HFQ Official Snippet #5

Something else of interest. When Kohdy was eliminated he was not simply annihilated like Shan-Wei and the others from Alexandria.. his body was actually returned to his family, which seems unusual to say the least... more like Rommel's treatment by the Nazi's...

BobG wrote:I think the biggest question is why did they go to that much effort to destroy the Abbey?

-- Bob G

Grumpy old gits. Bad hair day?

More seriously, they really, really don't like being defied, they have the power, and being the last [one/few] left must have been growing increasingly alone and isolated - not good for more measured responces.

Hello RFC!

Thanks for another great snippet!

WOW! Cool! Neat!

Snippets every 8 days may be barely bearable, if the reaction to #4 in terms of the number of thread pages is any indicator; yet a lot of some posters doubts about Nynian have been answered, since she already sounds sympathetic to Shan-wei and the losing demons; so how should Merlin respond, in what order of her demands and concerns?

What truth was shared by the 'demon' is very interesting, as is his apparent murder by the 'winning angels', presumably the remaining command crew, and the last Rakurai, while possibly lowered in power to reduce collateral damage, the single strike still indicates just how deliberate the attack was.

One wonders whether the sisterhood's assassins were created then with revenge for the Rakurai strike in mind.

The demons' "Final fastness" in the Desolation mountains is also intriguing, presumably it was destroyed by Rakurai after Khody was murdered to end the war.

One wonders how often were the Rakurai used during the 'War of the Fallen', if reloading initially took a long time, so the 'fallen' could hide or possibly surround themselves with targets the angels didn't want to hit following the chaos of the admiral's revenge.

Which begs another obvious question, what such targets might or could have been?

If the sisters have had profitable investments for almost 9 centuries, just how big is their current nest egg?

Could they be the largest [secret combined total] investor in the KotTL or outside Charis?

How much might they have invested in Charis?

Could some of the Siddarmark investments Nynian used have been the Sisterhood's?

Is her maid her link with the sisterhood?

Could the sisterhood have played a quiet major role in financing as well as providing the philosophical underpinning, structure and popular momentum that created the republic?

The answers to these and other questions await our enthusiastic hopes.

Nynian's answer to Merlin's last question will also be a delicious delight to read, hopefully around September 17th.

L

PS: Is Paityr's 'Schueler' of the 'key' before or after Khody's last visit to Zion?

So what happened to Khody may have finally clued Schueler as to what was really happening so he created the Wylsynn dynasty to watch the church?

BobG wrote:I think the biggest question is why did they go to that much effort to destroy the Abbey?

-- Bob G

Maybe it could be related why Khody know Español in the first place. Maybe besides learning Español, he may have knowledge of other things that the last Archangel do not want to get out.

BobG wrote:I think the biggest question is why did they go to that much effort to destroy the Abbey?

-- Bob G

It's kind of obvious. First Kohdy shows up in Zion asking uncomfortable questions about the other side in the war against the fallen.

Then after his death the Sisters refuses to disband their order, the remaining angels then concludes that better safe than sorry and blasts the abbey so no "lies" may be spread by the sisters. And just to make sure no-one looks into what happened with Kohdy and the sisterhood they remove all mentions of him from the testaments.

I demand an "Oopsie"-edition - NOW!

Hmm, what odds that right about now Owl is doing a records search on Khody?

As for the bust, are we sure what year is year 0? After all second century can be year 100.

Tanstaafl wrote:Woww, RFC, I can only say Wooowwwwww.
What a way to send so many speculations to the dustbin.

This snippet appeared much sooner than I anticipated.
Thanks for this snippet and its early release.

My new speculation is that Kohdy was an Adam, was connected to a NEAT after capture where he learned Spanish and discovered Cervantes.

And another speculation is that the side of Chihiro and Schueler lost the power struggle in the church and they did not survive the War against the Fallen.

And I have the question about how many of the fallen were followers of Shan-Wei and how many were just on the losing side in the succession war among the (arch)angels?

According to Commodore Pei's final message to Nimue Alban, Langhorne and Bedard had set the tone and were the leaders of the "ban technology for good at any cost" faction of the command crew while Shan-wei was in stark opposition and Commodore Pei was supposedly somewhere in between (purposefully estranged from his wife to allow him to remain in Langhorne's good graces). We also know, thanks to OWL's surmise in OAR, that the extremely tight security net surrounding the Rakurai platforms was intended to defeat any attempt by "disloyal" members of the command crew to take out the platforms after the last member of the hardcore anti-technology faction died out. This indeed would be the greatest fear of anyone in this faction - that the last remaining members of the command crew would not be as committed to the cause or worst outright traitors.

