This major theme forms a grounding for the novel’s exploration of sociopolitical structures, especially in a high fantasy world where the organizational nature of the setting is essential for its overall allegorical and symbolic meaning. The novel’s interior discourse on the role and nature of governance as an ideal is integral to this theme, as is its relationship to human qualities and flaws. The novel presents many opinions, asking Vis and the reader to compare and judge these for their value.

Several characters explicitly discuss greed and corruptibility many times in the narrative, providing the philosophical and ethical backbone of the plot. Vis’s father, the murdered king of Suus, has argued that “there is no form of government immune from mistakes or from corruption” (486) because every system is built and run by human beings who are inherently flawed. Therefore, even a system that is fair in the abstract falls apart in its application. Callidus says a similar thing when he tells Vis that “fair systems cannot exist where people are involved,” although his more extreme philosophy is less compassionate and more cynical (280). Vis echoes elements of these perspectives in his argument with Relucia about the Anguis’s plans, demonstrating his character’s ability to synthesize and judge the various attitudes that the novel presents.