Midst Toil And Tribulation – Snippet 32
Suwail hadn’t cared for his position, or for his own certainty that Shairncross had been privately delighted by what had happened to him, but he hadn’t been particularly popular with his fellow clan lords even before he angered Charis. The Council had accepted its new Lord Speaker’s advice, which hadn’t done anything to improve relations between Clan Shairncross and Clan Theralt. Still, all of that had been eleven whole years ago, so of course all the bad blood had been given plenty of time to dissipate, Adym thought sardonically.
“I thought Suwail was opposed to the idea, Father,” he said out loud, and Parkair laughed harshly.
“Suwail’s been opposed to the anything coming out of Charis ever since he got his fingers burnt along with his waterfront. Say what you will about the man, he does know how to hold a grudge. Probably because there’s nothing else in his head to drive it out. But, give Shan-wei her due, he’s greedy enough to set even a grudge aside for enough marks. In his case, at least, it was never about anything remotely approaching a principle, at any rate!”
Lady Zhain made a soft noise which sounded remarkably like someone trying not to laugh into her teacup. Her husband glanced at her, then looked back at his son.
“I’m sure he’s going to hold out for as handsome a bribe as we can screw out of the Charisians, but once he’s paid off, he’ll be fine with the idea. And Zhaksyn’s been in favor of it from the beginning. He’s the logical one to serve as our liaison with Eastshare. As long as he doesn’t end up letting the Charisians buy us too cheaply, anyway.”
Adym nodded, but his eyes were thoughtful as he reflected upon what his father hadn’t just said. He knew Lord Shairncross had been badly torn by the request the exhausted Chisholmian messenger had carried to Marisahl, and he respected his father’s position, even if it wasn’t quite the same as his own.
Weslai Parkair was a loyal son of Mother Church, and he’d raised his heir to be the same. The thought of openly permitting a Charisian army to march across Raven’s Land to enter the Republic of Siddarmark for the express purpose of aiding Lord Protector Greyghor against a Temple Loyalist uprising had caused him immense pain. A Lord Speaker was traditionally neutral in any matter brought before the Council of Clan Lords, and he’d observed that neutrality this time, as always. Yet no one who knew him could have doubted how difficult he found the decision.
Poor Father
, Adym thought. Such a good man, and so loyal to such a bad cause. And the real hell of it, from his perspective, is that he knows it’s a bad cause.
They’d talked about it, just as Adym had discussed it with his mother, and his father knew they didn’t see eye-to-eye on this particular topic. But Lord Shairncross was too astute a student of human nature not to understand the very thing his faith and loyalty to Mother Church insisted he deny.
And it helps that Bishop Trahvys knows it, too
, Adym thought. Of course, he’s more like a clansman than a mainlander these days himself!
Despite its impressive size, Raven’s Land’s tiny population was too miniscule to support an archbishopric. Instead, it had been organized into a single bishopric, and its climate, combined with its relative poverty and lack of people, meant it had never been considered any prize by Mother Church’s great dynasties. Trahvys Shulmyn was the scion of a minor noble in the small Border State duchy of Ernhart, who’d never had the patrons or the ambition to seek a more lucrative post.
And he was also a very good man, one Adym suspected was much more in sympathy with the Reformists than his masters in far distant Zion realized.
“I know this is a hard decision for you, Weslai,” Lady Zhain said now, setting down her cup and looking into her husband’s eyes across the table. “Are you going to be all right with it? I know you too well to expect you to be comfortable with it, no matter what the Council says. But are you going to be able to live with it?”
The dining room was silent for several seconds. Then, finally, Parkair inhaled deeply and nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “You’re right that I’m never going to be comfortable with it, but these aren’t ‘comfortable’ times.”
He smiled faintly. It was a fleeting expression, and it vanished as he looked back out at the slowly thickening snowfall.
“I never thought I’d see a day when the sons and daughters of God had to choose between two totally separate groups of men claiming to speak for Him and the Archangels,” he said softly. “I never wanted to see that day. But it’s here, and we have to deal with it as best we can.”
He turned away from the window and his eyes refocused as he looked first at his wife and then at his son.
