Expert snuggler wrote:JeffEngel wrote:And more than that: the standard for what to keep and what to disregard becomes what IS reasonable. It becomes the task of living people on Safehold to judge what's right, good, in accordance with God's plan, or in accordance with whatever they judge to be appropriate. The Writ gets to be a starting point rather than a last word.
And that, rather than anything that happens on a battlefield, will be victory in the war.
I believe that the only way the Writ could have been made so vulnerable is by the CoGA's abuse. In this case the excesses of the Clyntahn and the Inquisition enabled Zhan Q. Safehold to begin to consider what is reasonable applied to the Writ. In that way Langehorn and Bedard's legacy is being and can
only be destroyed through suicide.
Running out of money and compelling people into barter arrangements would impose sufficient dislocation on the population to trigger that suicide. Furthermore, suffering a complete military defeat before such dislocations are suffered would mitigate the damage to the CoGA. Well, what there is of the CoGA that is left. Such a defeat can be blamed for any economic dislocation by Safehold's citizens. If the CoGA by its own hand
chooses to cause such dislocations, they damage themselves much more thoroughly.
So from the Nimues' view forcing the CoGA into every greater expenditures is the primary driver for achieving her long term goal. Those massive demands for expenditures will force the mainland nations to adapt their societies and economies to enable such expenditures. One of two things must follow.
1- The CoGA is successful at keeping society together during that period of massive change. This means that by their own volition they adapt their view of the Writ and the view of the mainland in general to accommodate the needed changes. Even if the CoGA adapts by dispensations, the statement will be made that the Proscriptions
can be dispensed with.
2-The CoGA is unsuccessful at keeping society together in the face of the required changes. The economic dislocations will destroy what little remaining confidence Safeholdians have in the CoGA and their view of orthodoxy. Obviously God favors the Charisian view or he wouldn't have allowed Charis to piss all over orthodoxy the way they did.
Either way they will eventually lose. Running out of money AND maintaining the pace of the war will usher in all the changes the Inquisition have been fighting that much more quickly. The CoGA CAN continue the military war by forcing all sorts of financial expedients but in doing so they will lose the war to maintain orthodoxy.