Question and answer/tl;dr meme

[vorrutyer]

Lords and ladies, lads and lasses, it's time for the all-star all-famous all-powerful...

Question and answer meme!!

Here's how it works.

• You, the undersigned, do hereby post yourself up on the meme.


• Others come along and ask (OOC) questions. They might ask about your character's motivations, backstory, your writing process, et cetera.


• You answer and then ask a question of them in return.


• They answer and then ask a question of you in return.


• You answer and then ask a question of them in return.


• They answer and then ask a question of you in return.


• The process continues until the heat death of the universe (or until someone gets bored and wanders away).


• Also you should tag out to other people asking them questions.


• No one is ever late.

Comments

[vorrutyer]

Hot damn, Julie

And he has considered that, yes! That's one that he really tries not to dwell on, though, because he loves Emperor Gregor in the abstract, the love of a liegeman, but Count Dono Vorrutyer is someone he loves personally. Dono is Byerly's best friend, someone who's been an ally for years and years, someone who always supported him. So the loss of Gregor is an existential pain, but the loss of Dono is very sharp; taking on the mantle of Count Vorrutyer would be admitting Dono is gone, which is a sort of grief he's not ready to confront yet.

So tell me about Nash's relationship to the missus!

[latkje]

His aunt is also a looker, and a pretty good kisser besides

Anyway, I like to leave things vague re: Sierra because she's actually an appable character unlike everyone else from the Gaidens. And before you say "ha ha fat chance" I actually have had Sierras in game w/me before, but it's also the principle of the thing. Idk how familiar you are with how things actually went down with them, but Nash's SFDF missions were basically "go find this True Rune and bring it back to Harmonia" which is code for "dick around in a foreign country and figure out whatever you can no one ever finds the fucking True Runes"— but, anyway, Sierra said she would tell Nash about the True Runes if he escorted her on her journey. Really, she was just looking for a handsome young man to fight her ex-boyfriend's undead minions for her. They argue a lot, but share some intimate moments too. Nash gives Sierra his blood, Sierra punches her hand through a dude's chest ♥

At the end of it all Nash will ask Sierra if she's lonely and say that he wouldn't mind sharing her path after he finished all his human business, and Sierra tells him that she only turns people she actually likes. But if you get the "good" ending, she confesses her feelings for him while he's asleep, kisses him, and then leaves him in the middle of the night. (Nash references this in the Neclord's End Suiko3 play if you have him play Sierra, which obviously, you should.)

Anyway, at the end of Suiko II Sierra decides to live among humans, if you read between the lines in the castle newspapers and stuff she visits Nash during Suikoden III.

The character of Nash's "missus" is a bit different than his actual wife, though, b/c he uses the henpecked husband thing in a similar way to Byerly's drunk act. It's really flexible! He's been especially mean to her lately, though— mostly b/c he feels lonely and being mean to his rhetorical wife is a mature way of expressing that.

What would Byerly do if his father woke up? And/or someone else with a better claim to the imperial throne but who was less likely to be worthy of it?

[vorrutyer]

Nash that's so cute ugh

And it would depend on who it was. By's father is a misanthrope who wouldn't want to take any power unless it was to take it away from Byerly, so By would absolutely shut up about the whole Emperor thing and just keep his head down and keep doing what he's already doing. If he didn't talk about his status, his father wouldn't pay attention to his activities. If someone showed up who was power-hungry and had a better claim - someone like, say, Richars - that would pose quite a dilemma. By has enough respect for the laws of succession that he wouldn't attempt any sort of outright insurrection against him, but would respect his claim. But he also couldn't actually serve a man like that, so - honestly, after a lot of tortured soul-searching, he'd probably renounce his position and even his citizenship. Ultimately, serving a just person matters a lot more than the title or even the outwards signs of allegiance. So he would become a non-Barrayaran working in Barrayar's interests, hoping that he could patch things up if/when the true Emperor woke up.

If someone woke up who would assume power and use it justly - someone like Miles - he'd serve them willingly, even if he'd make a lot of noise pretending otherwise. And if it was someone who'd be good at the job but wouldn't take power...he'd try to maneuver them into taking over. He would really prefer not to be emperor. It sucks.

If Nash hadn't gone back to serve Harmonia, what would he have done?

[latkje]

Young Nash was like, way cuter.

Do you mean serving Sasarai & Harmonia directly? He would've (and did for a while) gone back to the SFDF, and been kicking around there in Caleria with Duke, Geddoe, Ace, and company. He's good friends with Joker, who he calls by his real name. Joker was the one who told him to go back to Crystal Valley and be glad he had somewhere he could go back to, actually.

But that's still serving Harmonia... He's never done anything else, though.

If he had to run away he probably would go to Greenhill. He really is a hero there. And/or embrace vampirism and follow Sierra around.

How does the succession work, then? You have to claim throne to occupy it? Does it matter that presumably a lot of these Vor aren't really dead but just sleeping?

