The Great Treecat Conspiracy

[no spoilers on "A New Clan"]

I wonder how long the Conspiracy will have lasted. It's unlikely that would have ended in Stephanie's lifetime. We know from the timeline that in 1569 PD, the Ninth Amendment is adopted and recognises the treecats as sentients and grants them a third of Sphinx. I'd love to see that in the SK books, but I doubt we will because by then Stephanie Harrington would be in her sixties and the SK books are "young adult." In fact, we're far more likely to hear about the Amendment in the Manticore Ascendant books, in passing as B-plot, because we also do get far more insight into the Crown and Government there.

So while the Ninth Amendment might have been a great triumph for the Conspiracy, I don't think it was the end. We do know from "What Price Dreams?" that at the time of Princess Adrienne's assassination attempt, the fact that treecats were empaths and telepaths wasn't settled, but it was not unknown either.

So when would the Conspiracy have disbanded, its work concluded? Maybe after the Gryphon challenges to the Ninth Amendment, some 50 years after its ratification (and after Stephanie had passed away), had been defeated?

Or was it after the assassination attempt on Princess Adrienne? In the short story, we are told:

What price dreams? ch 8 wrote:The descriptions of what it meant to be adopted had always struck her as maddeningly vague, incomplete, confusing. It had sometimes seemed as if all those fortunate souls were involved in some conspiracy to keep the rest of the human race from knowing what it felt like.

(emphasis mine)

And one of the actions King Roger II took right after the attempt was to change the Crown from opposing the Treecat Rights Bill to supporting it, and enforcing the Ninth Amendment. Of course, right after that, there would be treecats in Mount Royal. Would that be sufficient?

When did the Conspiracy clue in the Crown? It could have been during the Ninth Amendment discussions, but given that Roger II was opposed to the treecats, maybe not. Or was it right after the assassination attempt, the SFS personnel pulled Princess Adrienne aside and told her, "now that you've survived one conspiracy's attempt on your life, let me introduce you to another one, that has been operating for 100 T-years right under your family's nose?" Or did they never clue the Crown in?

ThinksMarkedly wrote:[no spoilers on "A New Clan"]

I wonder how long the Conspiracy will have lasted. It's unlikely that would have ended in Stephanie's lifetime. We know from the timeline that in 1569 PD, the Ninth Amendment is adopted and recognises the treecats as sentients and grants them a third of Sphinx. I'd love to see that in the SK books, but I doubt we will because by then Stephanie Harrington would be in her sixties and the SK books are "young adult." In fact, we're far more likely to hear about the Amendment in the Manticore Ascendant books, in passing as B-plot, because we also do get far more insight into the Crown and Government there.

I agree with you. The 9th Amendment is only 24 years in the future of _A Call to Insurrection_ and Stephanie should already be be pushing it (well, at least lobbying for supporters in the House of Lords and the Commons).

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:I agree with you. The 9th Amendment is only 24 years in the future of _A Call to Insurrection_ and Stephanie should already be be pushing it (well, at least lobbying for supporters in the House of Lords and the Commons).

That's an opportunity for cross-over.

The SK books are happening in the early 1520s, when a certain Sphinxian by the name of Charles Townsend would be in his early teens. He or his family could show up as secondary characters in a new SK book. It would be interesting if a conversation between Stephanie or Karl and a young 15-year-old Chomps about the SFS led him to decide to enlist in the RMN instead.

But by the next MA book, the treecat's sentience and the amendments should already be in discussion. Chomps is likely to be among the most senior Sphinixian enlisted in the RMN by the mid-1550s (provided that they don't hold his career back so he doesn't stand out and blow his cover as a spy for SIS) and could become an advocate. At a minimum, a conversation between him and Travis and Lisa could discuss the issue.

Stephanie Harrington should be making an appearance in the late 1550s and early 1560s. So she should be in the one-after-the-next MA book... but I don't think she will.

I don't think we'll see the end of the Great Treecat Conspiracy. All we know is that it wasn't active by the 20th century because Honor and Alfred would have been members.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Stephanie Harrington should be making an appearance in the late 1550s and early 1560s. So she should be in the one-after-the-next MA book... but I don't think she will.

I don't think we'll see the end of the Great Treecat Conspiracy. All we know is that it wasn't active by the 20th century because Honor and Alfred would have been members.

They are. So are Allison and Elizabeth. It's a conspiracy, after all. You don't expect them to publish their meeting minutes it the Landing Tattler, do you?

Fox2! wrote:They are. So are Allison and Elizabeth. It's a conspiracy, after all. You don't expect them to publish their meeting minutes it the Landing Tattler, do you?

I don't count that as a conspiracy. When we first meet Honor and Nimitz, it seems accepted by the public that treecats understand English "better then some Manticore teenagers." And indeed, when we get first-person points of view from Laughs Brightly, he and in fact all treecats understand English perfectly, even if not all abstract concepts like waiting to deal with an enemy. But in the intervening 4 T-centuries, it doesn't seem like the humanity understanding has advanced much. The treecats held back, because they could have used some type of sign-language much earlier if they had wanted to. It seems like everything that Stephanie and her co-conspirators would know or would have learnt in the next 50 T-years had already become public, if downplayed somewhat.

Crucially, it doesn't seem like Alfred and Honor knew more about the treecats and their level of intelligence than the public in general did. (BTW, what happened to Honor's paternal grandparents, Alfred's parents?) They would have far more direct expertise due to the Harrington Clan's extensive contact and higher-than-average adoption rate, meaning they would be able to tell which bits of information are true and which ones are just noise or speculation. But they didn't seem to know anything that wasn't public.

At least not until the treecats decided to reveal more, with their immigration off Sphinx, Nimitz' injuries, and later their decision to actually speak via sign language. Whether this formed a new Treecat Conspiracy, we can debate, but it's not the continuation of the Great one from Stephanie's time.