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TFT *SPOILERS* thoughts, discussions, and future speculation

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!
Re: TFT *SPOILERS* thoughts, discussions, and future specula
Post by lyonheart   » Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:05 am

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Hi SilverbladeTE,

Wow!
Thanks very much for those extra details!
Important precious stories need to be written down and preserved for the ignorant and unbelieving future generations, hopefully as lessons before they experience them too.

If you have his service number, you should be able to get his military record along with your grandfathers.

The very best wishes to you and yours,

L


SilverbladeTE wrote:Lyonheart

Doh, got it mixed up because to me he was just "Uncle Will"
Was grand uncle.in law (maternal grandmother's sister's husband)
Not great uncle, lol trying to remember all the folks and relationships...eek :p
Large but very close (happy) family so everyone was like "uncle/aunt/cousin" for sbort :)

Uncle Will never spoke about his service except when he was occasionally blind drunk to blot out the horrors :(
We know he was "mentioned in dispatches" and was at Belsen...beyond that nothing much, his wife died ages ago so we don't know for sure which unit he was in
Apparently he'd seen enough awfulness in 1940 and even more at Normandy

Really lovely wee guy, always full of good cheer, hair brylcreamed, dapper clothes, loved him to bits, awesome accordion player :)

He cried his eyes out in those rare drunk periods cause when they went into Belsen the British troops gave the poor souls food, usually "doorstep" sandwiches (very thick bread, thick slice of corned beef)
It killed them with over eating, he felt horrified, monstrous at killing kids he'd desperately wanted to save
Takes a special kind of Evil to make a good man suffer that
One of many reasons I hate Nazis :/
Any snippet or post from RFC is good if not great!
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Re: TFT *SPOILERS* thoughts, discussions, and future specula
Post by Duckk   » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:22 am

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Knock it off with the personal attacks.
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Rhobair then Stohnar then Thirsk then Rainbow Waters
Post by rocket_scientist   » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:38 am

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SilverbladeTE wrote:All these debates and actual political, economic etc issues post World War 2 do show that the chaotic situation in the fiction of Through Fiery Trials is plausible ;)



Though I do wonder...how many of all these very convenient heart attacks: Duchairn, Greghor etc were checked for Federation cryogenic toxins....?
Time passes folk get old, death happen, but...still, anyone else thinking Chihiro and/or the Inquisition may be up to dirty tricks?

After so many pages of rehashing history and not the book in question, I was really beginning to wonder if ANYONE had noticed?

Consider the "Pinnacle People" at the end of the Jihad, the people who were both very at what they were doing so their next best replacement would not be as good but also the charisma, loyalty, trust of everyone else. Cataloging them at the end of the Jihad I come up with Archbishop Maikel, Caleb and Sharleyan , Merlin, Grand Vicar Rhobair, Lord Protector Stohnar, Thirsk, Archbishop Zhasyn, Rainbow Waters and Wind Song. Not quite as prominent Eastshare, Chermyn, Ehdwyrd Howsmyn, Tymahn Qwentyn, and growing more so in TFT Star Rising, and Syngpu. Of these Zhasyn was already fading fast in the last book, I was not surprised to read he had died of screen. Rhobair toke me completely by surprise and I was wondering what bizarre twist RFC decided couldn't happen with Rhobair still in charge. But dying suddenly, when he still likely had many years left despite how hard he pushed himself. Then Stohnar, first with a tremor and then suddenly the man who had practically carried the Republic on his back dies. And I started to wonder. When Thirsk came back into the narrative as being old but not dead yet, and having tremors then he was dead and I was sure that someone was assassinating the Pinnacle People. And I picked Rainbow Waters as the next target, and there he was, suddenly weak beyond his years, tremors i his hands, then gone. I didn't remember Chermyn until he planned to abdicate in his son's favor suddenly getting old and weak with a tremor. I expected to read that he died before the day was over but instead it remains an expectation.

So out of all the original Pinnacle People those who are left without the benefit on Merlin's nannies is . . . Wind Song. The others died years apart and seemingly of natural causes, but I kept expecting someone ask Owl to do a secret autopsy on Stohnar. I don't know if Qwentyn was a dry run or truly natural causes. And for what ever reason someone is doing this, I doubt they could have predicted just how much damage killing him alone would to the Republic. And I hope they put armed guards around Howsmyn soon, because whoever it is may start getting desperate that the Chairisian victims fail to fall. And tweak the nannies to report any attempted poisoning.

