if it was just that, just a dismissal from her job and maybe pulling her credentials would've been enough
According to the entry of the potion (前尘回梦针):该方有违持明风俗规制，若非为攸关一族存亡之事不可擅用。
违背持明族人意愿，哄骗、强迫其使用前尘回梦针，将触犯持明族规，受轮回之刑。
So by law, the sentence is forced molting. Exile is getting off easy.
Dan Feng already named Bailu his successor
We actually have no clue when he named her the successor. Like, did he know the dead abomination was going to turn into a viable Vidyadhara? How would he be sure of this? Since the process was experimental, what was he going to do if the egg turns out to be a dud?
I would assume he could only name her the successor after confirming the egg would hatch. That suggests he'd have to be alive for at least that long.
In the mean time, his trial still has to go on and there will still need to be debate over what to do with Imbibitor Lunae line. Even if we assume the succession has been named before arrest (which, again, sounds iffy due to not having any idea of whether the experiment would be a success), then preservation of IL would be even more problematic.
Imagine a king has a prince that should've been the rightful heir, but the king gets deposed and the ministers claim that actually his majesty named the princess the heir instead...there'll definitely be people who want to install the prince, simply because he's available. At that point, it'll be much more politically stable to kill the prince along with the king to eliminate succession arguments.
I'm talking about the issue WHEN the forced molting took place
I'm pointing out that even at the end of Dan Feng's lifespan, the question of death vs molting would still be relevant. You were saying that it wouldn't matter at that point, but I think it matters regardless of when the sentence was carried out.
As for the exact timing...
If they took 500 years to actually decide on the sentencing of forced molting, that's taking the hypothetical political trading to a completely absurd degree, and such a government should be completely incapable of doing anything important.
500 years may be excessive, but there are cases of criminal (murder) trials that go on for literally 60 years that still never get fully settled IRL, where our average life expectancy is only 84 years. In US alone, many inmates die of old age waiting for their trials to reach a conclusion. Political prisoners can go through easily 40 years of trials without results on the regular. I imagine a complicated case like Dan Feng's isn't resolved in one go, but rather goes through trial, retrial, appeal, etc.
I mean the guy is in prison and not at risk of escape or jailbreak. That gives bureaucrats all the time they want to litigate a satisfying result.
I think you'd be surprised how inefficient the criminal trial system can be while still having a functional government.
There's also the issue of whether the sentence will be carried out immediately. It's also possible the reason the process took a long time is that Ten-Lords decided on execution, but the preceptors appealed the decision, Jing Yuan steps in to ask for a stay of execution to debate the issue further, blah blah back and forth for a couple hundred years. This is pretty normal both IRL and in fiction.
Plus, even death sentences aren't immediate. Just because the sentence is finalized doesn't mean its carried out immediately. Over half of US death row inmates (aka prisoners who received death penalty) wait OVER 18 YEARS before the execution is carried out. A similar thing could happen to Dan Feng, except the wait is like 200 years instead of 18.
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Date: 2024-09-13 06:32 (UTC)According to the entry of the potion (前尘回梦针):
So by law, the sentence is forced molting. Exile is getting off easy.
We actually have no clue when he named her the successor. Like, did he know the dead abomination was going to turn into a viable Vidyadhara? How would he be sure of this? Since the process was experimental, what was he going to do if the egg turns out to be a dud?
I would assume he could only name her the successor after confirming the egg would hatch. That suggests he'd have to be alive for at least that long.
In the mean time, his trial still has to go on and there will still need to be debate over what to do with Imbibitor Lunae line. Even if we assume the succession has been named before arrest (which, again, sounds iffy due to not having any idea of whether the experiment would be a success), then preservation of IL would be even more problematic.
Imagine a king has a prince that should've been the rightful heir, but the king gets deposed and the ministers claim that actually his majesty named the princess the heir instead...there'll definitely be people who want to install the prince, simply because he's available. At that point, it'll be much more politically stable to kill the prince along with the king to eliminate succession arguments.
I'm pointing out that even at the end of Dan Feng's lifespan, the question of death vs molting would still be relevant. You were saying that it wouldn't matter at that point, but I think it matters regardless of when the sentence was carried out.
As for the exact timing...
500 years may be excessive, but there are cases of criminal (murder) trials that go on for literally 60 years that still never get fully settled IRL, where our average life expectancy is only 84 years. In US alone, many inmates die of old age waiting for their trials to reach a conclusion. Political prisoners can go through easily 40 years of trials without results on the regular. I imagine a complicated case like Dan Feng's isn't resolved in one go, but rather goes through trial, retrial, appeal, etc.
I mean the guy is in prison and not at risk of escape or jailbreak. That gives bureaucrats all the time they want to litigate a satisfying result.
I think you'd be surprised how inefficient the criminal trial system can be while still having a functional government.
There's also the issue of whether the sentence will be carried out immediately. It's also possible the reason the process took a long time is that Ten-Lords decided on execution, but the preceptors appealed the decision, Jing Yuan steps in to ask for a stay of execution to debate the issue further, blah blah back and forth for a couple hundred years. This is pretty normal both IRL and in fiction.
Plus, even death sentences aren't immediate. Just because the sentence is finalized doesn't mean its carried out immediately. Over half of US death row inmates (aka prisoners who received death penalty) wait OVER 18 YEARS before the execution is carried out. A similar thing could happen to Dan Feng, except the wait is like 200 years instead of 18.