tlb wrote:jgnfld wrote:Given what "hollow" sociopathic human traits are manifest in the phenotypes the Detweilers appear to select and train for inside their Alpha lines as a result of their breeding programs, I can think of a better candidate line in the Manticorn nobility actually!
ThinksMarkedly wrote:"A" better candidate? I can think of several!
But there is no easy way (that I can imagine, even with a DNA sample - which is closely guarded) to insert an Alpha line into the Royal family. The best that I can suggest is to manage to get an Alpha to marry the heir. But if the Alpha is a dominant trait, then you might not have the advantages built into the Winton line. Otherwise if the Winton traits are dominant, then the Alpha advantages are lost. In either case, why would a resulting child be a traitor to the Winton tradition?
I don't think jgnfld meant the royal family. They're too visible too. High Ridge and North Hollow did enough damage on their own.
The MAlign managed to secretly, over the course of centuries, take over the government of 11 systems, some of which were
de jure monarchies too, like the
Kingdom of New Madagascar (King Julien?), the
Marquisate of Denver. The other systems, even the republics, were
de facto monarchies too because they were controlled by a specific family of Alpha lines.
It might have been too difficult to take over the Winton dynasty, but taking over some of the noble families wouldn't be as difficult. Given that the SKM was and the SEM is a functioning democracy, the Prime Minister has a lot of power, so they didn't have to control the monarch directly. For that matter, they didn't have to control the Prime Minister either: just look at how someone four-degrees removed from the Head of Government was able to influence things:
- Head of State and of Government: Queen Elizabeth III
- Prime Minister: Baron High Ridge (Michael Janvier)
- Minister of Trade and member of the cabinet: Earl North Hollow (Stefan Young)
- wife of the minister: Countess North Hollow (Georgia Sakristos a.k.a Elaine Komandorski)
We also know that another cabinet member and another Elaine, Foreign Minister Elaine Descroix, had received bribes from Haven during the Legislaturalist regime. As that regime was also influenced by the MAlign, indirectly she was doing the MAlign's bidding (another "useful idiot").
Now imagine if the MAlign had really infiltrated the Manticore nobility and levers of government with their own deep-cover agents.
For that matter, we don't know that they didn't. But I think not, because their sights were on Haven, where they did infiltrate, except Pierre, OSJ, and Ransom cleaned up there. The plan was to pit Haven against the League, and Manticore was a minor obstacle in the plans up until the late 1860s or 70s. By that time, infiltrating deep-cover agents like they'd done with the RF members and Haven would have been too late. And I don't think the MAlign realised just how big of an obstacle Manticore would be until well after the first war had started. More than likely, they were relying on Peep intelligence and those had missed the same thing.