“I know both of you have been . . . impatient with me over this issue.” Adym started to speak, but Parkair’s raised hand stopped him. “I said ‘impatient,’ Adym, and that was all I meant. And, to be honest, I’ve been impatient with myself . A man ought to know what he believes, where he stands, what God demands of him, and he ought to have the courage to take that stand. But I’ve been wrestling with myself almost since this war began, and especially since the Ferayd Incident and what happened in Zion last winter. What should be clear’s been nothing of the sort, and even if it had been as simple and clear-cut as I wanted it to be, a clan lord has obligations and responsibilities. A man can take whatever position God and his conscience require of him and accept the consequences of his actions, but a clan lord, responsible for all the folk who look to him for leadership — his decisions have consequences for far too many people for him to make any decision this important impulsively. And in the quiet of his own thoughts, he has to ask himself whether or not he has a right to take all of those other folk with him to wherever he ultimately decides to go.”
It was very quiet in the dining chamber, and his eyes were dark as he looked back and forth between the two most important people in his own life.
“Mother Church was ordained by Langhorne himself on God’s own command. We owe her obedience, not simply because Langhorne created her, but because of the reason he created her — to be the keeper of men and women’s souls, the guardian of God’s world and all of His children’s hope of immortality. And yet . . . and yet. . . .” He shook his head, his expression sad. “Mother Church speaks now with Zhaspahr Clyntahn’s voice, and what she says has driven a wedge into her own heart. Bishop Trahvys has done his best to mitigate that here in Raven’s Land, but not even a man as good as he is can hide the harshness of that voice. Or the fact that he finds himself in disagreement with so much of what it says.”
He shook his head, his expression sad.
“I don’t know how it started, or why Clyntahn and the others” — even here, even now, he avoided the term “Group of Four,” Adym noted — “sought Charis’ destruction. But I do know that if I’d been Haarahld Ahrmahk, I would’ve responded exactly the way he did. And there’s no question in my heart or mind that it’s Vicar Zhaspahr who’s truly driving this schism. Maybe he’s right to do that, and Langhorne knows a true servant of Shan-wei must be dealt with severely, as Schueler commanded. Yet the doctrine he’s announced and the policies he’s set are only widening the schism. They’re justifying this ‘Church of Charis” defiance of the Temple, and I understand how someone like Maikel Staynair or Sharleyan of Chisholm or Cayleb Ahrmahk can see only the hand of Shan-wei herself in the Inquisition’s actions. None of which changes the fact that by defying the Grand Vicar’s authority, they threaten to completely splinter Mother Church.
So the soul-torn middle is heard from again.
Looks like another good man for the cause in Ravenland’s Bishop!! Charis, Glacierheart, even Corisande, and now Ravensland; good men are coming forward as Clyntahn’s REAL message is being understood!!
Sadly, from a religious viewpoint there’s nothing wrong with the CoGA that can’t be solved by the beheading of most of the upper vicarate and almost all of the inquisition. (And whatever remnants of the priests, bishops, etc. who can’t see the CoGA as a mother to serve rather than a strumpet to pimp.)
For the survival of humanity’s sake, Clyntahn is doing God’s work destroying the prohibitions and inflaming the civil war across Safehold. Let’s hope Merlin doesn’t get the chance to kill Clyntahn anytime soon, and that Duchairn doesn’t manage a coup and counter-reformation.
When whatever is under the temple awakes, wouldn’t it be ironic if it decides Clyntahn needs solving? Bleek!
We sometimes lose sight of the real point, the real reason for the CoG. The issue is less a religious one than it is the fact that the Church was created under false pretenses by people who did not themselves believe in anything like the institution they were creating. They saw the church as a means of maintaining society that they believed was the only way that Humanity could survive. They were wrong and they were nuts.
Religions were and are created for a couple of reasons: to explain what was, at the time inexplicable, or, in my opinion even more foolishly, to dispute a point of doctrine (doctrine itself being silly, again, in my opinion). But the religion on Safehold was created for none of those reasons.
Does any sane and rational 21st century person really care about or believe in predestination, not eating pork or shellfish, that wine and a cookie are symbols of anything, that any kind of art is blasphemous, and on and on. Tradition is not necessarily belief.
