SilverbladeTE wrote:I don't have a lot to add, but I do like and agree with much of what's been said
I suspect Chihiro went rogue, but I'm not sure
whyI have a sneaking suspicion it's got.something to with why North Harchong REALLY took over South Harchong
I think Chihiro was rogue from the start.
if it was only about the War Against the Fallen, why let Harchong keep the American area? (New York/Yu-Kwau) I think it's part of why he set EVERYTHING up
That the name of the original enclave in Harchong is New York doesn't mean it was an American area. The population of Harchong is strongly ethnic Chinese, but there was no reason for the enclave name to reflect that. (Especially after Bedard re-programmed the colonists so they had no memory that that
were colonists. That the original enclave name was New York was just on of those inexplicable things the Archangels did but didn't explain.
And I don't think Chihiro controlled which colonists got assigned to and awakened in which enclaves, so talking about "why he set EVERYTHING up" may be mistaken.
Chihiro is normally a Japanese female name, but Safehold one seems to be male, I dont know nationality
Chihiro was male, but his provenance isn't specified. I asked David at a con what he was before Operation Ark and he said a high government official and a historian (the latter explains the Order of the Quill part of his order.) David didn't say, but I suspect he leaned hard on his government position to get himself posted to Operation Ark.
I'll be curious to figure out what history he was drawing upon for his planning, but we don't know enough about what the further changes he made to Langhorne's plans were. He certainly wanted a thoroughly authoritarian static "fly in amber" society on Safehold, likely wouldn't care about the way North Harchong or Desnair turned out, and might have
approved of Zhaspar Clyntan's attempt to put the Inquisition in control of Mother Church, himself in control of the Inquisition, and end up as the absolute ruler of all Safehold who determined what God's will was and what was permissible as far as God was concerned.
I'd bet Chihiro only cared that mankind was still alive on Safehold, had jumped into a hole and pulled the hole in after itself, and wouldn't encounter the Gbaba again. He *didn't* care about the sort of lives men would lead.
Nor do we know that timeline's Earth history to guess any lingering grudges etc, except China was a single nation with no colonies etc...which is kind of odd
China never really had colonies. They has lots of emigrants who moved elswhere and set up ethnic Chinese enclaves that assimilated just enough with whoever already lived there to get along and do business, but were still firmly Chinese. (I live in NYC. There are several different Chinatowns scatted across the boroughs with folks who never learned to speak English because they didn't need to. Everyone they encounter on a daily basis is also Chinese, so the question will what dialect of Chinese they speak. There are five major dialects I'm aware of that are largely mutually incomprehensible, but the written language is the same for all so they can manage. Cantonese is apparently rich in curses.
)
We know there's a lot of Asian heritage across Safehold (partial epicanthic fold is common)
We know military had been greatly run down before Gbaba had appeared so its likely that racial, religious and national tensions had died down a LOT from what we have.
If things had calmed down enough for there to
be a world government, Earth didn't
need a big military. It's role was police force, survey of other real estate men might settle, piracy suppression, and the equivalent of Coast Guard. It was dramatically expanded after the Gbaba were encountered and it had a war to fight.
Alas extremists, xenophobes and lunatics are found everywhere and while military are usually checked pretty well to keep.such divisive gits out, the same can't be said for politics or bureaucracy
Yep. The usual problem for the military in places where civilian control is the norm is managing the politicians who give them marching orders so the orders aren't hopelessly stupid.
China vs USA issues? Some old grudge, feeling Asian colonists had been screwed over by Westerners...maybe they actually were!
Though it seems unlikey considering Pei Shan Wei was in charge of colonial terraforming...then again maybe he killed her and her team to HIDE something they'd found?
She hid the Moyrah Lode...maybe she or others found something under what is now South Harchong, could even be something we'd not expect like...ruins once nuked millenia ago by the Gbaba and Chihiro, realizing the entire project or way they had twisted it, was a huge waste and he cracked up from guilt?
I don't think lingering US/China issues would have an effect at that point. I don't doubt there was regional rivalry the world government had to referee, but I do doubt lingering resentments that would flare up on Safehold. (And in any case, the colonists got mind-wiped by Bedard and did not remember who they were or where they came from when they were awakened.)
And I don't think Chihiro knew about the the stuff like the Moriah Lode that she discovered and didn't mention to Langhorne. How would he?
I also really doubt the notion that the Gbaba had nuked Safehold millennia ago. Among other things, I think what the Gbaba did to destroy worlds inhabited by other species would leave traces that were still clear and highly visible
long after they finished and went home.
David made it clear elsewhere that the Gbaba had their own interstellar polity of uncertain size, but were settled down and generally stayed in their own volume of space. The Terran Federation had the misfortune of expanding into their space and triggered their genocidal "Another sentient species. Exterminate! Exterminate!" reflex. They would leave their own space to chase and kill the intruders, but weren't likely to stick around once they had. So I don't see them ever getting
to Safehold in the distant past.
We don't know how far Safehold is from Terra, but we can assume it's in the opposite direction from the one the Federation was going when they encountered the Gbaba. Operation Ark's orders were probably "Go as far away as you can as fast as you can get there, but keep an eye out for suitable habitable worlds as you go. What made them decide Safehold was a decent choice would be a matter of how far away they felt was a reasonable place to stop and plant a colony.
maybe he's mad from psychic shock of the horror they all went through....or wanted to be a God-Emperor?
I'm sure RFC knows and it will be entertaining
He certainly seemed to be among the traumatized. He might not have been averse to being God-Emperor either.
Another question I have is how much of a "Man overstepped his bounds and
deserved to get stomped by the Gbaba. We must insure man cannot overstep his bounds again!" There's enough "People are no damned good" sentiment floating around now, with the corollary that they must be controlled for their own good to keep them out of trouble. Of course, some of the folks who hold those views see themselves as uniquely suited to be the controllers who get to tell people what to do "for their own good".
I think some of that factored into the command crew politics about Safehold.
And given how deeply religion is embedded as a force in the series I wonder a bit about the Gbaba, and whether they developed a notion before they went arguably senile that $DEITY created them in it's image and any other species was a creation of their $DEITY's evil twin and must be destroyed in consequence.
______
Dennis