But who and why? It sounds like a secret poison, and that they have someone who can deliver that poison even around lots of guards. Possibly an old, Harchonian assassin not connected to the Emperor? And why both sides of the Jihad? And whoever it is is playing the long game considering how many years have passed for just the ones I have guessed?
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TFT *SPOILERS* Thoughts, Discussions and Future Speculation
Post by Bluesqueak   » Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:59 am

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rocket_scientist wrote:
SilverbladeTE wrote:All these debates and actual political, economic etc issues post World War 2 do show that the chaotic situation in the fiction of Through Fiery Trials is plausible ;)



Though I do wonder...how many of all these very convenient heart attacks: Duchairn, Greghor etc were checked for Federation cryogenic toxins....?
Time passes folk get old, death happen, but...still, anyone else thinking Chihiro and/or the Inquisition may be up to dirty tricks?

After so many pages of rehashing history and not the book in question, I was really beginning to wonder if ANYONE had noticed?

Consider the "Pinnacle People" at the end of the Jihad, the people who were both very at what they were doing so their next best replacement would not be as good but also the charisma, loyalty, trust of everyone else. Cataloging them at the end of the Jihad I come up with Archbishop Maikel, Caleb and Sharleyan , Merlin, Grand Vicar Rhobair, Lord Protector Stohnar, Thirsk, Archbishop Zhasyn, Rainbow Waters and Wind Song. Not quite as prominent Eastshare, Chermyn, Ehdwyrd Howsmyn, Tymahn Qwentyn, and growing more so in TFT Star Rising, and Syngpu. Of these Zhasyn was already fading fast in the last book, I was not surprised to read he had died of screen. Rhobair toke me completely by surprise and I was wondering what bizarre twist RFC decided couldn't happen with Rhobair still in charge. But dying suddenly, when he still likely had many years left despite how hard he pushed himself. Then Stohnar, first with a tremor and then suddenly the man who had practically carried the Republic on his back dies. And I started to wonder. When Thirsk came back into the narrative as being old but not dead yet, and having tremors then he was dead and I was sure that someone was assassinating the Pinnacle People. And I picked Rainbow Waters as the next target, and there he was, suddenly weak beyond his years, tremors i his hands, then gone. I didn't remember Chermyn until he planned to abdicate in his son's favor suddenly getting old and weak with a tremor. I expected to read that he died before the day was over but instead it remains an expectation.

So out of all the original Pinnacle People those who are left without the benefit on Merlin's nannies is . . . Wind Song. The others died years apart and seemingly of natural causes, but I kept expecting someone ask Owl to do a secret autopsy on Stohnar. I don't know if Qwentyn was a dry run or truly natural causes. And for what ever reason someone is doing this, I doubt they could have predicted just how much damage killing him alone would to the Republic. And I hope they put armed guards around Howsmyn soon, because whoever it is may start getting desperate that the Chairisian victims fail to fall. And tweak the nannies to report any attempted poisoning.

But who and why? It sounds like a secret poison, and that they have someone who can deliver that poison even around lots of guards. Possibly an old, Harchonian assassin not connected to the Emperor? And why both sides of the Jihad? And whoever it is is playing the long game considering how many years have passed for just the ones I have guessed?


Many of us have noticed- we've just all concluded that the 25 year span of the book makes the number of prominent deaths perfectly reasonable.

If someone is assassinating pinnacle leaders, they are carefully selecting people who could be expected to die of natural causes and who have heirs in place. Both Thirsk and Rainbow Waters are old. Thirsk has teenaged grandchildren. They've been through the most stressful time it's possible to imagine, and Thirsk had the added stress of worrying that his children and grandchildren would be tortured to death. A shorter lifespan than normal is to be expected.

Stonhar, likewise, has been through a civil war, famine, insurrection, financial crisis as the Head of State. Even being a Head of State in more peaceful times means you're likely to die earlier than most of your birth cohort. Why should we be surprised that years of constant, unremitting stress end up killing him?

Rhobair, with his completely unexpected heart attack, is the only 'suspicious' death, and the author sticks a line in (via Staynair) to inform us it's an 'Act Of God' - RFC has chosen to remove Rhobhair.

Given that Robhair was one of my favourite characters from Book 2 onwards, to the extent that I'd do an electronic search for his name to check he'd survived each book, I was a little 'disappointed' at that decision. Until I reached the last scene of the book. Yeah, it would have been heartbreaking to see the character who's fought so hard and so long to bring his church back to God discover that the whole thing is based on a lie. It would have broken his heart. Better his character leaves the story on a high note of a winning arc.

