WUXTRY! Kinunir warrant fake! Read all about it!

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Yesterday I had an idea about the Kinunir warrant conundrum. I won't claim that it solves the problem, because it merely substitutes one unanwered mystery with another. But maybe the new mystery will prove easier to come up with a solution to? Anyway, here it is:

The warrant aboard the Kinunir was a fake. It had been forged by some person unknown and used to commandeer the Kinunir for this person's own purpoes. And as the poor sap in charge of the Kinunir had never seen a genuine warrant before, he fell for it. No doubt his view of Imperial warrants was colored by his boyhood litterature. I'm referring, of course, to that well-known classic historical tale of adventure and romances The Three Guardsmen, written by Celestine Floridor (pseudonym of a not-to-be-publically-embarrassed-by-exposure Imperial countess) and set at the court of Emperor Styryx, with his Minister of State, Duke Ibrahim Tancredi, in the role of the chief antagonist. Not many people realize that the book is a total rip-off of an obscure Old Terran novel, and fewer still care. Following its publication in 1022, it has spread to every corner of the Imperium and enjoys immense popularity among adolescents. The scene where Duke Ibrahim issues a blank Imperial warrant to that arch-villainess, the Solomani Countess Mata Lahari, is known to far more people than have ever seen a genuine warrant.

This explains the blank warrant. But of course it raises more questions. Who did the forgery and for what purpose? If it had been a professional intelligence agency, the fact that the Kinunir was carrying two pieces of experimental technology would be explanation enough. But since whoever did it didn't know how a genuine warrant looked, professional intelligence services are more or less ruled out. ome sort of gifted amateur (or rogue adventurer ;-) seems indicated.

OK, that's as far as I've gotten yet. I'm going to mull it over for a bit now, but I wanted to hear what you thought of the basic idea.


Hans

[steelbrok]

I quite like the idea and I propose an identity for the forger

The rogue AI on board....

After all it has the most vested interest in having the ship at its disposal, then when the captain/crew realise the Warrant is false they have to be disposed of...

[rust]

A very nice idea, and I am very much tempted to borrow it for my setting,
where I will have to explain a fake document in the near future. The story
about the novel would fit in very well as a piece of the background, I think.

In my setting the document, a colony's appeal for membership in the Fede-
ration, was forged by a well meaning diplomat who wanted to ensure that
his homeworld did join the Federation instead of remaining proudly isolated
and poor.

For the Kinunir warrant I would tend to look for a similar explanation, some-
thing done by a decent person with good intentions, but with an unexpec-
ted bad outcome.
Perhaps this person wanted the Kinunir to go somewhere to prevent or stop
some dangerous development (a planned rebellion or coup d'etat ?).
Unfortunately the instructions the person gave with the full authority of the
fake warrant collided with some secret (or just unknown to him) program of
the artificial intelligence, creating a logical paradox, and drove the artificial
intelligence "mad".
Faced with only two options, and both of them forbidden by its orders, all it
could do was to stop the ship dead in space in some remote location until the
situation had changed or someone had found a solution to the problem.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by steelbrok

I quite like the idea and I propose an identity for the forger

The rogue AI on board....

Clever, but raises more questions than it solves: how was it able to produce the forgery? what did it expect to accomplish, since it (obviously) couldn't expect to use the thing itself? what was its plan?

Remember: crazy does not imply stupid.

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

I'm going to mull it over for a bit now, but I wanted to hear what you thought of the basic idea.

The problem with your idea as I see it is that the forger, whoever that may have been, must have expected to run into someone who does know what a genuine warrant is supposed to look like. After all, the class of people who are most often expected to respond to a warrant are also the same people who should be expected to detect a forgery.

Unless you've convinced The Powers That Be to redact blank warrants from canon altogether, I suggest you're better off asking (in line with your reference to Cardinal Richlieu) who would issue such a warrant, and for what nefarious purpose? Even if it is a forgery, such a deception has to be plausible to its intended audience.

[far_trader]

I have a vague recollection of this being mentioned somewhere once. Can't recall by who or where, or much at all in fact. Or I'm mixing it up with another Imperial Warrant scheme. Maybe it was a dream ;-)

What I recall of it was that Norris himself forged a warrant because he didn't have time to wait for the real one from Capital. The real one was the one on the Kinunir? Or that was the forgery? Or something like that...

Anyway, the idea of a forged warrant in the player's hands is a fun one. I agree it would have to be a convincing forgery, and all the better to let the players dig their graves good and deep before someone finally spots it as a forgery <eg>

"Honest, we didn't know it was a forgery when we umm, well, that is... "

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by far_trader

What I recall of it was that Norris himself forged a warrant because he didn't have time to wait for the real one from Capital. The real one was the one on the Kinunir? Or that was the forgery? Or something like that...

The Spinward Marches Campaign explicitly states, in authorial voice, that Norris went to Algine to fetch a warrant written specifically for him by Strephon (He must have run into some trouble there, because it took him two years to fetch it). Later, the Kinunir warrant and Norris' warrant became conflated, despite all the inherent contradictions. Norris did fake his appointment as archduke, and in one of his personal journal entries (quoted in Survival Margin, IIRC) he muses over that forgery and says something about having done it before, with the warrant. Just why he would write something like that is a mystery ;-). Maybe his memory played him false? (Yes, I know that's a terrible explanation. People do misremember the oddest things, but it's hard to imagine how Norris could forget spending two years of his life on retrieving a genuine warrant).

