Nanamo's age (and Ul'dah's youngest ruler)

[Edellis]

All this talk of money as power; and emotional devotion as power, misses the real target. And it doesn't surprise me.

The only, the One True Source of power, is this - the ability to kill, and the will to do so.

The richest man or woman in the world is nothing before the blade of a patriot, an assassin, or a simple quiet man with a plan.

Teledji and Lolorito are protected by the law, and run Ul'dah from the base of its foundation. They directly control the lives of its citizens. In that sense, they are the most powerful people there. You could theoretically pay a man a ridiculous amount of money to assassinate someone that strong, but can you pay him enough to offset the amount of money one of them goes into protecting themselves?

And how easily could you set up that kind of ploy anyway? To anyone helping you, how do you ensure they stay loyal, when ratting you out would easily be 1000x more profitable to them and their loved ones? If you ignore that, how would you ever go about doing it alone? Even considering you had the funding and loyal partners, how do you match the loyal and much better funded people guarding him?

And if you succeed, who's to say someone like-minded wouldn't step up, or that more chaos wouldn't come from their removal?

[Hillo]

I'm always fascinated by lore, and the question of the Sultana's plan has been bothering me for awhile now. I haven't completed the full story yet, so maybe I just haven't seen all the rationale, but wouldn't trying to reform Ul'dah into a republic just give the monetarists MORE of chance for power than anything else?

Sure, the monetarists are deeply entrenched in the current government, but if the structure is just abolished (chaos aside) and replaced with a republic, their money and influence doesn't just vanish. They're still going to have their factions and all of their connections. Their wealth will still carry a lot of weight and be able to influence the outcome of any sort of elections. They could even become the representatives themselves (and that would be likely I think). There would just be no sultana to try and keep them at bay. Florence was a republic, but the Medici family still essentially ran things.

[Wadoka]

Teledji and Lolorito are protected by the law...

...Even considering you had the funding and loyal partners, how do you match the loyal and much better funded people guarding him...?

...And if you succeed, who's to say someone like-minded wouldn't step up, or that more chaos wouldn't come from their removal?

All of those things are the statements, and questions, of people who lack the will of which I speak. Such things are not a consideration of the kind of focused, empowered and determined person (lone, singular) who could pull this off.

Ploy? All it takes is one person, in the right place, with the right weapon, and the Powerful bleed out on the street. And where a new power rises, they also bleed out on the street, and so on, and so on, until the message is delivered, or until the so-called "powerful" wall themselves into ineffective seclusion.

Everyone makes mistakes. Wander out without a guard; go out with insufficient guard; expose yourself to a ranged weapon (or spell) at an opportune moment - especially if your travel schedule is more or less a public record...

The nightmare of every protective detail is NOT bands of conspirators, but the lone attacker from out of the blue.

Nanamo has only to say "Will no one rid me of this troublesome merchant?", and it shall be done.