I just wrapped up the United Empires quest chain and did some savescummed to check out an alternate pathway (My first playthrough I went Mezari and the second pathway I stayed as the UE.) I had the inklings of a suspicion wedge  itself into my head and after chatting with another player who proceeded down a different path I hit on a theory that I wanted to share. 

So yeah, UE Quest line spoilers. 

The central part of the story had mostly to do with the Conspiracy and him trying to consolidate his rule and legacy but at the end if you let Zelavas follow up on that final clue you can find out the identity of the perp. 

In my playthrough it was Hadri Lenko. (Et tu Hadri?) However, I had selected Lena to be my heir and I wondered if the game didn't merely pick one of the two other possible Heirs you didn't pick. 

The other player I had talked to confirmed this when he mentioned he had chosen one of the other two and gotten Lena as the Rebel leader. 

This could merely have been done to prevent you from losing a hero but what if it isn't? When I went Mezari the clue was on a rebel base while when I went UE it was actually a shipyard. So as my theory goes what if all three possible Heirs were part of the Conspiracy? 

Zelevas himself wondered if one of the three possible heirs we're responsible. And the scale of the Conspiracy is pretty enormous. Requiring funds, manpower and significant scientific backing (Considering the colony was established since before the UE had it's own program.) If it were any singular individual it likely couldn't have worked....Too much manpower, resources, scientific backing and even a mysterious blood relative acting as a field Commander? 

Hadri is a consummate soldier with plenty of military pull but I doubt he had the acsess to funds and raw capital and scienctists needed to pull it off. 

Lena likely has the funds and industrial know how and contacts to pull off the secret shipyards and bases and her daughter was a member of the Conspiracy. But she likely doesn't have the needed military pull and training to put together a fighting  force, lead them or train them.

Not to mention not having the scientific backing needed....

And Petra has the resources of a major Scientific think tank that could provided the needed know how to get a far flung colony world started without using starlanes but probably didn't have the industrial or military know how to launch a coup. 

Heck, to even keep a conspiracy of this size quiet for decades and to carefully bury the leads that should have existed after it was cracked open (And that last vital clue potentially getting burned after the Emperor learns of it.)  it practically requires multiple highly placed people with frequent contact with the Emperor working in tandem to keep things quiet. Who better to do so then the Emperor's personal bodyguard, his younger Sister and his Chief science advisor?  

what do you all think?

A conspiracy is kinda the least of his worries once he becomes the God Emperor at the end though. One to challenge even the Lost.

Hypnoncatrice wrote:

A conspiracy is kinda the least of his worries once he becomes the God Emperor at the end though. One to challenge even the Lost.

All the Dust on Raia won't protect someone, even an Emperor from a well aimed knife aimed at your back from some figure lurking in the shadows. :P

I like the idea that they were all conspirators, but I think it's probably more an alliance of convenience. They each want to be emperor/ess, so they cooperated up to a point (getting you to abdicate) but still sabotaged each other, because they have very different visions of what the UE should be. I mean, Lena's story about giving birth to twins and then not knowing what happened to the other is barely believable; that was probably Hadri trying to cast suspicion on Lena, the UE's default favorite by bloodline.

I always suspected Hadri was a traitor, considering he's a Sheredyn. They betrayed  the UE in the first game too.

SirBagel wrote:

I like the idea that they were all conspirators, but I think it's probably more an alliance of convenience. They each want to be emperor/ess, so they cooperated up to a point (getting you to abdicate) but still sabotaged each other, because they have very different visions of what the UE should be. I mean, Lena's story about giving birth to twins and then not knowing what happened to the other is barely believable; that was probably Hadri trying to cast suspicion on Lena, the UE's default favorite by bloodline.

It more then likely was, that's how most conspiracies wind up, the conspirators start killing each other. Unless there was very clear goals, expected rewards and motivations for doing so....And even then that might not prevent bloodshed. 

UndeadPuppy wrote:

I always suspected Hadri was a traitor, considering he's a Sheredyn. They betrayed  the UE in the first game too.

To be fair....In ES1 the Sheredyn only 'Betrayed' the senile and unbalanced Emperor who was implied to be a destabilizing the United Empire. (Think of it similar to the position Jaime Lannister was in with Aegon the Mad in ASOIAF.)  It was still a breach of their loyalty but it wasn't without it's well meaning justifications.

In ES2....Well....It's hard to know why the Conspirators did what they did. But considering how paranoid and crazy Zelavas sort of got and finally deciding to never give up powerat all at the end maybe it was necessary?

Just an FYI about who the traitor is - the game really does pick one of the other two after you select an heir. Lena was the traitor in my game where I picked Petra as next-in-line.