Thread:Sebolto/@comment-104549-20190326194958/@comment-1998339-20190422013006

I like how Alecto is portrayed as a more sensible master than many of her Sith peers. The whole notion of directing her Acolytes to fight as one against a common enemy rather than feud among each other for scraps of power is pretty uncommon in many EU portrayals of baseline Sith. It seems the norm in a lot of Legends literature for Sith masters to encourage their students to engage in rivalries to weed out the unfit & keep students focused on betraying each other rather than their masters. Even in the series, the Sith Empire's cause is wracked by all manner of internal power struggles from the Overlords down to the Acolytes, a fact that makes Alecto's approach all the more refreshing.

In contrast to many Sith, she frames the journey towards her Acolytes' desire&mdash;Sith Lordship&mdash;not as a series of fights for dominance over one another but a series of fights for dominance over the self in pursuit of her expected standards ("If you aren't anointed yet, you haven't met it; work harder"). This encourages growth & self-improvement in all her Acolytes, not just the strongest or the most Forceful. In contrast to the usual lordship-through-dominance-over-others approach, her method does not come at the cost of dead Force users. It's very clever utilitarian thinking on her part & ensures her power base is strengthened by increasingly motivated Acolytes & not weakened from internal conflicts. I'm guessing experiencing the Brotherhood's intense loyalty to their own & their brutally efficient way of overcoming fierce opponents as one unit (i.e. bell tower fight with Lygrot) has rubbed off on Alecto to an extent.

Speaking of the Anzati, what would happen if, hypothetically, Nevya were permitted to reenter the Abattoir & somehow progressed to the Heart? Presumably the Brotherhood can't have two masters. I don't doubt Nevya's loyalty to Alecto, but I'm sure some of the Azerothian holdouts in the group would prefer an Anzati-blooded Master of the Brotherhood to a Sith outlander. Since you made a point to emphasize this narrative thread, I'm guessing it is going to end with Nevya either inadvertently proving herself a legitimate claimant to the Brotherhood's throne or getting herself killed & leaving Alecto without a strong right hand in the group.

I also liked how you sneaked in some New Sith Wars lore with the references to Ruin & Malrev IV of Black Knights fame (I like to think, given his age, that Vandak may have once been a Black Knight, though that's just fan speculation on my part). Also, technical issue: since you named all the chapters like "Ascension/Part 3," all of the little subpage backlinks link here rather than to the novella page. Just figured you should know.