[HFQ] SPOILERS -- Why didn't Merlin?

What gives you the thought that Clyntahn will ever go quietly? He's a tyrant and a bully and is demonstrating that anything that frustrates him HAS to be destroyed- as publicly as possible- to maintain he hold on power and to continue to show his as the ultimate power of the Church.

He is (and has consistently) given orders to kill any heretic that can be reached by the Inquisition. Witness the shipment of suspected heretics to the concentration camps and both letting them die though inhuman treatment and outright murder plus dragging them now slowly (because it is winter) to Zion and essentially he is going to kill them all and let God do the sorting of guilty or innocent.

If he has any means of awakening the things that reside under the Temple, I would see him more than glad to do that if it means that "God" or his Angels will smit Clyntahn's enemies rather than let the forces comming at him can't be defeated by the Temple Guards or the forces of the Inquisition.
Quite likely that he will go with the direction of destroying everything rather than be pulled down or even be forced to public humiliation.

TBird50 wrote:I'm re-reading all the books and I just finished BHD. Bishop Mylz Halcom was concerned about the paper used in correspondence with him. He thinks to himself: "I think, though, that it might not be a bad idea to suggest that our friend use less expensive paper in the future. Wave Thunder might not be able to break the cipher, but I'll bet his agents could probably locate everyone who sells this particular paper...and find out who they sold it to."

Also, and this is off the current track somewhat but still falls under the heading "Why Didn't Merlin?"; I got to thinking about when Merlin saves Sharleyan at St. Agtha's. I'm wondering why Merlin A: Revealed himself to Sharleyan & Seamount at all instead of just killing all the attackers and leaving; and B: Since he did reveal himself - why didn't he change into one of his other persona's such as Ahbraim Zhevons?

On to AMF...

I've asked this question myself. The only answer that I've come up with that makes sense is that that the attack on the Empress at St Agathas gave Merlin a plausible excuse for doing what he really wanted to do anyway.

Don

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This is one of those unusual cases I mentioned. Didn't - still don't - feel like going off on a long disquisition about paper-making, so I tried to keep it simple.

Paper for the nobs is always fancy stuff, and usually incorporates makers' marks of various types intended precisely to let you show off your taste in suppliers. You'll notice the implication that a cheaper paper would _not_ be traceable.

TBird50 wrote:I'm re-reading all the books and I just finished BHD. Bishop Mylz Halcom was concerned about the paper used in correspondence with him. He thinks to himself: "I think, though, that it might not be a bad idea to suggest that our friend use less expensive paper in the future. Wave Thunder might not be able to break the cipher, but I'll bet his agents could probably locate everyone who sells this particular paper...and find out who they sold it to."

< snip >

On to AMF...

Louis R wrote:Paper for the nobs is always fancy stuff, and usually incorporates makers' marks of various types intended precisely to let you show off your taste in suppliers. You'll notice the implication that a cheaper paper would _not_ be traceable.

And the broadsheets - large and slapped on walls in the middle of the night, with the expectation of being taken down by the Church's agents shortly after being seen - can be expected to be of the cheapest paper available. No one would expect to be able to track it, and they'd give up trying very soon.

JeffEngel wrote:

Louis R wrote:Paper for the nobs is always fancy stuff, and usually incorporates makers' marks of various types intended precisely to let you show off your taste in suppliers. You'll notice the implication that a cheaper paper would _not_ be traceable.

And the broadsheets - large and slapped on walls in the middle of the night, with the expectation of being taken down by the Church's agents shortly after being seen - can be expected to be of the cheapest paper available. No one would expect to be able to track it, and they'd give up trying very soon.

Or maybe they would want to put markings on obviously expensive paper that no one could track to drive the inquisitors crazy...

Don

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n7axw wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:And the broadsheets - large and slapped on walls in the middle of the night, with the expectation of being taken down by the Church's agents shortly after being seen - can be expected to be of the cheapest paper available. No one would expect to be able to track it, and they'd give up trying very soon.

Or maybe they would want to put markings on obviously expensive paper that no one could track to drive the inquisitors crazy...

