Midst Toil And Tribulation – Snippet 03
.III.
The Temple,
City of Zion,
The Temple Lands
“I hope you still think this was worth it, Zhaspahr,” Vicar Rhobair Duchairn said grimly, looking across the conference table at the jowly Grand Inquisitor.
Zhaspahr Clyntahn looked back with a face of bland, expressionless iron, and the Church of God Awaiting’s treasurer managed — somehow — not to snarl. It wasn’t easy, given the reports pouring in from Siddarmark, and he knew as surely as he was sitting there that the reports they were receiving understated the destruction and death.
“I don’t understand why you seem to think all this is somehow my fault,” Clyntahn said in a flat voice. “I’m not the one who decided when and where it was going to happen — you can thank that bastard Stohnar for that!”
Duchairn’s lips parted but he stopped the fatal words before they emerged. He couldn’t do much about the contempt and anger in his eyes, but at least he managed to refrain from what he truly wanted to say.
“Forgive me if I seem a bit obtuse,” he said instead, “but all the reports I’ve seen — including Archbishop Wyllym’s — seem to indicate the Inquisition is leading the . . . resistance to the Lord Protector. And” — his eyes swiveled to Allayn Maigwair, the Temple’s captain general — “that somehow quite a few Temple Guard ‘advisors’ wound up assigned to the men who launched this ‘spontaneous uprising.’ Under the circumstances, I’m sure you can understand why it might seem to me you were a bit more directly evolved in events there than anyone else in this council chamber.”
“Of course I was.” Clyntahn’s lip curled disdainfully. “I’m Mother Church’s Grand Inquisitor, Rhobair! As such, I’m personally answerable to the Archangels and to God Himself for her safety. I didn’t want to create this situation in Siddarmark. You and Zhasyn made your . . . reasoning for keeping the traitorous bastards’ economy intact amply clear, and however little I liked your logic, I couldn’t really dispute it. But that didn’t absolve me from my responsibility — mine and my Inquisitors’ — to watch Stohnar and his cronies. If it came down to a choice between making sure marks continued to flow into the Treasury and letting the entire Republic fall into the hands of Shan-wei and those fucking Charisian heretics, there was only one decision I could make, and I’m not about to apologize for having made it when my hand was forced!”
“Forced?” Zahmsyn Trynair, the Church’s chancellor was obviously unhappy to be siding even partially with Duchairn, but he arched his eyebrows at Clyntahn. “Forgive me, Zhaspahr, but while you may not have intended for events to take the course they did, there seems little doubt that your ‘Sword of Schueler’ got out of hand and initiated the violent confrontation.”
“I’ve told you and told you,” Clyntahn shot back with an air of dangerous, put-upon patience, “if I was going to have a weapon ready to hand when I needed it, I could hardly wait to start sharpening the blade until after Stohnar had already struck, could I? Obviously a certain degree of preparation was necessary if the true sons of Mother Church were to be organized and ready to move when they were most sorely required. Yes, it’s entirely possible a few of my inquisitors honed the Sword to a keener edge than I’d intended. And I won’t pretend I wasn’t more than a little taken aback by the . . . enthusiasm with which Mother Church’s children sprang to her defense. But the truth is that it’s a good thing Wyllym and I had started making preparations, and the proof is right there in the reports before you.”
He jabbed a thick forefinger at the folders on the conference table. Duchairn had already forced himself to read the contents of his folder fully and completely, and he wondered what would have happened to Mother Church long since if his Treasury reports had borne so little resemblance to the truth. There were mountains of facts in those reports — facts which he had no doubt at all were true. But the very best way to lie was to assemble carefully chosen ‘truths’ into the mask you wanted reality to wear, and Wyllym Rayno, the Archbishop of Chiang-wu, was a master at doing just that.
It’s to be hoped he does at least a little better job of telling
Zhaspahr the truth, Duchairn thought bitterly. Or is it? For that matter, could Zhaspahr even recognize the truth if someone dared to tell it to him these days?!
“You’ve got the figures, Zhasyn,” Clyntahn went on sharply. “Those bastards in Siddar City were buying three times as many rifles as they told us they were! Just who in Shan-wei d’you think they were stockpiling them against? Could it possibly have been the people — us; Mother Church — Stohnar was lying to about the numbers he was buying? I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of any other reason for him to hide them from us!”
