Recruit More Seijins

One thing I've often pondered over the course of the series is the potential benefits of recruiting people to take over responsibility for managing Owl's intel take from the Inner Circle.

You could pitch it as a Seijin training camp, maybe even run it through the Sisters of Saint Kohdy. Recruits travel to some remote secure location, where they get briefed in on the "seijin visions" story and start reading and analyzing Owl's information in the form of written reports, like the ones Merlin was shown providing to Wave Thunder in earlier books.

Over time, you induct small groups into the Inner Circle, moving them into Nimue's Cave and giving them direct access to the intel take - and now that they have the wetware implant tech, you might even be able to create additional field-capable "seijins" by giving them the benefits of NEATs and nannies.

As far as "field-capable seijins" go, my understanding is that the combat feats Merlin and Nimue pull off are only possible because they aren't in organic bodies any more. Giving a flesh-and-blood a set of implants and mil-spec nannies won't let said flesh-and-blood decapitate an opponent with a one-hand swing, or make a 45 foot long leap that still clears a person in the way.

OTOH, I'd guess a inner circle member with the wetware implants could if desired speed-learn moarte subita the same way Nimue did when she needed to take out the jerk on Corisande.

Spoilers
The wetware is one way to provide seijin-like powers. Next we have the nanites OWL has been acreating for IC members and the Imperial family. Can those nanites be built to strengthen human muscles? Likely. Make human muscles quicker? Also likely.

The question is just how much quicker and stronger. Since it appears OWL has been adapting Terran Federation tech already, why not ramp that up? The best argument for doing so is what happened to Siddermark. Would having more operatives in Tarikah with greater than human capabilities have calmed down the violence enough to mitigate what actually happened? I suspect so.

Yes, what happened is needed for the story, but the response to that also needs to reflect the ICs motivations as well as their full capabilities.

Julia Minor wrote:As far as "field-capable seijins" go, my understanding is that the combat feats Merlin and Nimue pull off are only possible because they aren't in organic bodies any more. Giving a flesh-and-blood a set of implants and mil-spec nannies won't let said flesh-and-blood decapitate an opponent with a one-hand swing, or make a 45 foot long leap that still clears a person in the way.

OTOH, I'd guess a inner circle member with the wetware implants could if desired speed-learn moarte subita the same way Nimue did when she needed to take out the jerk on Corisande.

Well, of course any such agents wouldn't be able to match the performance of a PICA - but then, neither could the original batch of seijins from the War Against the Fallen.

Would also lend credibility if any of them were, alas, captured, proving to Safehold there are many seijins

Taurus2 wrote:

Julia Minor wrote:As far as "field-capable seijins" go, my understanding is that the combat feats Merlin and Nimue pull off are only possible because they aren't in organic bodies any more. Giving a flesh-and-blood a set of implants and mil-spec nannies won't let said flesh-and-blood decapitate an opponent with a one-hand swing, or make a 45 foot long leap that still clears a person in the way.

OTOH, I'd guess a inner circle member with the wetware implants could if desired speed-learn moarte subita the same way Nimue did when she needed to take out the jerk on Corisande.

Well, of course any such agents wouldn't be able to match the performance of a PICA - but then, neither could the original batch of seijins from the War Against the Fallen.

Absolutely true, Taurus2. Unfortunately any new seijins will not be judged by comparison to the seijins of the WAtF, but by the more recent standards set by Merlin, Nimue and their alternate identities.

Keith_w wrote:

Taurus2 wrote:Well, of course any such agents wouldn't be able to match the performance of a PICA - but then, neither could the original batch of seijins from the War Against the Fallen.

Absolutely true, Taurus2. Unfortunately any new seijins will not be judged by comparison to the seijins of the WAtF, but by the more recent standards set by Merlin, Nimue and their alternate identities.

A fair point, but I still feel that's a manageable problem. Most of Merlin's highly superhuman feats have had no (surviving) witnesses, and the others can be explained away as having grown in the telling - like the harpooned kraken incident, or his action on the aftercastle of Royal Charis.

Julia Minor wrote:As far as "field-capable seijins" go, my understanding is that the combat feats Merlin and Nimue pull off are only possible because they aren't in organic bodies any more. Giving a flesh-and-blood a set of implants and mil-spec nannies won't let said flesh-and-blood decapitate an opponent with a one-hand swing, or make a 45 foot long leap that still clears a person in the way.

OTOH, I'd guess a inner circle member with the wetware implants could if desired speed-learn moarte subita the same way Nimue did when she needed to take out the jerk on Corisande.

I don't believe Nimue needed the moarte to take out the idiot. Being able to ignore punches and bend steel rods in her bare hands should have been adequate.

In a word: “biotechnics”

I was thinking along this line earlier and although I don’t want to just import 5th Empire biotechnics it still might be possible to use some of the new Wetware tech to increase reaction time and strength somewhat. While such “junior Seijin” may not be as capable as the elite members, they would still outclass most of the opposition, especially when equipped with TF gear and anti-ballistic undies to increase their durability.

I nominate Stephanie as one of the 1st candidates.