Someone once said that the only thing that is permanent is change. And I choose to believe that that is what this book is about, even if the author disagrees. IF he does…
In response to: “Does any sane and rational 21st century person really care about or believe in predestination, not eating pork or shellfish, that wine and a cookie are symbols of anything, that any kind of art is blasphemous, and on and on.”
Actually, yes lots of both sane and rational people do care about many of these things. You may disagree with their belief systems but they definitely exist. Lots of Christians believe in the sacraments, not clear why you even included that one as it’s obvious. As for the unclean meats thing, yep check out Islam, Traditional Judaism, and the Seventh Day Adventists, to name just a few. Art as blasphemy, yep, as for Predestination, not sure if anyone argues directly for that one currently. But that’s the only one of that list that’s iffy.
Religion without science is lame. Science without religion is blind. These books are not anti-religion they are actually anti-corruption. People must be able to choose what they believe. Anyone who automatically assumes there is no God and that this all that there is and there is nothing more can very well be narcissistic. However, these books do give a very good look st what happens when anything (religion included) goes unquestioned so long that it becomes ungoverned.
“Does any sane and rational 21st century person really care about or believe in predestination, not eating pork or shellfish, that wine and a cookie are symbols of anything, that any kind of art is blasphemous, and on and on. Tradition is not necessarily belief.”
In Asia, religion plays a big part of everyday life. Be it Islam, Christainity, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, the majority of people in Asia have very strong religious beliefs. These are people from every proffession and background. In fact, I would say that in Asia, Middle East and Africa, religion and secular life is mixed together. And I am not talking about cultural traditions. I can’t explain why but I see it all around me.
Yeah. I often wondered how much more difficult would have Merlin’s job been if the Church was ruled by kind virtous men and not Group of Four.
He would have had to ally with the most despicable ambitious nonbeliving people in order to have somebody oppose the Church.
“Yeah. I often wondered how much more difficult would have Merlin’s job been if the Church was ruled by kind virtous men and not Group of Four.”
If the Church had been ruled by kind and virtous men, Nimue may have decided that no action was needed. That was a possibility discussed in the first book.
I kind of doubt it…
No action, means no change, means no advancement in technology, means eventual destruction by the Gbaba… bad ending to the story.
“Let’s hope Merlin doesn’t get the chance to kill Clyntahn anytime soon, and that Duchairn doesn’t manage a coup and counter-reformation.”
Why? If there wasn’t any wart, and no Clyntahn screaming with every innovation, Cgharis would simply make advances with a wide open marketplace–and nobody dying in a war. Heck, Kill Clyntahn now. Get the reformation over. Then Howsmyn can make his advancements–and have mainland markets to sell them to. The cash will just be pouring into Charis–and mainlanders will be forced to innovate themselves to keep up, just as they had to adopt the new sail plans.
Jeff, Duchairn believes in the Proscriptions. His Church may not continue the war but advancements in tech won’t have the push that they currently have.
Remember eventually Merlin needs the Proscriptions gone.
As it is, Clyntahn doesn’t really care about the Proscriptions, just his idea of Safehold and the Church.
He would violate the Proscriptions if doing so would mean complete victory over anybody who disagrees with him.
Under Duchairn, neither Church would “throw away” the Proscriptions.
With Clyntahn in charge of the main Church, the Proscriptions likely would be severely weakened by the war.
And with Clyntahn gone, with Charis having their own pet Intendant, they would be free to innovate at will, without having people die, for the purpose of profit rather than focused solely on war. How Duchairn would feel about the Proscriptions would be completely irrelevant to the process. Mainland manufactories would either keep up, adapt to a “source supply” mode–or see all of their luxuries and profits trickle away.
Law of supply and demand. Simple enough.
I honestly don’t understand how people are saying that Clyntahn’s violations of the Proacriptions are the only way that Safehold can move ahead freely. Cut the head off the CoGA (the sooner the better), spit down it’s throat, and defang the Proscriptions. hen everyone can innovate without tens of thousands (or millions) of people dying.
The problem for that is then the books would get really boring…
It’s not tha simple. If not for the necessity induced by the war, I doubt even the Charisians would be comfortable with the steam engine. And even if they were, the impetus behind the drive to invent would cease. Economic imperatives are much less powerful than military ones. This isn’t an Earth society we’re dealing with. Its on where the religion (which everyone 100% knows to be a fact) is specifically anti-change and anti-tech.
