Stanley is killed but the Foolamancer survives?

[Moechi_Vill]

And possibly joins Wanda? Or would his loyalty remain with the new ruler, the special heir?

[CaptC]

Makes no sense. With no heir, Stanley's side will go neutral. Disaster for Parson. Stanley *will* survive this turn, or the story ends as a tragedy.

My guess is that the foolamancer will either directly convince Stanley to turn back to Gobwin Knob (probability < 10% he succeeds) or use his powers to trick Stanley back to GK.

In that case, the foolamancer may have a very short lifespan. Stanley can disband Jack with a thought, and is likely to be angry.

[Moechi_Vill]

But Parson is special as mentioned above. He might just become the new leader despite not being the heir. The special should pop up soon now, perhaps related to the Arkentools or being a viable heir. I don't think he was special because he was unfinished.

It'd be too much of a cliffhanger if it goes on to be explained in one of the sequels, so I hope not.

[CaptC]

The only other two times we know about an heir being popped, it was voluntary on the part of the leader of the faction. And it carried a cost.

Saline IV made Stanley heir because he liked him, and he paid a lot of schmuckers for it.

Banhammer had an heir popped because he expected to be defeated. He apparently paid nothing other than whatever time it took to pop the heir, but also apparently got a random heir instead of being aware of what he was going to get.

Having Parson just magically be the heir, with no foreshadowing that I can see, is not very likely. Not to mention, I suspect Stanley would emphatically NOT pick Parson as his heir.

Parson being 'special' gave Hamstard a chance to make a derogatory pun about Parson, and gave Parson the ability to get powers (like luckamancy and mathamancy artifacts) that normal warlords don't. I wouldn't read any more into it than that.

[Richbin]

Stanley needs to recognize that he indeed has the perfect Warlord.
He cannot croak until that realization has happenned.
He might be jealous, he might be ashamed, he might be vexxed, but he must have that epiphany, so he will not croak.
Not.
just
yet