HFQ Official Snippet #5

Earlier in these snippets, I assumed that Kohdy was a member of the crew because of his knowledge of Spanish.

Yet, this latest snippet does appear to show that he wasn't a member of the crew but was an Adam recruited by Schueler or Cihiro. (Apparently by Schueler since Kohdy wanted to take to him about his doubts.)

As for "Schueler and Cihiro departing in victory", one explanation for that phrase is that they were killed in the final battle or died soon after.

Since Safehold theology gives Angels "moral" bodies which can die of old age or other causes, "departing" for Angels could mean that their bodies had died and they departed for Heaven.

matthoover wrote:Everyone has been suggesting that Kohdy was an Adam, but there is another possibility. He could be part of the command team. Most of the posts have been assuming that the Archangels were the entire command crew. But the Archangels were the “generals” of the command crew. There would have still been majors, captains, and NOCs that are part of the command crew. So Kohdy could have been a NCO in the command crew. He wouldn’t have been directly involved in any of the “big” decisions, and might not even know they were being made. But as the command crew fractured, and the civil wars started, he would have been loyal to one subset of the command crew, and fought for them. So he fought in the war, but didn’t really think about what it all meant. At least until the “demon” spared his life. And since he was part of the command crew, his memories hadn’t been erased, so he was able to write his journal in Spanish.
The question becomes, when he went to talk to the remaining “officers” did the officers kill him? Or did he convince the officers that he was loyal to that they should take a stand, and then those officers were killed at the same time he was? Because the snippet also says that the remaining Archangels “Schueler and Cihiro had departed in victory”. But if they won the civil war, why did they leave then instead of sticking around for a bit longer to make sure everything settled down?

I follow the logic, Drak, but your initial suspicion was most likely correct. Khody was a crew member that truly believed in Langhorne's vision. He might have believed that the low tech society only needed to be around for a limited time and not indefinitely.

Recall that Nynian reports that he fought another crew member who half convinced him that Shan-wei was not guilty of what she was accused of doing. Whatever that was. Whatever she was accused of doing by other crew members couldn't be what the Writ proports. They knew better.

Also in one of the other RFC posts he mentions that there was a provision for high tech enclaves. If Shan-wei was accused of not just keeping up the high tech within her enclave but threatening to spread the high tech to other enclaves, then that could well be damning to the other members of the command crew. Furthermore, if scheuler and Chihiro overstepped their bounds and acted without langhorne's approval, they would be the ones that rebelled.

All in all, the story gets seriously juicy if Khody was indeed a crew member rather than an Adam.

I am assuming that the Sisters of Khody are involved to some extent at least in the disposal of the misbehaving Vicars that Clyntahn is so annoyed about, and it's not just Nynian's organisation that is responsible. However, I would love to get some hint of what the Sisters have been up to in the period between when the survivors of the original abbey went underground and the present day. I cannot believe that they have spent 800 years or so doing nothing besides maintaining their cover. Can anyone remember any mention of mysterious deaths, disappearances, or other unexplained events in any of the books for which they might possibly have been responsible?

I think that rfc just 'loves' to watch us writhe about in between snippets and will prolong it as long as he can...

Peter2 wrote:I am assuming that the Sisters of Khody are involved to some extent at least in the disposal of the misbehaving Vicars that Clyntahn is so annoyed about, and it's not just Nynian's organisation that is responsible. However, I would love to get some hint of what the Sisters have been up to in the period between when the survivors of the original abbey went underground and the present day. I cannot believe that they have spent 800 years or so doing nothing besides maintaining their cover. Can anyone remember any mention of mysterious deaths, disappearances, or other unexplained events in any of the books for which they might possibly have been responsible?

Welcome aboard, rePete. Grab a digital drink on me.

As for the SSK's activities, I believe they collected the evidence against the vicars that Adorai gave Maikel. Just because they refrained from killing doesn't mean they haven't planned for contingencies.

