Alternate Ending?

K

KoN21

Spaceman
I've been thinking a lot about WC3 lately. How it's pretty much a zero-sum game, either you vanquish the Kilrathi Empire or they conquer Earth and destroy ConFed. Playing the game on its own leaves you with no choice of which ending is preferable (that is if you are a Terran).

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the two factions in ConFed seek to reshape the power and might of its forces. Tolwyn loses the battle and so ConFed finds itself decommissioning a large portion of its forces.

Then it happens, the Nephilum, the baddest of bad asses show up in small numbers and look like they could easily wipe out mankind. We can only imagine the kind of force they had on the other side for Blair to analogize the Kilrathi to housecats in comparison.

This brings me to the question... was the ending of WC3 necessarily the better one considering the Nephilum threat? That is to say, could the Kilrathi have faired any better than us?

It is true, we beat the Nephilum out of our space twice, but if they could break through it is highly unlikely that ConFed would be able to hold off for long.

The Kilrathi knew only war, even when they were not fighting they were probably arming for the next engagement. Kilrathi technology was in many ways superior to our own ie. cloaking, dreadnaught etc. Assuming that the paw crushed the skull on Earth at the end of 3, would the Kilrathi be better prepared for the Nephilum than we were? Could the Kilrathi destroy the bugs, or at least making them wish they didn't jump into cat space in the first place?

I'd love to know what my fellow WC fans think about this possibility.

-Kon
 
This actually reminds me of a certain argument that I think happened while I was still a lurker here. However in Blairs position I would have done the same, because there was no way to know of the Nephilim menace. Still it arises another question, was it morally acceptable to destroy Kilrah? There were certainly many non-military targets there such as slaves and Kilrathi not in the military. But it was still a choice between Earth and Kilrah. And well, heres my rant, tell me if I missed anything. :p
 
Would the bugs have invaded if the Kilrathi Empire had won the war against the confederation. I thought that according to the prophecy they were only supposed to come if the Kilrathi were defeated in battle.

Without knowing what happened after the events of Secret Ops. I don’t think we can say if ConFed would be able to hold them off. The bugs had a huge advantage in numbers but I always felt that their purpose for invading supposed to be a mystery so its kind of hard to predict what would do after Secret Ops.
 
It's more or less the same argument more or less with the a-bomb and Japan in WW2 with one major difference. The allies had wrapped up Germany, the biggest threat and had to concentrate on the Pacific. There was the question of how eager the Europe vets would be to have to fight even more and risk their lives even after Germany had been taken. Not to mention that the Japanese had dug in and did not give up an inch without a bloodbath. Truman had to reconcile the added Allied lives that would be saved with a prompt end to the war versus the clear moral wrong, known and unknown consequences in dropping a nuclear bomb. Truman said it was worthwhile and the rest is history.

As for the templor bomb- the situation was a lot more bleak for ConFed. This was a question of whether it is worthwhile to destroy an enemies homeworld, killing billions along the way or lose your right to exist. ConFed's actions may be more justifiable because they are less culpable but that does not mean that they were not wrong. Billions did die that day, it was terrible- but humanity managed to survive. The price of the billions of kilrathi lost may be worth it for our species' continued exists. Nonetheless we committed mass murder at an unheard of scale.
 
This brings me to the question... was the ending of WC3 necessarily the better one considering the Nephilum threat? That is to say, could the Kilrathi have faired any better than us?
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The basis for Prophecy was that the Nephilim arrived *because* Blair destroyed Kilrah -- that even tis what signaled to them that the Kilrathi had been defeated and that they should return to challenge humanity. With that in mind, the answer to the question is simple -- lose Wing Commander III, and the Nephilim simply don't attack.

(The debate then becomes what would have happened to humanity. If the Kilrathi are to be taken at face value, humanity would be wiped out to the last man -- Thrakhath orders this specifically. If we think them to be the least bit pragmatic, then mankind ends up a slave race, with the potential to fight back...)

It's more or less the same argument more or less with the a-bomb and Japan in WW2 with one major difference. The allies had wrapped up Germany, the biggest threat and had to concentrate on the Pacific. There was the question of how eager the Europe vets would be to have to fight even more and risk their lives even after Germany had been taken. Not to mention that the Japanese had dug in and did not give up an inch without a bloodbath. Truman had to reconcile the added Allied lives that would be saved with a prompt end to the war versus the clear moral wrong, known and unknown consequences in dropping a nuclear bomb. Truman said it was worthwhile and the rest is history.
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There's some question as to how involved Truman was in ordering the actual bombings -- he would later justify having taken responsibility for the decision by arguing that he could have *stopped* the process had he not wanted it to occur. He was on his way home from Potsdam and out of communications when the actual attacks were ordered by General Handy.

