who would ever be a seanchan assassin?

[king of nowhere]

I'm putting together a few things we know about seanchan noble society and assassination:

 

- from suroth and tuon, we know that every single high blood has received several assasssination attempt suring his/her life. Indeed, the first attempt will generally happen while yoou're still in the cradle.

 

- from galgan and mat we know that even when seanchan nobles don't want each other dead, they still send assassins, it's sort of courtesy.

 

- most of those assassinations are carried by brute force: suroth was saved by her lopar, and only three of her bodyguards survived the first attempt on tuon. as she has dozens of deatwatch guards around, one can only guess how many assassins were sent to almost kill them all.

 

From that we can deduce two things:

1) there must be plenty of assasssins in seanchan

2) most assassinations fail, with the assassin killed.

 

And so the question is, what would possess anyone to try to become an assassin? One has to undergo a hard training, start a specific career, with the prospect of a 90% or greater chance of dieing on his very first job. And most of the times he would just be meant to die, as a way of sending a political message. Even if you happen to be one of the lucky few who succeed, you're not out of your misery. while all nobles try to assassinate each other, I'm fairly sure  it is against the law, if proof of it can be produced; so a succesful assassin has an even chance of getting paid or getting killed to ensure his silence. If, at the end of all this, the assassin is still alive, given how effective the seekers for truth are, the chances of him being found and executed are still fairly high - although, admittedly, if one hasn't been discouraged by the odds up to this point, he certainly won't worry at the chance of being found by the seekers.

 

The only chance I see of this making sense is from something tuon said, that if an empress succumb to assassination then she wasn't strong enough to rule. So maybe according to seanchan law trying to kill a nuble is a heinous crime, but actually killing a noble is commended. In that case, assassins would be a respected profession, discworld-style, seen as the people in charge of removing the metaphorical dead wood. the chance of not being killed by the bodyguards of the target are still slim, but if you succeed, you become rich and important and your eyes are raised a lot. Still, it's not a profession with much of a future, and i find it hard to believe that even the seanchan could be that strange anyway.

 

The point is, everyone who start a career of assassin in seanchan must be seriously brain-damaged; it's amazing they find enough people to do the job. Also, it follows that every assassin is an amateur at his first experience; they either die in the attempt, or they become filthy rich and retire from business. That could help explain why so many assassinations fail.

[The Sovereign]

I think the answer is actually pretty simple, it is a matter of honor and money. It is implied by Tuon along with other Seanchan nobles (I think Egeanin specifically addresses the issue) that the assassins' families are very well compensated. Think of people committing suicide for life insurance fraud to support their families then factor in that failure still leads to compensation and success probably a lot more. In addition, it is ingrained into the Seanchan people that there is no higher calling than serving the empire. I would guess that many of the assassins see giving their lives to the empire as something to be prideful of.

[Young Bard he/him]

Also, they could be conscripted. They wouldn't dare run away, as they would get hunted down by the damane, so they follow orders and hope for the best.

Edited October 31, 2015 by TheYoungBard

[king of nowhere]

I didn't think of the families, and it can make sense. I don't remember the passages where egeanin said the families were compensated, despite being almost done with my fourth reread, and it requires that being an assassin is seen as a perfectly acceptable and honorable profession in seanchan, which I don't think we have proof one way or the other. However, given how almost sacred the nobles are, to the point that even the seekers are not allowed to spill their blood when torturing or when executing, I'd be really surprised if commoners were given leave to stab them.

 

Still, it is a better explanation than everything I can think of.