Annotated 50-16
(Plato didn’t exactly say, “Those who do not seek power are most qualified to hold it.” But it’s a fair paraphrase.)
Penk’s developed no small affection for his one-time mortal enemies, not least because they’re so consistently politically useful.
It’s true that this role will never suit Byron the way it does Syr and Gravy. But there’s almost no alternative. Best and E-Merl are half-elves, and for humans deeply paranoid about persecution, that’s half too many. Scipio and Frigg have even less interest in the job than Byron: Scipio has already proven to himself that he cannot govern, and Frigg, er, does not have the patience for anything more administrative than her new sisterhood. Pardo might be a decent successor to Byron—he always liked Syr’Nj, Reynolds still thinks well of him—but he’s got to get over all the upheaval of the Gastonia he knew, including most of his “old friends” being killed as traitors except for the ones Byron killed back in his hometown. Nobody else could hope to slide into the role until things solidify a little more.
At some point in the future, Byron may no longer be the right choice. Right now his role in stopping HR gives him huge political capital, and that outweighs everything. But later, humans may ask whether it’s fair to have their representative literally married to wood elf interests. In time, someone new may step into the job…a recovered Pardo, one of Ardaic’s old assistants, or just a fresh-faced young lawyer somewhere. But Byron’s got to codify what the job even is, first.
FB: We need a face until we heal.
Maybe Byron’s successor will be a relative of a friend. The third brother, Leadar.
What the **** is a “Leadarer”?
Really love the knowing look Gravvy and Syr shared.
Everyone: praising the comic, discussing politics.
My ape-brain: Ohshit. Penk’s uh, kind of a big guy, huh? Haha, hadn’t noticed…
Later? Don’t kid yourself. They are doing it already, it’s just his role in the HR battle combined with him being one a few on that short list, aka, those humans the pretty much conquering others races will trust, trumps for now. Look to occupied Japan or American South, or likely a number of other examples that don’t come to my American mind. As to the latter, at least this will not be a situation where the conquering side expects to withdraw completely. They’ll keep their stake in the capital and so the tide like return of the old structure after Reconstruction is far less likely to happen
Pretty sure Plato would have said “The smartest, most tech-bro guy should decide everything, including things they don’t know squat about”.
He was into dictatorship by philosopher kings, after all.