The extent to which the United States expected difficulty in taking the Japanese home islands was significantly exaggerated in the years immediately following the war. Allied losses were certainly a point in the discussion, and the huge casualties recently suffered at Okinawa (not only US troops, but local civilians killed en-masse by the Japanese) were on everyones minds... but there were a great many other issues.

A very major one was the effect the bomb would have on the Russians. It had already become clear that Soviet troops weren't going to be leaving eastern Europe any time soon -- the United States had a significant interest in ending the war with Japan before Russia entered the conflict (which Stalin had previously agreed to do by the middle of August). The Russians weren't likely to give up the territory they would inevitably end up capturing in Japanese-occupied China.

Politically, the conflict between the United States and the USSR was taking shape, and there was a lot of debate as to how the world would react to the new weapon. Would it give the US a decisive advantage, or would it force more countries to ally with the communists to oppose it? Would it end war forever, or force an arms race?

It's also worth noting that 'destroy Japanese cities or don't use the weapon' wasn't the question -- the Targetting Committee discussed a variety of different ways to use the weapon... including a peaceful annound demonstration and using it against military-specific targets rather than ctiies.

I think it's interesting how much of this same debate we can read in in Wing Commander's allegory.

As you mentioned, the question of casualties is made black and white in Wing Commander's case: we directly know that mankind will be wiped out if the weapon (or a similar one) is not used. Never the less, we see the same discussion of other alternatives -- can the Behemoth win the war with a 'demonstration'? It's suggested and rejected -- hitting Kilrah is all that will convince the Empire to surrender. We see the same moral debate, among the men responsible for the weapon -- in Wing Commander's case, the fighter pilots responsible for delivering the bomb instead of the scientists responsible for designing it (Severin, however, is no Oppenheimer).

I think we even have the same political situation. The Confederation doesn't go into the bombing with the same forethought with regards to geopolitics that the United States did... but the ultimate result is the same: as the manner in which the US handled the bomb started the unexpected nuclear arms race with the Russians, the T-Bomb starts the unexpected war with the Nephilim.

(You might even have the same question as to who was responsible for the attack -- it's a General in Covert Operations who orders the attack that ends the war, we don't see the civilian authority anywhere...)
 
Bandit LOAF said:
(The debate then becomes what would have happened to humanity. If the Kilrathi are to be taken at face value, humanity would be wiped out to the last man -- Thrakhath orders this specifically. If we think them to be the least bit pragmatic, then mankind ends up a slave race, with the potential to fight back...)
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It's interesting to note that Thrakhath had already ordered the destruction of mankind (including all the slaves) during Fleet Action... yet we know that during the WC3 time period, Confed liberates slaves from at least one planet (Cabrea), and IIRC the game itself suggests that Locanda was a Kilrathi-occupied system, with the bioweapons attack taking place when they were forced to withdraw, rather than when they arrived. So, all in all, it seems like humanity would likely have survived.

The Russians weren't likely to give up the territory they would inevitably end up capturing in Japanese-occupied China.
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...Or in Japan itself. Rather than having two Koreas, there would have been two Japans (...and one, communist, Korea).
 
KoN21 said:
This brings me to the question... was the ending of WC3 necessarily the better one considering the Nephilum threat? That is to say, could the Kilrathi have faired any better than us? -Kon
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I don't think so. Although they would probably have a mightier army and would've prepared more for a future threat. The books even mention that the Kilrathi were always afraid of a mighty threat they encountered from a more central region of the galaxy. The fact remains that we humans in the end bested the Kilrathi in almost every circumstance even despite often having inferior technology and a less sizeable army.

On another note, the Kilrathi probably would've engaged in cival wars that would've made the Border Worlds conflict seem like a very minor skirmish. Although this could've developed their technology, they would've been caught off guard and it would take awhile for them to make peace with themselves and organize into a cohesive force as were the humans when the Nephilim arrived.
 
Mjr. Whoopass said:
On another note, the Kilrathi probably would've engaged in cival wars that would've made the Border Worlds conflict seem like a very minor skirmish.
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Strictly speaking, the Border Worlds conflict was a very minor skirmish even compared to our present-day wars - the whole thing was over in the space of two weeks, and all things considered, the casualties weren't all that high.
 