The main drivers for humanity are fear, greed and laziness. (Morris’s Law)
Religion plays on fear (with the religious leaders being all too commonly driven by greed). Safehold religion is structured to use fear to restrain innovation.
Inovation is driven by greed and laziness (its easier and I can make a buck on it). Military innovation is driven by all 3.
These are the times that try men’s souls. Now we get down to it… Where do you stand? Whom do you serve? Who do you trust?
Wait until he hears that Siddarmark was deliberately starved by Clyntahn’s orders, and only action by the EoC has kept millions from starving to death. That will make it even harder to choose. Ultimately, I think it is “blind” loyalty to the church vs it’s actions, and many people are starting to question it.
While I don’t see the Harchong Empire reacting to this, I have to wonder if some of the other countries will start to resist actions by the inquisition, especially as the largest mainland armies are thrown into the meat grinder, and as the deaths reach hundreds of thousands. And if the serfs start to revolt after the armies are shredded…
Hmmm, I wonder if we’ll see some scenario where the inquisition orders a unit to be decimated for not fighting hard enough, causing other units to mutiny? The inquisitions sometimes seems to be it’s own worst enemy.
Totally separate thought – what about an old church, defended by roughly a hundred Charisians or Siddarmarkians, holding up many thousands of CoGA troops for a long time, before they are overrun and killed to the last man? And they would be “remembered” by all of EoC/Siddarmark for their courage and tenacity.
(as in “Remember the Alamo”)
The trouble with martyrdoms like that is they require the horrific demise of perceived “good people”.
Examples are: yours of ‘the Alamo” (Republic of Texas); or of ‘Camaron/Camerone’ (French Foriegn Legion); or the ancient favorite ‘Thermopylae (Greece/Sparta-Persia; ((Persians) “our arrows will darken the sky at noontime”; (King Leonides of Sparta) “then we will fight in the shade”); (“Molon Labe” (come and take them!!!) Leonides to the Persians requesting the Spartans surrender their weapons); and most famously (Simonedes) “Go tell the Spartans, that here we lie obedient to their words”.
(apologies that quotes are paraphrased!!)
Siddarmark has had martyrs aplenty already (on both sides) in the nasty guerrilla warfare ongoing there!!
And the Reformists can look back all the way to Denis and his execution. NTM: ‘the Circle’; the merchant families in Ferayd; the priest in Corisande; Charisians in Siddarmark; ANY marked by the inquisition; and even Nahrmann of Emerald!!
And the reason they are so memorable IMO is in that the conditions forming them are so rare. Even rarer would be something like “Rorke’s Drift” in the Zulu War where more than a handful actually survived.
IMO ‘suspension of disbelief’ might not hold if something similar happened on Safehold.
And yes I do remember that ‘Masada’ is still remembered even though NOT A SINGLE man, woman, or child of the defending force of Jews survived (but their final suicide impressed the Roman attackers into passing the story along anyway)!
But I don’t think ANY CoGA force would give the same posthumous legendry to despised HERETICS; and even if so there is NO WAY Clyntahn would allow that kind of “good press”!!!
Et1swaw says:
And most famously (Simonedes) “Go tell the Spartans, that here we lie obedient to their wordsâ€.
(apologies that quotes are paraphrased!!)
My favorite translation of the Simonedes quote runs:
“Go tell the Spartans, passerby,
“That here, obedient to their wish, we lie.â€
Et1swaw again:
And yes I do remember that ‘Masada’ is still remembered even though NOT A SINGLE man, woman, or child of the defending force of Jews survived (but their final suicide impressed the Roman attackers into passing the story along anyway)!
IIRC, our (and Rome’s) only source for the mass suicide at Masada was Josephus. He was a Jewish quisling, not a Roman.
I prefer:
“Go tell the Spartans, passerby,
Here the Three Hundred lie,
Obedient to their commands.”
At some point support for Clintahn within the church hierarchy has to start collapsing. Rulers like Stalin and Hitler can entrench themselves in power by repression alone, but even they had to deliver the occasional success. Clintahn has an unbroken record of defeat.
His “Sword of Schueler” HAS taken a good portion of the Republic of Siddarmark and is on the ebb (remember the EoC has not yet really entered the fray)!!
