Monday 16 June 2014

Retro-History

In Ensign Flandry, the Terran Emperor was Georgios. In subsequent volumes, his successors were:

Josip;
unnamed short-live Imperial relative (added, 17 June '14);
Hans;
Dietrich;
Gerhart -

- and Gerhart's heir will be Karl.

In The Game Of Empire, when Olaf Magnusson tries to depose Gerhart, we are given some retroactive history involving four already familiar names:

as Georgios was dying, Josip's favorites gained power;

when Josip succeeded, atrocities became routine in the outer Empire;

Captain Erik Magnusson of Kraken traded with Merseia;

some Merseians sensed Magnusson's disaffection from the Empire and referred his case to Brechdan Ironrede;

Brechdan and human subjects of the Roidhun converted Captain Magnusson;

Magnusson left his son Olaf to be educated on Merseia;

Aycharaych completed Olaf's conditioning.

The Game Of Empire also introduces the Zacharians whose retro-history goes back to the Polesotechnic League period and even further to the earliest interstellar travel of the twenty second century. There is always more to be learned about the past.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I suggest adding, between Josip and Hans something like this: "Unnamed short lived Imperial relative." We do know Josip was very briefly succeeded as Emperor by his heir.

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

You wrote: "As Georgios was dying, Josip's favorites gained power; when Josip succeeded, atrocities became routine in the outer Empire..." I agree but sugggest this needs some qualifying. For example, this is what we read about Commissioner Desai's superior, Sector Governor Muratori in Chapter 3 of THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN: "His superior was both able and conscientious: had to be, if the harn done by the rapacious and conscienceless predecessor who provoked McCormac's Rebellion was to be mended. However, in a top position, one is soon isolated from the day-to-day details which makes up a body of politics. Muratori was too new to his office to appreciate its limitations. And he was, besides, a stern man, who in Desai's opinion interpreted too literally the axiom that government is legitimatized coercion."

I have two points here; one, here we get a rare glimpse at a sector governor who was a far better man than Aaron Snelund, Muratori's predecessor as governor. Second, intead of atrocity and abuses of power in a border sector, here we see the Empire trying to make amends and govern WELL. So, I argue this indicates many officials tried not to govern too badly during Josip's reign (for another example, see the resident who was murdered just as Flandry arrived at Nyanza in "The Game of Glory").

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I agree good stuff was happening. For the routine atrocities, I had in mind FLANDRY'S LEGACY, p. 434.
Paul.