[Imperial Historian]

This has been really bugging me for a long time. Most of the time steven eriksons characters seem quite beliveable(within the context of his world) but why on earth did lasseen make PORMQUAL a high fist?

it states somewhere in DHG that lasseen personally appointed promqual as high fist, as she personally selects all her commaders from those she can trust, so why did pormqual an incompetent coward, with no military experience get appointed to command a country on the verge of rebellion for gods sake???

Lasseen is anything but stupid so the appointment of pormqual seems totally out of character. Did steven erikson just put such an incompetent in charge for the sake of creating a stroy?

another point why did pormqual have the authority to override admiral nok, one of the chief military figures in the empire? surely admiral nok shuld have been able to overrule him?

[Stony]

Because she could,
because she wanted some one who would obey her without question.
yes he is an incompetent coward...she can control his every move if she wished? please correct me if im wrong

[Stony]

well possibly she appointed him because he had a part in her coming to power?

[Dolorous Menhir]

I don't know, politics?

His predecessor was assassinated shortly before, perhaps he was the natural replacement and his lack of ability wasn't obvious? (There was a scene with Kulp and someone else, Duiker maybe, talking secretly, they did it in the room where the previous High Fist was murdered and it was implied that was a recent event).

Laseen may have made a mistake. Perhaps she didn't consider the possible rebellion in Seven Cities a credible threat.

I'm not sure if there is a definite reason provided. Maybe Mallick Rel somehow contrived the situation - an easily manipulated figurehead for him to control is just too convenient for him. I wouldn't be surprised if Rel had the predecessor assassinated to make way for Pormqual.

[Dark Mac]

TBH Spoilers.

Spoiler

I thought it was implied quite heavily in TBH that Pormqual wasn't actually all that incompetent, he just seemed like it due to Mallick Rel's mental manipulations. Which are perhaps even more effective when used for years than they are after a few seconds.

[Fiddler]

well, it could have been that a series of events unhinged the man. Imagine the constant tension on a commander? Try to imagine being responsible to an Empress, and responsible for near 15,000 soldiers and a continent of civilians.
I couldn't do it.

[Chiblade]

I don't know about the spoilers, I didn't read 'em, but I always thought that Rell killed Carethon (i think that was the High Fist who was assassinated) and then had something to do with Laseen promoting pormqual with the eventual betrayal in mind.

[Stony]

Dolorous Menhir;203877 said:

I don't know, politics?

His predecessor was assassinated shortly before, perhaps he was the natural replacement and his lack of ability wasn't obvious? (There was a scene with Kulp and someone else, Duiker maybe, talking secretly, they did it in the room where the previous High Fist was murdered and it was implied that was a recent event).

Laseen may have made a mistake. Perhaps she didn't consider the possible rebellion in Seven Cities a credible threat.

I'm not sure if there is a definite reason provided. Maybe Mallick Rel somehow contrived the situation - an easily manipulated figurehead for him to control is just too convenient for him. I wouldn't be surprised if Rel had the predecessor assassinated to make way for Pormqual.

yeah...so he could manipulate him for his own gain of power?