Honorverse ramblings and musings

crewdude48 wrote:

cthia wrote:I'm trying to get a few things straight in my head. Hamish Alexander is the Earl of White Haven. He has a son by Honor, Raoul. And a daughter Katherine, by Emily. Katherine was born two months after her older brother Raoul. If Hamish is killed then I suppose that Raoul will inherit the Earldom? Or because Emily is the main wife, would the inheritor be Katherine? Yet, if Raoul hadn't ever been then would it fall to Katherine? If there were no kids, then would Emily inherit instead of Honor? And what would be the title, Duchess?

If Hamish died with no heirs, his brother would inherit White Haven, not Emily. It goes by decent, not marriage. And because he is married to both Honor and Emily, neither would be a bastard child, so it doesn't matter who gives him his child, as long as it is his.

Now, the real question in my mind is Katherine in line of succession for the Duchy of Harrington, being as she is legally the child of Honor, but not biologically. The fact that on Grayson it has to be "a child of the body" takes her out of the line for steadholder, but I don't think we anybody has told us about Manticoran policy on the point.

It would depend on Manticoran law and how Hamish worded his will.

crewdude48 wrote:

cthia wrote:I'm trying to get a few things straight in my head. Hamish Alexander is the Earl of White Haven. He has a son by Honor, Raoul. And a daughter Katherine, by Emily. Katherine was born two months after her older brother Raoul. If Hamish is killed then I suppose that Raoul will inherit the Earldom? Or because Emily is the main wife, would the inheritor be Katherine? Yet, if Raoul hadn't ever been then would it fall to Katherine? If there were no kids, then would Emily inherit instead of Honor? And what would be the title, Duchess?

If Hamish died with no heirs, his brother would inherit White Haven, not Emily. It goes by decent, not marriage. And because he is married to both Honor and Emily, neither would be a bastard child, so it doesn't matter who gives him his child, as long as it is his.

Now, the real question in my mind is Katherine in line of succession for the Duchy of Harrington, being as she is legally the child of Honor, but not biologically. The fact that on Grayson it has to be "a child of the body" takes her out of the line for steadholder, but I don't think we anybody has told us about Manticoran policy on the point.

Thanks for clearing that up dude. And so simply. Which is a far cry better than this confusing bit of royal pain in the posterior...

http://www.edwardianpromenade.com/resou ... recedence/

saber964 wrote:It would depend on Manticoran law and how Hamish worded his will.

It would depend on Manticoran law, and that's it. It's not possible under Manticoran law to 'will' your title to someone else; we've got explicit Word of Weber on this.

drothgery wrote:

saber964 wrote:It would depend on Manticoran law and how Hamish worded his will.

It would depend on Manticoran law, and that's it. It's not possible under Manticoran law to 'will' your title to someone else; we've got explicit Word of Weber on this.

I don't remember the exact wording on this. Does the current holder of the title have absolutely no influence over its inheritance, or are they simply denied the ability to direct it to someone outside the normal chain of succession?

Specifically did Weber touch on whether there was any mechanism whereby an heir could be 'skipped over' or denied the title?
Obviously they could choose to renounce it; Cathy Montaigne did.
But whether renounced or disinherited that would just slide the title down the chain to the next person; so it's far less flexible than a general ability to 'will' a title.

When thinking about mass wormhole transits like the two achieved by Hamish and Honor, I try to imagine it in my head. Controllers manage inbound and outbound lanes - air traffic controllers to prevent crashes. Is it listed somewhere the useable dimensions of the junctions? How many lanes? How are they stacked from left to right along the x-axis and top to bottom along the y-axis. I know it depends on ship sizes, but is an example of mass stacking given in a book? Also, there's a simultaneous tonnage limit that shuts down the terminus. I think I recall that the limit varies between terminii. Which terminus will allow the largest mass transit?

It seems that if a navy is attempting a mass transit inbound and an opposing navy is attempting a transit outbound there's going to be a hades of a light show. Or does inbound transit naturally shut down outbound?

cthia wrote:When thinking about mass wormhole transits like the two achieved by Hamish and Honor, I try to imagine it in my head. Controllers manage inbound and outbound lanes - air traffic controllers to prevent crashes. Is it listed somewhere the useable dimensions of the junctions? How many lanes? How are they stacked from left to right along the x-axis and top to bottom along the y-axis. I know it depends on ship sizes, but is an example of mass stacking given in a book? Also, there's a simultaneous tonnage limit that shuts down the terminus. I think I recall that the limit varies between terminii. Which terminus will allow the largest mass transit?

It seems that if a navy is attempting a mass transit inbound and an opposing navy is attempting a transit outbound there's going to be a hades of a light show. Or does inbound transit naturally shut down outbound?

Inbound and outbound lanes are physically separated; at least in normal operation; though timthink that's an artificial restriction for traffic safety. Not sure how much you have to spread out in a mass simulations transit; that might get dicey if two fleets grouped up to try that in opposite directions at roughly the same time. Whichever went first would not only block transit in both directions for hours but also be heading more or less head on at the other. The one piece I can recall about size in that the grav eddy/turbulence/lane associated with the approach or departure vector for a given terminus has to be less than 30,000 km in radius; because a laserhead missile can reach that standoff range without its wedge coming into contact with the grav disturbance. (That's why laserheads get free shots at any (nearly defenseless) ships attempting a hostile transit.

The manticorean wormhole has IIRC the highest known mass transit tonnage; and all indications are that each of its termini have the same max tonnage limit.

Oh and for what it's worth Hamish's transit was sequential, never sending more than one ship at a time (so it wouldn't have to spread out in the X or Y axis) while Honors was a true simultaneous transit (which presumably would)

Jonathan_S wrote:Oh and for what it's worth Hamish's transit was sequential, never sending more than one ship at a time (so it wouldn't have to spread out in the X or Y axis) while Honors was a true simultaneous transit (which presumably would)

Honor's was a combination: sequential transits as things arrived, ending with a mass transit of the last chunk she brought through, consisting of the remainder of 8th Fleet.

James Webster, once CO of Home Fleet, was he ever featured in a battle? Promotions included Fleet Admiral. He was also First Space Lord, so why weren't we, as readers, treated to his tactical skills in a hands on fashion? Or were we and I've missed it?

At All Costs

"So which way do we go, Madam President?"

Eloise really wished she could surrender. This was probably one of the hardest questions posed to her in her life. Making the decision drove her to tears.

Would anyone care to share their thoughts, had Eloise gone ahead and just surrendered?

cthia wrote:At All Costs

"So which way do we go, Madam President?"

Eloise really wished she could surrender. This was probably one of the hardest questions posed to her in her life. Making the decision drove her to tears.

Would anyone care to share their thoughts, had Eloise gone ahead and just surrendered?

Unfortunately I suspect Elizabeth's feelings towards the Havenites might have driven her to impose some very stupid terms and I'm not sure if Parliament could have stopped her.