Although... maybe the genuine warrant was destroyed down there on Algine and he faked another one? (Kicking himelf for not doing that two years earlier ;-D).

Anyway, the idea of a forged warrant in the player's hands is a fun one. I agree it would have to be a convincing forgery, and all the better to let the players dig their graves good and deep before someone finally spots it as a forgery <eg>

"Honest, we didn't know it was a forgery when we umm, well, that is... "

Yeah, believing that they were abusing a genuine warrant is hardly a defense that will cut much ice with Strephon. ;-)

The con artist "Baroness Xita Garcia", a Casual Encounter I wrote for JTAS, had invented a non-existent Imperial document that she called an 'Imperial Remit' which she explained was "something like an Imperial warrant", partly to avoid problems with meeting people who knew what a warrant looked like and partly to avoid being charged with forging an Imperial warrant if she was ever caught.


Hans

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

Later, the Kinunir warrant and Norris' warrant became conflated, despite all the inherent contradictions.

Just an historical note: the correspondence of the Kinunir warrant and Norris' warrant precedes Spinward Marches Campaign.

Soon after Fifth Frontier War was published, I attended a gaming convention in Pennsylvania (might have been Origins -- I don't recall). GDW held a panel to discuss their games. During the question-and-answer part at the end, I asked Marc Miller whether the warrant counter in FFW was intended to represent the same warrant as in Adventure 1. He appeared to be surprised by the question, but considered for a moment and then said that they were.

This leads me to believe that the events depicted in SMC are a deliberate reversal of that decision, and that subsequent reversions are in error. Certainly, the SMC version more closely follows the behavior of the warrant in the FFW wargame.

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by thrash

The problem with your idea as I see it is that the forger, whoever that may have been, must have expected to run into someone who does know what a genuine warrant is supposed to look like. After all, the class of people who are most often expected to respond to a warrant are also the same people who should be expected to detect a forgery.

I was thinking more along the lines that the unusual nature of the double-blank warrant was due to the forger being unfamiliar with real warrants. And if his purpose was to commandeer a small navy warship, I don't think the risk of running into someone who knew better was that bad. I mean, how many warrants does Strephon issue per year? (This is not altogether a rhetorical question. I'm curious about what people think is a reasonable number. When I was writing on Sword Worlds, I gave Norris' warrant the serial number 1106/11 (Yes, that is the very same warrant, at least if you ask me;-). What I wanted to imply was that this was the 11th warrant issued by Strephon in 1106, but I deliberately chose a low number to avoid implying anything about how many are issued per year on the average).

Unless you've convinced The Powers That Be to redact blank warrants from canon altogether,

I think I've at least convinced Jon and Loren (Assuming they needed to be convinced in the first place). Not that they've said anything about it, but Nobles do say that unlimited warrants ('blank' with respect to power) are very rare and only issued to people the Emperor puts a lot of faith in. The other kind of blank (made out to bearer) isn't mentioned at all. I could see Strephon making out blank warrants of the kind "The bearer of this is empowered to solve <specific problem>" and then sending them to a duke with instructions to give the warrant to some trusted subordinate and get the job done (Even there I'd think a warrant with a blank spot for the name of the wielder, to be filled out before the warrant is valid, would be more likely). But I do hope that 'double-blank' warrants will not make any further appearances in canon.

I suggest you're better off asking (in line with your reference to Cardinal Richlieu) who would issue such a warrant, and for what nefarious purpose? Even if it is a forgery, such a deception has to be plausible to its intended audience.

The only one who can issue Imperial warrants is the Emperor, and I can think of no reason why he would issue a double-blank warrant (The scene I described above with the Minister of State issuing one is bogus; "Celestine Floridor" got that bit wrong too ;-).

Dukes can issue ducal warrants, but that's not the same thing.


Hans

[Shrale]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

I was thinking more along the lines that the unusual nature of the double-blank warrant was due to the forger being unfamiliar with real warrants.
Hans

That actually has some root in realism, people can't forge them because they're not in the highest of highs, holiest of holys -- the very exclusive club that's around the Emperor and his Archdukeez. They just don't know how the "big boyz" do busy-ness.

It could be said the Warrant is on Paper (imperial stationary) because that's how the emperor does business and most others would think of some extravagant method of creating/utilizing one. Paper can be nano-marked or if the term nano is too big (pun intended) of a faux-pas for the setting, then micro-marked, which could be verified. However such an item could still be faked by a very large number of people inside or outside the Imperium.

There's still the inherent danger of simply treading where death is sure to follow in using such a device (by forging one).

As for something as mildly extravagant as "self-erasing" in an empire of 11,000 worlds (not to mention all the other portions of "known space") a misjump could be a daily occurance and something already within the realm of thought when creating the device initially.

I can hear the voice of the Emperor from Robot Chicken Star Wars as I write this...in some hilarious skit where it all blows up; due to something minor going wrong.

The other side of the coin is how does someone who needs to be informed legitimately, recognize it for what it is ?

I'd have to think in most respects the Archduck's word will suffice, but showing an Imperial Warrant is only going to work on other nobility, other high-level, muckety-mucks in the Imperium (like Mega-corps, most of the services, SPA and such) where they know Norris or whoever would be crazy to employ the device in any false manner. I'd have to think that unless the road to be travelled is a dead-end one, that just cooperating with the Archduck is going to be matter of course. Getting the X-th fleet to relocate from Chronor subsector to somewhere else, might be necessary to use it.

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