Von Hammerstein:
short;
square;
almost naked;
about five feet four;
boxer's shoulders and hips;
stomach going to fat;
black hair all over his body;
hairless head and face;
a glittering whitish yellow skull with a dent at the back;
a square, hard, thrusting Prussian officer's face;
close-set, piggish eyes;
a large, unpleasant mouth.
(Bond villains have distinctive appearances.)
Duke Alfred of Varrak:
big;
running to paunchiness;
still muscular;
gray beard;
blocky face;
devoid of humour but alive with pride;
graciously spoken.
Von Hammerstein takes an arrow in the back and Chives fears that he took the liberty of disintegrating the Duke.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm actually a bit sorry about what happened to Duke Alfred! Plainly, he really was an able and intelligent man. It's a pity he couldn't have remained loyal to the Empire and work to strengthen and stabilize it. Oh, well!
Sean
Enemies come in different varieties; some are evil (or close enough for government work) and some are just "on the other side". You may have to kill them, but it's nothing personal.
The Mereisans are dangerous and ruthless enemies, but they aren't actually all that evil, IMHO. They're just a competing imperial power.
Or in my Change series, the Armingers are ruthless conquerors and losing to them would be very bad, but the Prophet is an active enemy of the human race and losing to him would be an irrecoverable disaster.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree, there are different degrees of evil or some are not evil but simply "on the other side." As you said, you may have to kill the latter kind, but it's nothing personal.
I think the Merseians MIGHT become worse than simply dangerous and ruthless enemies--because of their ideology of racial supremacism. The Protector Brechdan Ironrede even said in Chapter 10 pf ENSIGN FLANDRY that Merseia might be forced to exterminate the human race if too many humans remained stubbornly unwilling to submit.
Yes, the Armingers were bad, but fairly "ordinary" bad people, their SUCCESSORS would not necessarily be bad rulers. And a false prophet possessed by SATAN would be an enemy of the entire human race.
Sean
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