But if we have assassination in play, why didn't the assassin target the obviously moral, smart and Rhobhair-trained Tymythy Rhobhair? Why didn't the assassin go for Rynyld VI in Dohlar, clearly carefully trained by Thirsk to be a great King? Shouldn't they have gone for Baron Wind Song too?

Nope, we have a set of supposed assassinations which look exactly like natural deaths, none of which destabilise the countries or churches the deceased characters headed. Only one successor is then targeted.

Sounds to me more like 'people died and the next generation of characters steps up for the new series.'
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Re: Rhobair then Stohnar then Thirsk then Rainbow Waters
Post by phillies   » Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:45 am

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rocket_scientist wrote:
SilverbladeTE wrote:All these debates and actual political, economic etc issues post World War 2 do show that the chaotic situation in the fiction of Through Fiery Trials is plausible ;)



Though I do wonder...how many of all these very convenient heart attacks: Duchairn, Greghor etc were checked for Federation cryogenic toxins....?
Time passes folk get old, death happen, but...still, anyone else thinking Chihiro and/or the Inquisition may be up to dirty tricks?

After so many pages of rehashing history and not the book in question, I was really beginning to wonder if ANYONE had noticed?

Consider the "Pinnacle People" at the end of the Jihad, the people who were both very at what they were doing so their next best replacement would not be as good but also the charisma, loyalty, trust of everyone else. Cataloging them at the end of the Jihad I come up with Archbishop Maikel, Caleb and Sharleyan , Merlin, Grand Vicar Rhobair, Lord Protector Stohnar, Thirsk, Archbishop Zhasyn, Rainbow Waters and Wind Song. Not quite as prominent Eastshare, Chermyn, Ehdwyrd Howsmyn, Tymahn Qwentyn, and growing more so in TFT Star Rising, and Syngpu. Of these Zhasyn was already fading fast in the last book, I was not surprised to read he had died of screen. Rhobair toke me completely by surprise and I was wondering what bizarre twist RFC decided couldn't happen with Rhobair still in charge. But dying suddenly, when he still likely had many years left despite how hard he pushed himself. Then Stohnar, first with a tremor and then suddenly the man who had practically carried the Republic on his back dies. And I started to wonder. When Thirsk came back into the narrative as being old but not dead yet, and having tremors then he was dead and I was sure that someone was assassinating the Pinnacle People. And I picked Rainbow Waters as the next target, and there he was, suddenly weak beyond his years, tremors i his hands, then gone. I didn't remember Chermyn until he planned to abdicate in his son's favor suddenly getting old and weak with a tremor. I expected to read that he died before the day was over but instead it remains an expectation.

So out of all the original Pinnacle People those who are left without the benefit on Merlin's nannies is . . . Wind Song. The others died years apart and seemingly of natural causes, but I kept expecting someone ask Owl to do a secret autopsy on Stohnar. I don't know if Qwentyn was a dry run or truly natural causes. And for what ever reason someone is doing this, I doubt they could have predicted just how much damage killing him alone would to the Republic. And I hope they put armed guards around Howsmyn soon, because whoever it is may start getting desperate that the Chairisian victims fail to fall. And tweak the nannies to report any attempted poisoning.

But who and why? It sounds like a secret poison, and that they have someone who can deliver that poison even around lots of guards. Possibly an old, Harchonian assassin not connected to the Emperor? And why both sides of the Jihad? And whoever it is is playing the long game considering how many years have passed for just the ones I have guessed?


The efforts to poison Nimue and Merlin seem to have failed for some reason.
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Re: TFT *SPOILERS* thoughts, discussions, and future specula
Post by SilverbladeTE   » Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:55 am

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Assassinations or natural.....

Yes, time and stress of horrendous wars are a cause of death, naturally
But...some of those folk would be seen as "high traitors" by the Inquisition or Chihiro
Robhair, Thirsk and the man who turned Harchong's serf-slaves into free and very p***ed off free men and so ensured the Rebellion

We have no knowledge if the Rakurai terrorists were all hunted down or not
Could be as simple as nutcases indoctrinating their families, then those children over time infiltrating and poisoning....

I can give you one EASY way they could do it:
No one expects...their priest to be a serial killer!
Remember the Inquisition had a huge amount of properties many with secret areas and though much of the Inquisition's properties weren't forcibly sold off by Rhobair as punishment and reparations, who knows what remains?

And since the Inner Circle have priests from the Church of Charis and high security, it's much harder to kill them
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