Official HFQ Snippet #25

catfishncod wrote:*sticks his nose out from under the covers*
Spoiler warning, I'm assuming that's necessary even on a snippet thread.



A lot of conversation has happened on the possibility of Hamilcar's survival. While that would make the Inner Circle's lives much easier after the Return and the Reveal, it's not strictly necessary for what Chihiro needed after the OBS Mk. II was constructed. It may well be intact, but there's still no textev for it. What we can reasonably deduce is that Hamilcar's industrial modules survived, and possibly part or all of the 'sacred sickbay' as well. Without being *certain* that there are no more Fallen -- perhaps in cryo -- Chihiro cannot afford to give up his ability to create and arm seijins, or to make more 'magic' to enforce the rule of Heaven's champions.

The most logical place for this tech stash to be, IMHO, is under the Temple -- we know industrial modules needed to be there anyway to build the thing. That's more important than any modules the Fallen left behind, because the modules under the Temple are indisputably holy. Placed there by the Archangels themselves.

catfishncod wrote:What we can reasonably deduce is that Hamilcar's industrial modules survived, and possibly part or all of the 'sacred sickbay' as well. Without being *certain* that there are no more Fallen -- perhaps in cryo -- Chihiro cannot afford to give up his ability to create and arm seijins, or to make more 'magic' to enforce the rule of Heaven's champions.

The most logical place for this tech stash to be, IMHO, is under the Temple -- we know industrial modules needed to be there anyway to build the thing. That's more important than any modules the Fallen left behind, because the modules under the Temple are indisputably holy. Placed there by the Archangels themselves.

Bahzellstudent wrote:Great to hear that RFC is progressing well on the health front - take it easy, and do what the boss says!

And of course thanks for the most interesting snippet - which has in turn prompted some fascinating speculation here. Not sure I like any of the 'deus ex machina' ideas - of Hamilcar returning with AIs and friendly humans, or indeed clones and similar of Schueler or Chihiro - while RFC has used some of those ideas in single books or short stories, he plays fair with the readers in his 'long' series.

But aside from that, some really interesting ideas - and some worrying signs that my memory is getting to be rubbish, since you all seem to remember facts from earlier books that I completely missed (the link to the mayor in OAR being a hero of the war against the fallen).

anwi wrote:We know that Chihiro survived the War of the Fallen for quite some time. More importantly, one of the last survivors of Chihiro's party actually destroyed Kohdy's original tomb decades (AFAIR) after his death. That leaves a lot of time for a) b Chihiro's party being reasonably sure that all renegates are either accounted for (there should have been a list of potential enemies) or b) likely dead due to old age. I would assume Chihiro reached condition a) eventually.

anwi wrote:P.S.: Ahlverez is still starving in desolation and will be until after the Feast of Corpus Christi...

runsforcelery wrote:Okay, so I'm in Minneapolis for Mantycon this weekend and Sharon is making me take it very easy, so I decided to go ahead and post snippets before the convention starts Friday.

On the health front, things are looking pretty good. We will be returning from Minneapolis to Greenville on the 25th, and the pacemaker will be installed on the 27th. After that and a brief period of getting things adjusted I should be fine.

catfishncod wrote:

anwi wrote:We know that Chihiro survived the War of the Fallen for quite some time. More importantly, one of the last survivors of Chihiro's party actually destroyed Kohdy's original tomb decades (AFAIR) after his death. That leaves a lot of time for a) b Chihiro's party being reasonably sure that all renegates are either accounted for (there should have been a list of potential enemies) or b) likely dead due to old age. I would assume Chihiro reached condition a) eventually.

Not if even one member of the Fallen found, had delivered, or had an industrial module build a cryo tube. Likely? Not really. Can Chihiro be sure? Not at all. Does Chihiro's plans, whatever they are, require silencing all dissent? Absolutely. A paranoid, once betrayed, will never let their guard down (unless psychological treatment is applied, and oh dear, Bedard's dead.)

anwi wrote: quote="catfishncod" quote="anwi"
We know that Chihiro survived the War of the Fallen for quite some time. More importantly, one of the last survivors of Chihiro's party actually destroyed Kohdy's original tomb decades (AFAIR) after his death. That leaves a lot of time for a) b Chihiro's party being reasonably sure that all renegates are either accounted for (there should have been a list of potential enemies) or b) likely dead due to old age. I would assume Chihiro reached condition a) eventually. /quote

Not if even one member of the Fallen found, had delivered, or had an industrial module build a cryo tube. Likely? Not really. Can Chihiro be sure? Not at all. Does Chihiro's plans, whatever they are, require silencing all dissent? Absolutely. A paranoid, once betrayed, will never let their guard down (unless psychological treatment is applied, and oh dear, Bedard's dead.)
/quote
Obviously, if all the people on Chihiro's list are confirmed dead and gone, he can be sure. And I'm not so sure he's paranoid, perhaps he just grabbed for the power when he could get away with it.
I would assume that Chihiro invested in the OBS to use as his (decisive) weapon against all renegates, and he squarely sat in the one command Center that can survive even a near miss of that system
So, from Chihiro's POV, he might not need so much more tech - except of what his group needs for convenience and personal security.

As to what Chihiro stashed in the Temple, there's another issue. He can't be sure that no one goes gallivanting around in the Temple's basement, perhaps even demolishing any doors or walls in search for the Archangel's hoard of gold over the centuries. So, in line with his interpretation of the Safehold mission, he'd likely restrict the tech available even in the Temple's basement.
Now, the really interesting question is whether Schueler was eye-to-eye with Chihiro on that score or if Schueler tucked away this control-center without Chihiro's knowledge...