The Assassination of Hengist Duval

For much of the first year of GalNet, it was Hengist Duval upon the throne of the Empire. Towards the end of his relatively short 69-year reign he was beset by illness, even falling into a coma at one point. Thankfully his longstanding friend and ally Chancellor Anders Blaine kept the Empire running smoothly, even when it seemed impossible that the Emperor would awaken.

But then Hengist woke up, miraculously! And then he got assassinated. Tough luck.

The question raised at the time, still officially unanswered to this day...is why? There was no apparent motive, the guy who did it, Brendan Darius, was remarkably loyal right up until the point he randomly started stabbing. And Hengist had just been in a coma, he was a bit better but surely his days were numbered anyway. What was so urgent that he had to die NOW?

It was later discovered that Darius wasn't working alone. He was supported by a terrorist group called Emperor's Dawn, whose motives were full of vague rhetoric about returning the Empire to greatness. Pretty generic bad guys...so generic that no leader was ever identified. Plenty of accusations flew around, several of those vying to become the next Emperor were implicated to some degree. But nothing substantial ever came of it. Who the hell created a massive terrorist organisation to assassinate the guy who had just been in a terminal coma? Just wait for him to die, he's 138!

I know who did it. Chancellor Anders Blaine did it. Yeah, I'm not giving you the chance to figure it out, this guy is the most suspicious man in the galaxy. I once tried putting together a flowchart to illustrate the conspiracy here, and it was a single straight line. I cannot tell this story without it being obvious. It's him, he did it. And he got away with it.

Which is why I've come to make this announcement. In today's Twitter dot com callout post, I'm going to cancel Chancellor Blaine, who is a bitch-ass-motherfu

The Emperor and the Chancellor

Let's set the stage. Emperor Hengist Duval is sick, but that doesn't really change much. Real power rests in the Senate, led by Chancellor Anders Blaine. The Senate has been growing in power for some time, and according to Tourist Spot 0155 (can someone grab me a screenshot to link? thanks), Hengist eventually just made Blaine the de-facto steward of the Empire and retired from politics himself. The Emperor of the Empire is practically a figurehead, and has been for at least the last 17 years.

Nothing will really change. Sure, it's a little weird that the Emperor basically gave away his power to Blaine, but they're supposedly friends. Blaine is going one step further here though, and saying that even if Hengist dies and is replaced by his heir, Prince Harold, Blaine will still be in charge. If the Emperor dying doesn't really matter...why did he need to die?

But suddenly, Hengist returns to politics, with the clear purpose of altering the succession. He shows up at the Senate in a wheelchair and declares his heir, Prince Harold, to be insane. There is now no heir to the Empire.

The very next day, Arissa Lavigny reveals herself to be the illegitimate child of Hengist Duval, who had an affair with Florence Lavigny. The timing of this announcement sends a very clear message, she could potentially pursue the throne. However, her illegitimacy prevents her from becoming the definitive heir.

...so what does Hengist do? He announces he is going to marry Florence Lavigny. In doing so, Arissa would become a legitimate heir, able to directly claim the throne without question. The timing is clearly not coincidential, in the span of three days Hengist has removed one heir and is now choosing another. That's a bit of a political upset, isn't it? It might even have implications for Blaine's control of the Empire, should an easily-sidelined Prince Harold be replaced by Princess Arissa, who may actually want to use her power as Emperor.

Luckily for Blaine, the Emperor's illness suddenly rears its head the next day. What a coincidence. He falls into a coma within weeks.

Nothing will change from the Emperor being in a coma. Except, this means he can't marry Florence Lavigny, leaving Arissa's claim unconfirmed and the question of succession still open. The selfless Anders Blaine vows to run the Empire in the meanwhile.

You can probably tell what I'm getting at here. Hengist falling into a coma has foiled his attempts to secure the succession for Arissa, in fact the entire succession can't happen at all, since he's technically still alive. Blaine could in theory rule indefinitely, so long as Hengist is hooked up on life support. And so long as he doesn't recover, because then Hengist will try to put Arissa on the throne again.

But, that's just opportunistic at worst, right? Sure, the coma politically benefits Blaine, but Hengist has been sick for a while, that's just coincidence. It's not like anyone deliberately caused the coma in response to Hengist's plans.