Mjr. Whoopass said:
On another note, the Kilrathi probably would've engaged in cival wars that would've made the Border Worlds conflict seem like a very minor skirmish. Although this could've developed their technology, they would've been caught off guard and it would take awhile for them to make peace with themselves and organize into a cohesive force as were the humans when the Nephilim arrived.
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Is there evidence anywhere to support this? For whatever reason, I was under the impression that the Kilrathi were at odds with each other in ancient times before the arrival of their Star Gods. From that moment on with the foretold prophecy lingering out there as a threat to their survival and the zealous need to seemingly (at times) recklessly honor Sivar (their god of war?) through their ceremonies...if anything, it seemed to me that the Kilrathi were often times more unified in their collective purpose than the Confederation. Granted, there seemed to be feuding within the royal family, but even there, I got the impression that Prince Thrakhath swore fealty to his Emperor father and was praised by supporting characters for being the rightful heir to the Empire. The destruction of that supported lineage seems like it might have caused a schism within the ranks of the Kilrathi, pitting clans against one another vying for control of the Empire to take over the prestige once enjoyed by Thrakhath's family. But if we're assuming here that the Emperor and Thrakhath were not killed, then I'm of the mind that the Kilrathi Empire would have remained unified, stretched across Confederation Space, and moved on to their next military challenge.

Regardless where we agree or disagree on this point, though...to go back to one of the other questions - would the Kilrathi have fared better? That's a hard one to say. In the grand scheme of things, we're not sure how well Confed has (or will) weathered the Nephilim & Aligned storm. What I think we see in Prophecy and SO were humans patting each other on the back for stopping the invasion, but it's referenced in a few places that the Nephilim weren't really even confronting them with the bulk of their strength. Considering the losses on both the part of the Confederation and especially the Kilrathi, I'd say that it alludes to the fact that if there's any kind of escalation of future Nephilim activity, both groups are in for one ugly fight.

Also worth noting here is the dichotomy of the Kilrathi Prophecy, with one end leading to this Kn'Thrak (which is what the cats are subjected to now due to their "defeat" by the Confederation), and then there's the Tr'Thrak (sp?), which I think was advertised as a final epic battle between the victorious Kilrathi and their Star Gods who finally deemed them worthy of the confrontation. In my estimation, neither end sounds certain enough to support that the Kilrathi had any confidence in ultimate victory. It seemed more to me like either way, they knew they'd lose, but their higher spirits in the Tr'Thrak end would have made for a more heroic way to go into the darkness. As the story goes, Confed inadvertently broke that spirit and hope when they shattered Kilrah and ended the war.

I'm all for routing for the home team, and so I'd like to say that Confed (and thus humanity) has the capacity to oppose the Nephilim better than the Kilrathi, but I'm just not so sure. It seems like both are easy enough prey for the bugs, ripe for the plucking if the Nephilim ever felt so inclined.
 
The prophecy fortold that the stargods would return when Kilrah was defeated. Thats the way it played out. Its irrelevant to consider who would win easier against the Nephilim considering they never would have come back at all if it weren't for the destruction of Kilrah. Ever wonder why they were building a gate in the Kilrah system?


The backstory for all of the wing commander books and games makes it pretty evident that the Crown Prince Thrakkath's position as Emperor was very much less than guarenteed. The Emperor was able to keep his clan in power only due to the war versus the Humans being a priority above clan war.

It was well established that many of the prime clan members of the imperial clan had been used for frontline combat to gain them the most prestige and they were destroyed over the war.

Using this, its easy to see where the story was leading. If Humanity fell there would be a power struggle to usurp the throne of Kilrah and after a relentless clan war they would have been in no position to stand up to any threat, much less the Nephilim.
 
NinjaLA said:
The prophecy fortold that the stargods would return when Kilrah was defeated. Thats the way it played out. Its irrelevant to consider who would win easier against the Nephilim considering they never would have come back at all if it weren't for the destruction of Kilrah. Ever wonder why they were building a gate in the Kilrah system?


The backstory for all of the wing commander books and games makes it pretty evident that the Crown Prince Thrakkath's position as Emperor was very much less than guarenteed. The Emperor was able to keep his clan in power only due to the war versus the Humans being a priority above clan war.

It was well established that many of the prime clan members of the imperial clan had been used for frontline combat to gain them the most prestige and they were destroyed over the war.

