A little late for a response, but I canât help myself.
As a general comment, I have to say that the overall Rebellion made no sense. They had already gone through a Civil War period where many of the emperors were far worse than Lucan. That the Moot would refuse to confirm Lucan for the piddly little cause of allegedly murdering his brother is fantastical. It just wouldn't have bothered to come up. Since the military (in general) were firmly behind him, they would/should have simply just swallowed hard and confirmed him. Had that happen, then none of the other splinters would have happened, outside Dulinor, and Dulinor's domain would have been beaten down and reintegrated. (Assuming Dulinor wasn't deposed at some point to short-circuit the fight.) That's what would have reasonably happened had the Moot not gone completely and unjustifiably insane.
And, quite frankly, that still would have been a cool story. It wasn't a story the Rebellion writers wanted to do, but it would have still been a cool story and wouldn't have degenerated into the silliness we eventually got.
My comments on some of the characters â¦
> Strephon: AWOL, something a leader can never do and by the time he popped up, he had lost his people.
My reading of everything is that Strephon was supposed to be dead, and was only later retconned back to life. As a result, his story was always disjoint. While I would also be right there to blame him for disappearing, I can bring myself to criticize the character, since he was originally intended to just be dead. (That's the whole reason he was called the "Real" Strephon, including with the quotes, in the beginning: He was an obvious charlatan and no one was fooled.) The retcon always poisoned the character's storyline, which prevented it from ever making any sense.
Assuming that the Moot had confirmed Lucan, Strephon should have been assassinated the moment he made a reappearance (whether "real" or genuine).
> Norris: "We'll just be over here while you guys figure out who I should report to...." "Bad kitties!"
>
> As an aside, he should have been the one candidate for Emperor that Margaret, Strephon, the Vilani,
> Craig, and Brzk could agree on (the "hero of the Fifth Frontier War"), and that was perhaps a possible
> Rebellion wrap up opportunity lost. With that much backing, Norris could have rallied a massive fleet at
> Vland and then unseated Lucan.
No, he couldn't have. War hero or not, he was also a lowly subsector duke who lied and promoted himself to be Archduke over the his own sector duchess. He was probably too busy just holding his domain together and keeping the deception up to be able to risk moving on Capital. That vast majority of the other dukes in the domain were willing to buy the deception (probably knowing full well what he was doing) says a lot about his competition. Regardless, he had to spend too much effort to consolidate his power and keep his domain together to even try and think larger.
He was barely able to hold his own. He had no power base on which he could even pretend to move on Lucan. That is giving him too much retroactive power and not giving him the credit he actually deserves. His approach makes the most sense for his situation; when your foundation is a poorly hidden lie, you take what you got and work with it. He did do a good job.
> Dulinor: When you plot to murder the emperor, be prepared to stick around and do more than have a
> photo-op on the throne.
Here's the thing about the assassination. If you are going to assassinate the Emperor, you have to stay put and take on all comers to keep the job. The moment he fled he forfeited his "right of assassination". The moment he fled he became nothing more than a murderer. And that should have been blatantly obvious all around. Quite frankly, after his return to Illesh and after everyone found out what he did and how he did it, there should have been a quiet coup. He was just a common murderer and he needed to be treated as such. That he admitted it and bragged about it, then ran like a coward showed just how incompetent and foolish of a leader he was. The moment he left Capital after the assassination was the moment he forfeited any shred of legitimacy. That he was never called on it was a huge weakness in the story.
Dulinor wasn't evil; he was an idiot. That he never actually gets called on how he completely screwed up the whole "succession by assassination" process is utterly amazing.
(In case someone tries to call me on it, the Moot would have accepted Lucan because the murder of his brother was alleged and unproven, and he was the only legitimate heir. Dulinor was a self-admitted murderer of the Emperor who even took video and selfies of his act. Then he ran away instead of defending his claim. One is allegedly a murderous slime; the other is an admitted assassin who is demonstrably a moron.)
This last comment has nothing to do with the Rebellion. It is more a comment about aliens.
> The K'kree: I can't even stand PETA, let alone... Seriously, I found the K'kree so unlikeable I didn't
> even buy the original alien sourcebook for them. I'm not alone.
If the K'kree can regularly provoke that type of reaction in players, then it means they were written effectively and are great aliens for the setting. The fact that they were perennially ignored and misused is the real shame on the whole thing. They were perfect villains that were just never really used properly, except by the Keiths once. They didn't need to be "borged" to be dangerous and horrible; they were that way already. It is just that no one took advantage of them in the setting to really make use of them prior to "Lords of Thunder".
