[Discuss] Lightning bolt raising confusion

[psymann]

Philippe Veillette wrote:
> It appears that our general got a lightning bolt for that message.

My view of it, for what it's worth, is this:

If the General had always also been the SIC of the army[1], then there 
would have been no problem with this.

However, it appears to me that the General was not SIC, and only became 
SIC in order to send orders when the Marshal was injured.  It is the 
army's responsibility to make sure that the SIC is able to take over the 
role of Marshal, should the Marshal be injured.  It is not the place of 
the General to step in to the SIC's role as soon as the Marshal gets 
injured, just so he can send orders.  Not only does it make little sense 
IC for the General to take the SIC position when there's nothing wrong 
with the old SIC, and there are plenty of other people who could be 
drafted in to replace the SIC, but OOC, the General is hogging two 
positions, when the SIC post could be given to someone else.

In other words, if he's been the SIC, it would have been fine.  But if 
he was actually the General, wearing an "I'm the SIC, honest!" badge, 
then it's not.

 >First, don't general make the order even if it's sent by the marshal?

No.  The General does not make orders and give them to the Marshal to 
hand out.  The Marshal is not the General's herald or scribe or 
spokesperson.

General: Gives out general strategic plans (like "secure western 
border", "drive out looters from the realm", "kill all monsters and 
undead", "takeover region Splodge" or something).

Marshal: Gives out specific tactical moves (like "move to region X", 
"use defensive settings, at the front, in line.", "hunt and provide 
scout reports of Blobville", etc)

In this case, it appears that the General was not trying to send 
strategic plans, but detailed tactical operations.  And because he 
couldn't do it as General, he pretended to be the SIC for a bit, so that 
he'd be able to.

Given my interpretation of events, based on your descriptions of them, 
I'd have been very tempted to bolt not only the General for sending 
orders, but also the Army Sponsor, for assigning the General to SIC for 
no valid reason.

psymann

[1] I don't believe it should be possible for a General to be a Marshal 
or SIC at the same time, but that's another discussion.