Cordelia Ransom

Cordelia Ransom is a fictional character in the Honorverse, a series of military science fiction novels written by David Weber. Many people^[who?] consider her to be analogous to Jean-Paul Marat, an important figure in the French Revolution.

A citizen of the People's Republic of Haven, Cordelia Ransom was a leading member of a radical faction called the Citizens' Rights Union. The CRU resorted to acts of terrorism in what they believed was the defense of the God-given right to a high state-supported standard of living.

Together with Rob S. Pierre and Oscar Saint-Just, Ransom led the coup against Haven's Legislaturalist government, and became a senior member of the Committee of Public Safety installed in its place. Her official position was Secretary for Public Information, which would give Ransom control of the People's Republic media and censorship apparatus.

Ransom was considered a skillful propagandist and an expert on managing the mob's emotions, but the more level-headed Pierre and Saint-Just noted that Ransom had extremely radical opinions about politics and economics. Her rhetoric had a distinct resemblance to Communist propaganda, and, as Admiral Thomas Theisman noted, she believed her own propaganda.

Cordelia Ransom used the capture of Honor Harrington as a propaganda weapon against Manticore and personally took Harrington to her scheduled execution on the planet Hades, but she died during Harrington's escape when her personal battlecruiser PNS Tepes was destroyed with all hands.