The defeats (as well as the waste building the near-unusable galleys) are attributed to the Go4’s military member not Clyntahn.
The NoG victories under Thirsk were only after Inquisition priests were inserted into the chain-of command.
And the true AoG is still forming “to aid their oppressed brothers in Siddarmark who have so valiantly waged war alongside and at the orders of the Glorious Inquisition”!!!
So the rise of the EoC and CoC might be seen as setbacks to CoGA’s plans to restrain the heresy of Charis and their Shan-Wei deceived supporters, but now that Clyntahn has taken charge of declared Jihad all is moving toward Schueler’s written words.
The Hierarchy is IMO still running too scared of Clyntahn and his Inquisition; EVERYBODY still remembers what happened to ‘the Circle’ AND THEIR FAMILIES!!
IMO it is more akin to the earlier days of the ‘Reign of Terror/French Revolution’ than to Hitler’s and Stalin’s power.
In encouraging the release of everyone’s inner demons to rain Hell upon the Heretics I believe has unleashed a two-edged sword that might bite him in the end.
But his ‘control of’ and the now ‘unbridled power of’ CoGA’s Inquisition give Clyntahn some pathways that Hitler and Stalin would envy IMO.
(He is his own Beria (NKVD) and Himmler (Gestapo) in many ways!!)
The church hierarchy is completely cowed and terrified of Clyntahn and his inquisitors, who have executed thousands whose only crime was being RELATED to someone who felt the CoGA had become corrupt and needed reforming. There will be no meaningful opposition to Clyntahn and his policies within the CoGA as long as he lives, and if someone like Rayno succeeds him, beyond his lifetime.
The continued lies in the CoGA’s propaganda WILL ultimately catch up with it – but among the lay people, not the church itself. When you know mother church is lying to you, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the graft, corruption, and murderous duress the vicarate, the Go4, and especially the inquisition are guilty of. In lieu of a Safeholdian “Marin Luther” nailing a sheet of objections to CoGA policies to a church door, we may see the local bishop or vicar nailed to the door instead!
Perhaps the treatment the common CoGA soldier receives during the war in Siddarmark will be the tipping point.
Executing commanders and returned POWs for cowardice seems likely, and that will NOT sit well with the surviving troops, who may well turn on the inquisitors who commit such atrocities. Since the inquisition won’t allow soldiers to surrender to the “heretics,” CoGA soldiers may have to execute the inquisitors looking over their shoulders before being allowed to surrender to save their lives. Don’t think that tales of honorable treatment by the EoC won’t get back to the AoG, Dohlarans, Desnarians, and Harchongese, vs.being executed by mother church upon one’s repatriation. That would cause severe repercussions among their ARMED fellow soldiers.
Clyntahn is extremely useful to Merlin’s goal of getting humanity to innovate again, and to weaken and ultimately overturn the proscriptions. But as the cost in human lives continues to swell, the risk of a counter-reformation also rises, until a revolution from OUTSIDE the CoGA cleanses it of corruption. While that will end the senseless slaughter (eventually) it would be a death knell for the human race in their next encounter with the Gbaba.
Quoting the MWW: “In some ways, Clyntahn is Charis’ secret weapon, of course. Despite everything he’s done and is still capable of doing, he is also the voice of extremism, the member of the Go4 most likely to squander a strategic advantage in pursuit of a tactical success. Ultimately, he’s the one person most likely to push the Church one bridge too far and bring the entire edifice crashing down. Indeed, although Merlin is in no fit state of mind to appreciate it, someone like Duchairn is more dangerous in the end than Clyntahn because his very moderation would be far more likely to make a genuine Counter Reformation possible, thus preserving a majority church which would be unalterably hostile to the sorts of innovations Charis has to make — hopefully on a fairly major scale — before Mr. Sleeping Archangel (or whatever) wakes up.”
The CoGA must not be reformed, it must be DESTROYED! Clyntahn is accelerating that process, but if he pushes too far… all that Merlin is working to accomplish crashes down with him.
How ironic that we are forced to cheer on a homicidal megalomaniac to ensure the future survival of humanity. In the meantime, we get to watch sausage get made.
