>You made me curious, so I skim-reread the whole thing, and, yeah. The
>guy is clearly, as you say, either bullshitting or out of his tree.
>I'm not surprised the Wedge Rats rolled with it in the moment; they
>meet Wolfgang right after a long journey on a ship way too small for
>how many people were aboard. 200 people, one working shower, no
>laundry facilities, toward the end they're surviving on vending
>machine snacks and running out of those. I think my own reaction would
>have been along the lines of "as long as there's a bunk and real food
>on offer I'll believe anything you say."

Yeah, I'd say given all the events from the beginning of UF1 up to that point, I don't think anyone present was really in the right mindset to pick apart anything Lord F had to say. And any suspicions were probably dispelled when everything after his big scene seemed to indicate that if he wasn't on the level, he wasn't an immediate danger to them.

>In the longer view, whatever is actually going on in his head, von
>Fahrvergnügen has been profoundly and consistently generous to
>everyone in the WDF, and his deep pockets and his shipwrights' skills
>are real. Complaining that it's been 400-plus years and this
>mysterious First Evil that he needs a space navy to fight has never
>materialized (unless that was Twilight, but I don't think it was?)
>would be churlish.

By the time of SotS, debate over the nature of the First Evil and the danger it poses is probably the subject of entire shelves at your local physical bookseller. Various intellectuals from across the known galaxy who've learned of Lord F's story have speculated on whether the First Evil is real, if so has it already been encountered, and if not what danger does it possibly pose to the great powers of the modern age. Think all the books that exist out there with various interpretations of the Book of Revelation and whether it's prophecy or allegory.