The assassin cult: originally created as an extremist Muslim sect led by Hassan-ii-Sabbah. He showed the cult members one at a time that which would be considered heaven by the cultists. This was done by the correct combination of drugs, staging of an event, and appropriate stimuli. He could give a vision of Hell with the same techniques. For example, he would have a man's head cut off for failing the cult, then the cultists would "see" the man's head "speak from hell". Each assassin was dedicated; he "knew" where he would go if he failed the cult, and what reward would be his if he were faithful. Of course the assassin was specially trained. An assassin needed to know several languages, disguises, the ability to take on different roles, and the expert use of the dagger as weapon of choice. Assassination; the word strikes fear into the heart of every public figure. It is the specter that walks always behind men and women of power. No one who must be in the public eye can guard at all times; each is vulnerable to the knife, the bullet, the bomb ... or the poisoned cup of wine. The term assassin dates back to the time of on Hassan-il-Sabbah who lived in late 11th or early 12th century Terra. He created a religious order of killers; the word assassin is considered by some authorities to be a variant on this man's name. The word assassination as it is used here is defined as a killing, done to make either a political or an economic statement with the hopes that the successor shall be an improvement on the previous official. Because of the enormous number of assassinations throughoutthe histories of the various houses, this paper will only deal with the greatest and most well known of assassinations. We shall look at five assassinations, two from House Marik and two from other Successor Houses, and one failed attempt. The first four will be compared by techniques, effectiveness, and aftereffects. Thefinal one will deal with the attempted assassination of Elizabeth Steinerand its effecton Marik, Steiner, and Kurita relations. Lastly, I'll give a potential outlook on future attempts, where they are likely and by what methods. The first two assassinations to be looked at will be the assassination of Geraldine Marik in 2364, and the Steiner Operation Praying Mantis of 2848-50. In the mid-2300s, House Marik had recently begun employing official food tasters to prevent food poisoning; a dwarf was used because any food poisoning would take effect more quickly and be noticed sooner in an individual with a smaller body mass than in a more normal-sized person. In 2363 one Mohammed Kimborough, the food taster, became violently ill, and he was found to have arsenic in his system. Tests indicated that the Captain-General was being slowly poisoned by arsenic as well. Kimbrough was treated as a hero. After a year of recuperation, he came back to work and promptly put large amounts of ground glass in Geraldine Marik's food. (He was so trusted that nobody looked at the food after he tasted it.) The Captain-General died three weeks later; Kimborough escaped and was never found. Operation Praying Mantis was similar to this. A female Lyran Intelligence Corps agent was carefully placed in one of the Courtesan schools in the Draconis Combine. (To be specific, a chool in the Rasalhague district.) She was able to catch the eye of Yoguchi Kurita, and he had her brought to the palace on Luthien. On a dark night after he fell asleep, she slit Yoguchi's throat. She placed a patch from the Steiner 4th Royal Guards on his now lifeless body, then poisoned herself to ensure that no information would be taken from her. The techniques used by these two assassins are of similar intent. The dwarf had insured his credibility to the Marik by making it appear that someone else was trying to kill her. The assassin known only as Snowfire played on the Coordinator's known liking for the fairer sex, then struck quickly as a snake. Snowfire: the information on her is sketchy; for example, she is known to history only by her courtesan name; but from the archives it may be possible to reconstruct more of her background. She was about 25 years old, very beautiful, highly intelligent, and probably dexterous to a fault. This can be seen by her rise in the Ukiyo, from Rasalhague as a lowly Geisha girl to the Royal household. She was loyal to the Lyran Commonwealth, and cared deeply for the lover whom she knew she would never see again. She was expert in the use of a knife; a single blow killed the Coordinator. Each spent long periods of time and gave careful attention to creating or making a credible background, developing a relationship with the victim which made the victim trusting and therefore vulnerable. Each assassin played on the peculiar vulnerability of the victim, and succeeded in achieving the victim's death. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this particular technique gave the governments concerned a shock, and insured that these particular techniques would not be used successfully again. Of course the aftermath in each case was something to take note of. In the Free Worlds League, the new Captain-General was kept under house arrest and even kept sedated by his uncle for an extremely long time, winning free from his imprisonment under great difficulties. In the Draconis Combine, an attack in force was made as reprisal on the Lyran planet of Hesperus 11, the heart of House Steiner's BattleMech production. The attack ultimately failed because of the overextended supply line; the Kurita forces could not continue what amounted to a siege for a long enough period of time. Each of these assassins succeeded by methods of a subtle nature. Each of these assassinations brought a change to the affected house, but were they the changes desired by the assassins? Methods Methods of assassination are of two types: the first uses subtle and careful means; this seems to have a greater success rate than the second type, which is the use of violence and terror to produce change in one's own or another government. The second type involves either a public killing or the destruction of public buildings with their inhabitants to make a political statement. Let us take a look at two other assassinations of a more violent nature, and their radical effects. These assassinations are those of the Black Prince of House Davion, and the Scourge of Death incident in House Marik. The Black Prince, James Davion, who was assassinated in 2467 for reasons which can only be guessed at, was a womanizer who felt no guilt and who madeshameless use of his rank. He proved to be a capable leader, so it was assumed that his people had decided to overlook certain matters. Someone did take offense, it is certain, because they shot and killed him together with his aides, severely wounding several others and crippling Ellen Davion. The assassin was never found. This particular assassination turned out to be one of the most effective ever in causing a beneficial change in government. Ellen Davion, also known as the Lady in the Wheelchair, turned her brother's death into a great personal victory for all of womankind. House Davion was going through a phase of antiferninism, particularly in the military forces. Many critics thought her unsuited for office because of her sex and her crippled state. But she ruled for the next thirty years inwhatThe House Davion annals call The Golden Age. This is one of the few times that an assassin's bullet may have