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The Knife of Many Hands [Spoilers]

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Hirtius/Pansa:
I'm super late on this train. Apologies. 

Sarothesser IX is the King of High Ainon in this short story. I assume he was killed at the end there, which then would make Prince Horziah the Horziah III who is the last reigning King. Really curious about some more details because there is supposedly a battle between a royalist army and Spires-aligned army which results in the defeat of Horziah. Not surprising, he seems like a real ditz. Also interesting because this short story seems to present a full coup against the Royal House of Sarothesser but we know for a fact that there is more Royalist/Spires conflict incoming.

The Glossary states that the Scholastic Wars were from 3796-3818, so the Scholastic War has been going on for at least 5 years at the point of this story. Clearly not in High Ainon because things seem pretty calm, if a bit tense.

Cool that Sranc are such a hot commodity in High Ainon that they have Ainoni trading depots in Thunyerus and profitable relationships with certain tribes. Seem like antique precursors to the Scalpoi.

Wilshire:

--- Quote from: Hirtius/Pansa on September 12, 2016, 07:19:21 pm ---I'm super late on this train. Apologies. 

--- End quote ---

I finished it after I got my Anthology backer rewards from the GdM kickstarter, about a month ago lol.

I'm sure unsure of whats happening, specifically. Generally it seems the spires used our protagonist to murder the King. But what did they actually do to him.

Seems like a mixture of skin-spies and sranc imagery to me, which makes be think Consult, not Spires. In addition, it was a trigger that was applied through sexual congress. Remember who ends up on the throne, a skin-spy. I get the feels that the Consult were involved from here on out, if not farther back.

Hirtius/Pansa:
Hmm.  I feel like the Consult would be incentivized to make sure the Shrial forces succeed, no? Anything to destroy the Mandate and remove as many of the Few as possible. Having a major school control High Ainon implicitly helps the Mandate maybe—at least during the war. Drawing away resources that the Shrial forces would use to fight the Mandate to commit to an Ainon front, they were apparently besieging Atyersus for a few years.  What do the Consult have to gain by giving the Scarlet Spires more institutional power?

Thought I agree with MG's sentiment that the line about the physical fortress of Kiz 'rearing into the void, the horns' or some such, immediately recalls Golgotterath. Also Achamian's line about Gologotterath and the Scarlet Spires as being the only places in the world more heartless than Atyersus.

Wilshire:
Not sure. Maybe they have had trouble replacing that particular throne/faction?  Having a skin-spy as 'king' is a reasonable goal. Also, the Spires hate the Mandate, and mock them fervently. Having the spires in a controlling position is beneficial in keeping the image of the Mandate in shambles.

I don't really know. The 'magics' involved just seemed really inchoroi-y to me. Cants of Compulsions seem to be pretty clean and efficient at this type of thing - not sure why SS would want to go through this type of sexually-triggered-mind-control-rape stuff.

H:
Yeah, I think that an elevated Scarlet Spires is a definite boon against the Mandate, one the Consult certainly wouldn't be against, since it exists and perpetuates without them even have to manipulate anything.

However, Akka does at one point remark that even the Mandate was attacked during the Scholastic War, "Atyersus itself had been besieged for seven years."  It would certainly seem more likely that, as H/P says, the Consult might well have been behind the War itself.  Perhaps Ekyannus XIV was a skin-spy?

I would guess that as the fighting started, the Scarlet Spires realized they could militarize somewhat secretly and that the throne was ripe for a coup.  It certainly seems they were right, as events played out.  I think their gambit was that if their school was to survive (and prosper) that they needed basically a whole nation worth of resources and so set out to get it.

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