cralkhi wrote:evilauthor wrote:2) It has to be kept hidden from the ignorant public. Which means it has to be disguised as innocuous natural and/or obviously mortal made objects. There's a bit of leeway here given the lack of actual forensic science (like the use of advanced chemical explosives), but nothing obviously "supernatural" should be going on, at least not anywhere they intend to leave live, credible witnesses to the event. On the flip side, entire fleets going up to mysterious magazine explosions or even just disappearing in a hurricane is verboten because it'd trip Safeholdian "supernatural!" alarms even if the individual events LOOK perfectly mundane.
I think Merlin's strategy may actually be wrong here. The Writ says any demonic intervention will be opposed by angelic intervention, so if Merlin did obvious supernatural stuff, then either:
-he's an angel
-the Writ is wrong
-he's some other thing not mentioned in the Writ
None of these options are good for the COGA.
That supposes his 'Supernatural' stuff doesn't cause riots rebellions and mutinies in the Alliance, the vast majority of whose people believe fervently in God, the Archangels and the Church 'better led'. The Writ constrained mindset is not limited to the CoGA side in this. People in the EoC may be willing to stretch things a bit more because they trust Maikel and Caleb and hate Clyntahn, but at the street level there are limits. They are emphatically not some rationalist post-enlightenment crowd when it comes to their faith.