the Falkovnian slave trade

[Five]

I just read the details in Gaz 3.

It's a plague spread through common rats.

Curses, foiled again!

[jamesfirecat]

So...it would be a very, very evil thing for her to infect some former slaves of Falkovnia with this super plague and diplomatically, "demurely" (through a Vlad's eyes only letter with a slightly-off letter seal/signature to prevent political blowback), return them to Drakov in exchange for something that she actually values?

That's not how the super plague works, or at least not how I understand it to be supposed to work.

If she gets the becoming plague to work it's less invasion of the body snatchers, more Night of the living dead, crossed with Dog Soldiers crossed with Willard, a gigantic unstoppable rolling tide of wererats.

She just needs to worry about infecting the rats of Falkovnia with her newly developed virus rather than worrying about anything as pedestrian as torjan prisoners.

The Becoming Plague as written (or as I understand it, which is she gains complete control of those infected while they're in a transformed state) is so powerful that she wouldn't really bother with "proper" diplomacy at that point it would be "kneel to me in supplication or be drowned in a horde of my servants.... kekekeke...."


That, and giving slaves back to Drakon doesn't seem like the kind of thing she would do anyway, it would mess with the image she's trying to/has crafted of herself as the maternal protector of Richemulot and all those swear loyalty to her, she can be harsh, but so can any mother if their children seriously disappoint her.

The big difference between Jacqueline and most Darklords (one obvious exception being Harkon Lukas), is that if you held an election in Richemulot Jacqueline would win, hands down. Now if you upset Jacqueline you may die, but you'll die because the rats got, and the rats get lots of people in Richemulot, not because some aspect of the government ordered for you to be executed like in Falkovnia or Nova Vassa.

Jacqueline protects those who swear loyalty to her and live up to their word. It's hard to imagine that either A: She would go back on her word of loyalty to the slaves in question, or B: the salves would refuse to swear loyalty to her if the alternative was being shipped back to Falkovnia.

[Five]

That, and giving slaves back to Drakon doesn't seem like the kind of thing she would do anyway, it would mess with the image she's trying to/has crafted of herself as the maternal protector of Richemulot and all those swear loyalty to her, she can be harsh, but so can any mother if their children seriously disappoint her.

...

Jacqueline protects those who swear loyalty to her and live up to their word. It's hard to imagine that either A: She would go back on her word of loyalty to the slaves in question, or B: the salves would refuse to swear loyalty to her if the alternative was being shipped back to Falkovnia.

Given that one of her written political objectives includes encouraging urban population density, yeah. That would be an unnecessary gamble, considering the current lack of progress regarding the Becoming Plague.

If not Jacqueline, then perhaps the plan could come from/to one of "les harpies", someone whom Jacqueline has had her beady little eyes on for some time now. Publicly burning that bridge (after assessing the damage to Falkovnia), should the act be revealed (it will, but only the slave trading aspect), would be a pleasure...

It's just one way in which Jacqueline can, from a distance, gauge the strength of the Becoming Plague anyway.