BY HERESIES DISTRESSED – snippet 11:
Banahr let his voice trail off, and Halcom snorted.
“At the moment, Father, it clearly suits the purposes of Staynair, Cayleb, and their cronies to . . . emphasize, shall we say, Athrawes’ abilities and accomplishments. After all, he’s Cayleb’s personal armsman. Encouraging people to think he’s some sort of infallible superman is likely to discourage direct attempts on the Emperor’s life. And having someone capable of ‘miraculously’ intervening to save Cayleb, or Staynair, is another way for them to pretend God truly favors their apostasy. After all, would he have sent a protector like ‘Seijin Merlin’ to look after Cayleb, to save Staynair from certain death, if He didn’t favor them? So it’s scarcely in their interests to downplay his accomplishments, is it?”
“I suppose not,” Banahr said a bit doubtfully, and Halcom suppressed a sigh. The prior’s fixation on Captain Merlin Athrawes’ apparently more-than-human capabilities actually only underscored what Halcom had just said. Many of those who supported Cayleb in his insane, arrogant challenge to the authority of God Himself saw in Athrawes the imprimatur of God’s approval, instead. It was tempting to take advantage of the concern Banahr and others like him felt and label Athrawes a servant of demons — or even a demon, himself. In many ways, it might be an effective tool, especially among the more poorly educated and more credulous. But it had been over seven hundred years since anyone had last seen a true demon. Labeling Athrawes as one now would probably lose them as much support among the better educated and informed, and if they were going to successfully combat the schism, they couldn’t afford to lose that support. Besides, the opportunity it would provide for the schismatic propagandists to mock the Temple Loyalists’ “ridiculous claims” was something which had to be avoided.
Mind you, there are times I’m more than half-tempted to sign on to the same belief, Halcom admitted. For example, I have no intention of telling Banahr about the way Merlin ‘just happened’ to turn up in the nick of time to save that bastard Mahklyn from the bonfire we’d arranged for him. But if he really were a demon, he’d have gotten there in time to save the rest of their precious Royal College, as well. The bishop smiled mentally, thinking about the literally decades of records which had gone up in the flames. They’re never going to be able to put all of that back together again, and a true demon would have recognized that and gotten there a half-hour or so sooner. And a true demon would have simply arranged to have our brothers arrested — or killed — before they ever got close enough to strike at Staynair, too. Killing them the way he actually did was certainly spectacular, but letting us get that close first only proved how deep — and committed — the opposition to their precious ‘Church of Charis’ really is.
“Trust me, Father,” he said aloud, “God isn’t going to permit any demonic intervention. Not openly, at any rate. Staynair is right in at least one respect, damn him to Hell. God did create Man with free will. It’s the exercise of that free will by men who have willingly embraced evil that we confront, but God isn’t going to permit demons to openly intervene on the side of blasphemy and heresy. If that were what this ‘Merlin’ truly is, we’d see angelic intervention to deal with him. The Book of Chihiro makes that abundantly clear.”
“Yes.” Banahr brightened visibly. “Yes, My Lord, that’s true. I shouldn’t have forgotten that. I suppose,” he grinned almost sheepishly, “that I’ve been so shocked by what’s happening that I’m starting to jump at shadows.”
“You’re scarcely alone in that, Father,” Halcom said dryly. “On the other hand, in some ways, that only underscores what I was saying earlier about our need for a secure communication network. And, frankly, for what I suppose you might call ‘safe houses’ where those who are openly striking at the forces of the apostate can feel secure between attacks. Someplace where they can gather and recoup their faith and their spiritual wholeness before going back out to face the schismatics once more.”
“Yes.” Banahr nodded, slowly at first, but with gathering enthusiasm. “Yes, My Lord, I can see that. And, however much I might hunger to strike one of those blows myself, it’s clearly my duty to serve in the most effective way possible. Not to mention the fact that, so far as I know, you’re the only legitimate bishop remaining in the entire Kingdom. As such, anyone truly loyal to Mother Church must obviously place himself under your direction.”
“I believe there are more members of the clergy of this accursed ‘Church of Charis’ who would agree with you in their heart of hearts on that point than Cayleb and Staynair dream,” Halcom said in a hard voice. “And the fact that they keep their faith secret, securely hidden, is a good thing, for now, at least.”
Banahr nodded, and Halcom’s nostrils flared. Then he gave himself a small shake.