Using this, its easy to see where the story was leading. If Humanity fell there would be a power struggle to usurp the throne of Kilrah and after a relentless clan war they would have been in no position to stand up to any threat, much less the Nephilim.
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But from what I've heard, the reason the bugs came was because of the total destruction of Kilrah. Unless I'm mistaken if the Kilrathi won then the Nephilim wouldn't have come.
 
X_FIREFALCON said:
Is there evidence anywhere to support this? For whatever reason, I was under the impression that the Kilrathi were at odds with each other in ancient times before the arrival of their Star Gods.
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The Kilrathi certainly continued to fight each other after that, at least until the Utara showed up and gave them jump-drive technology, which the cats used to wipe out the Utara. There's also increasing dissension during the war against the Confederation - first, Khasra (one of Thrakhath's cousins) tries to kill him in WC2, and then during Fleet Action, there's an assassination attempt on the Emperor.

Had they won the war, the Emperor and Thrakhath would probably have had enough prestige to quieten things down. But then there was another problem - Thrakhath didn't have any male heirs, and it was implied in one of the books that he'd probably never have them. Had Thrakhath died without a direct heir, it's possible that all those remaining cousins of his would have started fighting for the throne.

In my estimation, neither end sounds certain enough to support that the Kilrathi had any confidence in ultimate victory. It seemed more to me like either way, they knew they'd lose, but their higher spirits in the Tr'Thrak end would have made for a more heroic way to go into the darkness.
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That wouldn't make sense. Kn'Thrak is supposed to be the punishment for the Kilrathi failing. Logically, if they succeed and are prepared for Tr'Thrak, then they must have a chance to win it - what else could being prepared for battle possibly mean in this context, if not being able to win it? Remember, this isn't a case of the Star Gods telling the Kilrathi that they'll come back when the cats work up the courage to face them - the Kilrathi had already been ready to face them the first time round. So, rather, it's the Star Gods saying that they'll come back when the Kilrathi are advanced enough to actually pose a challenge - which implies that the end result of the battle would at the least be uncertain.

...Though personally, I think the whole thing is a moot point anyway - the Star Gods were a myth, and there's no reason to believe they were any more real than Zeus or Odin. There isn't actually anything that would directly connect the Nephilim to the Star Gods myth. Meanwhile, the Nephilim themselves seemed much more interested in finding Blair than in actually wiping out the Kilrathi. Put simply, Kn'Thrak didn't happen - so why should we assume the Nephilim were the Star Gods, or that there was any such thing as Star Gods at all?

(on a sidenote, that was one thing that strikes me as extremely silly in the WCP manual - you get this detailed intel report about an unidentified assailant... and then the report suddenly goes into a Kilrathi myth? Somehow, I'm having trouble imagining an intelligence officer trying to persuade his superiors that maybe it's the Kilrathi gods coming back to end the world... and the fact that this report reached Paladin suggests that not only somebody did try to make the connection, but that it was actually taken siriously. Ridiculous - can you imagine a post-9/11 intelligence report suggesting that it's time to start taking Nostradamus siriously, because one of his prophecies, stretched far enough, sorta almost fits this event? What would have happened to the intel officer that wrote such a report?)
 
Bandit LOAF said:
The basis for Prophecy was that the Nephilim arrived *because* Blair destroyed Kilrah -- that even tis what signaled to them that the Kilrathi had been defeated and that they should return to challenge humanity. With that in mind, the answer to the question is simple -- lose Wing Commander III, and the Nephilim simply don't attack.

(The debate then becomes what would have happened to humanity. If the Kilrathi are to be taken at face value, humanity would be wiped out to the last man -- Thrakhath orders this specifically. If we think them to be the least bit pragmatic, then mankind ends up a slave race, with the potential to fight back...)
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I agree with your WWII arguments, but am more skeptical of the Prophecy.
The philosopher Diogenes said "People are more concerned with their dreams than with what they see in their lives". Prophecies have existed have been interpreted and re-interpreted in many times in hindsight to justify the prediction of an event. Yes, the Nephilum's arrival at the scene may have come at a time that made it seem the result of the Prophecy and the Nephilum might have certainly spelled the end for the cats, but in terms of it being written- I side with Lawrence of Arabia who answered "Nothing is written" when he went back into the desert to save a man the others had left for dead.

