Loren noted that Deville isn't a hero but an anti-hero. He's sort of right. What I should have said was that I liked tough _Protagonists_ not heros. The word hero is full of good-guy connotations which are frankly too cut and dry for me.
Deville is the protagonist in the story and some of his qualities may be admirable and others many may not. The main point is that he really doesn't care how he is percieved which is something I think a true hero would be worried about. He just _is_ Morthander Devile, take him or leave him but he makes it difficult to _ignore_ him.
Several people have commented on Devilles survivability in the Empire. How does he maintain his political power if he's so dangerous to the establishment? Basically I see Deville as a weapon, he is treated as such by the Overseer. If he wants to shake up an area, in goes Deville. He does shake people up but its difficult for him to do tremendous damage because he is virtually a man alone without back-up, without cooperation. Hence his real impact on the lunar systems is limited but noticable. If Deville suddenly gained large ammounts of support he would rapidly become very dangerous indeed and would have to be taken out. (As David Cake pointed out)
He is an individual in a society of many groupings and cliques, hence he stands out, hence he has few friends and therefore he is doomed to fail. The fact that his intellect is so great means that he has come to understand this and the depression over his fate and the fate of his beloved Empire becomes more acute with each passing year.
I sat down and wrote a plot line last night so if things slow down a little, fear not there be enough violence to satisfy even a Kane fan like me.
By the way, if anybody wants to buy the stories for a movie, Tim Roth _must_ play Deville (he played Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy). Otherwise, I'll go in the huff. So there.
Martin Laurie
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #296
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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