“Now, Father,” he said more briskly. “I don’t want to get into too many particulars at the moment, but I can tell you that we have at least one or two quite wealthy supporters here in Charis. Some of them are prepared to place that wealth at the Temple Loyalists’ service. Obviously, we can’t permit any one of them to contribute too heavily.”
Banahr looked a bit confused, and Halcom shook his head.
“Think about it, Father,” he said patiently. “It’s unlikely that someone like Wave Thunder isn’t making a list of people — especially wealthy, or powerful people — he might suspect of Temple Loyalist sympathies. If a sizable percentage of one of those wealthy suspects’ wealth should suddenly disappear, it would ring all sorts of alarm bells in Wave Thunder’s mind. So it’s essential that any contributions to our cause be both carefully hidden and not so large as to obviously impact upon the wealth of the contributors.”
Banahr was nodding again, and Halcom sat back in his chair and raised both hands, palms uppermost.
“Fortunately, I’ve managed to make contact with a few people — some of them in Tellesberg, some of them not — who are prepared to channel ‘charitable contributions’ through various monasteries and convents and into our hands. That, to be honest, would be the greatest service Saint Hamlyn’s could provide to our cause at this time.”
No one on Safehold had yet reinvented the term “money-laundering,” but Halcom had the essentials of the practice down pat.
“Of course!” Banahr said promptly.
“Think about it carefully, Father,” Halcom cautioned. “The possibility that, sooner or later, Wave Thunder or one of his spies is going to come up with something that could be traced back to you definitely exists. And for all of Cayleb’s sanctimonious disavowal of ‘repressive measures,’ he’s also made it clear that anyone who lends himself to supporting armed resistance to the Crown or to Staynair’s corrupt régime within the Church will face the sternest penalties.”
“I’m not in love with the concept of martyrdom, My Lord,” Banahr replied somberly. “I’m not afraid of it, either, though. If it’s God’s will that I should die doing His work, then I will have been blessed above all other men.”
“That’s true, Father,” Halcom said quietly, his eyes warm. “That’s very true. In fact, it’s that truth which makes it possible for me to go back into the ‘dragon’s mouth,’ as you put it. And sooner or later, Cayleb and Staynair — and, yes, even Seijin Merlin — are going to discover that no one can ultimately defeat men who remember that. And when they discover that, they’re also going to find themselves giving account to God and Langhorne, and that, Father Ahzwald, is something they’re not going to enjoy.”
Huh, religious organizations laundering money for a guerrilla movement…..wonder where that one came from :)
it seems that merlin is going to have to look as a divine messenger after all. or at least give the hints of.
One hopes that Merlin has one of his ‘flies’ on the wall where this conversation is taking place!
So, he thinks that they’re trying to increase rather than decrease Merlin’s abilities. However, that bit about Chihiro writing that if a ‘demon’ appears so will an angle implies that some of the speculation here is correct. Either someone’s stored another pica, or someone has gone into stasis, probably to be awakened upon certain criteria. Probably, this person has the ‘keys’ to the weapons platforms.
This sounds like a very good thing for Merlin. It is much easier to find networks and untangle them than to identify small isolated groups of fanatics.
The only thing fanatics accomplish by being willing to die for their beliefs is to make it easier for the other guys in some respects.
I think this is going to be one of the important conversations that Merlin / Owl miss. After all it sounds as if it’s small and out of the way.
As for networks being easy to go after, depends on how it’s setup. Also, if they use codewords or written messages Owl will probably miss them.
It needn’t even be Merlin. Wave Thunder may already be planting spies in the Temple Loyalist ranks.
I keep thinking back to those “replaced” members of Charis’ Parliament back when Cayleb announced Sharleyan’s acceptance of his marriage proposal. They were replaced and jailed because Wave Thunder had found incontrovertible evidence that they were planning an assassination of Cayleb. Which means that Merlin HAS infiltrated at least some of the local church offices. Whether he’s got a “fly on the wall” in this one or not, of course, remains to be seen, but I suspect quite strongly that “Bishop” Halcom’s “secure network” isn’t going to be as secure as he thinks it is. And I’m rather looking forward to the potential expression on his face when he discovers that fact. :)
I also noted his line about “those who are openly striking at the forces of the apostate can feel secure between attacks.” This would tend to lead to the idea that perhaps they intend to start with smaller targets after all. I saw somebody on the last snippet saying they didn’t think they would think that way, and I would have tended to agree, but it appears that Weber is making this guy more clever than that. I suppose to some degree that is a good thing, but on the other hand I would really like to see the look on Halcom’s face when the “magic” robes of Staynair resist all that their swords can do to it. I’m starting to doubt we will be treated to that scene anytime soon, however. We already got treated to the execution of the bastard Inquisition agents in Ferayd, after all, so that’s probably all we get for one book. At least as far as major characters go. Pity, I think Halcom’s head on a pike would look almost as good as Hektor’s. Maybe even better.
