Does anybody know what the Imperial Saik were doing during the first 2 holy wars? It would be strange if they were attacked since they serve the Nansur Empire. The emperor wouldn't want his school destroyed and the shriah would really damage relationships with the emperor, bad since they have to live so close.
But if the Saik helped the holy fight other schools, there's no mention of it. Maybe they sat on the sidelines?
Also
The Saik were the only ones to stay true to their state loyalty, I wonder if the Great Ordeal is smashed which schools will stay loyal?
Apparently the modern schools where after the Scholastic Wars, and I believe one of those was also name the First Holy War. The Second Holy War was Shimeh.
Is that right?
If so, then there was no Saik for the first war, and the Saik came in with Conphas to take Shimeh right at the end (Akka first 4 of them. I imagine the rest where around somewhere)
I assume you are referring to the Scholastic wars (3796 to 3818)?
The Nansur empire was still at it's peak then and was probably not affected because their sorcerers are state-sanctioned and because those wars were fought on the eastern side of the 3 Seas.
The Scarlet Spires ended up taking control of Ainon in order to give themselves similar status so that they could oppose the Thousand Temples politically and three other schools banded together to form the Myunsai and gain protection by providing services for the high castes of various nations.
If you aren't talking about that, then perhaps you could specify which wars you mean? DA's "Compendium of the First Holy War" is throwing me off maybe?
Inrithism is the state religion of Nansur. The Saik are the emperor's personal servants. Obviously exemptions to Ekyannus' war against sorcerers were made. Hard to deal with the Nilnameshi, Zeumi, Scyvendi, Satyothi, Kian et al otherwise.
The term holy war is thrown about a lot in the history of 3c's, clearly anytime ideology is involved it's a type of holy war. The term is mostly used descriptively rather than as a title. The Scholastic Wars were holy wars, as was the Dagger Jihad, etc etc. The First Holy War is specifically Inrithism vs Fanimry, even though it was itself preceded by the Vulgar Holy War.
Inrithism is the state religion of Nansur. The Saik are the emperor's personal servants. Obviously exemptions to Ekyannus' war against sorcerers were made. Hard to deal with the Nilnameshi, Zeumi, Scyvendi, Satyothi, Kian et al otherwise.
The term holy war is thrown about a lot in the history of 3c's, clearly anytime ideology is involved it's a type of holy war. The term is mostly used descriptively rather than as a title. The Scholastic Wars were holy wars, as was the Dagger Jihad, etc etc. The First Holy War is specifically Inrithism vs Fanimry, even though it was itself preceded by the Vulgar Holy War.
To continue
The Second Holy War, if indeed the first was the one in PoN to shimeh, would be the Great Ordeal. Like Curethan said, lots of wars are called Holy. All the jihads/crusades involving Kian and Nansur were all Holy in some way.
More on topic
So you are talking about the scholastic wars. Other than the Mandate, who existed from times of old, the majority of the major schools came about after one of the scholastic wars. Its unlikely the Saik even existed until after one or both wars was ended.
The wiki implies they did. (http://princeofnothing.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Saik)
Does anybody know what the Imperial Saik were doing during the first 2 holy wars? It would be strange if they were attacked since they serve the Nansur Empire. The emperor wouldn't want his school destroyed and the shriah would really damage relationships with the emperor, bad since they have to live so close.
But if the Saik helped the holy fight other schools, there's no mention of it. Maybe they sat on the sidelines?
Also
The Saik were the only ones to stay true to their state loyalty, I wonder if the Great Ordeal is smashed which schools will stay loyal?
Implying that Kellhus could fail? You filthy Communist.
Kind of off topic but did anybody else get confused by the saik?
I didn't understand why they didn't join Conphas right from the start, especially if he was planning on eventually betraying (and therefore fighting) the scarlet spires.
At the battle of kiyuth there are only about 14 saik and since the empire was gambling it's very existence on winning that fight, you'd think they would have sent a majority of their sorcerers. Unless that was a majority of the saik, but then that begs the question how do the saik with such small numbers manage to protect the empire from the cishaurim who had so many more sorcerers?
I don't remember if the story ever gives exact numbers for all the schools but I vaguely remember it saying about 300 each for the spires and cishaurim.
Geoint, please observe subforum rules.
Its quoted somewhere around here, but I'm too lazy to search. Something like 200-500 for the SS, and they are the largest. But you are right, 14 seems ridiculous, so maybe they were confident that they would win and/or that there would not be much magical opposition?
I'd guess that the Saik would have be fairly large to be considered a major school, and since they are state sponsored, similarly to the SS, they should be comparatively large, though I can't recall any exact numbers being given.
The earlier Holy Wars were the so-called Scholastic Wars and were waged against the Schools. The fallout from the last Scholastic War left the Scarlet Spires (which was able to deploy a little over 100 sorcerers to the Holy War, the majority of their strength) in control of High Ainon. I imagine that the Imperial Saik was not targeted during these wars due to being an organ of the Nansur Empire. Remember that the pretext for sending Akka to Summa is to find out the target of the Holy War, which is likely to be the Schools because a Holy War called against the Fanim cannot succeed because of the Cishaurim. Except, of course, the Scarlet Spires have already been brought on board.
The Imperial Saik considers the other Schools to be dangerous renegades who endanger the survival of the Few. They were probably chilling during the Scholastic Wars. Why would the Emperor turn on one of his most valuable instruments or spend them in a war that doesn't benefit the Empire?
This is all background information and spoils not a damn thing but the spoiler rules on the subforum are unclear everyone seems to be spoiler tagging everything so I've followed suit. Is there any chance we could get a clarification on the spoiler rules? It's silly if every answer to a Q & A thread is spoilerized.