HFQ Official Snippet #22

n7axw wrote:Didn't that young lady whom Ahnzelyk introduced to Seijin Abrahaim that first night he arrived in her establishment in Zion have reddish hair with blue eyes? I think she was from Silkiah....

The impression that I've gotten is that Merlin/Nimue Alban's eyes are of a particular shade of blue (the word "sapphire" has been used) that is uncommon - perhaps vanishingly so - on Safehold. A quick google for sapphire-as-a-color suggests that it's a much deeper blue than is normally associated with eye color; the more 'normal' blues seem to be called "ice blue", "baby blue", "sky blue", and "cornflower", plus the part of the color range called "hazel" that shades more toward blue than green or brown.

Joat42 wrote:

BobG wrote:..snip..
I'm still very curious why they initiated a KEW strike on Cody's apparent tomb and followers. Why not just let the sect die out? Why not send a Seijin or a force to kill the sisters? What justified the KEW strike?

I have to assume that something justified that. Was it concerns that Cody might have a journal? Something material that he had? I doubt the latter, because they returned his body. And why did they return his sword?

Something just isn't right about that.
..snip..
-- Bob G

Since Kohdy had a NEAT they probably dumped his memory before killing him. While sifting through his memories after sending his body back they discovered that he had a written journal. The only way to deal with that was to eradicate the Sisterhood and their monastery including his grave in the hopes the journal and any knowledge about it was also destroyed.

The sword and his armor didn't really matter so why not sending it back which is customary with warriors, not sending them back would have raised unnecessary questions at that time anyway.

Or the other alternative is that the NEAT had a recording function (think implanted smart phone with internet access (both up-link and down-link, possibly effective telepathy between members of the same network, with a possible range limit (WiFi? (Merlin's low speed data link's original purpose?))) and he saw something that someone didn't want seen - ever. This may have prompted someone to want the his NEAT permanently erased as soon as they had the required access to achieve it without anyone querying their decision. I think the relation between Chihiro and Schuler may have a direct bearing on this. Probing Kohdy's NEAT may be on Merlin's agenda.

Hm. Just thought. Considering that the Terran Federation knew exactly how human personality work - they were able to copy it, to transfer it, to merge PICA and human personality, even to rewrite the personality - was the NEAT the only way to get acsess to it?

BobG wrote:
[snip]

On a slightly different subject, I am curious what would have happened if Merlin had woken up when the war started after Langhorne's death. Or even if there had been secret access to his cave. According to the book, the faithful were losing the war at one point. Would Merlin and/or access to his cave have made a significant difference? And what, if anything, would that have meant?

[snip]

About Merlin waking up, was any reason ever given for Merlin's PICA activating when it did? I don't remember one being given, but maybe I missed it.

And again, thank you for the snippet, RFC.

Peter2 wrote:About Merlin waking up, was any reason ever given for Merlin's PICA activating when it did? I don't remember one being given, but maybe I missed it.

And again, thank you for the snippet, RFC.

It's mentioned in Kau Yung's last message in OAR. He timed it based on a 500 year estimate of the Gbaba sweeping their part of the galaxy, plus a 50% cushion.

One thought that I had on "followers of Kau-yung" was that we know Kau-yung planned to nuke Langhorne but what evidence did the survivors have on who nuked Langhorne?

Perhaps one of the reasons for the War Between The Angels is that some of the angels didn't believe Kau-yung was guilty but blamed Chihiro and/or Schueler.

After all, it would be seen as "interesting" that they weren't at the meeting that got nuked.

It would seem to me that Kau-yung's "troops" would be very likely in the group that believed he was innocent of nuking Langhorne so would oppose Chihiro and Schueler.

Since, they were trained military, they would likely be in the forefront of those opposing Chihiro and Schueler.

Thus "followers of Kau-yung" would be the understandable term to use.

By the way, wasn't there something in an earlier snippet about Langhorne *not* involved in the Alexandria strike?

Perhaps, Kau-yung's nuke happened before Langhorne "mournfully" informed the other angels about "what he had to do".

The Word Of Weber is that Langhorne hide his plans for the Orbital Weapon from all of the other angels.

Nobody knew about it before the Alexandria attack.

Perhaps, the "rebels" didn't believe that Langhorne attacked Alexandria but believed that Chihiro and Schueler were responsible.

