imperium as a whole didn't want it to stick. That's the rub, you see. Olav and his imitators didn't involve enough of the right people in their plans. That's what the RoA is all about.
Back to Porfiria and the RoA's appearence and single, successful application. Do you really think she waltzed into the Palace one day and potted Cleon while he was taking a break from busily defenestrating people, pets, and houseplants he didn't like? "Oh, by the way, I just shot the Emperor and that makes me Empress now. Okay? Pass the jelly.' Hardly likely, don't you think?
You all know what really happened. Cleon had to go but the Imperium had no legal method for removing a sitting Emperor. Seems silly, doesn't it? Nearly two and half centuries along and we just now realize that there should be mechanisms for flushing a bad one off the Throne? Oddly enough, it's true(1).
Look at the Warrant of Restoration. Plenty of verbiage on how the Moot selects and confirms an emperor. Not a peep about how the Moot can ditch a loser though. Indeed, after confirming an emperor, the only thing the Moot can do is dissolve the Imperium! So, Cleon's barking mad, thus we'll have to dissolve the Imperium to get shed of him? Hardly.
Instead, the Moot devised a mechanism that would rid the Imperium of Cleon without ridding the universe of the Imperium. It mustn't have took too long, Cleon only ruled for a year or so, but all the high nobles, all the megacorps, all the admirals, all the generals, all the Powers That Be must have been canvassed, sounded out, and apprised of both the situation and the proposed solution.
Porfiria walked in and shot Cleon with the full knowledge and support of the Moot beforehand. She was selected for the job because she was already selected to replace Cleon as Empress. Once she holstered her pistol and Cleon's body was stuffed in the trash compactor, the Imperium and its business went on without a single ripple. When news of the event travelled out to the provinces, the powerful already knew it was coming and the masses were told a soothing lie; "The Emperor was shot, his assassin is now Empress, it is all due to something called the Right of Assassination, and you have nothing to worry about. By the way, don't forget that quarterly taxes are due next Twoday."
The soothing lie worked because it held a little bit of the truth. Nothing bad did happen and some things actually got better. No more plummeting Pekes smashing into tourists visiting the Palace, for instance.
So, the RoA was a retcon of sorts devised by the Moot to smooth over an event that was going to happen one way or another. Someone was going to shoot Cleon sooner or later, the Moot just made sure everyone knew when it would happen, made sure the shooter was somoeone they knew, made sure that another Emperor would be warming the Throne immediately after, and made sure that there would be as few reprecussions as possible.
If the RoA ever had to be used again, the Moot presumed that it would be used in the same manner it was used originally - The Powers That Be of the Imperium moving sagely and judiciously to remove an unfit Emperor. How else do you think that marine general was able to coax a weeping Styryx cowering in his personal fresher into resigning in favor of his son Gavin? He was told in no uncertain terms that, if it came to it, Gavin would be brought in and made to shoot his father in order to ascend to the Throne in a RoA replay. When the Moot retconned the RoA into the Imperium's traditions, no one ever thought that someone would try to use the RoA alone.
Now, contrast what Porfiria and the Moot arranged to do about Cleon III with what Olav and his Succeeding Stooges did between 604 and 622. None of them; aside from one Very Important Barracks Emperor, ever bothered to include the Powers That Be in their plans. Olav 'forced an audience' with Jaqueline I and then murdered her for her throne. Aside from a few fellow plotters, no one was ready for that event and, consequently, Olav's grip on power was never firm. His successors' grips were even weaker. All of the Barracks Boobs proclaimed they were invoking the RoA, but none of them were applying it as it was intended to be used. None of them except for Arbellatra that is.
She put an end to the RoA round robin by not invoking that tradition to legitimize her actions at all. After 18 years of the Barracks Boobs, everyone knew something had to be done, Arbie did it, and then scored major PR points by not claiming the Throne in the same manner that the knucklehead she defeated had done before her. She calmly cooled her heels as a 'regent' for seven years - Does anyone doubt that she didn't know she'd end up as Empress? - and she spent that time building up the same sort of concensus that Porfiria had had back when she offed Cleon.
Due the nature of the times, Arbellatra applied the RoA in reverse. She killed the Throne's current occupant and then waited for it to be offered to her. Perhaps Dulinor thought he could wrangle something of the same result; kill Strephon, enact and showcase his reforms, thus 'proving' he deserved the job. Then again, as Dulinor's actions on Capital and during the Rebellion show, planning wasn't his forte.
Glad to have read all your thoughts.
Have fun,
Bill
1 - Think that's an implausible oversight? Well, the US didn't have a codified, legal mechanism (other than impeacement) to remove an unfit president from office until after JFK was killed. It didn't have a written chain of succession until then either. People plan about what they think will happen. Go figure.