Hi PeterZ,

Nope, remember that when St Zherneau and the circle appeared in BSRA, they were both complete surprises.

Yet we can at least speculate.

The male assassins evidently must trained and educated somewhere, so did the sisterhood quietly had a monastery created or founded that they operated to provide the muscle they needed?

Or was this development only recent as in the last decade or two?

However a dedicated corps of men would have been required centuries earlier, all as converted as the sisterhood, so I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a small very quiet monastery not too far away with some very curious [unknown to any outsiders] secret learning available to those who were vetted like the sisterhood, which was at least as careful as St Zherneau's.

Again how they were recruited would also be fascinating to read.

We should remember to consider this meeting from the point of view of the sisterhood: who is vetting who?

Given what we do know about Nynian and the sisterhood, I doubt she was alone in her fascination with all the reports about Merlin, the first purported Seijin seen in centuries.

Comparing the similarities with what they knew to be true about Seijin Khody, I imagine if they didn't have observers in Tellesberg already for all their growing investments, that special observers were sent to concentrate on learning all they could about just him.

So who knows what they learned?

Could harmless seeming 'old' ladies have talked to eye and second hand witnesses, urging to tell any strange thing or anecdote they remembered about Merlin, while young ones desperately sought any clues about their fantasied swain from others?

Could dockside doxies have entertained soldiers, sailors and the marine guards to find out more about Merlin?

I can see a separate thread needed [any volunteers?] for just what the sisterhood might have learned about his known exploits; saving Cayleb, Grey Harbor, the children from the Krakens, his effort for the king, Maikel, Mahklyn, NTM Chisholm and Corisande, ie a man that can ride all night and literally disappear whenever he wants etc.

Evidently the sisterhood has vetted him [and Ahbraim Zhevons etc] enough to let Nynian reveal them to him, something not to be forgotten when talking about the sisterhood being a case by case basis, since Nynian included Cayleb in those Merlin is permitted to discuss them, so they seem more generous than some posters here.

L


[quote="PeterZ"][quote="Peter2"]I am assuming that the Sisters of Khody are involved to some extent at least in the disposal of the misbehaving Vicars that Clyntahn is so annoyed about, and it's not just Nynian's organisation that is responsible. However, I would love to get some hint of what the Sisters have been up to in the period between when the survivors of the original abbey went underground and the present day. I cannot believe that they have spent 800 years or so doing nothing besides maintaining their cover. Can anyone remember any mention of mysterious deaths, disappearances, or other unexplained events in any of the books for which they might possibly have been responsible?[/quote]

Welcome aboard, rePete. Grab a digital drink on me.

As for the SSK's activities, I believe they collected the evidence against the vicars that Adorai gave Maikel. Just because they refrained from killing doesn't mean they haven't planned for contingencies.[/quote]

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Poker

I loved this snippet and I can't wait to see Nynian read the other Journal!

A great start to the new book

Now that we know that Nynian (and SSK) is a major player I'm getting the feeling that the pace of the story is going to increase significantly in HFQ.

I'm betting that Merlin through Nynian is going to get detailed information on what's going on inside the temple/church which they will be able to capitalize on and I'm expecting several more rage scenes with Clynthan too.

Hmm, SSK members disguised as members of other orders acting as cleaning staff, others running brothels the perfect intelligence organization to get info on the doings at the Temple.

What would be funny is get OWL to whip up a fake antique, the Sword of Schuyler to present Clynton. Then in a rage he uses it to cut up his toilet flooding the basement of the temple. This pisses off the avatar in the basement that sentences Clynton to the punishment of Schuyler

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Joat42 wrote:Now that we know that Nynian (and SSK) is a major player I'm getting the feeling that the pace of the story is going to increase significantly in HFQ.

I'm betting that Merlin through Nynian is going to get detailed information on what's going on inside the temple/church which they will be able to capitalize on and I'm expecting several more rage scenes with Clynthan too.