By sheer dumb luck, it is discovered that someone has been tampering with the Emperor's medications. No wonder he's been sick! In fact, once the poisoning is stopped he soon makes a full recovery, waking up from his coma and immediately announcing that he's going back to the Senate. Could it be that his entire illness was actually due to poison? But whatever the cause, he's back now.

So, sure, someone probably caused his coma. The coma that benefitted Blaine. But maybe that's a coincidence too, we can't assume he was the mastermind just from that. We need more evidence.
So, why do you think the writers needed to include two articles during Hengist's coma where Senator Patreus asks to see Hengist's medical records...which might have revealed the poisoning...and is denied. By Blaine.

Sure, this is all routine procedure, but its a bit of a bad look for Blaine here. If Hengist hadn't gotten incredibly lucky, the poisoning might never have been uncovered. Since Patreus's attempt was blocked, this serves no narrative purpose other than to create a situation where it looks suspiciously like Blaine is involved with hiding the truth of the Emperor's "illness". The illness that benefits him.

Anyway, once the truth comes out (no thanks to Blaine), naturally there's an investigation into who poisoned the Emperor. Arissa goes on a long personal hunt which reveals a few criminal gangs responsible for hiring the assassin, but Blaine also carries out an investigation. Let's see the results of Blaine's investigation into the poisoning that benefitted Blaine!

Blaine's Investigation

He didn't find anything. The writers put in a single line about how Blaine's investigation found nothing. It's like the writers are trying to make him look like the bad guy...

The Wedding

So, to summarise: Blaine has been the de-facto Emperor for years, especially with Hengist's mysterious illness. Suddenly Hengist tries to intervene in politics and make Arissa his heir, and just as suddenly falls into a coma which prevents that. Blaine continues to rule uninterrupted, blocking any attempts to look closer at the Emperor's illness.

It is revealed that he was being poisoned, Blaine fails a one-sentence investigation, and Hengist resumes trying to make Arissa his heir. The date for the pivotal wedding is set, Hengist's health now stronger than ever. It seems assured that Arissa will become heir.

With Hengist explicitly not being involved in politics except for this one single attempt to change the succession, the motive for the poisoning is clear. Blaine poisoned the Emperor to protect his own power, but for reasons I'll get onto later, I think it even goes further than that. Blaine wanted to become the Emperor. If the wedding goes ahead and Arissa is named as heir, that becomes impossible.
However, the poisoning failed. What's plan B?

Luckily for Blaine, someone kills the Emperor at the very last moment. How convienient.

The Assassination of Hengist Duval

So, in my opinion all of the above is enough to strongly suspect Blaine. Circumstantial evidence, sure, but the writers put it in for a reason. You can just accept that I'm right and leave now, if you want. But by looking at the murder itself, we can demonstrate that there's a coverup going on here. And by looking at how Blaine acts during the process of replacing the Emperor, we can demonstrate that Blaine didn't just want to stop Arissa becoming Emperor - he wanted to BE the next Emperor. But let's start with the murder itself. How can I so confidently say that Blaine was responsible without investigating the man who actually held the knife?

Hengist Duval was stabbed to death at his wedding by Brendan Paul Darius. As I alluded to earlier, this doesn't really make sense? Blaine clearly benefitted from Hengist's death, but Darius doesn't have a strong motive against Hengist. He studied ethics, worked diligently for the Empire for decades, rising high in Imperial society. Why would such a man want to tear it all down, losing his life in the process?

Darius had a family. Had. His mother, father, sister, and a six year old niece. After Hengist's death they were put under light protection by the Imperial authorities, to prevent reprisals. And yet...

Despite nobody really blaming his family, they were all brutally murdered, and the authorities are dodging questions about how that could even be possible. These savage murderers also didn't kill any of the cops. Sounds suspicious to me. But hey, maybe we can get a lead by investigating the killers-

Dead end. This Reeve guy just shot the lot of them, GalNet dropping another hint suggesting he didn't even try to take them in for questioning, and repeating the suspicious circumstances Darius's family died under. The clear implication is that the murders were organised by the authorities, who then killed everyone involved to cover their tracks.

So that's weird, but it doesn't help answer the question of why Darius himself killed the Emperor. Of course, a few days later it is discovered that Darius was working with Emperor's Dawn...and the way that was discovered is very interesting...