Don

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They could, but while that would be extremely amusing, it may well (1) raise questions about why and how the Ninja Broadsheet Organization is bothering to use expensive paper for this, and (2) possibly have innocent local high-end paper distributors get the Punishment on the basis that they had to be, somehow, the sources of that paper, even though it's high-end paper used locally that does not have their specific marks.

Oh, go for maximum trouble and put a Temple seal in the watermark.

Expert snuggler wrote:Oh, go for maximum trouble and put a Temple seal in the watermark.

There you go!

Don

Real nasty use Inquisition marked paper.

Poker

n7axw wrote:

TBird50 wrote:I'm re-reading all the books and I just finished BHD. Bishop Mylz Halcom was concerned about the paper used in correspondence with him. He thinks to himself: "I think, though, that it might not be a bad idea to suggest that our friend use less expensive paper in the future. Wave Thunder might not be able to break the cipher, but I'll bet his agents could probably locate everyone who sells this particular paper...and find out who they sold it to."

Also, and this is off the current track somewhat but still falls under the heading "Why Didn't Merlin?"; I got to thinking about when Merlin saves Sharleyan at St. Agtha's. I'm wondering why Merlin A: Revealed himself to Sharleyan & Seamount at all instead of just killing all the attackers and leaving; and B: Since he did reveal himself - why didn't he change into one of his other persona's such as Ahbraim Zhevons?

On to AMF...

I've asked this question myself. The only answer that I've come up with that makes sense is that that the attack on the Empress at St Agathas gave Merlin a plausible excuse for doing what he really wanted to do anyway.

Don

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(1) Someone had saved them, and unless he wanted it being ascribed to supernatural intervention (demonic or angelic) by Sharleyan, he had to put a "face" on the agency of her salvation. Yes, it was still pretty damned "supernatural," but remember that seijins were reputed to have the ability to travel enormous distances in very short periods of time. (This, after all, is the reason Aivah gave for approaching Merlin as Ahbraim in the first place.) Above all, he needed to keep her from concluding something over which he had no control, and to do that, he needed an interface she recognized for the initial explanation (partial though it was).

(2) Yes, she got the full reveal the very next night, but she got it from Cayleb (the one person to whom Merlin was virtually certain she would at least extend the benefit of the doubt), and Merlin didn't have Cayleb along at that time. If he wanted to bring in Cayleb to prove his bonafides, then he needed to approach Sharleyan then --- immediately --- and set the stage for Cayleb's "miraculous" appearance from Corisande. By appearing in Charis as Merlin, he established both his own seijinhood and that he truly could bring Cayleb the next night to explain everything which had happened if Sharleyan would hold her questions until then.

(3) He hadn't really started manufacturing hordes of seijins at that point. That is, he didn't have Ahbraim tucked away in his pack yet, plus it takes rather longer than he had to make that sort of reprogramming change than his maximum velocity trip from Corisande permitted. He darned well wasn't going to take one second longer in transit that he had to, and he most definitely did not want to turn up looking like Lon Chaney half way through makeup.

(4) He'd come to the conclusion that Sharleyan was going to have to be told the truth after her "miraculous rescue," and that being the case, he was into "tell no lies" mode for two reasons. (a) He really didn't need her feeling any more deceived than he could possibly avoid later on, when it was absolutely critical that she accept Cayleb's explanation and remain firmly on his side and in the camp of the Church of Charis, (b) He hates lying to those he considers friends and allies, and Sharleyan had already become both of those things. Remember that he and Cayleb were both deeply frustrated by the fact that they'd been unable to tell her before they left for Corisande. Since the cat was going to be well and truly out of the bag and she was going to have to be told the truth anyway (unless they wanted her coming up with some potentially disastrous interpretation of her own to "explain" what had happened), he figured he might as well start then and there.

I get accused of explaining too many things in too much detail. It's rather refreshing to be accused of explaining something in insufficient detail.

I shall make no flip remarks about being unable to please all of the people all of the time, but I shall think them very loudly.