BleeEEk! (Sound of a treecat regurgitating his dinner…)
Clintahn does not have the backing of a mass movement as both Hitler and Stalin did. He has not conquered large slabs of Safehold or won any wars. He could not really be described as a charismatic figure (although the Stalin charisma had to be faked). And being your own Beria is actually not an advantage. For one thing there is no-one else to blame when things like Ferayd happen.
Beria ended up being arrested at a meeting of the Politburo and later shot. He is supposed to have spent most of the meeting telling the other members they wouldn’t dare when a group of army officers burst in, as arranged, and dragged him out.
Clyntahn does have the backing of a mass movement. It’s called the Church of God Awaiting.
Actually, it’s called The Inquisition.
No, that’s the equivalent of a hard core of zealots or a secret police. A mass movement refers to a popular organisation – something with grass-roots support – eg the CoGA
Jim Hacker–you misunderstand. The Inquisition is the body of the zombie virus animating the CoGA. Or the backbone and nerve system contolling that “body”, whichever analogy you prefer.
Those are both very poor analogies Jeff. And they don’t relate to political systems, so i don’t even know what you’re trying to get at.
Until Duchairn informs the masses of Clyntahn’s many crimes against the People, which he has conveniently been executed for. Treason never prospers, for when it does, none dare call it treason.
Fear is a powerful driver.
On the other hand when you kill off the competent layer below you the whole edifice becomes shaky.
The Roman Empire had the Pretorian Guard as king makers (and breakers, which they did with monotonous regularity).
Stalin used the NKVD and Political Officers to retain power at the expense of handing power to them (the third generation of soviet leaders were political officers in the Great Patriotic War (WWII to everyone else)). Putin is continuing in a similar vein being ex KGB.
Hitler used the Gestapo and SS for similar purposes, with the mass execution of generals after the failed assassination plot to underlie this. If not for the fall of the Third Reich Himmler had a good chance of succeeding him.
Authoritarian states can be very stable until they either suddenly collapse from within due to general decay or are taken over by external forces and get changed beyond recognition (Hitler’s Germany and the Roman Empire being examples of this).
Alan wrote: “And being your own Beria is actually not an advantage. For one thing there is no-one else to blame when things like Ferayd happen. ”
Well, actually, you can do what Clyntahn did and blame the other side. After all, if they hadn’t been evil heretics we wouldn’t have had any reason to go after them. And if they hadn’t resisted, there wouldn’t have been a fight. So, it’s obviously all their fault.
A good point Alan, and worth remembering as the series continues.
Point of correction, Rob – there were allegedly about half-a-dozen survivors of Masada, women and children who had hidden. Flavius Josephus claimed to have gotten parts of the story from them and most from the Legionaries, but there’s reason to suspect FJ’s honesty and there are no independent corroborations of the event that are robust enough to either support or challenge his claims. So take up your saltshaker and believe what you will about the details; only the dead truly know what happened at Masada.
Looks like we are seeing a trend with the inquisition and their integration into the military. In the first book there was just priests praying for victory. Then with the Feyrad (spelling?) massacre, we saw the inquisition egging the soldiers on to kill all of the Charisians. In the last book, the inquisitors were acting junior officers with trying to recapture the prince of Corisande and leading the rebellion in Sidemark.
I wonder what will happen if the CoGA, and it looks like its the logical next step, officially integrates it’s inquisitors into the chain of command (aka political officers). We saw in the Honor Harrington how much resentment, fear, and hate that brought to the Navy of the People’s Rebublic. The inquisition will make that look like child’s play.
The CoGA really has a good propaganda machine and have convinced the majority that the Charisians are devil worshipers. Just look at how the citizendry treated the pow’s as they were marched to the church’s capitol. We also know that the secular leaders know what is behind the churches mask. As the church integrates into the chain of command in the Army of God. There will be the common man that sees the church for it is.
The church’s foundation is ruined and I see the supports starting to go with it. I really am looking forward to this book, and now I can get the e-book drm free :)
What’s next for StateSec – er, I mean the Inquisition?
To quote Commander Shannon Foraker from “Ashes of Victory,” after single-handedly destroying two StateSec superdreadnought squadrons with a computer program:
“Oops…”
Bleek!
Sad how just that one word quote gets me cackling with glee XD Has to be one of my all time favourite moments in HH
methinks a certain tree cat has been in the celery patch again!