At any rate, things are about to get rather bloody. Which bodes well for the action level of the book, I guess.
RH
f that were what this ‘Merlin’ truly is, we’d see angelic intervention to deal with him. The Book of Chihiro makes that abundantly clear.â€
is what intrigues me. What IS under the temple? cryostasis units with a few spare ‘angels’ in them? a Long shot but possible.
I think that the “angelic intervention” alluded to here may be the automatic reaction of the weapons platforms if an unwelcome blip comes up on the right sensors and they activate to destroy the target i.e. forbidden tech. I am not one of those who subscribes to the theory that somebody on Langhorne’s side will awaken and serve as opposition to Merlin. Maybe that was in the plans but, perhaps, it was disrupted when Shan Wei’s faction retaliated for the destruction of Alexandria.
Commodore Pei’s pocket nuke took out Langhorne and most of the senior staff but there were still angels to carry out the mission changes.
If Merlin gets any more famous there are going to be “Seijin Slayers” clubs popping up in this little terrorist group.
Well the nuke took out the senior staff AND their headquarters at that time. While certainly no guarantees can be given, I’d be rather surprised if that didn’t take out a good bit of their personal possessions and equipment as well. While obviously sufficient technology remained to build the temple, there is no way of knowing (yet, at least) how much other technology was retained. Was the ability to build a stasis chamber or a PICA among the surviving machinery? We’ll find out later.
But whether or not such technology did remain, one thing that this DOES point out is that the church IS going to wonder soon why the archangels haven’t returned to fight on their side. And that makes the execution of those Inquisitors in Ferayd all the more poignant, as will any “magic robes” effect that saves Staynair from assassins (if it ever happens). When the “good guys” (from the “loyalist” perspective) keep falling right and left and the “bad guys” keep having miracles occur to save them, some of the loyalists are going to start wondering if maybe they aren’t on the wrong side after all.
RH
If Merlin gets any more famous there are going to be “Seijin Slayers†clubs popping up in this little terrorist group.
Or: There might be a Merlin Cult on the rise…
Please remember that the Temple was built after Commodore Pei’s pocket nuke took out Langhorne and most of the senior staff. So some of the surviving ‘angels’ had built it and could have added cyo-units in the basement.
@15 We just won’t know what survived until Weber tells us. It would certainly have been in the interests of Langhorne’s survivors to give the strongest possible impression they had the same telephone to God that Langhorne claimed. It’s hard to see how the rakurai controls could have survived Pei’s attack. That is not really the sort of thing that Langhorne would have wanted to share and would also have been at least as important a target for Pei as Langhorne himself.
Answer to little clubs formed around the purpose of killing Merlin:
Merlin Action Figure with Decapitation Slice Action!
Could have Drak… IF they still had the right technology and know-how. We don’t know much of anything about the pre-Langhorne tech level. Was a cryo-chamber such a basic piece of equipment that a professional ditch digger could program an automated construction unit to produce it and figure out how to operate it after it was done? Or was it something that required a bit more technical know-how and experience?
Personally I figure it was probably possible. I still have doubts that it was what they DID, however. Given that the “archangels” had enough megolomania for any 10 real-world dictators, I’m kind of half-surprised they haven’t made some sort of “digital appearance” yet. If the idea of scientists downloading their brains into computers (essentially the same as a PICA sans a physical body) and even making multiple copies of themselves to improve research efforts was such a common-place idea in the last desperate days of the Federation, then I could very easily see the surviving angels downloading themselves into the computers that control the temple.
