HFQ Official Snippet #20

lyonheart wrote:Howdy JeffEngel,

Kudos and thanks again for another great post!

I agree very strongly with all your major points as I have in long ago threads.

Given how much we all post, I think some repetition is inevitable.

Let me reiterate that I'm not rejecting some kind of 'Modus vivendi' after the alliance takes Zion and the temple, only before when there will be too much chaos.

To clarify further, I expect no attempt by the alliance to conquer let alone attack Northern Harchong or the western KotTL in this war [aside from some naval raids], since it'd be beyond their resources and unnecessary in the first place, being as you put it so well, beyond their desire.

OTOH, I don't think the CoGA remnant is going to command that much loyalty from its far right, like most of the Harchong and other aristocrats, who will wish to restore things to how they were in the far more comfortable past, creating their own schism with all that portends.

L

Yeah. "Far right" is going to be relative. It could well be that a post-war CoGA with Duchairn (or someone like-minded) in a leadership position is going to represent a kind of centrist faction, with schismatics on the right and the CoC and/or other national churches on the left. (Or along other dimensions - anyway, on a far side from Masada... er, Harchong.) So the role there could be less pivot within the Church as an element of a Church that enables it to suck up followers for whom the right-schismatics are too scary (or look too likely to attract peasant revolts etc.)

Another possible role for Duchairn - though this one is less critical in terms of being a real alternative to the pike - is as a voice for Safehold theological reconciliation. In this scenario, he's not trying to salvage the CoGA as one church among several - he's trying to heal the rifts among the various splinter churches of Safehold so that they can all get along beside one another well enough. It means abandoning his dream, his faith, in a single, unified Church, but if it comes about that that's just impossible anymore (it has, he's just still in denial on that score), making sure that the shattered Churches don't stick sharp ends in one another is the next best thing.

OrlandoNative wrote:Stone tablets were probably one of the best options available at the time and place. Clay tablets are fragile; paper doesn't hold up well unless protected, gold plates are liable to theft and re-melting, perhaps a copper or bronze plate *might* have been a better option, but a group of people marching through a desert might not have any at hand.

Depending on what kind of stone, and the thickness of the tablets themselves, they could reasonably be expected to last a long time with little need for maintenance.

Best option?? No. How about an exotic alloy that can't be melted or destroyed. Surely it's not beyond a Supreme Being? Something to show that it truely is not man made.

It is a mistake to take matters of faith and try to find ironclad proofs.

I don't need actual "proof" to believe that God gave us the 10 commandments.

Or consider the existence of God. There is no proof to compel the belief of a skeptic. Yet to those who believe God he reveals his presence in powerful ways.

It's a matter of faith, not sight. Or as Jesus tells us, faith has eyes of its own.

Don

lyonheart wrote:It is truly bizarre that you expect the CoGA to want to heal the schism, when we have no textev to support such a claim, while there are mountains against.

Not to mention Merlin's oft-repeated goal of eradicating the CoGA and leaving in the dustbin of history as the abomination it is. Even if the CoGA wanted to heal the schism at this point, Merlin and the Inner Circle do not.

Mendicant wrote:

lyonheart wrote:It is truly bizarre that you expect the CoGA to want to heal the schism, when we have no textev to support such a claim, while there are mountains against.

Not to mention Merlin's oft-repeated goal of eradicating the CoGA and leaving in the dustbin of history as the abomination it is. Even if the CoGA wanted to heal the schism at this point, Merlin and the Inner Circle do not.

Which means we probably won't get an "Ashes of Victory" moment in the Safehold series. The Big Reveal is apparently going to happen before the return of the archangels, so the war may still be going on at the time. Perhaps the ICN will finally have sailed into Temple Bay and seized the Temple when we get the Big Reveal - which would make sense, since they'd have some degree of control over what's in the basement. We hope...

Hi McGuiness,

Nope, no Ashes of Victory moment because destroying the CoGA will take more than a few generations, but in a couple hundred years great progress will have been made, especially after 'the return', whatever that ends up being.

RFC has hinted that Cayleb inadvertently triggers the "great reveal" much sooner than intended, but of course supplied no further details.

Given the ICN is already experimenting with steam powered landing craft, it's possible that BGV could reach up the Zion river before the temple gets much warning sometime this fall if not next year at the latest.

Whether Rhobair waits until then will be one question worth reading the rest of the book for.

L

McGuiness wrote:

Mendicant wrote:*quote="lyonheart"*
It is truly bizarre that you expect the CoGA to want to heal the schism, when we have no textev to support such a claim, while there are mountains against.*quote*Not to mention Merlin's oft-repeated goal of eradicating the CoGA and leaving in the dustbin of history as the abomination it is. Even if the CoGA wanted to heal the schism at this point, Merlin and the Inner Circle do not.

Which means we probably won't get an "Ashes of Victory" moment in the Safehold series. The Big Reveal is apparently going to happen before the return of the archangels, so the war may still be going on at the time. Perhaps the ICN will finally have sailed into Temple Bay and seized the Temple when we get the Big Reveal - which would make sense, since they'd have some degree of control over what's in the basement. We hope...

The agenda for the ICN this year is to seize the Gulf of Dohlar and cut off all supplies to CoGA troops by sea. It will also seize or blockade the western ends of the Dairynth - Alyksberg and Salthar canals. Then there's the long awaited Battle of Gorath...

Next year I suspect that the Temple may have some uninvited guests...