: The comet is still up there, if the normal rules
: of astrophysics hold, and the Leveller doesn't die
: just because Balor sucked and Alric ruled.
Interestingly enough, it seems the normal rules of astrophysics don't hold. The comet sometimes comes from the east, sometimes from the west. Though I suppose comets don't rise & fall like the sun & moon do; they're like stars or planets, at relatively fixed positions in the sky. So the comet could appear in the east relative to the earth on one pass, and then appear to the west in the next, if its orbit was erratic in just the right way.
: Sure. We could get into a long discussion as to whether
: events in the game suggest that the crown and the
: sword have the power to live up to their hype, but it
: seems like a rather fruitless thread to start. I will
: mention that the berserk who picks up Balmung in the
: catacombs doesn't seem to be possessed by it, but
: that's about as far as I think we need to go with
: this. The value of the crown and the sword as symbols
: are, I think, more important.
GURPS implies that repeated use of Balmung tends to let it take over its bearer, not that just picking it up makes one it's slave. And that zerk did get noticably tougher when he picked it up; normally Balmung's ricocheing lightning would kill a Berserk.
: My point here was just that his claim of succession is a
: very, very thin one. He's an usurper under any canon
: of law you choose to name.
Maybe Earth canon. Perhaps the Bruig rule is that whoever's the acting leader when the Emperor dies is, by default, the new Emperor. So when Connacht's predecessor died, everyone was following Connacht, presumably the Emperor himself as well. Then the Emperor died in battle, the Herons shrugged it off and handed Connacht the crown. With Alric, the last emperor died and NOBODY was leading the Bruig at the time, cuz there were no Bruig but the 100-odd Herons, who were in penance at the time. So Alric passes by Muirthemne one day and picks up the crown, and the few surviving Bruig, the (<80 now) Journeyman, swear fealty to their new emperor and take up their old position guarding him.
: However, in peace time I think he would have had a
: much harder time just waltzing in and declaring
: himself Emperor. No king, no matter how popular, rules
: by his will alone. He needs the support of the rest of
: the government. During wartime he has that support
: automatically because he's commander in chief--every
: other military leader in the free world has sworn
: fealty to him. As soon as the army is demobilized,
: however, he's going to be faced by a whole bunch of
: lesser lords with their own political futures to think
: of who might oppose him. Alric is very popular and by
: accident of misfortune he happens to be the last truly
: powerful archmage left alive but no matter how
: anarchic and freedom-loving he is, he's still a
: political figure and political figures will always
: have enemies.
Fine. Say I'm Alric's political enemy. Alric says he's gonna reinstate the Bruig empire with himself as Emperor. I say "nuh uh, my uncle's cousin's friend was a Bruig, I have more right to it than you!". Alric says "tough noogies". I send some of my thugs to knock on Alric's door. The thugs' remains get FedEx'd to me and I wake up wondering "Where the hell's my roof!?".
So you see, Alric doesn't have much of a problem. Good luck taking on the most beloved guy in the world, who happens to also be the biggest badass this side of Tau Ceti.
