(SPOILERS) Too worried about waking up Dad?

Evilauthor, David never said that it would ever be necessary to destroy the temple with a nuke, whether carried in personally by Merlin or dropped from a flying shuttle.

What David said was that if it was necessary, Merlin would be willing to carry a nuke into the temple to destroy it.

You are making an awful big deal about a statement that was intended to show Merlin's willingness to do whatever is necessary, but only if it is necessary.

SWM wrote:

Randomiser wrote:Well, with Zion's climate, I would build a porch out front with offset doors to minimise the drafts, central heating notwithstanding. Can anyone say Narthex?

The Temple doesn't just have central heating. It has "magical" heating and cooling and air circulation. The text notes that the temperature inside is miraculously kept at a constant comfortable temperature. There is neither need nor desire to open it up to the outside. Besides, the temple was never intended to become the heart of a city or the target of pilgrimages. It was intended to be an isolated self-contained miraculous headquarters.

I disagree with your last two sentences. The Temple
Was clearly designed to impress the Rubes. From the gleaming dome to the, huge golden statues to the map inlaid floor and the marvelous acoustics everything is designed to impress those who see it with the power and status of the archangels and the church. You don't go to all that trouble for the back office. The pre-nuke HQ in Zion may have been built differently, but the current Temple was designed for show.

Randomiser wrote:I disagree with your last two sentences. The Temple Was clearly designed to impress the Rubes.

Isn't there a requirement for every believer to make a pilgrimage to Zion to see the Temple for themselves? Or is that just for the priesthood?

There is a requirement for everybody to make a pilgrimage. The Church Hierarchy is aware that not everybody can do so.

Weird Harold wrote:

Randomiser wrote:I disagree with your last two sentences. The Temple Was clearly designed to impress the Rubes.

Isn't there a requirement for every believer to make a pilgrimage to Zion to see the Temple for themselves? Or is that just for the priesthood?

While the Temple is obviously designed to impress the Pilgrims, I disagree about the "back office".

While the "back office" won't be designed for show, it is very possible that when the Temple was designed and built, the surviving Archangels could have been concerned about "rogue" Archangels (ie the losing side) trying to cause trouble.

The Security Systems for the "back office" could have been stronger than the security systems for the main Temple area.

Randomiser wrote:I disagree with your last two sentences. The Temple
Was clearly designed to impress the Rubes. From the gleaming dome to the, huge golden statues to the map inlaid floor and the marvelous acoustics everything is designed to impress those who see it with the power and status of the archangels and the church. You don't go to all that trouble for the back office. The pre-nuke HQ in Zion may have been built differently, but the current Temple was designed for show.

DrakBibliophile wrote:While the Temple is obviously designed to impress the Pilgrims, I disagree about the "back office".

While the "back office" won't be designed for show, it is very possible that when the Temple was designed and built, the surviving Archangels could have been concerned about "rogue" Archangels (ie the losing side) trying to cause trouble.

The Security Systems for the "back office" could have been stronger than the security systems for the main Temple area.

Randomiser wrote:I disagree with your last two sentences. The Temple
Was clearly designed to impress the Rubes. From the gleaming dome to the, huge golden statues to the map inlaid floor and the marvelous acoustics everything is designed to impress those who see it with the power and status of the archangels and the church. You don't go to all that trouble for the back office. The pre-nuke HQ in Zion may have been built differently, but the current Temple was designed for show.

Not to mention the Safehold analogs of insects... Carnivorous 'grasshoppers' a foot long

SWM wrote:Evilauthor, David never said that it would ever be necessary to destroy the temple with a nuke, whether carried in personally by Merlin or dropped from a flying shuttle.

What David said was that if it was necessary, Merlin would be willing to carry a nuke into the temple to destroy it.

You are making an awful big deal about a statement that was intended to show Merlin's willingness to do whatever is necessary, but only if it is necessary.

Of course.

But my point is that if it were necessary to nuke the Temple, Merlin has scads of options for delivering the nuke, none of which requires him to personally carry it in.

Given that he's immortal, he's arguably the LEAST expendable member of the Inner Circle. He's going to be around long after everyone else dies of old age. If the Inner Circle entirely dies out and Charis crushed, he has to be around to carry on with the mission.

Well at least he was the least expendable until Nimue 3.0 came online. But that just puts him in the top two least expendable members.

And unlike Kau-Yung, Merlin isn't going to die of old age before he can start uplifting humanity back to an interstellar culture. He's got every reason to NOT sacrifice himself to take out the Temple should it become necessary, and all the means to take out the Temple without sacrificing himself.

evilauthor wrote:Of course.

But my point is that if it were necessary to nuke the Temple, Merlin has scads of options for delivering the nuke, none of which requires him to personally carry it in.

Given that he's immortal, he's arguably the LEAST expendable member of the Inner Circle. He's going to be around long after everyone else dies of old age. If the Inner Circle entirely dies out and Charis crushed, he has to be around to carry on with the mission.

Well at least he was the least expendable until Nimue 3.0 came online. But that just puts him in the top two least expendable members.

And unlike Kau-Yung, Merlin isn't going to die of old age before he can start uplifting humanity back to an interstellar culture. He's got every reason to NOT sacrifice himself to take out the Temple should it become necessary, and all the means to take out the Temple without sacrificing himself.

My interpretation is that Merlin would carry the nuke in because if he found it necessary to destroy a city and directly kill however many millions of bystanders and civilians are in the Temple City, he wouldn't want to survive.

His expendability or other options are irrelevant.

GlynnStewart wrote:
My interpretation is that Merlin would carry the nuke in because if he found it necessary to destroy a city and directly kill however many millions of bystanders and civilians are in the Temple City, he wouldn't want to survive.

His expendability or other options are irrelevant.

Well, yeah, that's probably the case.

I just like to point out that he has alternatives available. And he still has a Mission that needs accomplishing after all.

evilauthor wrote:

GlynnStewart wrote:
My interpretation is that Merlin would carry the nuke in because if he found it necessary to destroy a city and directly kill however many millions of bystanders and civilians are in the Temple City, he wouldn't want to survive.

His expendability or other options are irrelevant.

Well, yeah, that's probably the case.

I just like to point out that he has alternatives available. And he still has a Mission that needs accomplishing after all.

Apart from its sheer toughness --which in his last post on the subject RFC seemed to imply applied to its construction inside and out-- and the concern over colateral damage, the primary argument against destroying the Temple is that no one really knows the consequences of doing so. Do you really want to destroy the computer that could contain priceless info on the OBS and perhaps other things unknown to Merlin at this time?

However, someone is going to have to bell the cat on this issue sooner or later. I'm not sure how it should be done, but allowing the "archangel" to wake up on its own terms could be very dangerous indeed if there is any way at all it could be prevented.

Don