[vorrutyer]

How the line of succession works is basically ??????. Honestly, Byerly's claim to the throne is highly questionable, due to the disinheritance. But there's a saying that "anything done twice on Barrayar is a tradition," and Barrayarans believe in verbal contracts rather than written laws, so it all sort of gets figured out as they go. So typically on Barrayar, the succession passes from father to son, except in cases of bloody coup or insurrection or sometimes the aftermath of insurrections where one party doesn't want the throne and just passes it off to his cousin. So in a situation like this, things would be figured out by improvisation - for example, here, Byerly could probably make a credible claim on the basis of having been the first to wake up.

At the end of the day, Barrayaran succession is just about who the Council of Counts like - and who's left alive at the end of the day.

So tell me about Nash's religious beliefs!

[latkje]

As I said I think at some point in a tag, he's closest to agnostic, which is canon actually— he mentions that be believed in God when he was younger but that he's not sure anymore. This is complicated by the fact that in the Suikoden Universe the 27 True Runes are god, in a way, or parts of something that resembles the divine, and Nash can't realistically deny that given his various encounters with them through his years. But you don't pray to the 27 True Runes, they aren't listening, except when they are, and that's usually not a good thing— so there's clearly room for a more spiritual belief in something higher than them in his universe, that might work through the Runes in more mysterious ways.

The Harmonian religion is clearly a big part of everyday life but it's also only aesthetically defined (as blue and vaguely Catholic) but I imagine, since it's a construct of Hikusaak's eternal rule, that it mostly serves to ensure loyalty to the state— a religion of ritual subservience more than one of faith or revelations. There's also probably something in there about how Harmonia needs to get all the Runes for the sacred purpose of world domination or whatever. And maybe Hikusaak is working towards a divine purpose— Nash wouldn't rule it out. But he doesn't know. He does all the expected ritual stuff b/c he is Harmonian— he tells Luc that Luc's defying sacred Temple ritual when Luc sneaks up on him and Sasarai to take the True Earth Rune, so he's clearly very aware of it. But he doesn't believe that the Harmonian church is the only way, like he used to.

He plays up the religious thing around Byerly b/c Byerly is an avowed atheist and he likes to play Devil's advocate. Around someone who was unquestioningly devotional he'd probably lean the other way.

What is Byerly's fav emoji

[vorrutyer]

🍆

Does Nash appreciate the arts?

[latkje]

God, what a wasted question, of course

Harmonians are supposed to be the most sophisticated arts appreciators in the world so
yes

He'd probably like Shakespeare for the dick jokes

How does Byerly feel about other ImpSec agents? Are they even mentioned in canon? Does he wanna be the best one?

[vorrutyer]

By mostly wants to be the best he can be. Like, he gets a lot of egotistical satisfaction out of his rank within ImpSec, but that's not a competition with others, just a competition against himself. (Not least because it can't be a competition with others - he simply doesn't know who they are, because everyone who approaches his rank is deep-deep-deep cover.) We see that the main carrot-and-stick methods used to get Byerly to fall into line are rank-based - he's constantly getting promoted and demoted (with a general upward trend). So it's clear wants to excel, not for bragging rights but just to prove to himself that he is good at this. Also, uh, for the pay. He does need that money...

As for how he feels about other ImpSec agents: it depends. Miles Vorkosigan is a former ImpSec agent in canon, but his rank doesn't earn him any politeness or respect from Byerly. On the other hand, Simon Illyan, the former head of ImpSec, gets awe that borders on fear out of Byerly; By is uncharacteristically too afraid to confront Simon about questionable decisions, and is tongue-tied and deferential in front of him. So for those individuals who have really cultivated a reputation and earned respect within the organization, By bows and scrapes with the best of them.

Right back at you with that question - what are Nash's Hot Takes on other Harmonians? Obviously, he has a positive relationship with the Southern Defense Force - what about other Harmonian servants? Members of the Howling Voice Guild?

[latkje]

What is that icon??

Nash feels a personal loyalty toward Sasarai and even kind of likes him, which kind of goes around— Sasarai is one of the best generals to work for and clearly has a lot of devotion from his various underlings. Sasarai is also secretly funny, which is a plus. It's likewise obvious Sasarai trusts Nash with a lot because they are frequently alone, plotting shit, and that kind of direct access and closeness to a bishop is rare, and the fact that Nash can order around Sasarai's underlings. I tend to think Dios doesn't like Nash much but the feeling isn't mutual.

The Guild is complicated, and he tries to stay as much away from it as possible. He killed Zaj and all of Zaj's faction to get them off his back in the long ago, which the Guild accepted b/c Zaj was making a nuisance of himself and overstepping his orders. He knows Clive and they were sort of friends once upon a time but Clive's also made it clear that he shouldn't expect any kind of loyalty from him. So, yeesh. Everyone else is dead because it's the HVG. What a terrible place.

There aren't any independent spies like Nash we see working in Harmonia besides him— most espionage is handled by one of the Guild/the Temple Guard/the HSFDF, all organizations Nash has various ties to. But we see that when Luc set himself up as a bishop he had his own little entourage of like, Sarah and Yuber, so it's not a stretch to imagine that other bishops have their own cadre of private operatives, and his opinion on them probably varies depends on them individually. He's a pretty shrewd judge of competence, which he respects, and also values loyalty/fairness towards inferiors/ability to see a big picture.

His aunt is a captain in the Temple Guard and a real hardass.

What's By's relationship with his handler like?