This meshes nicely with something I have long believed. The political struggle in Glamour is not only who gets to be the next Governor General, but whether and how the office should be dismantled.
Consider the View from Glamour of the Governorship-General. It soon will have (when Kethaela is settled) more land, more resources, and more troops than the rest of the Empire. In times of crisis (i.e., usually) it controls most of the rest of the troops. On the one hand, the crisis of the new wane could be a Governor-General in rebellion. Even more seriously, the Governor-General is an effective level of Mastery up in Play Lunar Politics over anybody else, even a satrap. This is unacceptable.
And it's a new problem. Until late the last wane, the Governor General basically controlled the Four Provinces, and had a perpetual war in Tarsh. He could play politics, but he was weaker and further from Glamour than any of the satraps. This wane, only two men have been Governor General. Phargentes wanted chiefly to be King in Tarsh; Appius Luxius is the Emperor's incorruptible favorite. Neither is particularly interested in Glamour as such; helping them is one of the standard political moves, like playing along with the Emperor's current Mask.
(And, until 1602, they weren't much stronger than a satrap, anyway.)
I see three parties, each aiming at dismantling the Governorship General, each in a different way:
The New Satrapy: "the Four Provinces have been Lunarized long since; why not accept them as a new Satrapy?" Powerful in the Provinces, but tends to fragment over who gets to be Satrap, and whether to include Tarsh.
Three Heads are Better than One: "We have three problems; we need three armies, each under a separate Governor: South, in Dragon Pass and Beyond; West, against Dorastor and Charg; East, against Pent. The Heartland army is still strategic reserve; the Provinces are to be divided between the Generals." Popular in Carmania; will be popular in the Redlands once the Pentans show up.
Retrenchment: "We've won. There will be no King of Dragon Pass and no Pharaoh to threaten us. We have Allies in Far Point, Boldhome, Sun County, the Grazelands.... A new Wane is coming; let's hold what we know we can. Direct rule is an unnecessary expense; by the end of the wane, the New Lands will be asking to join us." Popular in lowland Peloria, which has little to gain from the Forward School.
These three are compatible, although any one of them will drain off support for others. Nevertheless, some people are supporting candidates for GG as a variety of stab: if all three plans succeed maximally, the GG will find himself in control of the Alda-Chur garrison - and nothing else.
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