The question of course is what system they’d use to put in their “return appearance” if needed. Holo-generators? PICA bodies? Cloning cylynders? Something else? I’m not betting on PICAs, not really. Based on the way the text puts them as either “rich people’s playtoys” or “disabled peoples lifelines” I don’t see any of the other “angels” having packed one away, and I have an even harder time seeing them building one later. (Not, at least, without using it immediately. They had way too much megolomania for them to NOT fall prey to the temptation to rule the church forever, even if not in their “official” persona. Sure they’d have to change official identities every 50 years or so, but if that was the price of living forever and ruling their personal planet forever I can’t see them NOT wanting to do it if they had the ability.) And of course the question is whether they are actually awake. They wouldn’t have to actually be constantly monitoring things… they could have easily set themselves in “sleep mode” for a century or two at a time. If they aren’t, that would explain why they haven’t shown up in the story yet. If they are, then I can’t see why they didn’t show up as soon as gunpowder was reinvented, much less the schism. For that matter I would have expected them to have at least some sort of reaction to “On Obedience and Faith”.
But I still don’t buy the 1000 year sleep cycle idea. I would have thought they would think that too long. I mean think about it, either they had faith that their artificial Egypt would hold or they didn’t. If they didn’t, I’d think they’d want to check in on things more frequently than that. Say every 200-300 years or so. If they did, however, then why bother trying to come back at all?
No my bet is on either that they didn’t do it at all, or that they did do it for the first few cycles (say around year 400 and year 700) and then they either decided to just live out the remainder of their lives and disappear satisfied that their system had worked (remember that it would have appeared that it had in 700), or now they are packed away for a nice long sleep cycle again, set not to wake up for at least another 80 years or more… by which time they either won’t wake up at all or they won’t even recognize the place.
RH
Robert, on the every hundred years idea, IIRC gunpowder is only eighty years old. So the ‘angels’ could have missed it. As for “On Obedience and Faithâ€, I doubt that the ‘angels’ would have disapproved of it. IE increased power for the Council of Vicars, why didn’t we think of that?
By the way, David Weber has stated that one of the books will be titled ‘The Saints their watch are keeping’. He’s also stated that the modern weapons Nimue/Merlin found in the ‘cave’ are there for a reason.
No one’s going to bite on this “Father Ahzwald”/”Lee Harvey Oswald” thing while you’re talking about assassinations? Really?
to 19 that one could be much much later, after all it doesnt seem likely that there are survivor of at least not the old fashioned we stashed away just in case. as has been previously stated this guys were big megalomaniacs, most likely something else happened. if you remember in OAR one of them comes to tell them that it all went wrong and that they would have to leave earlier than expected, that to me seems to indicate that something slightly more catastrophic happened than what we have so far been revealed.
Someone clear up the timing for me.
900 years ago (well 892, close enough), Safehold is settled/Adams and Eves wake up.
800 years ago, whatshisname blows up Langhorne and co and sets the wakeup timer for Nimue’s PICA.
700 years ago is last confirmed appearance of a “true demon”. Can a biological human really live this long with Old Earth medical enhancements? Or would stasis sleep or a PICA be required to last 200 years?
@22 IIRC, the prolong antiaging treatments signifigantly extended human life. The full range of treatments bumped the average lifspan up to arround 350 years. Getting only the basic ‘starter package’ without the continuing treatment increased the lifespan to arround 150 years.
So yes, some of the biological command crew could possibly still have been alive in YoG 200. (Don’t foret that a Safehold year is shorter than standard.)
The interpretation that I’m going with on the ‘Demon siting’ is that at least some members of the command crew that supported Langhorn were still alive/out of stasis and put on an aperance where they squelched some bandits, or some religious faction that they disliked and then told a story about “fighting the forces of darkness”.
for what has been mentioned in OAR which is the book that has the most details about earth humans, their lifespan was about 200-300 years, aprox it is never actually given an absolut number (mostly because it was recent so nobody really knew how much they could possibly live). now we know that the last confirmed appearance is is Commodore Pei when he blew up Langhorne. there were a few survivors. first a PICA is supposed to be able to last forever, it is a nanotechnology/molycirc/who knows what else based cibernetic body with a potentially unlimited self repair capability and unknown durability. in Merlin’s case we can assume a very very very long time. but we as far as we know Langhorne’s crew didnt have one. stasis sleep is never openly described in the first 2 books so we do not know what are the limitations, after all it could be true stasis or just a form of sleep, depending on which kind they are there is the potential of they could be waiting there still or they are long dead. we will see in the following books how that goes.
as far to the timeline. 892 years ago they wake up, shortly after that shan wei is murdered, 192 years after settling safehold that would be 700 years ago he kills Langhorne and everyone that was a senior member of the expedition. who are the survivors we dont really know. how long after that they survived who knows but that is the quid of the question.
