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Re: Another alternate Drakov

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:52 am
by The Lesser Evil
ewancummins wrote:I do think Lesser Evil makes a good argument for an antimage bias, from the Black Box.

It seems the big differences in how we see Drakov center on his personality.

I think he has a number of admirable qualities.

I also read him in a more pragmatic light. No special case of fantastic racism. He wants semihuman soldiers for special tasks. The prejudices of his serfs and footsoldiers are those of people from Ravenloft. He's actually rather more tolerant of nonhumans than the typical Falkovnian.
My argument was not whether Drakov had any respectable qualities or not; my argument is that the later sources don't necessarily paint him as more Flanderized/buffoonish/totally without merit. Whereas I don't buy he's tolerant towards non-humans, I can agree he has some admirable qualities, some given in later sources. A few examples:

-Gazetteer II (page 97-98) his religious tolerance (or at least, apathy) seems about as good as many other similar oppressed lands in the Core. Basically, you can have your little religions as long as you don't step out of line/rebel or get too ostentatious.
-The Treaty of 4 Towers shows some acknowledgement he is a significant threat to at least make military alliances against.
-The Gold Claw Massacre (see Gazetteer IV) and the treaty with Lamordia that came after the Winter War (Gaz II) show that Vlad has had a couple of partial or near successes. In the Gold Claw Invasion of Dorvinia, his men caught Ivan Dilisnya with his pants down. (Vlad picked up on the corruption running rampant in Dilisnya's court.) Falkovnian troops got all the way to Lechberg, killing many civilians and pillaging the city. They all died only while loading up their loot when Ivan snuck in and used his poison abilities to cook up a massacre.
In the Winter War, the Lamordians were apparently distraught enough to request a non-aggression pact and agreed to supply the Falkovnians with military arms.
He also kicked out Claude Renier and his thieves' guild/wererats from Silberpas, which seems like a pretty unequivocal victory
-the Ministries demonstrate that while Drakov might not have the best head for infrastructure, he's bright enough to delegate to more specialized experts.
-gaz II p. 104 gives that Falkovnia uses gladiatorial coliseums to distract the public and give them catharsis- employment of a strategy beyond mere fear to keep the public in line

Re: Another alternate Drakov

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2016 7:23 am
by ewancummins
Coolios.

I need to get you off the iggy list.

Let me fix that...