The Colymar can't really stop her, as queen she chooses her retainers. Those retainers are not some sort of government employees although indirectly the tribe pays to support them. I'm sure there are some people who criticise her for keeping a trickster but other than choosing a new king or queen there's nothing they can do about it.
There's also the fact that the trickster will be a member of the tribe with family. I suspect many tricksters are bonded as a favour to someone because the alternative is having the outlawed or beaten to death.
>> However, for the inspired, the magical, the
>> powerful, or the recklessly ambitious, Tricksters can provide a
>> mighty boost in heroquesting potential.
>
>Certainly for the Lightbringer's quest and a few other rituals
>described in _Storm Tribe_ (e.g. scapegoating), Eurmali appear to be
>useful. Are all of the four tribal kings you listed doing one of these
>rituals? If not, they are asking their tribes to support a full-time
>sociopath for no payoff.
There's lots of more mundane uses for trickster magic, it's unpredicatable but powerful and a bonded trickster will usually use it when required by their king or queen. A trickster is a big risk but Orlanthi tend to be gamblers.
>> At least until they betray you.
>
>Exactly. Again, how can _any_ rational tribal king like Beti Leika
>keep a ticking time bomb around, when her community won't even put up
>with Kolati shamans outside the wildlands?
Betrayals are *rare*, less than one per trickster as some tricksters die or their patrons die before the betrayal and very few get more than one opportunity.
As for "rational", by whose standards? Orlanth had a trickster so as someone emulating Orlanth I should also have one. Don't assume Heortlings follow modern western logic.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
Powered by hypermail