The Grand Inquisitor glared at Trynair, and the chancellor glanced uneasily at the treasurer from the corner of one eye. Duchairn could see what little backbone Trynair might still possess oozing out of him, but there wasn’t a great deal he could do about that. Especially not when he strongly suspected that even though Rayno had inflated the figures grossly, Stohnar had been stockpiling weapons as quietly and secretly as he could.
God knows
I would’ve been stockpiling them like mad if I’d known Zhaspahr Clyntahn had decided it was only a matter of when — not if — he was going to bring my entire Republic down in fire and blood!
“And when you add that to the way Stohnar, Maidyn, and Parkair’ve been coddling and protecting the Shan-wei-damned ‘Reformists’ — not to mention entire communities of Charisians! — throughout the Republic, it’s obvious what they had in mind. As soon as they thought they had enough rifles for their immediate security, they were going to openly invite Charis into an alliance. Can you imagine what kind of reward they might’ve demanded from Cayleb and Sharleyan for giving them a foothold here on the mainland itself? Not to mention selling the entire Siddarmarkian Army into their possession? Langhorne, Zahmsyn! We’d have had Charisian armies pouring across the Border States and into the Temple Lands themselves by summer, and you know it!”
The Grand Inquisitor’s fire was directed at Trynair, but no one doubted its true target was Duchairn. The chancellor wilted visibly, and Duchairn knew the image of Siddarmarkian armies sweeping across the Border States had been one of Trynair’s darkest nightmares — however little chance there’d been of its ever actually happening — for years. The thought of those same armies equipped with Charisian weapons, allied to the monarchs who’d sworn to destroy the Group of Four forever, had to be the most terrifying thing the chancellor could imagine . . . short of finding himself face-to-face with the Inquisition as Clyntahn’s other enemies had, at any rate.
“Father Zohannes and Father Saimyn had reports from reliable sources that the Army was supposed to conduct an ‘exercise’ closing the frontier with the Border States as soon as the first snows fell,” Clyntahn continued. “An ‘exercise!‘” He sneered and curled his lip. “One that would’ve just happened to put all of those rifles he wasn’t telling us he had on the frontier right across the shortest path from Zion to Siddarmark City . . . or from Siddarmark city to Zion. Obviously they had no choice but to act when they did, whether it was what any of us wanted or not!”
Duchairn’s jaws ached from the pressure it took to keep his teeth closed on what he really wanted to say. Of course Zohannes Pahtkovair and Saimyn Airnhart had reported Stohnar intended to seal his borders! They were Clyntahn’s creatures, and they’d report whatever he needed them to!
“No one could regret the loss of life more than I do,” Clyntahn said piously. “It’s not the fault of Mother Church, however — it’s the fault of her enemies. We had no choice but to act. If we’d hesitated for so much as five-day or two, Langhorne only knows how much worse it could’ve been! And if you expect me to shed any tears over what happened to heretics, blasphemers, and traitors or their lackeys, you’ll be a long time waiting, Zhasyn!” He slammed one beefy hand on the tabletop. “They brought whatever happened to them on themselves, and however bad that might have been in this world, it was only a foretaste of what awaits them in the next!”
He glared around the chamber, nostrils flared, eyes flashing, and Duchairn marveled once again at the man’s ability to believe whatever he needed to believe at any given moment. Yet surely he had to realize he was lying this time . . . didn’t he? How could someone manipulate, twist, and pervert the truth that thoroughly if he didn’t know, somewhere deep inside, what the truth actually was? Or did he simply rely on his subordinates to tell him whatever “truth” he needed to know to suit his requirements?
Another look into the mind (or at least at the words) of the most depraved man on Safehold.
At this point, with the church having acquired exploding shells, rifles en mass, and with charismatic now have the addition of steam power and locomotives, and Merlin’s revolvers, I can only ask will we be seeing chainguns this book or next? They are at the right technology point for them, they cause the users significant moral ambiguity and introspection/horror such as DW is showing merlin to have at the moment, and are a critical piece of an out numbered and relatively inexperienced land force successfully taking on a bigger, highly trained one.
