[The Sharmat]

The people at Mengedda had no hope because the Consult had worked hard to deprive them of it. Every time they rallied they were met in the field and shattered. The No-God had to keep the hype up. If it just left after Cil Aujas you'd have had Kyraneas and Shir and Nilnamesh and High Holy Zeum all deciding maybe they'd like to have babies again and team up. Then you have to hold them off for the next few decades, in concert. Not feasible.

The lack of experience may apply too, as JRControl said. I imagine the Inchoroi traditionally used orbital and air dominance to reduce greatly technologically inferior foes to ruin. The Cuno-Inchoroi wars were likely a very different matter as well. Now Aurang has had plenty of time to learn, but that may be no substitute from being born into an iron age martial culture.

[Cynical Cat]

I kinda assumed the hardware or the knowhow was lost in the crash.
I suspect the Nuke was a one off functional device, saved for a real emergency?

My assumption has been that the Consult has been working hard for the last few thousand years to rediscover and understand tekne knowledge that was lost, and applying it in new ways. Thus the appearance of skin spies (improved biotech) and nukes (improved understanding of physics)

The skin spies are easier than the nukes because we know that some of the Inchoroi's biotech technology survived (Weapon races, grafts, Womb Plague) as well as two full blown Inchoroi.  We know some of their weapons survived but most were used up or destroyed. Two thousand years is a lot of time for instruction, learning, experimentation, and refining.  Nukes are a different matter from biotech as they have very demanding material and technological requirements to produce.   Nukes also require maintenance over the long term and its been a very long time since the Ark fell from the sky.  The Ark is, however, big and was once full of functioning tech and genocidal hypertech weaponry.  The Consult doesn't have to build one from scratch, they just have to cobble together a new one from parts or restore a damaged one to function.  It's even possible that the bomb wasn't a nuke.  A small amount of antimatter would have roughly the same effect. 

[The Sharmat]

To be fair we don't know that Golgotterath DOESN'T now have a facility capable of enriching uranium. Depending on what magic scifi stuff Bakker is assuming that might be more or less plausible than sequestering enough antimatter to make a bomb like that.

[Cynical Cat]

Yeah, we don't know if they have an operational nuke factory but we do know if they have a bunch nukes then they don't really need the No-God.  So they probably don't have a nuke factory.

[The Sharmat]

I dunno. A big spread out iron age population would be less susceptible to nukes than a modern urban one. No-God would probably still be more effective in this case. Especially if they want to live in the world once they're done.

[H]

My assumption has been that the Consult has been working hard for the last few thousand years to rediscover and understand tekne knowledge that was lost, and applying it in new ways. Thus the appearance of skin spies (improved biotech) and nukes (improved understanding of physics)

Indeed, I speculated on that earlier I think.  As for the "why now" question on suddenly "developing" a nuke, I think that there are some plausible reasons why they such a thing wasn't used previously.

First, during the Apocalypse, they had the No-God.  Bakker loves his, "when you have a hammer, everything seems like a nail" analogy.  Why should they have needed more?  We get the benefit of hindsight here that they should have obviously needed more, but at the time, attrition probably seemed like a pretty good strategy.  Since the Consult couldn't find/get back the Heron Spear, there was reason to believe it might have been just totally lost.  They rolled the dice wheeling out the No-God itself and lost that bet.  Nothing that they lost though was irreplaceable though, from what they said even during tDtCB.

Second, I actually think this nuke was far more of a one-off thing than anything else.  A fuel cell or whatever, rigged up so it could be detonated.  It's the proverbial kitchen sink.  So, why now?  Well, because Kellhus is a real danger to actually kill the Consult, not just foil their plans.  This was not a real danger during the First Apocalypse.  The Consult knew that the Ark was unassailable.  But now?  I don't think they are so sure.  It's time to find everything not nailed down and start throwing it in Kellhus path, hoping it somehow screws up his plan.

[Cynical Cat]

I dunno. A big spread out iron age population would be less susceptible to nukes than a modern urban one. No-God would probably still be more effective in this case. Especially if they want to live in the world once they're done.

Which isn't a problem if they nuke the south and retire to Golgotterath for a decade.  Remember they have the wild Sranc to finish the job for them.  It isn't like they have to see each last human die.  I'm in the "jury rigged improvised explosive camp".  If they have multiple nukes, the Ordeal is pretty easy to destroy.  Don't overestimate the effects of radioactive fallout.  There are plenty of people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today.  If the Consult has dozens of nukes, it can use them.

[The Sharmat]

They'd need so many nukes to impact such a decentralized agrarian population though, that they'd really almost need to rely on producing as much fallout as possible to get the job done. And having a nuke and having a delivery system are two separate problems. They probably don't have ICBMs or they wouldn't have just planted it in the dirt.

[Monkhound]

I dunno. A big spread out iron age population would be less susceptible to nukes than a modern urban one. No-God would probably still be more effective in this case. Especially if they want to live in the world once they're done.

Which isn't a problem if they nuke the south and retire to Golgotterath for a decade.  Remember they have the wild Sranc to finish the job for them.  It isn't like they have to see each last human die.  I'm in the "jury rigged improvised explosive camp".  If they have multiple nukes, the Ordeal is pretty easy to destroy.  Don't overestimate the effects of radioactive fallout.  There are plenty of people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today.  If the Consult has dozens of nukes, it can use them.

Eärwa's Sranc and Bashrag count was recently given a considerable blow at Dagliash/Viri though. There are others as far as we know, but the inexhaustible supply is possibly no longer as endless as it was pre-Ordeal.

[The Sharmat]

They didn't draw many clans from Kunuiri itself IIRC but without the No-God they're irrelevant now. I'm not sure how many bashrag there ever were or where they tend to live. Outside of Cil-Aujas we've only seen Consult bashrag rather than wild ones.

[Monkhound]

They didn't draw many clans from Kunuiri itself IIRC but without the No-God they're irrelevant now. I'm not sure how many bashrag there ever were or where they tend to live. Outside of Cil-Aujas we've only seen Consult bashrag rather than wild ones.

There was the Ten Yoke Legion spotted by Sorweel/the Scions that came from Kuniüri, no?
Apart from that, I think you're right: The way the Scylvendi patrol the area suggests there are more Sranc out there.

[The Sharmat]

Yeah. They needed exscursoi to get throuh the Kuniuri wilds. And the Ten Yoke Legion was a relatively small force of sranc in the great scheme.

[Mog Kellhus]

The Horde's Sranc were mainly tribes from the Istyuli Plains,Sheneor and Aorsi.There are many tribes in Kuniuri and Akksersia.But yes they are irrelevant now for the Ordeal unless the No God walks.

[Cynical Cat]

The Bashrag are going to require a lot more food than the Sranc and probably were designed to consume something higher up the food chain so they aren't competing for the same food in the wild as the Sranc.  Their numbers are undoubtedly limited compared to the teeming hordes of Sranc.  However, like Sranc they will attack human civilization on their own and Sranc breed far faster than men.  If the Consult has nukes it doesn't need to kill every human.  The Sranc and the Bashrag will finish the jobs of their own accord.  The No-God will make it easier, of course, but taking out the Great Ordeal (why nuke it only once when you have more?) which conveniently concentrates much of the military power of men in one target, will start the ball rolling.  Nuke a few more strong points and the Second Apocalypse will start No-God or no No-God.

[JerakoKayne]

Do you think we will see further weaponry, biological, technical or sorcerous, as the new Apocalypse progresses?