Data was found...in the toys of Darius's six year old niece. I don't think Darius put them there, why would he need to keep data that implicated him? The other possibility is that this data was from Emperor's Dawn, maybe for relaying instructions to Darius - and what message would it send, for him to find them in his niece's toys?

I think Darius was being threatened. Do as we say, or there might be more than data in those toys next time. So he had no choice but to go along with it, he attacked the Emperor knowing it would result in his death. And then his family was brutally murdered anyway as part of the coverup.

So, what about Emperor's Dawn? They are the ones responsible, after all...but there's really not much to say about them. A big hunt commences, and eventually they get wiped out. And, hey, isn't it interesting that Inspector Reeve is the one to find this lead, the guy who killed the killers of Darius's family before they could be questioned? If Emperor's Dawn had accomplished its goal, just like the killers of Darius's family...why shouldn't they be wiped out? Harder to trace them back to their leader, in that case.

It's not Reeve, by the way. He only appears in these three articles, he doesn't have the means to pull off this entire scheme, he's just one of the corrupt officials involved. Blaine's the leader. I told you this already, don't get distracted by my pointless diversion.

Let's get back to the point. Hengist is dead, and the tools for his murder have been discarded. It's time to select a new Emperor, but due to Hengist's tragic passing there is no clear heir. So who are our candidates?

• Princess Arissa Lavigny-Duval (illegitimate daughter of Hengist)
• Princess Aisling Duval (niece of Hengist)
• Senator Denton Patreus (rich guy)
• and Chancellor Anders Blaine, THE GUY WHO DID ALL OF THIS-

The Imperial Succession

Welcome to the other motive to kill the Emperor. To replace him. Blaine may have originally been trying to simply delay the succession, but once the poisoning failed, Blaine had to act. He's already been de-facto Emperor, wouldn't it be so much simpler if he actually was?

Without a clear heir, it falls to the Senate to vote in the new Emperor. There is conflicting evidence on the exact requirements, but interestingly it seems non-Duvals can become Emperor, it just hasn't happened before, as evidenced all the way back in that first GalNet.

So Blaine is in the running, but he needs to deal with his opponents somehow. He's already sabotaged Arissa's claim by killing Hengist, but what about the others?

Emperor's Dawn themselves are not important, but their purpose wasn't just to kill the Emperor. With the Senate vote essentially a popularity contest, the investigation into Emperor's Dawn can be used to discredit his opponents. The way in which this plays out is, I believe, further evidence that Blaine is the culprit and the other candidates are innocent.

First up is Senator Patreus. While not a Duval, he sees some support as a rich and influential Senator, and he's long been trying to prepare for the idea that the new Emperor doesn't have to be a Duval. Maybe he has a chance?

His campaign immediately gets obliterated before it can begin, because Brendan Darius was employed by Patreus.

Patreus wasn't actually involved, though. All evidence suggests he was completely unaware of Darius's plans, and his actions elsewhere don't line up - he almost uncovered the poisoning, and also spent a lot of time fighting Emperor's Dawn. Nobody credibly thinks he did it, but it's a bit of a bad look to be assosciated with the guy who just stabbed the Emperor, you know?
Besides, if you were planning this, you probably wouldn't want to have the assassin be someone directly connected to you, right? That's what I think Blaine did, blackmailing Darius not just for the assassination itself, but to sabotage Patreus by assosciation.

So, Patty's out of the running. Next big problem for Blaine: Princess Aisling Duval. She's the closest legitimate Duval to Hengist, immensely popular, and has better hair than Blaine (speculation). But then the investigation uncovers the earthshattering revelation that one of Aisling's patrons, Damon Clarke...has a company...which transported weapons to some people...three years ago...and those people later joined Emperor's Dawn! Yeah, I was lying the whole time, it was Aisling all along!!!

Okay, I'm being sarcastic, but we do need to exclude Aisling as the possible culprit. Sure, she doesn't line up as well as Blaine, but she has potential motive from Hengist changing the succession by invalidating Harold Duval - her father. Aisling was NOT happy about that.

