runsforcelery wrote:...
Who says they've been conducting "active operations" for a huge amount of time? And who says they were organized or trained by "newbies"?
I certainly haven't said anything to that effect. Can you point me at any place in textev where I have?
I would point out that there are organization and then there are organizations, and that you are making certain assumptions about any putative organization to which Aivah may or may not belong. Inclluding the assumption that just because they have nmounted no known operations against the Inqusition they must have "newbies" in command. Frankly, I think to some extent that this suggests certain prejudices (in the sense of pre-judgments) in your basic model.
Suppose, for a moment, that there was a secret organization which had been hidden for a couple of hundred years (or more), during which it had erected a defense in depth against revealing its presence while very quietly and clandestinely collecting information on a
known intelligence agency. And suppose, for just a moment, that said secret organization possessed the means to insert its own personnel into the known intelligence agency. And suppose, for just a moment, that
those infiltrated agents spent a hundred years or so
learning the techniques of the known intelligence services without ever carrying out an overt operation
against the known intelligence agency. And suppose that those folks who learned those techniques were available to
teach them to your "newbies," while simultaneously passing along the institutional experience of their enemy
learned while actively in the service of and running operation for that enemy.
Now, I am not saying which, or how much, if any, of the above suppositions are relevant to Safehold, but it does rather suggest how at least some of your concerns could be answered, does it not?