24. Didn’t Commodore Pei tell Nimue that he set the PICA wakeup call for 800 years after he left the message?
Alright, I’ve looked it up. Commodore Pei set the timer for 750 standard years. This works out (refrence the timekeeping note in the back of OAR) to 825 Safehold Years. So Commodore Pei’s attack on Langhorn (and presumably the destruction of Alexandria) came in the year 65 A.C. (After Creation).
Our good archbishop refers to reports of demons more than 700 years past, or in other words, before 191 A.C..
The notes on antigerone therapies (page 67 OAR) make it clear that the command crew with continued access to the treatments would live up to 300 years while the Adams and Eves who had all recieved the base treatments would live up to 150 years. I assume these numbers are in standard years.
If we assume that 20 was a minimum age for someone on the command crew, and they spent 10 years in hyper and then 10 years teraforming before the “Day of Creation”, then the command crew could have lived until 285 A.C.
My theory about the ‘Demon Report’ is that the surviving comand crew took direct action for some reason and then reported to the people in the region that they were acting against demons. I don’t expect that to be important in the story.
I’m guessing the weapons platform won’t be used, or at least not for some time, because if the platform is used now Charis will collapse. Second, my guess is the power sources are sleeping angels, possibly an archangel or two, and some toys. My guess is that Merlin’s cover is going to be at least somewhat blown by sonic booms when he has to go rescue someone. Merlin is probably praying for someone to try to assassinate Staynair.
Merlin is going to be out of the Charis loop physically for a while. There are probably hundreds of witnesses that will remember the fact that he’s currently on the Empress of Charis, so for him to appear physically to forestall some assassination or arson would definitely be labeled as demonic.
If the KE sats are out of anyone’s control because of the destruction of Langhorne and staff, it could be that their previous use was triggered by generating artificial energy sources (using recon skimmers) over Alexandria. If that is the case, the Temple in Zion might simply be the best way the remaining Angels had to store their equipment and enter into their centuries long torpor without having themselves blown up by a satellite that notices their stasis pods. The temple’s heating system would contribute to their stealth measures by basically being a heat sink, and the sheer size of the building would make it a very effective one for dispelling a lot of heat. The thing that was said about the Temple was that it is the same temperature at all times, this to me indicates that there is a computer system monitoring heat distribution (or at least a lot of thermostats).
As to the book of Chihiro’s citing of Angels in response to Demons, I think that they found some of the discrepancies with colonial placement and hunted down some of Shan-wei’s second strings. They might have even reprogrammed them using NEATs to overlay new personalities for their own designs.
Another alternative is that some of the command crew saw the light and turned from good angels into “demons” well after the nuke being set off.
After all is not hypothetically possible that at least some of the command crew would be “closet demons” who bided there time for a better opportunity or some of the command crew decided late in life they were tired of living a lie and wanted the truth to get out?
I am not saying this is likely jusr merely possible.
relating to a previous post if the angles found out about a second string cell then it would be likely that they would keep some sought of watch for other cells popping up.
The statement alluded to here from DW about “saints keeping watch” indicates that some sought computer or human intellignece is keeping watch.
It will be exciting to found out what!!
Should read
After all is it not
@26: Your timeline is good except in one respect. I doubt Kau-yung would have immediately acted to kill Langhorne and the other members of the command crew, for two reasons. First, Langhorne almost certainly didn’t trust Kau-yung right after killing his wife, even if they were estranged; the man was such a megalomaniac, among other things, that it would have been very surprising for him to blithely trust Kau-yung. In other words, Kau-yung knew he had exactly one chance to pull it off, and he wouldn’t have blown it by trying to act too fast.
The second reason is that Kau-yung looked pretty old when he recorded his hologram. Remember, it took nearly 60 years for the Adams to look middle-aged, and it would have taken longer for a member of the command crew to look older than that. My guess is that at least another 60 years passed before Kau-yung acted, and maybe even longer than that.
So, there’s no reason for the command crew to have made up a ‘demon attack’. A far simpler explanation is that they attributed Kau-yung’s pocket nuke to be the last ‘demonic’ activity on Safehold (in effect making Kau-yung into a demon, which is what they did to Shan-wei as well). Assuming it happened between 120 and 150 years after the ‘wake-up’, then it fits perfectly into the “more than 700 years” figure given by Halcom above.