Damon Clarke's company protests innocence - they're a big company, it was a legal sale, why is it their fault if they sell weapons to someone who years later joins a terrorist organisation? But Clarke then goes into hiding, which is a bit suspicious. Maybe he was just scared of being arrested, it's not 100% clear, but lets assume he was deliberately helping Emperor's Dawn. That does look bad for Aisling, especially alongside her possible motive. By the way, Clarke later shows up dead in custody just like Darius's family did.

So, why am I so sure Blaine is the mastermind and not Aisling? Simple, Blaine's next actions make it clear she's being framed. If he was doing all of this to become the next Emperor, he needs to take care of the opposition - and that's what he does, he pounces on the accusation against Aisling. GalNet drops some hints that the way this happens is a bit suspicious.

The remark about the Senate being in closed session makes it look like Blaine is defying protocol to get a headline against Aisling, and that's exactly what he is doing. The accusations ruin her chances of being Emperor.

So, it's just Blaine vs Arissa now. Blaine actually publicly supports Arissa for Emperor in that last article, but I'll remind you that Blaine is a lying liar who also supported Hengist right before killing him. The final showdown approaches, and as a later article reveals, Blaine is the frontrunner to become Emperor, and - oh my god, is that Aisling with a steel chair? Blaine, no, look out behind y-

Yeah, Aisling beats the shit out of him. His staff have much more recent connections to Emperor's Dawn, and because we know Blaine is behind it all by now, I'd suggest that them being the same connections implies that Blaine was behind the entire accusation against Aisling in the first place. He would know about the tenuous link with Aisling if he was also working with those same members! Perhaps like Darius they were selected for that link, so that Blaine could discredit Aisling as he did.

If that's a bit of a stretch for you, Blaine's response should convince you.

So, we know it was slander against Aisling, Blaine himself admits it. Remember how it was Blaine personally who opened this investigation, despite the Senate being shut. But no, it's fine, he didn't know anything about it! His staff just went out and did this on his behalf, to help him politically, without him knowing! This is bullshit, pardon my Imperial. Add it to the pile of evidence, this guy killed Hengist Duval. The arrests come only the day before the final vote, and kill his hopes of becoming Emperor.

Blaine was going to win! He had successfully taken out the competition, and was about to be crowned Emperor, but Aisling took him down with her. Arissa wins instead. Hooray! Now she can yeet Blaine, she's always talking about removing corruption from the Empire, her ingame Codex entry starts with an extremely pointed speech about the "worms" festerting in the heart of the Empire. Surely she will bring Blaine to justice...?

Blaine gets away with it

Nothing happens. Blaine remains as Chancellor for the new Emperor to this day.

I think it's pretty clear Blaine did it, the writers were dropping hints from the very start. So why didn't Arissa do anything about it? Well, I doubt she is unaware. But even if she was unaware of Blaine's role, she definitely should have figured it out the second time Blaine tried to become Emperor. Yeah, he does it a second time years later, Blaine masterminds ANOTHER secret terrorist organisation to try and seize control of the Empire! It makes it pretty easy to point the finger at Blaine - proof of his involvement here is reason to suspect him later, and vice versa.
But even after that second attempt, when the dust settles, Arissa still has no choice but to publicly thank him for his tireless service. God, I hate this guy.

She's saying this after her trusted chancellor, certain senators, and a security agency shoved her into a freezer for over a year while Blaine pretended to speak for her. The senators and security agency's involvement is public knowledge, and she thanks Blaine in the same sentence as them. She knows whats up. She just can't do anything about it.

That might sound strange, she is the Emperor, she is in charge...how can she not just arrest Blaine? Maybe Hengist thought he was in charge as well, but Blaine still has power, even if he didn't manage to become the Emperor directly. Some might even say that Blaine is part of a shady organisation even more powerful than the Empire, that manipulates it for their own ends. They're just being paranoid, of course.

Anyway. If you want even more of me saying "Blaine sus" and pointing out the obvious, he pops up in two more major plotlines.

First is the surprise discovery of Hengist's other illegitimate heir, Hadrian Augustus Duval - and given what Blaine has been up to here, it should be of no surprise that he is extremely hostile towards the appearance of yet another obstacle between him and the throne.
Second is that other terrorist uprising I mentioned - The Neo-Marlinist Liberation Army, who want to kill all the Duvals. You know, all of Blaine's major competitors for the throne? How convienient.

In conclusion, I hate Blaine and you should always do the opposite of what he wants. Make him sad.

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