succeeded in fulfilling its ultimate goal. The Scourge of Death Incident in 2677 was what a terrorist group could call the Penultimate (next to ultimate) Assassination, the near-total annihilation of the ruling family after a decade of violence. The assassin had spent several days observingthe housetofind outthe best places to set the explosives to ensure that as many as possible, most if not all of the Marik Household would die. Out of forty-one people in the house at the time of the explosion only two survived: Gerald Marik, and a 3rd Marik militia commander. Gerald Marik required much bionic reconstruction just to survive. This bombing was highly effective in terms of numbers, but its aftermath was a shock to everyone, most probably even to the assassin's faction. When Gerald Marik took office two very important things happened. First, he ordered the utter destruction of the Scourge of Death terrorists; he succeeded in getting rid of so many of them that they would never strike again, and nobody would wish to follow their example if it meant suffering their fate. The second item of importance gets us into the controversy over bionics; the question was raised of whether bionics have a dehumanizing effect on the people who have them implanted. To attribute Captain-General Gerald's actions to dehumanization is absurd. The loss of the entirety of his family was sufficient to explain the actions that he took to ensure the safety of his wife and children and the safety of the Realm against the attacks of those who would have loved to see utter anarchy rule the Free Worlds League. Let us now compare the second pair of assassinations to determine how effective they were. Each of the assassinations ended up leaving many people hurt and/or killed. Each also made some sort of personal statement for the person or group doing the assassination. Each of the attempts was a catalyst for great events which rocked the very foundations on which the House concerned was built. Let's compare each point separately. First: the amount of injured and dead from each one. The Scourge of Death, though it had a higher body count, tried to make sure that few "Innocents" were hurt; unlike the Black Prince incident where too many "Innocents" were killed. Second: the statement being made by the assassins. When the Black Prince was killed, the killer was probably rebelling againstthe prince's abuses of power in dealing with the opposite sex. It may have been a jealous boyfriend or an irate father; it could have been an angered husband. This is the only logical reason for his death because in all other respects, he was a good leader. On the other side of the coin is the Scourge of Death and their message. Theirs was one which they had been stating forthe previous ten years. Those who are Star League members or supporters must die, for t he Star League is an evil, self-destructive monolith which must fall. Finally, the after effects were incredibly different although the situations after the assassinations were very similar. Both of the Successor Lords were wounded during the assassination and had need for some sort of mechanical contrivance to aid them, be it a wheelchair or bionics. The course of action was different from this point. The new Prince Ellen Davion was an able, efficient, and beloved ruler; she was able to all but eliminate the woman's stereotyped image in the Federated Suns. That was all that she managed to salvage from the ruins. On the other hand, Captain-General Gerald Marik took up the reins of leadership and began a crusade to show that terrorism would not survive under his rule of the Free Worlds League. He eliminated what amounted to a great thorn in the Star League's side. Attempted Now let us take a look at the attempted assassination of Archon Elizabeth Steiner in 2867 which was ordered by Phillipa Marik; how the Archon's use and choice of guards enabled her to survive, and the long range effects of that survival. In 2566 a major earthquake hit Tharkad City. The then-Archon Tracial Steiner ordered the old government house destroyed, and a new one built. At that time, an architect who had a grievance against the government sold the plans to Marik agents. So in 2867 when the assassination was ordered, the plans were used to get the Marik assassins as close to the throne room as possible. They were able to reach the throne room itself without any incidents, but there they received a huge surprise. When the doors opened they found that the Archon had 2 BattleMechs along with her normal personal guard. Her 'Mechs eliminated the assassins in very short order. Of course when the Lyran Intelligence Corps examined the scene, they found the secret passages, and secured them so that assassins could not get away with a stunt like that again. A reprisal would seem to be the normal reaction to such an attack. But the Lyrans did not strike back in any real form; this failed attempt seemed to lower morale rather than to strengthen it. The incident showed positive proof to the Draconis Combine that the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth would never work out their differences, thus opening the way to a potential Kurita-Marik treaty. Even though the assassination was unsuccessful, we can still look at it and see how we could improve a plan which failed to the point of possible success. An improved plan would have been avariation on Operation Praying Mantis and on the Scourge of Death incident. The patient waiting until Archon Elizabeth was either alone, or with as few of her guards as possible, and no BattleMechs were present; the quick use of a knife, much quieter than a gun. An assassin who could have been patient would most likely have been successful, escaping afterward thorough the secret passages, leaving the possibility that they would remain unfound, a way to get at another Archon in a future time. And the actual effects of the attempted assassination to the Marik, Steiner, and Kurita interrelationships? House Steiner was being attacked on two frontiers by the other two Houses. Somehow the attempt on the Archon's life took the heart out of her forces. It is a matter of record that for the next two years the Steiner 'Mechs lost several worlds; each time they regained a world they seemed to lose two more. In the Marik-Kurita relationship, this long campaign allowed the chance for an agreement which eventually came to pass with the Treaty of Kapteyn, after Steiner and Davion allied. As we have seen, assassinations and attempted assassinations are crucial in Succession House histories. Assassination can be used to make a personal statement, or a political statement. It would be foolish to presume that assassination is a tactic limited to the past. Perhaps another Archon will be approached in a more subtle manner. A private courier who needs to see her alone in her office? A knife made of the new plastics which are not scan ne r-detectable ? Perhaps the hostility between father and son in House Kurita will result in an abrupt change in the Coordinator's position? Perhaps a Marik will eliminate several of the other candidates for the Captain-Generalship after the Marik passes on? I venture to predict that within our lifetimes the Successor Houses will experience an event of this kind; for the House involved, the life of its people will be deeply affected by the ancient legacy of Hassan-il-Sabbah. Back to BattleTechnology 9 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com