The Final Fate of the Mandarins

SYED wrote:is there any chance they might accidently somehow act in a way that helps the alliance or harm the alignment, that is not in the alignment plans of breaking the league.

Hmmm...Naahh.

In the League dictionary, at the entry for the definition of "fiddle", there are several little likenesses of the last several generations of Permanent Undersecretaries.

dreamrider

I suspect they will have boltholes. But I suspect that themandarins would have been planning for internal threats, no the whole kit and kaboodle crumbling down around them so how effective their bolt holes actually are is a different topic.

Some will see the writing on the wall and retire into obscurity. And by obscurity I mean anonymity.

The others will die when the League finally collapses. Most likely they'll be killed in the carnage, and not live to be tried for treasonable incompetence.

I think they are more likely to have golden parachutes, ways to retire or settledown in style in a life style befitting their standards, while ensuring their security.

part of their security is that if they go down, they have records and files on everyone else. Is the mutuall assuared destruction of the powerplayers of the league, something the alignment wants to happen. I can see it being used as a death stroke to ensure the collapse and destruction of the system.

my two cent worth on the fate of the Mandarins. I have one word.

Mussolini

The mandarins will need scape goats, but as they cant actually take on manticore or hteir allies currently, who will they offer to the masses to avoid any back lash for htemselves? Navy purge or government purge.

Valen123456 wrote:
2) Abandon ship, simply up and run away with as much money as they can and avoid any responsibility. (Like Elaine DeCrouix)

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but wasn't De Croix "eliminated" as she ran?

So "running" did not prove a useful response.

Valen123456 wrote:As we have all seen, the SLN's real leadership is perched right on top of a very slippery slope. Most the MAlignment and the GA want to take the Mandarins down (for different reasons, and with different methods but they are both out to get them either way) and while they are not "incompetent" exactly they are badly out of their depth.

What do people think this the most likely thing (or combination of things) that is likely to happen to the Quintet, or apply particular fates to a specific member. I have made a little summery list but what do other people think?

1) Get impeached by the formal bureaucracy/justice system when their misdemenours are exposed, and they are hung out to dry by their patrons/sponsers/colleges, and forced to resign in disgrace. (Like Aleksandra Tonkovic / High Ridge)
2) Abandon ship, simply up and run away with as much money as they can and avoid any responsibility. (Like Elaine DeCrouix)
3) Assassination - either by patrons they have upset, fellow politicos who want their jobs/power, or by the MA to cause further chaos / tie up loose ends.
4) Get caught up in a form of civic uprising and are publically lynched by an irate citizenry.
5) Pull a Janachek and commit suicide rather than face the music.

That is a nice list you made and it sums up the most likely possibilities.

All of these things can happen and I would guess that not all 5 Mandarins will have the same fate.

However if I had to pick one of your five options I would say no 1 is the most likely:

That's because even though we have seen an enormous amount of Solly ignorance (so far) I do still trust in the basic Solly intelligence. There have to be an increasing number of people in the ruling families and industrial consortiums who start to realize that the current crisis cannot be ended with the current management.

The kind of people who hate it when their businesses lose money and who have all sorts of influence on who becomes a Mandarin and who stays one.

Now if the Mandarins where a true dictatorship they might have the means to stay in power simply through brutal suppression - but they don't seem to be that kind of traditional dictators. To me they seem to rely on 'softer' means to game the system. And those means were never meant to keep them in power in the face of utter and complete failure and catastrophy.

So I think their sponsors will find a way to remove the Mandarins. And try to put someone in place who (tries to) find some compromise with the Manties in order to restore profitabilty to the businesses (short term) and build up a capability to wipe the floor with the Manties (long term).

Now those hopes of the sponsors about the ability of a different set of Mandarins to end the current crisis in a satisfactory (for the League) way will probably turn out to be misplaced. But they can't know that since they know less than we as readers know. And it is not what this thread is about anyway. The question was just what will happen to the Mandarins. And I say 1) is most likely.

SYED wrote:that admiral that was nano controlled into suicide, had an insurance policy. what happened to it? the mandarins are those most likly eager to preserve the status quo, even in the midst of such chaos, and most able to do so. so it seems like mesa would act to preserve them, part of the reason the admiral was dealt with.
It is likely the fall of the mandarins are to act as the death blow to the league, so i bet mesa has already designed their method of destruction.

Hi Syed,

Your scenario does make a lot of sense. However, however tempting it is sometimes to think otherwise, the MAlign is neither all knowing or all powerful. Things don't always go their way.

Don

n7axw wrote:

SYED wrote:that admiral that was nano controlled into suicide, had an insurance policy. what happened to it? the mandarins are those most likly eager to preserve the status quo, even in the midst of such chaos, and most able to do so. so it seems like mesa would act to preserve them, part of the reason the admiral was dealt with.
It is likely the fall of the mandarins are to act as the death blow to the league, so i bet mesa has already designed their method of destruction.

Hi Syed,

Your scenario does make a lot of sense. However, however tempting it is sometimes to think otherwise, the MAlign is neither all knowing or all powerful. Things don't always go their way.

Don

I kind of wish that applied to everyone in the story. Not just the villains.