It doesn't necessarily follow that infighting among the surviving command crew had ended killing Chihiro and Schueler. Moreover, given the top heavy nature of the church that developed following Langhorne and Bedard's demise, and MWW's previous comments that the "archangels" had intended to be more "hands on" in their governance of the Church, I think Chihiro and Schueler won whatever infighting followed Commodore Pei's pocket nuke. The paranoia inherent in everything we've seen so far (in the residual technology on Safehold) and this most recent snippet would point towards people who could not risk even a single person knowing the truth about Safehold and the "Archangels".

But this latest snippet answers at least a few questions (and raises quite a few others). It tells us how the Sisterhood of Saint Kohdy came into being, the reasons for it's survival for all these years and why they were generally suspicious of the party line that is the Holy Writ. It also confirms (possibly) the reason for which Kohdy and the order were expunged from the historical record as well as the manner in which they were. And it seems that Kohdy was not a disillusioned member of the command staff but rather one of their leading and more popular and determined commanders. And it's clear that he was probably murdered by Schueler when he dared to seek an answer to the doubts that had been planted in his mind by one of his opponents who showed him mercy (uncharacteristic for a demon after all). And it's a good bet that during the War Against the Fallen, the Church's forces (and especially its "elite" Seijin forces) were told that the other side would not show them mercy and that they must therefore fight to the death. Any good religious fanatic would do so anyways yet such fanaticism really is rare and therefore additional motivation would be required. The Japanese had told their soldiers that Americans were cruel and would torture any prisoner to death (and therefore they must not be captured alive). That coupled with Japan's own cultural codes of behavior had produced the sort of fanaticism the US had encountered during WWII.

It still doesn't answer the question of how Seijin Kohdy knew Spanish - Which would resolve whether or not he was an Adam. Tanstaafl's theory has merit though - But only if he was an Adam and only if there were additional NEATs floating around beside the three that Shan-wei retained in Alexandria (which seems unlikely).

I would think he was an Adam, given the timing between Kohdy's death and the original abbey's destruction (and the age of the Abbess who had met both Schueller and Kohdy). But that raises more questions than answers since his encounter with an enemy Seijin seems to have been the turning point. I doubt he would have submitted to (or stood still for) any memory implants. Moreover, if his doubts were so profound that he went to Schueller and the latter felt he had no choice but to quietly assassinate him, it means he could not be made to forget his doubts and follow the party line through technological means. This means, he either wasn't an Adam (and therefore had no neural implants that could be adjusted) or else his encounter with the enemy Seijin had somehow switched the setting on his implants to "read only". Since it would likely be easier to damage a neural implant rather than interface with it and upload, download or erase information, this seems to me a more likelier reason for his death. He couldn't be reprogrammed and so he was killed.

And it doesn't answer the question of "why Spanish" either. Why that language and not something even more indecipherable, such as Russian, Hebrew or Arabic (something with an entirely different alphabet). But it would make sense if it was used by the "Archangel's" side as a secret war language among the "Archangels" and the Seijin themselves if only to prevent the hapless believers around them from understanding (and think it was perhaps a divine tongue) or to pass on secret messages for the Seijin alone (being that they were certainly fighting a medieval war backed up by advanced technology and passing along messages on pieces of paper - again, probably).

Thanks RFC for the snippet. Could Merlin find the location of the fastness in the Desolation Mountains of the Demons and possibly scour it for prewar tech or information? might be somthing left.

Great Snippet! It removes all my doubts about Nynian being brought in the inner circle. Merlin and the others still have to think about it but in the end the decision is clear.

I wonder what this Dawn Star is.

Finding the fastness could be useful not so much because of technology (I don't expect much if anything worthful to be there) but because it could shed some light on the war. But it could be very difficult to be found.

Another question: What is this fastness? I can't imagine anything and my dictionary doesn't really help me...sorry I'm not a native speaker so I think that's the problem here.

It is a hasty conclusion to already assume Schueler killed Kohdy. Maybe someone intercepted Kohdy, maybe someone heard Schueler and Kohdy talking and assumed Kohdy has to die. There are a lot of possible explanations including Schueler killing Kohdy of course, but for the moment I would be careful with this conclusion.

It would be great if big parts of Kohdy's diary were included as verbatim reports in the next book! I would love to read about this age from a eye witness...maybe as an appendix