Re: Assasins in the West?

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 21:53:15 +1300


At 08:28 10/12/01 +0200, you wrote:

> On the other hand they propably are anathema in Loskalm (which doesn't
>really mean there aren't any).

Borrowing from Dune's Mentats and twisted Mentats, one could posit the existence of a twisted knightly order that inverts Hrestol's chivalric code. When other knights seek glorious deeds of arms, they go for furtive knifings in a back-alley. They could be an secretive arm of the government, a violently oppressed heresy, or even both.

>But how about the rest of it. It would
>seem there would be market for people of such talents in the city-states
>along the Janube, for instance, and Seshnela has it's own share of
>intrique.

AFAIK the Janubian cities are on the frontier (think wild west) and don't have the atmosphere for cut-n-thrust intrigue. If someone wanted to do some rough stuff, he's more likely to hire bandits for muscle rather than a stealthy assassin.

Political-inspired deaths in Seshnela and Nolos are more likely to be the result of duels. Now undoubtedly any bigwig noble has a professional duelist amongst his courtiers, trained to incite rivals by their provocative behaviour into challenging them to a duel. There's still some scope for hiding in shadows (incriminating love letters) but the best thing about the duelists are they're legal and the intended victim can't back away without severe loss of face.

Safelster, I imagine, has several Arkati orders with Chaos, Troll/Darkness and Traitor aspects interested in the type of work. There's also the Borists, but their style of assassination tends to be rather unsubtle (tore to pieces by an invisible monster) and perhaps the Vadeli.

--Peter Metcalfe

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