Leedor on Aramis

[jcrocker]

The Traveller Adventure has the famous city of Leedor on Aramis - at the time of writing, the city is the personal fief of the Marquis of Aramis.

But, the Traveller Map shows that Aramis has a Knight and a Subsector Duke, but no Marquis.

Given the Marquis' stated close ties to Tukera, do you think the Marquis got himself turfed from office in the fallout from the Vermene plot to sell meson weapons to Vargr corsairs? Did he take leave of his offices and move closer to Core in a Tukera stronghold somewhere? Did he get stripped of all his titles save Knight?

Or did he get promoted to Subsector Duke thanks to Tukera string-pulling?

Or, was the data transmission of the original file garbled by Zhodani sympathisers, and he really was a Duke, not a Maquis, all along?

 

[mike wightman]

Traveller Map is wrong. The Marquis of Aramis is also duke of the Aramis subsector? Nope

An adventure like The Traveller Adventure should be considered the most holy of canon and only overwritten by other projects if the original author is going to re-publish the adventure and send me two replacement copies for free.

Put another way, why is the retcon on the Traveller Map, what purpose does it serve other than to invalidate a classic adventure?

 

[Supplement Four]

I wonder if the Traveller map went with the updates from TNE.

 

[whulorigan]

The Traveller Map nobility codes were largely derived generically from T⁵ Trade Codes and exclusively detail the expected Landed Nobility associated with the world based on those codes. The Landed Nobility in the listed codes for the individual worlds in an actual setting (such as the OTU) may deviate from the expected standard due to unspecified local conditions and events. Those codes explicitly do not detail local Honor or Ceremonial (i.e. Rank/Administrative) Nobility that may be on-world, who might serve other functions (or no official functions at all). Landed Nobles are those who explicitly represent the world before the Imperium at the Imperial level of government.

The Traveller Map entry may simply be an oversight in the OTU setting requiring a map-erratum update.

If not, other possibilities are:

1. This particular Knight of Aramis also happens to have an Honor Title of Marquis (which is not otherwise noted in the official Landed Nobility Code for the world);
2. The "Marquis of Aramis" is NOT a Landed Noble representing the World of Aramis to the Imperium, but is in fact entirely an Honor Title and not shown in the Nobility Code for that reason. The Knight and Duke are different individuals;
3. Canonically, the Marquis of Aramis is described in the following terms: "Aramis holds the estate of the Marquis of Aramis, head of the planetary government of Aramis, owing fealty to the Count Knowln of Celepina." This suggests the possibility that the Marquis in question may in fact be a Ceremonial/Rank Noble, and not necessarily the Landed Noble of Aramis. In this case he would not show up in the Nobility Code.

 

[jcrocker]

I flipped through more of the Traveller Adventure - thank you, FFE, for searchable PDFs. I did find this back on page 143:

Marquis of Aramis: ...The current Marquis, 19th of the line, is Leonard Bolden-Tukera. The Marquis is titular head of the world government of Aramis; he owes direct fealty to the Count Knowln of Celepina. The Marquis is married to the Lady Arianne Tukera, heir to a large block of Tukera Lines stock. They have no children.

Elsewhere the Marquis is described as a "useless profligate who spends most of his time enjoying his wealth and social position. "

A useless profligate who has neglected to produce any heirs. Yes, that's useless.

One could argue he might have passed away shortly after the events in the Adventure - the Marquisate was either allowed to lie fallow, or rolled into the holdings of the new duke that was evidently assigned. The new duke was either a war hero, the spare heir of some other duke that wasn't going to inherit, or both, but was much, much better at subsector politics than Duke Leonard ever was.

The subsector part is still stretching it, but oh well. Either way, that prevents a retcon and would preserve the Traveller Adventure intact, which is the main thing.

Thanks all!

 

[aramis]

Traveller Map is wrong. The Marquis of Aramis is also duke of the Aramis subsector? Nope

An adventure like The Traveller Adventure should be considered the most holy of canon and only overwritten by other projects if the original author is going to re-publish the adventure and send me two replacement copies for free.

Put another way, why is the retcon on the Traveller Map, what purpose does it serve other than to invalidate a classic adventure?

Marc has intentionally changed it. Marc has EXPLICITLY changed that one.

The T5 revisions to Travellermap are, for the sectors that have been vetted, intentional changes.

Also note: T5's intended setting is IY 1900-1950, not IY 1105.

 

[Supplement Four]

Also note: T5's intended setting is IY 1900-1950, not IY 1105.

That's interesting. First I've heard of that.

 

[Supplement Four]

Marc has intentionally changed it. Marc has EXPLICITLY changed that one.

Why the focus on the Marquis of Aramis?

 

[aramis]

Why the focus on the Marquis of Aramis?

It's one of several changes to the Marches. The T5 revisions are to bring the Traveller Map fully consistent with T5 rules. Marc personally approves all the changes. Marches were, IIRC, updated by Don and Marc, but I'm not positive.

 

[Garnfellow]

But the base Traveller Map data represents -- or is supposed to represent -- 1105 info. There are separate views for different time periods, including Galaxiad.

 

[jcrocker]

I guess someone higher up the chain of command was so royally torqued at the Marquis, he had the man expunged from the record. After all, he was a useless profligate with no heirs, and since it was going to happen anyway in due course...

 

[mike wightman]

I will continue to use the Traveller Adventure as it is.

The bit that needs a retcon is the preposterous first adventure, not the status of the Aramis nobility.

 

[jcrocker]

I guess the obvious question is, why did the Marquis get explicitly changed?

 

[aramis]

I guess the obvious question is, why did the Marquis get explicitly changed?

Because the local nobles are formulaic under T5.

The Travellermap project is reducing the number of "impossible worlds," as well as making all the nobles match the rules.

 

[jcrocker]

Ah. Thank you!