In Poul Anderson's Mirkheim, the Supermetals Company asks the Grand Duchy of Hermes to establish a protectorate over the industrially valuable planet, Mirkheim, just as the Autarchy of United Babur and the Solar Commonwealth prepare to go to war for it.
In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Season Of Mists, Lucifer Morningstar retires as Lord of Hell, expels the demons and the damned, locks every gate, then hands the key to His Darkness Morpheus, Lord of the Dreaming, who soon has every other pantheon pressuring him to give them this desirable piece of spiritual real estate.
I did say that this was a fanciful comparison. I thought of it because Grand Duchess Sandra thinks:
"Isn't that a red hot rivet dropped into my palm!"
-Mirkheim, II, p. 51.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Such a Hermetian protectorate over Mirkheim COULD have worked if both the Solar Commonwealth and United Babur had been willing to accept that. Because I don't think Hermes would have been thought a threat to either power. Absent that kind of willingness the Supermetals Company's offer was indeed a red hot rivet in Duchess Sandra's hands.
And, of course, as we know, other factors came in to make matters even more complicated!
Happy New Year! Sean
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