Secret of St Zhernau

I have thought that when the time for the Great Reveal comes, let the Brethren of St Zhernau be the revealers. Provide some covert funding but otherwise no official sanction for the brethren's teaching beyond making sure that expression of that teaching has the same protection under the law as any other religious expression.

Face it gang, what we are talking about here is faith. It is going to be a looong time before people as a whole on Safehold are ready to embrace the whole truth about their past. Human nature being what it is, we see enough of this kind of problem on earth.

Don

Hi Gbabafan,

The Brotherhood of St. Zherneau already do this, ie act as the spiritual and intellectual muscle of the CoC since most members of the Charisian priesthood have visited it or are past members.

I suspect they've been preparing their lessons or arguments for centuries, only now sending out doctrinal reminders.

While I have wondered about how the brotherhood ought to have a small farm just outside Tellesburg to be more independent yet large enough to handle more penitents, NTM setting up satellite monasteries throughout the empire, we have yet to see any such textev, which probably means RFC has other plans, which true to form, we haven't figured out yet.

L

gbabafan wrote:I personally think the brotherhood could come to play a much bigger and public role in Charisian society, even if it keeps it's secrets. Every theology needs a center for religious scholarship and somebody will eventually have to develop the academic theological foundations of what the Church of Charis now preaches, even while preserving the myth of the arch-angels for e time being. Some organization, with church and state backing, will have to guide the people toward the post-COGA world. St Zherneau can be this public face.. Even while keeping its secrets.

I'm not sure it would make any sense to now have St Zhernau as a 'secure back up' in the event that somehow Merlin and the inner circle get taken out by Clyntahn's minions. If Merlin and the inner circle 'lose' then Charis will be razed to the ground and the whole of its cities ploughed with salt; so nothing based in Charis will survive to try and keep the hidden truth alive. So unless St Zhernau can set up a 'sub church' in the Temple Lands; or the founders of St Zhernau were successful in setting up 'sister churches' back at the beginning of time - and later in the unfolding of the story we will come across them.

Bahzellstudent wrote:I'm not sure it would make any sense to now have St Zhernau as a 'secure back up' in the event that somehow Merlin and the inner circle get taken out by Clyntahn's minions. If Merlin and the inner circle 'lose' then Charis will be razed to the ground and the whole of its cities ploughed with salt; so nothing based in Charis will survive to try and keep the hidden truth alive. So unless St Zhernau can set up a 'sub church' in the Temple Lands; or the founders of St Zhernau were successful in setting up 'sister churches' back at the beginning of time - and later in the unfolding of the story we will come across them.

Maybe the brethren could set up a satelite monastery in Numue's cave!

Don

I was going to say there's something like 40 other St. Zhernau's out there, based on the number of Adam's and Eve's who got 'lost' in the records. I wonder what happend to them.

Also have to wonder if there's something similar, but from Langhorne's point of view, that is only know by the head inquisitor. ie: The 'real' reason that Safehold was created.

I think if I were a Safeholdian, I would find St Zhernau rather reassuring.
I mean, put it this way - Merlin, whether you see him as a seijin or a PICA or whatever, is an incomer. He's like Dorfl the golem in Discworld; it's all very well for Dorfl to loudly deny the gods, he's immune to any thunderbolts that come down.
The Brethren are part of the fabric of Charisian society; part of the Church; and yet the sky hasn't fallen. That means either Langhorne is playing a very long game with the Brethren as the adversary, or the Brethren are right.

Until David Weber tells us more, we have no way of knowing what happened to them.

However, here's a quick repeat of something I posted some time back.

First, some of them never left the Alexandria Enclave before it was destroyed. There was a comment in St. Zhernau's letter that some of them were to join the group in Charis but never arrived.

Second, some of them were killed in the "War of the Archangels". We know from Words Of Weber and text evidence that humans were involved in the fighting on both sides.

Third, it would have been very tempting for some of them to destroy all pre-Creation documents they had and to have their secrets die with them.

Fourth, we know that the Abbott of St. Zhernau who read the letter from St. Zhernau was strongly tempted to destroy the letter and the documents in the vault after he read the letter. It is very possible that the guardians of other vaults destroyed their documents after they learned just what they were guarding.

Fifth, either the other vaults and/or the guardians (or line of guardians) were destroyed by natural events and/or war.

Finally, while David Weber was silent about the possibility of other Secret Brotherhoods, he did say that the Inquisition never discovered and destroyed any such Secret Brotherhood. Basically, there would have been Inquistition records concerning such Secret Brotherhoods and Clyntahn would have used such information against the Reformers.

Did I say "quick repeat" up above???

Annachie wrote:I was going to say there's something like 40 other St. Zhernau's out there, based on the number of Adam's and Eve's who got 'lost' in the records. I wonder what happend to them.

Also have to wonder if there's something similar, but from Langhorne's point of view, that is only know by the head inquisitor. ie: The 'real' reason that Safehold was created.

DrakBibliophile wrote:Did I say "quick repeat" up above???

It's the nature of the forums setup with all the padding on the sides that makes your post look long, Drak

Of course you have to consider that the inquisition never ferreted out the Brethren of St Zhernau on Charis either. That is because the Brethren operated openly, fading into the background of dozens, possibly hundreds of other small monastic orders. There was no reason to suspect them. The Brethren are not a secret order, but an open order with a secret to which very few, even amongst the Brethren are privy to.

There is no reason at all to believe that there couldn't other such orders with secrets in other places. My own suspicion is that the sisters in Aivah's convent might be another such group.

Don

Yeah, I think Merlin and now Nimue are really the "backup" given the ability to change appearance and just how hard it would be to totally destroy a PICA with current technology levels. Merlin or Nimue could conceivably be destroyed in some freak accident involving huge amounts of explosives, but freak accidents getting both of them would be incredibly unlikely.

n7axw wrote:I have thought that when the time for the Great Reveal comes, let the Brethren of St Zhernau be the revealers. Provide some covert funding but otherwise no official sanction for the brethren's teaching beyond making sure that expression of that teaching has the same protection under the law as any other religious expression.

Face it gang, what we are talking about here is faith. It is going to be a looong time before people as a whole on Safehold are ready to embrace the whole truth about their past. Human nature being what it is, we see enough of this kind of problem on earth.

Don

I agree.