Reality is whatever God wills it to be. This seems to be a Writ doctrine. As the defender and interpreter of God’s will on Safehold, Clyntahn can interpret it to mean whatever he wants. It doesn’t matter what others think. Without any authority, their opinions matter as much as a fart in a windstorm.
That man makes me feel sick. Really, really, sick. The worst thing is that I think he actually does believe his own version is the truth. And he’s got lots of other crazy people backing him up.
My congratulations to Mr Weber for creating such a truly sick, internally consistent, believable villain.
I hope the next snippet jumps to someone more sympathetic. Please?
A thousand deaths are not enough for Clynthan.
I gotta say, as evil as Clyntahn is, this snippet left me speechless. His self-delusion knows no bounds. Amassing an army to attack Zion “as soon as the first snows fell?” Sure, you can use sleighs and skis, but the WEATHER would slaughter any army making such an attempt at that time of year! Which Clyntahn is completely incapable of understanding, but he never leaves the temperature controlled temple, so maybe little concepts like deathly cold have no meaning for him. He can use any pretense, no matter how implausible since no one has told him “NO!” in so long that he can’t imagine that anyone would. Duchairn thought about it and realized it would mean his death. How do you deal with an insane oligarch with unlimited power?
Clyntahn’s quote “And if you expect me to shed any tears over what happened to heretics, blasphemers, and traitors or their lackeys, you’ll be a long time waiting,” reminds me of the phrase “We had to destroy the village to save it.” He’s ignoring the countless thousands of Temple Loyalists who also died, and are dying at this very moment, which Duchairn obviously understands despite the heavily edited report the inquisition has supplied. But no other member of the GOF can tell whether Clyntahn actually believes the lies they believe he MUST know are in it, which is the most truly terrifying facet of his character. For him, reality is what he wishes it to be – and his reality continues to get worse.
Clyntahn diverged from the real world a long time ago. It’s probably going to require his (hopefuly) very painful, lingering death to show him that the universe doesn’t orbit around him. I really hope Duchairn slips a knife in him and does Safehold a major favor. Merlin sniping him in the head from a rooftop a mile away wouldn’t have the same effect, nor would dying in a “Pei moment” from a vest pocket nuke.
Sadly I feel Clyntahn has irrevocably gone around the bend in his divergence with reality. He’ll die wondering how the God and the Archangels could let such a thing happen to the one who enforces their will on Safehold. He won’t realize he’s on his way to whatever whatever awaits the truly evil after our existence, be it annihilation or some form of Hell, but I’d LOVE to see him arrive!
I’d guess we’re in for a further glimpse into his sick mind in the next snippet, and extending into novels yet unwritten. I’ve gotta say this is the first time I’ve ever encountered an evil antagonist who literally makes me sick.
And like the future of Siddarmark appears to be – BLEEEK!
Grooooooooooan!!
Nimitz you stinker! that was baaaaad!
I’ve greatly enjoyed reading all the comments here for years (lurkers unite!) but that comment just had to be replied to.
Between Zhaspahr Clyntahn, Cordelia Ransom, and the Detweilers, I think we’ve seen Mr. Weber’s definition of evil – being so convinced of one’s importance in the universal plan and ability to make reality bend to one’s will that nothing else matters – others’ views, others’ suffering, and other’s lives (friend or foe).
There are people who have no redeeming characteristics. Hitler is always a good example. And once someone starts down that road to ultimate evil, there really is no turning back because what was left behind will surely result in personal destruction if one turns back–too many enemies. But history shows that the same thing awaits at the other end of the road. I don’t know why, but History does not seem to teach us anything even though it is full of lessons. And an artificial, rewritten History is a quite useless teacher, as we are being shown in this series.
There is also something of a flaw in the series (and in my eyes) given David Weber’s religious convictions. The absolute evil and the ignoring of that evil as shown by the GoF overshadows whatever good is shown by the Reformers. The GoF thunders and the Reformers just…burp. Or so it seems to me. I do NOT believe in any kind of “Supreme Being” or afterlife. My philosophy is that one should live a good life and do the best one is able for others. And that is reward enough. Heaven and Hell as incentive or disincentive don’t seem to work for most people anyway. If they did, what a world this would be. I think that organized religion is best at organizing hate campaigns and pogroms. So where this series resonates for me is in its showing what an evil thing evil human beings can make of an organized religion.