Prophecies are so cryptic and simple that they don't provide enough information to predict, but are only useful in hindsight. That is to say that the cats didn't all join suicide cults after the war. The prophecy only became an issue after the bugs arrived. This is because prophecies are not future predictions, much like how oracles weren't fortune tellers; they were people playing word games who left the meaning of the words open to the interpretor.

While playing WCP, I got the idea that there were 2 stories, 1 story that would be sold to all those who would be more likely to swallow the prophecy and another which said that nothing was written. Sure the bugs are terrible, but when you lock a Swarmer AB to one of them, do they not explode? When you rip torpedoes into the engines and bridge of the ship-killer, does it not fall to pieces? These creatures live and die like everything else and as such can be killed. Playing the game as a believer in the prophecy leaves you $hitting in your pants pretty much throughout. Playing as el lawrence leaves you smiling when you take down the wormhole, turning to the bugs and screaming "nothing is written"
 
X_FIREFALCON said:
Is there evidence anywhere to support this? For whatever reason, I was under the impression that the Kilrathi were at odds with each other in ancient times before the arrival of their Star Gods. From that moment on with the foretold prophecy lingering out there as a threat to their survival and the zealous need to seemingly (at times) recklessly honor Sivar (their god of war?) through their ceremonies...if anything, it seemed to me that the Kilrathi were often times more unified in their collective purpose than the Confederation.
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I seem to remember from the novels that it was thought the Kilrathi would be tearing into each other if they didn't have a united cause in trying to conquer humanity.
 
...Though personally, I think the whole thing is a moot point anyway - the Star Gods were a myth, and there's no reason to believe they were any more real than Zeus or Odin. There isn't actually anything that would directly connect the Nephilim to the Star Gods myth. Meanwhile, the Nephilim themselves seemed much more interested in finding Blair than in actually wiping out the Kilrathi. Put simply, Kn'Thrak didn't happen - so why should we assume the Nephilim were the Star Gods, or that there was any such thing as Star Gods at all?[/QUO

This is hairsplitting run amuck... at the end of the day, the name of the game is Wing Commander Prophecy.The narrative opens by reading the Prophecy of Sivar while showing the Nephilim arriving at Kilrah... the characters (and, as you point out, the manual) make (often illogical) leaps to repeatedly remind the reader that the situation involves the 'Star Gods'... the intent in all this seems very clear.

(on a sidenote, that was one thing that strikes me as extremely silly in the WCP manual - you get this detailed intel report about an unidentified assailant... and then the report suddenly goes into a Kilrathi myth? Somehow, I'm having trouble imagining an intelligence officer trying to persuade his superiors that maybe it's the Kilrathi gods coming back to end the world... and the fact that this report reached Paladin suggests that not only somebody did try to make the connection, but that it was actually taken siriously. Ridiculous - can you imagine a post-9/11 intelligence report suggesting that it's time to start taking Nostradamus siriously, because one of his prophecies, stretched far enough, sorta almost fits this event? What would have happened to the intel officer that wrote such a report?)
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I disagree here, too. We saw *exactly* this kind of study done after 9/11 -- historians, armchair and otherwise, crawled all over each other to come up with the most obscure historical reasons for a conflict between the United States and muslims. Just like Prophecy's "Nonhuman Historical Analysis", we saw everything from specific Cold War events to things like the Barbary Wars and the Crusades.

(I also think the ICIS Manual manages to defend itself fairly well. Paladin begins by explaining that there's no real information, the report itself begins with a disclaimer that it's a set of documents that have been compiled but not processed... and the report in question repeats the logic behind itself at every step, from why it's being written to why the Star Gods should be considered.)

While playing WCP, I got the idea that there were 2 stories, 1 story that would be sold to all those who would be more likely to swallow the prophecy and another which said that nothing was written. Sure the bugs are terrible, but when you lock a Swarmer AB to one of them, do they not explode? When you rip torpedoes into the engines and bridge of the ship-killer, does it not fall to pieces? These creatures live and die like everything else and as such can be killed. Playing the game as a believer in the prophecy leaves you $hitting in your pants pretty much throughout. Playing as el lawrence leaves you smiling when you take down the wormhole, turning to the bugs and screaming "nothing is written"
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I disagree on this point. The belief that the 'Star Gods' are an invulnerable foe is something that people decided on their own, sans evidence. The manual is very clear that the Nephilim ships aren't overly technologically superior to human/Kilrathi ones. Even the 'prophecy' material in the ICIS manual is eager to point out that the 'Star Gods' are physical entities that can be defeated.

