Lord Gorce

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Appears in issues 18-19. Mentioned in issue 22.

Governor of the Vessariat district of Palnu.

"Lord Gorce was created ... to establish what would appear to be a major threat to Lord Julius' control of Palnu." (_Swords_of_Cerebus_, volume 5, introduction to issue 19).

"A power struggle between Lord Julius and Lord Gorce? Hardly likely. Gorce is a lightweight, suffering from the same myopia as Cerebus. The world of Estarcion is in the middle of a great social upheaval. There is great wealth and the rise of the merchant class is making all these chaps with the big armies something of the past. If Lord Gorce tried to wrest power from Lord Julius, he would be trying to buck the largest inter-related old-boy network on the continent. Lord Julius pays his armies well and his bureaucrats even better. And if Lord Gorce thought that defeating a bunch of uncouth barbarians from the north was going to win him power by acclamation, he was not facing the fact that virtually the whole population of Palnu is either directly or indirectly employed by the government. With Lord Julius' rotating bureaucracy [...] his chances of finding somewhere to drive the thin end of his revolutionary wedge were two-fold; slim and nill [sic]. The result is a paralysis on his part, but not a complete loss of influence. Like most of the rebels in Palnu he will be facing the dilemma of being independent and powerless or acquiescent and influential." (26, Letters).