@8 robert, funny that you mentioned that. I do believe in God. The part of the series that truly resonated most powerfully for me was the description of the CoGA in OAR. It made me consider the nature of what God asked the jews to do when Christ came to earth. They were asked to throw away 3,000 years of divine communication on the word of one mortal man. I don’t know if I could have done that. I am grateful that I will never know.
Duchairn for Grand Vicar! Just a WAG, but…
On the surface, “here” are the GoF and “there” are the Mandarins (Honorverse), both groups seem to run things by lying about whatever doesn’t fit their view of “How Things Should Be”. However, here Clyntahn lies to his OWN group, the Mandarins lie to the public… Interestingly enough Clyntahn seems to tell the “truth” to Rayno, ie the scene (pg 422 HFF) where he points out that Duchairn makes a great lightning rod. So while it appears that he’s just nuts, a lot of this scene may be posturing to maintain his control of the GoF. And it does seem to be working, they are obviously terrified. Although upon furthur consideration, Duchairn doesn’t seem terrified, he’s plotting.
And finally to Nimitz13 –Great Bleek
The question is not:
Can Zhaspahr Clyntahn be eliminated?
but rather
Can the Inquisition be tamed?
Codelia Ransom should have read _and followed_
“The Evil Overlord List” on
If I finally capture my most dangerous enemy……..
The failure to follow up the chaos with an invasion before winter is going to be disasterous and will come back to haunt Clyntahn. If I remember correctly the Army of Siddmark is intact. The rebellion in Siddmark City has been put down. The borders are sealed by winter. Just how many battalions will the retired Charisian marines be able to train by spring and how quickly can the empire provide arms and support. Will Stonair try to put down as much of the rebellion as possible by spring and how viciously. A winter campaign though difficult is doable and the rebels would have limited ability to communicate and resist. To what degree will Merlin take direct action against the rebels. He/she can have no moral scruples/constraints given what the stakes are and who the enemy is. Since Merlin is so concerned about religious warfare by spring he could personally eliminate the most important rebels. The rebellion would quickly collapse if the rebels woke up some morning to find the heads of their leaders on pikes or other creative uses of terror. The Mongols were very effective in suppressing rebellion (killing every one and thing in a rebellious city and leaving a pyramid of their heads/skulls). Most people’s appetite for rebellion decreases rapidly if they believe there will be personal consequences. Make an example of the hardcore zealots.
@11 tootall: Of course Clyntahn doesn’t lie (too much) to Rayno, he is his XO and instrumental to Clyntahn’s continuing progress! What I can’t wait for is when Clyntahn’s “plans/progress” impinge heavily on Rayno’s home Empire (of which he is both a bishop/archbishop of and a native-born noble of). And IIRC Rayno was insrumental in bringing Clyntahn to office in the first place.
@12 Zak Ryerson: Though it does have exceptions like the Wylsons, I’m leaning more and more toward Charis’s warcry: “Death to the Inquisition”.
@13 Randy: “They made a desert and called it peace”: Tacitus. Regretfully I doubt that would work in this scenario. If nothing else with the population mismatches IMO there aren’t enough man-hours available to even complete the executions called for by that outlook. And fear and intimidation has limited usages and half-life.
And I don;t recall Stohnar as able to close the borders. IIRC his southern and western provinces are in revolt and he only has solid control of a rump Republic.
Rob
@14 Rob, isn’t Rayno the brother of King Zhames of Delferahk?
Hhmmmmm…..If King Zhames bails on the G4, what happens to Rayno? Will Clyntahn forgive that?
PeterZ, Archbishop Rayno is related to King Zhames but it’s not that close. The phrase used in HFAF is “distant kinsman”.
Just a thought…if Merlin wants a look inside Zion so badly, he needs to develop some HumInt assets. I am reminded of some Vince Flynn books, where he talks about how certain parties in American intelligence circles wanted to rely solely on the massive advantage that satellites and other listening devices conferred–with the fatal flaw being the loss of the man on the ground, privy to things electronic eyes and ears cannot reach.
Ok, Drak. So is Rob right?
PeterZ
Quote from OAR
Wyllym Rayno, Archbishop of Chiang-wu, was several years younger than Dynnys, and unlike a great many of Mother Church’s bishops and archbishops, he had been born in the province which had since become his archbishopric.