The idea was that the Nephilim were the footsoldiers of 'The Aligned People', a distant confederation of powerful species. The Nephilim go around 'testing' other races to see if they're worthy of membership. They arrived at Kilrah thousands of years ago and set the cats in their evolutionary path. The Kilrathi know this as their 'Prophecy of Sivar': either become powerful enough for a final test (Tr'thrak) or they face destruction (Kn'thrack). Flash forward to the 27th century, where the Nephilim take notice of Kilrah's destruction... and so they arrive to wipe out the Kilrathi and 'test' humanity's potential.

Is there evidence anywhere to support this? For whatever reason, I was under the impression that the Kilrathi were at odds with each other in ancient times before the arrival of their Star Gods.
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Both are wrong, in opposite ways. The actual point (from Fleet Action) is that the Kilrathi would have destroyed themselves through intercene warfare if they hadn't aquired interstellar technology. The 'Star Gods' are the reason the Kilrathi started fighting each other in the first place.

Had Thrakhath died without a direct heir, it's possible that all those remaining cousins of his would have started fighting for the throne.
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That may be something of a leap -- the Emperor seems perfectly able to choose a different heir in Wing Commander II (if were unreasonable for one of Thrakhath's cousins to be the heir to Kilrah, then the Emperor wouldn't have been able to use it as a threat.)
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This makes me wonder what would happen if 'The Aligned People' decided that humanity was worthy to join. It doesn’t seem like they would be thrilled about the idea after being invaded twice by the Nephilim.
 
Should be the Aligned People and their lousy bugs wishing they were good enough to join the Confederation.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
This is hairsplitting run amuck... at the end of the day, the name of the game is Wing Commander Prophecy.The narrative opens by reading the Prophecy of Sivar while showing the Nephilim arriving at Kilrah... the characters (and, as you point out, the manual) make (often illogical) leaps to repeatedly remind the reader that the situation involves the 'Star Gods'... the intent in all this seems very clear.
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Well, yeah, their intent is very clear - but my argument is based on what we know from the in-universe sources, rather than what we know of the developers' intentions. This seems like a reasonable thing to do, given how unlikely it is that the intentions of the people behind WCP will ever be carried through in a future game (after all, even if EA chooses to set a new WC game after WCP rather than during the Kilrathi War, this game will be developed by a completely different team, who will put their own spin on things). And based on what we know from the in-universe sources, the only thing that connects the Nephilim with the Star Gods is Kilrathi superstition. Heck, after the Nephilim are defeated, it's likely even the Kilrathi stopped believing that they were the Star Gods - if the Star Gods were supposed to destroy the universe, and instead were defeated, then they can't be the Star Gods, and the war against them couldn't be Kn'Thrak.

I disagree here, too. We saw *exactly* this kind of study done after 9/11 -- historians, armchair and otherwise, crawled all over each other to come up with the most obscure historical reasons for a conflict between the United States and muslims. Just like Prophecy's "Nonhuman Historical Analysis", we saw everything from specific Cold War events to things like the Barbary Wars and the Crusades.
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Yeah - but they didn't actually come up with any reasons based on myths. You might very well see an intel report explaining that people are afraid to come out at night because they think that a spate of recent murders was caused by angry pixies - but you definitely won't see a report that actually seriously considers the possibility of angry pixies being responsible.

That may be something of a leap -- the Emperor seems perfectly able to choose a different heir in Wing Commander II (if were unreasonable for one of Thrakhath's cousins to be the heir to Kilrah, then the Emperor wouldn't have been able to use it as a threat.)
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True, but the Emperor had a lot more authority than Thrakhath had (though, I suppose, actually defeating the humans would have boosted Thrakhath's position a lot) - and he did have a legitimate heir for most of his reign. As human history shows (and I think Kilrathi history would be similar here), a lot depends on the point of view - if a king decides to disinherit his own son and make somebody else his heir, you accept this even if your claim to the throne is just as good, because you don't feel you're being deprived of anything - the new heir was chosen instead of the king's son, not instead of you. On the other hand, when the king has no direct heir, and has to choose somebody else, then you know from the start that you're a possible choice, and when somebody else is chosen, you're more likely to take it personally - after all, he could have picked you, and he chose somebody else instead. In those cases, those candidates who felt they deserved to be chosen often rebelled against the new heir immediately after the old king's death.

(all that having been said, however, I'm not claiming that a succession war was certain, or even that it was particularly likely - just that there was such a possibility)
 
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