Kytheros wrote:

DrakBibliophile wrote:My question
would be "are they are actually Kau-yung's forces or is that just what they were called?"

Exactly what I was going to ask.

Everyone who was on the loosing side who wasn't 'rehabilitated' back to the winning side would have been written in the official histories as a follower of Shan-wei or Kau-yung. History is, after all, written by the victors.

I suspect that the fighting between the nuke survivors didn't start immediately, and there was some measure of widely agreed upon statements made, officially placing the blame on Shan-wei and Kau-yung. Thus, most, if not all, the surviving 'Angels' would have been painting their opponents' factions as those who were in support of Kau-yung and Shan-wei, in order to retain popular support.
Some, namely those who actually supported Kau-yung, would have tried to lay blame specifically at the feet of their opponents, rather than saying they were followers of the traitors Kau-yung and Shan-wei and therefore evil.

Sending the body back would be a good way to ensure most/all of the SSK was in one place when the strike occurred. The armor was normally sent with the body, so not sending it would have raised questions. Since the armor would have been expected to be destroyed when the strike occurred, there would be no problem sending it.

The plan failed only because the sisterhood was already suspicious of what was going on and had made alternative arrangements for the body, armor, journal, and some key members.

Duckk wrote:

Peter2 wrote:About Merlin waking up, was any reason ever given for Merlin's PICA activating when it did? I don't remember one being given, but maybe I missed it.

And again, thank you for the snippet, RFC.

It's mentioned in Kau Yung's last message in OAR. He timed it based on a 500 year estimate of the Gbaba sweeping their part of the galaxy, plus a 50% cushion.

Many thanks.

Dilandu wrote:Hm. Just thought. Considering that the Terran Federation knew exactly how human personality work - they were able to copy it, to transfer it, to merge PICA and human personality, even to rewrite the personality - was the NEAT the only way to get acsess to it?

In essence yes, but as Merlin showed it's possible to record a persons personality the brute-force way by building NEAT-nodes in the brain by scavenging material from the person in question (ie. what he did with Nahrman). The downside is that that method kinda kills the person. The method was based on the assumption that people experiencing extreme trauma would have to have new nodes built to replace damaged ones.

Then the question arises, how fast can you then re-integrate the information to a functioning personality? In Nahrmans case it took quite a while since the transfer wasn't 100% and Owl had to be used to prop Nahrmans personality up so it could function.

DrakBibliophile wrote:One thought that I had on "followers of Kau-yung" was that we know Kau-yung planned to nuke Langhorne but what evidence did the survivors have on who nuked Langhorne?

Perhaps one of the reasons for the War Between The Angels is that some of the angels didn't believe Kau-yung was guilty but blamed Chihiro and/or Schueler.

After all, it would be seen as "interesting" that they weren't at the meeting that got nuked.

It would seem to me that Kau-yung's "troops" would be very likely in the group that believed he was innocent of nuking Langhorne so would oppose Chihiro and Schueler.

Since, they were trained military, they would likely be in the forefront of those opposing Chihiro and Schueler.

Thus "followers of Kau-yung" would be the understandable term to use.

By the way, wasn't there something in an earlier snippet about Langhorne *not* involved in the Alexandria strike?

Perhaps, Kau-yung's nuke happened before Langhorne "mournfully" informed the other angels about "what he had to do".

The Word Of Weber is that Langhorne hide his plans for the Orbital Weapon from all of the other angels.

Nobody knew about it before the Alexandria attack.

Perhaps, the "rebels" didn't believe that Langhorne attacked Alexandria but believed that Chihiro and Schueler were responsible.

Something finally percollated through to me. If Langhorne was the only Archangel who knew about the ORBS, and if he died in the vest-pocket nuke blast, then who reprogrammed the ORBS after-the-fact? I would guess that he launched the attack on Armageddon Reef, but would he have fully programmed the ORBS with his complete set of instructions before he was killed? I would guess that he wasn't finished setting things up, so maybe that's why steam engines didn't trigger it. For that matter, it may not be operational at all. If the remaining supporters couldn't access the commands for the ORBS because he had it under his own passcode or whatever personal id system they had, then no one else may have had the capacity to further enable the system beyond his initial commands.

Of course, do you want to take a risk that isn't the case?

-- Bob G