You're the Head of a Noble House - Dothraki Edition

[James Steller]

Imagine you're the veteran khal of a Dothraki khalasar, with five kos loyal to you as well as seven bloodriders at your beck and call. You and your khaleesi have five children between you. You have just brought your khalasar to Vaes Dothrak after another successful season of raiding. Your continuous success has led to your long reign as khal, but this long reign means that you are an older man now, and though you are in your people's sanctuary, you are facing threats to yourself, your family, and your khalasar.

Your eldest son and khalakka is 18 years old, and is showing all signs of succeeding you as a leader. However, his youthful hot-headedness has led to a problem. On your way to Vaes Dothrak, your 17-year old daughter married a younger khal, and at the wedding, your son unknowingly slew the khal's brother for the right to bed a dancer. Your new son-in-law has stated he cannot and will not seek to punish your son, but afterwards, your son fell ill. He is now being tended to in the city, but your khaleesi is adamant that he was poisoned, and such a cowardly attack must be avenged. She had always been opposed to marrying your daughter to the khal, but you are shaken by the timing of your son's illness and must take time to decide what you will do when you leave Vaes Dothrak.

Meanwhile, your 16-year old daughter is a hot-blooded teenager, full of dislike for the Dothraki ways. Much to your dismay, she has disappeared since last night, along with a trading party from Qohor. Your youngest ko, himself attracted to her, declares that he saw her talking with a handsome young trader from the party and insists that she has likely eloped with the party. Her twin brother, already a ruthless Dothraki fighter in his own right, furiously declares that he'll ride out today, bring his sister back, and massacre them all in revenge. He is preparing to leave right now. However, your youngest ko was absent from dinner, with no explanation. Could he have been lying to cover his own elopement with your daughter? You have to act fast if you want to do something.

In the wake of all this, two of your kos and three of your bloodriders have approached you in secret and stated that your senior ko is planning on challenging you for control of the khalasar once you leave the city. With your heir sick, your middle son in defiance of you, and your third son just 10 years old, he will kill you and take the khalasar for himself. Your most loyal bloodrider declares that his life is yours to the end, so he will find the senior ko, strangle him, and accept the punishment of death as the sole conspirator if he is caught. You know this is dangerous talk, and the action could lead to your own disgrace no matter what the bloodrider promises.

How do you run this khalasar?

[Universal Sword Donor]

I'd kill the ko and poison kill anyone pissing me off and start over.

You're also completely overlooking the fact that the Khal isn't gonna give a shit if his son succeeds him. He has to do it on his own merits. Dothraki wouldn't use poison either.

[OmnomnomPomelo]

Kill the men!

Destroy the stone tents!

Rape the women!

Barter the children!

[The Witch King of Asshai]

I lead them all into the Red Waste, sacrificing myself to rid the world of a fair few savages.

Or

When I leave Vaes Dothrak I will not seek a feud with my son-in-law, as long as my son survives and hopefully learns some caution. If he does die however, then I will butcher every man, woman and child in that Khalasar, and hopefully regain my daughter. This will both avenge my son and increase my own standing in the Dothraki society.

My second daughter will be taken back, but I will lead the party and ensure there is no blood-shed. If she hates the Dothraki, Good for Her! I'll try and secure a marriage with a rich merchant/magister in one of the free cities, probably Qohor. There are plenty of rich, unscrupulous men who won't say no to an alliance with a powerful Khal. Should I ever want to sack a free city, then I have a man on the inside.

My Second son I will ensure learns some judgement, and if he looks like screwing up again I'll personally kill him. As for the young Ko, if he would lie to me then he will die, he will suffer an accident not long after leaving Vaes Dothrak. He was too ambitious, and this will be his death. I can then raise up a new Ko, perhaps my oldest surviving son.

My bloodrider will kill the Ko, and then I will butcher his leaderless extended family and loyal men, just to be sure. Problem solved.

Essentially, kill anyone who looks like threatening me, then burn and sack a few farming villages.

[Lord Freypie]

Trying to use Dothraki wisdom to solve the situation...

Clearly I don't believe any khal would use poison to punish someone for having blessed his wedding with biood. Khals are honorable warriors and spilled blood only bless a wedding, it's known.

I soon come to the conclusion that my daughter is culpable of poisoning my elder son, and it's why she is now fleeing. Poison is a woman weapon, it's known,

Her goal was probably that her twin my second could to inherit without having to risk a fight against my elder. Twins always support each other, it's known.

I don't believe the male twin really wants to kill my daughter, his only goal is to pull me out of the city, where their accomplice the senior Ko will defy and kill me, and also to be away at this moment. Treacherous people ally with other treacherous people, it's known.

