The debate about the Coders attitudes to chaos comes at a timely moment for me - my players relationship with the Coders has just taken an interesting turn, and one directly related to the contradiction between their outward face and the Lunar Empire as a whole that Nick has mentioned
You see, I intended to have Julan put pressure on the Orlanthi PCs who are allying themselves with hazia traders. One (not an Orlanthi) PC is attempting to set up a hazia distribution ring himself (in alliance with the Dolphins, the Hole Lords Lanbril gang, and Old City growers) and encountering some nasty opposition from Krarshti/ Black Fang forces, so has asked the chaos-hating Orlanthi for help - which they have granted in return for some intelligence. Julan is, to some extent, a pawn of Krarshti forces within the Lunar high command who are tipping him off about who to lean on to stop the non-Krarshti hazia trade that the PCs are involved in, but being strangely reticent about the Krarshti controlled parts of the trade. The PCs are also well aware of the Krarshti links to the Lunar command - they have found at least one Krarsht temple to contain a number of New Pelorian administrative documents.... (The Devils Playground). Julan has some inckling of the situation, but figures that clamping down on the Orlanthi and the hazia trade at the same time can't be a bad thing, even if some other traders escape.
But now Julan faces a real moral quandary. My PC Wind Lord (Roland, played by Martin King) marched up to him in the Silken Plume, and said that he would help stop the hazia trade that he knew of, if Julan would help him wipe out the (Lunar connected) Krarshti first. Now, Julan knows perfectly well what is going on, and is (unlike Deville) probably more interested in keeping the frees weak than in cleaning house in the Lunar command (which he knows would piss off Lunar Intelligence mightily in the process). But he can't honourably see how he can refuse the offer..... he is caught between the pragmatic chaos tolerance of the Empire, and his own professed anti-chaos and idealistic stance.
Cheers
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