End Quote
Now, Rob may be incorrect about what Rayno might do if Chiang-wu is threatened in some way.
If Chiang-wu is part of Harchong, then it is unlikely to be threatened by Clyntahn’s plans.
But, we have no reason to believe that Rayno’s loyalities would be divided if anything happened to Chiang-wu.
I see, Drak. Thanks. Still wonder if Rayno would get flack for Zhames finding accomodation with Charis. Have to wait, I guess.
I am wondering when Duchairn realizes that the Go4 must ultimately fail, and begins abetting that failure through financial manipulation. He has so many avenues open to him, especially now that the revenue from Siddarmark is about to drop precipitously. Strategic financial shifts leaving some places bereft of cash could rouse interesting stresses inside the Church hierarchy. If Inquisitors are getting paid while the other orders are being cut, the Inquisition will rapidly be hated by all the rest of the Church staff – which grossly outnumbers them. For that matter, I suspect that if he simply acceeded to Clyntahn’s every financial expenditure and whim, the Church would be broke in record time. Clyntahn couldn’t pay his Inquisitors without resorting to plundering, which would quickly make them virulently hated everywhere – and they’d start dying of ‘accidents’ and assasinations in ever-increasing numbers. Then what happens to Clyntahn? I don’t think he understands that if the finances really do fail, his empire topples too.
Ya know, PeterS, That is a truly EVIL idea. Clyntahn seems to have as much understanding of fiscal reality as a U.S. Politician. Even worse (from his perspective), he cannot just fire up the printing presses since all of Safehold is on the Gold-Standard.
@22 Peter S: Regretfully IMO Duchairn will continue in denial that the CoGA can not remain universal and singular after the cracks have shown; but it is a truly EVIL idea!!!
From this snippet it appears that even Trynair is becoming almost as much a nonentity as the military member of the Go4 (whether through fear of Clyntahn or of Clyntahn’s usurpation of diplomatic procedure).
The Inquisition IMO has assumed almost defacto control over CoGA procedures within Siddarmark (including military and political actions) and is expanding influence throughout Safehold.
Trynair’s position in the Go4 is dependent on his outright control of the sitting Pope-surrogate (I can’t remember his title) and his diplomatic tentacles through church and noble circles/political hierarchies. Clyntahn’s continuing purge (after the MASSIVE strike against ‘the Circle’ and any others that Inquisitors wished to add) has more than cowed the current CoGA hierarchy and with the current actions against Siddarmark, other nations/empires are feeling the heat as well.
IMO Clyntahn has divorced the Inquisition (with himself as the ONLY supreme authority) from CoGA control/accountability and thinks nothing of it. His will IS God’s will after all!!!!
Rob
And though it wasn’t mentioned specifically, Clyntahn’s direct responsibility for the major shift in anti-Charisian terrorism is also a factor.
Clyntahn sounds exactly like most American politicians and political radio personalities
I wonder if Clyntahn’s personality is based on Stalin
@22 Actually Peter S I have wondered if he abbets failure or siphons off funds. The man is technocrat expert at financial management. If he has plans to take over the CoGA, does he want to destroy what he ultimately wants to take over and reform? If he continues to believe that one dominant church is the only way to meet God’s plan for humanity, does he further destroy that church’s ability to survive long term? I rather doubt it, though I could be wrong.
I think he is stealing funds and setting the aside. All those charities are perfect cover organizations. Yes, direct abd obvious funding from the CoGA is limited. I suspect that there are huge donations being made as well. I further suspect that some of them are laundered funds that Ducharin has redirected from the war effort. The day that Ducharin, who rose from the ranks of front line auditors and accoutnants in an organization that accepted the idea of graft, can’t razzle dazzle Clyntahn’s stooges with a financial shell game is the day he deserves to die.
It seems to me that Duchairn’s eventual purpose is to become Merlin’s conduit inside the Temple.
And I’s sorry–but the thought of Inquisitors being hated simply because they are being paid and others aren’t is laughable. They’re ALREADY hated!
Lastly, Duchairn, as a man who has rediscovered his conscience, is NOT going to do any of that financial folderal that has been suggested. he is going to continue to do his job as best he can–no matter how Clyntahn shoots him in the foot.