As long we are in Vaes Dothrak the Ko don't have the occasion to defy me and as I'm still his khal must obey my orders. Kos must follow khal orders, it's known.

So I give the ko 1/10 of my forces and ask him to pursue the treacherous twins and bring me their heads. It's not important if he does or not, I just want him out of the city and with a separate khalazar. Then I go out with the 9/10 some time after. I tell my men the ko is a traitor who conspired with the twins to assassinate my sons, and to consider anyone who followed him as members of an enemy Khalasar. We destroy them (and also kill the twins and qohoris if still alive). Out of Vaes Dothrak any khalazar may attack any khalazar, and powerful khals show no pity, it's known.

As my poisoned son couldn't rid a horse when I went out of Vaes Dothrak I dishinerit him. Someone must be able to ride to become a khal, it's known.

My wife spent her time giving bad advice, protecting my treacherous daughter and trying to turn me into a weakling and is probably now spending her time crying. I don't think she desserve to remain khaleesi and have one day the honor to join the Dosh Khalem and lead our whole race. As I'm not sure divorce exist in dothraki law I ask my loyal bloorider to discretely strangle her. It's stupid not to use the help of someone generously offering service, it's known.

I still have one son, and a few years without succession problems before he comes of age. No problem I have no intention to die soon. Everything is fine. The smaller the number of potential khals the higher the chances the khalasar remains united, it's known.

[bb1180]

Attempting to put myself into the shoes of a barbarian Dothraki warlord here...

On the first count, I remind the khaleesi that the son is an adult and the consequences he suffered was a result of his own actions. Maybe next time, he'll use better judgement. I leave the door open for possible retribution on the basis of the poisoning, but make no firm committment.

Regarding the daughter, normally, I wouldn't even care. She's a daughter and not particularly valuable. But in this case, the potential of her crawling off with some perfumed limp wristed merchant man is an affront to my honor. If the twin brother wants to lead a raiding party, so be it. My only instruction is to bring the daughter and the trader back alive to learn the truth of it. The younger ko likely is not lying; he has little reason to hide such a thing, because, again, I'm Dothraki. What do I care? And if he wants the daughter, he can have her.

And as for the final situation, what good is a Dothraki khal who can't fight his own battles? Of course, if I can't win the fight, then I need to avoid the fight. As luck would have it, a little potential for deceit has fallen right into my lap. So, I call all of the bloodriders and kos in for a meeting. Here, I inform them that my son has been poisoned by the son-in-law. I parade my sickly son in front of the group to gin up some anger. Next, I related that some of my most trusted men...men in the same room now...came to me with news of a traitor in my midst looking to take advantage of this situation. And, though I admit I have no direct evidence, I suggest the notion that perhaps this man collaborated in this poisoning to create this very situation so that I might be weakened for a takeover. It should be enough to manipulate the men when I finally point the finger at the senior ko. I probably won't even have to lay a finger on him.

After that, I lead a party to raid some random villages in celebration of my greatness and to reward my loyal men with the gifts they may find in those villages.

[EastTymor]

Get shitfaced on mead. Hope that when I wake up, I am no longer Dothraki.

[Equilibrium]

Well I set up some meeting with other khals and declare my son in law poisoned my son and my ko (senior one) helped him, so they can take my khalasar by treason, then I have my bloodriders strangle them in front of everyone.

I send my second son to pursue the traders, if his sister is with them he can kill them all, but if not he has to leave them be, then he can go pursuing the young ko, in any case there are killings to be had.

Second daughter will later be married to some magister from Free Cities, it's not like they would refuse.

[Floki of the Ironborn]

Well, I have no idea if the young kol is smuggling my daughter away or if she went with the traders. And if she's such a troublemaker and so unwilling to be a Dothraki, then fine, I'll let her go with the traders. But if my kol lied to my face and tried to smuggle her away himself, that is unforgivable. So I redirect my middle son with two bloodriders to find the kol and find out if he's actually hiding her away. Meanwhile, I send another a ko, a bloodrider and several men after the traders, not to slaughter, but to find out if they have my daughter. If she's there willingly, then let her go with my blessing.

Surely no khal would poison another's khalakka, especially one who just married the khalakka's sister. I remind my khaleesi of that, while hoping that my son recovers. If not, I have two more.

My senior ko is going to challenge me? Well I'd like to hold onto my power, but the idea that my bloodriders think I'm going to lose if I fight is deeply insulting. Then again if I die, then they die too so I can see why they're being cautious. Either way I make it the senior ko who goes after the traders, and if all goes as planned, I have the bloodrider murder my ko on the way back to the city when nobody's looking. I stay in the city until my eldest son recovers/dies.