McGuiness wrote:Are there scanners that check each person who enters the Temple for gunpowder? That's unlikely, since gunpowder was clearly against the Proscriptions. The Temple itself was built after the War Against the Fallen when it seemed fairly clear that the genie had been stuffed back into the bottle where the use of "God weapons" was concerned, and we have no textev that gunpowder was used in that war, or that it was present on Safehold prior to its introduction in Harchong of all places a couple of centuries ago. Since the archangels never anticipated that gunpowder would be developed and approved, the Temple is unlikely to scan for it - if it scans for anything at all.
I'm finally getting around to catching up on the Safehold discussions and I had a thought on this; basically coming to the same conclusion from a different angle; which was touched on a couple times already in this thread.
Background: I assume that the current Temple occupants lack the knowledge and/or access to adjust any scanning routines (whether to adjust the list of unauthorized devices/materials or to exempt specific people from those limitations).
So if there was scanning for gun powder I assume it would affect
everyone, including Royal Guards. And
if Royal Guards had to leave their guns behind when standing duty in the Temple I think that would have been noticed and mentioned. It's a pretty drastic failure in foreshadowing otherwise. (Plus the Temple reacting hostility to people bringing in gun powered weapons could really only have been found out the hard way. I doubt gunpowder could have kept it's allowed status under the Proscriptions if people carrying gunpowder weapons into the Temple were uniquely struck down by the Holy Servitors
. (As opposed to people carrying muscle powered weapons)
Therefore I'm pretty confident that, at least the majority of, the Temple complex does not screen for guns or gunpowder. (I allow for the possibility that there may be a few much higher security, more restricted, areas that
do scan against pretty much any weapon ever known to the TF)