I wonder–how does Clyntahn get away with massacring Charisian enclaves on the mainland, and at the same time, recruiting Charisians for his nefarious plots back in Charis? Seems to me that’s going to come back to bite him in the at some point!
Among other things, the Charisian girl who was secretary to the Ambassador in Siddar City should be seeing the truth of the Church for the first time–if she survived the riots.
@29 JeffM: I don’t know if Duchairn can release his faith-induced stranglehold on the singular universal church concept. Even ‘the Circle’ (reformers in their own eyes; heretics in Clyntahn’s) was very reluctant to abanndon that concept IIRC (including up to and through the purge).
As for how Clyntahn gets away with it:
he currently controls much of the information flow from Siddarmark;
he adds appropriate spin at any/many point(s) in the flow process;
his viewpoint IS the TRUTH (anything else is heresy and punished accordingly;
Temple Loyalist collateral damages are martyrs/sacrifices to the cause and will receive their rewards in Heaven;
ANY ACTION (no matter how reprehensible) against the Heretics (as defined by Clyntahn and the Inquisition) is BLESSED BY GOD and deemed GOOD in his eyes (think of the cages that allows to unlock within a human psyche!);
ANY Heretic is in league with Shan-Wei (if not demonized/dehumanized even further) and as such it is a churchmember’s srict duty to send them back to their mistress in Hell;
and many of his Charisian operatives are in the category of expendable resources controlled by Inquisition agents (thus not living long enough to become disillusioned; disillusionment takes time after all).
I also would like to see the Charisian girl see the light (if nothing else, she is about the only living (if she still is) witness to how much and where all that stolen gunpowder has gotten to).
I also agree that financial disparity between the Inquisition and the rest of CoGA might be gilding the lily but it will definately increase intrachurch friction. That might be mitigated by the defacto divorce of the Inquisition from CoGA (other than Clyntahn himself) control. Hopefully any redeemable (like the Wylsons or the martyred AB of Charis) Inquisition/Temple Guard personnel will be sufficiently disillusioned by the “real” (Clyntahn’s) face of CoGA that they do not fall underDeath to the Inquisition”.
Rob
Questions: What exactly does Merlin’s software hack do?
1) Does it prevent shutdown after 10 days?
2) Does it prevent an auomatic wipe of those 10 days?
3) Could Merlin go to the cave every 9 days -get recorded, and “reboot”?
4) If yes to #3, is that what a potential Archangel could do?
5) Finally- how does one pronounce Sharleyan in standard english?
6) Finally -finally, the inquisitions most secret spy-Trai Sahavahn (the guy who blew up the powder mills, brother of Wynai Thyrstyn -“the girl” refered to in #30) was code named Harysyn-Harrison- Gen James Longstreet’s spy during the Gettysburg campaign- see Killer Angels by Micheal Sharra
I think another potential chink in the temple’s armor is Durkhein’s “bodyguard” (I can’t remember his name), the Guardsman who fought/killed Howyrd Wylson. (Incidentally allowing him to “escape” the Inquisition’s grasp and not revealing how Nynian was able to help all those ppl to escape….) I have a suspicion that he is another potential “person of conscience” or possibly even a plant by Howyard.
There are a few things that strike me as potentially odd about his involvement in Wylson’s death. He ‘happens’ to notice that the Wylson’s are scheduled for an Iceboat trip (which textev shows that they were not actually planning on taking else Howyrd wouldn’t have invited his brother to a last breakfast where they (implied) discuss comiting suicide to prevent the Inquisition from finding out what they know and Howyard was prepared to kill off his brother when the Inquisition ‘happened’ to show up at his door. Who is included in this raid but a transport guard who had worked under Wylson before. He is there because he ‘found’ evidence that the Wylson’s were ‘planning to escape’ and ends up in a fight with his former officer; a fight of such intensity that he ‘had no choice’ but to kill off said officer.
Now, he just ‘happens’ to have become a trusted asset of Clynthan and Rayno who has been placed in charge of guarding/spying on Clynthan’s most effective rival in the G4. He even was able to convince them to keep him on Durkhein when they considered re-assigning him to make use of his skills elsewhere.
Finally, we still don’t know exactly what was on the note that Samyl Wylson passed on to Durkhein shortly before they were killed off. I wonder if these things are related.