Mike West
As a general comment, I have to say that the overall Rebellion made no sense. They had already gone through a Civil War period where many of the emperors were far worse than Lucan. That the Moot would refuse to confirm Lucan for the piddly little cause of allegedly murdering his brother is fantastical. It just wouldn't have bothered to come up. Since the military (in general) were firmly behind him, they would/should have simply just swallowed hard and confirmed him. Had that happen, then none of the other splinters would have happened, outside Dulinor, and Dulinor's domain would have been beaten down and reintegrated. (Assuming Dulinor wasn't deposed at some point to short-circuit the fight.) That's what would have reasonably happened had the Moot not gone completely and unjustifiably insane.
And, quite frankly, that still would have been a cool story. It wasn't a story the Rebellion writers wanted to do, but it would have still been a cool story and wouldn't have degenerated into the silliness we eventually got.
My comments on some of the characters â¦
> Strephon: AWOL, something a leader can never do and by the time he popped up, he had lost his people.
My reading of everything is that Strephon was supposed to be dead, and was only later retconned back to life. As a result, his story was always disjoint. While I would also be right there to blame him for disappearing, I can bring myself to criticize the character, since he was originally intended to just be dead. (That's the whole reason he was called the "Real" Strephon, including with the quotes, in the beginning: He was an obvious charlatan and no one was fooled.) The retcon always poisoned the character's storyline, which prevented it from ever making any sense.
Assuming that the Moot had confirmed Lucan, Strephon should have been assassinated the moment he made a reappearance (whether "real" or genuine).
> Norris: "We'll just be over here while you guys figure out who I should report to...." "Bad kitties!"
>
> As an aside, he should have been the one candidate for Emperor that Margaret, Strephon, the Vilani,
> Craig, and Brzk could agree on (the "hero of the Fifth Frontier War"), and that was perhaps a possible
> Rebellion wrap up opportunity lost. With that much backing, Norris could have rallied a massive fleet at
> Vland and then unseated Lucan.
No, he couldn't have. War hero or not, he was also a lowly subsector duke who lied and promoted himself to be Archduke over the his own sector duchess. He was probably too busy just holding his domain together and keeping the deception up to be able to risk moving on Capital. That vast majority of the other dukes in the domain were willing to buy the deception (probably knowing full well what he was doing) says a lot about his competition. Regardless, he had to spend too much effort to consolidate his power and keep his domain together to even try and think larger.
He was barely able to hold his own. He had no power base on which he could even pretend to move on Lucan. That is giving him too much retroactive power and not giving him the credit he actually deserves. His approach makes the most sense for his situation; when your foundation is a poorly hidden lie, you take what you got and work with it. He did do a good job.
> Dulinor: When you plot to murder the emperor, be prepared to stick around and do more than have a
> photo-op on the throne.
Here's the thing about the assassination. If you are going to assassinate the Emperor, you have to stay put and take on all comers to keep the job. The moment he fled he forfeited his "right of assassination". The moment he fled he became nothing more than a murderer. And that should have been blatantly obvious all around. Quite frankly, after his return to Illesh and after everyone found out what he did and how he did it, there should have been a quiet coup. He was just a common murderer and he needed to be treated as such. That he admitted it and bragged about it, then ran like a coward showed just how incompetent and foolish of a leader he was. The moment he left Capital after the assassination was the moment he forfeited any shred of legitimacy. That he was never called on it was a huge weakness in the story.
Dulinor wasn't evil; he was an idiot. That he never actually gets called on how he completely screwed up the whole "succession by assassination" process is utterly amazing.
(In case someone tries to call me on it, the Moot would have accepted Lucan because the murder of his brother was alleged and unproven, and he was the only legitimate heir. Dulinor was a self-admitted murderer of the Emperor who even took video and selfies of his act. Then he ran away instead of defending his claim. One is allegedly a murderous slime; the other is an admitted assassin who is demonstrably a moron.)
This last comment has nothing to do with the Rebellion. It is more a comment about aliens.
> The K'kree: I can't even stand PETA, let alone... Seriously, I found the K'kree so unlikeable I didn't
> even buy the original alien sourcebook for them. I'm not alone.
If the K'kree can regularly provoke that type of reaction in players, then it means they were written effectively and are great aliens for the setting. The fact that they were perennially ignored and misused is the real shame on the whole thing. They were perfect villains that were just never really used properly, except by the Keiths once. They didn't need to be "borged" to be dangerous and horrible; they were that way already. It is just that no one took advantage of them in the setting to really make use of them prior to "Lords of Thunder".
Mike West