—-
@28: E, I seriously doubt that the book of Chihiro had anything to do with the colonists who were reawakened by Shan-wei. For one thing, if they had found even one, they would probably have looked extremely hard for the rest, especially among the enclaves which were some distance away from Haven. For another, I bet Chihiro would have been much more explicit about looking for people ‘subverted’ by demons than he was.
Remember, the colonists who were made aware of what really happened would have gone to ground as soon as Alexandria was destroyed, and they wouldn’t likely have done anything to make anyone suspicious of them. Furthermore, it’s very likely that the survivors of Kau-yung’s pocket nuke had bigger concerns than hunting down discrepancies in colonist assignments – such as building the Temple, setting up an alternate control system for the Rakurai, etc.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that I don’t figure it’s very likely.
Another alternative: Not all of Shan Wei’s faction was at Alexandria or Commordore Pei’s coming out party. The “Demons” were remnants of her faction.
Again, I’d say that was doubtful. For one thing, if there had been members of Shan-wei’s faction left after both events, chances are they would have started sharpening their figurative knives to get the remnants of the ‘angels’. They wouldn’t have had very long to do anything (not with Kau-yung being so obviously old), not and still be effective at it.
I think the simplest explanation is that the warning in Chihiro’s book is specifically about emerging technology (due to ‘demonic’ influence) that would get nailed by the Rakurai, and the ‘demon sighting’ is just a reference to Kau-yung himself. Of course, the fun part of this is that I could be completely wrong here and it could be something much more complicated than that. Or it could be something even simpler than what I’ve already suggested.
There have been several comments about Merlin “coming to the rescue” in/near Tellesberg. BUT, this could not be an “instant” response.
We know that the skimmer can go about Mach 4 (that’s how fast it went getting Merlin to Duke of Tirian, which was an emergency). This is about 3,000 miles/hour (roughly, depends on air temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.). The distance from Manchyr to Tellesberg is about 6300 miles in a straight line. This is a minimum of 2 hours of just travel. Add the time to “sneak away” and any response would likely take 3-4 hours minimum.
Having the “Angles” return may be the best way to demonstarte their fallibility. After all these individuals have slept through 700+ years of change but are supposed to have been watching all along. The “returning Angles” simply can’t be brought up to date on cenutries of change. Even assuming NEATs to speed up the process, they don’t have an up to date database of all those events. I doubt a computer could both collect and interpret centuries of data sufficiently well to support an illusion of omniscience. I further doubt that these returnees can provide a rationale for any action they take that is consistent with current Safehold understanding of the Writ.
Any action they take now will confirm the Church was in error. So, even if the Angels are sucessful in dealing with Charis, the Church is doomed as the ultimate moral standard on Safehold. If the Angels are not successful, they show their own falibility and thus displaying their slight remove from God. God after all is infallible and omnipotent.
When the Angels re-ascend to heaven after successfully correcting mankind, how will the Church guide Safehold into the future? Any significant disagreement among the faithful that arise in the future will recall the Church’s infallibility and require Angelic intervention again. Any angelic return will prove that mankind cannot govern itself and needs the constant/visible supervision of devine forces. Effectively that man is beyond redemption in his immorality and is only fit to be God’s pets rather than is servants. How much of the Writ will be contradicted by such proof?
I wonder then if there are any sleeping Angles beneath the Temple. Having them there would almost certainly doom this project to requiring constant Angelic guidance and the failure of Langehorn’s plan to create a self sustaining society that shun’s technologic curiosity.
PZ
Rereading this section again, it strikes me as odd that Halcom is assuming that demons are infallible. Why should he assume infallibility by creatures that he thinks are AGAINST God?
EA@3. Not infallible, just less fallible than humans. If he actually thought demons were infallible, he would need to assume a qualitative parity between demons and God. At this point everything would be relative, nothing is absolute not even God. I doubt any Safehold resident would even think such a thing.
PZ
Following that logic, Archangels would have to be falible as well. Only their communion with God let’s them achieve devine infalliblity. That logical separation from God may provide a wedge at some point.
I wonder if this bit of logic will be used in the storyline somewhere?
PZ
Of course, his information on the presence of demons 700 years ago could be accurate as, for example, his information on the shape of the Solar orbit as the sun orbits around Safehold.
I wonder how “clean” the solar system is, or whether or not the KE satellites also keep asteroids from hitting Safehold.
PZ, as far as God is a concern on Safehold, it’s like the current state of Christianity in that the Saints and Angels all did stuff Back Then but until Game Over day it’s pretty much watching after us and looking after our souls when the body dies.