What Meppa tells Fanayal and what Meppa screams at the man he hates the most in the universe can be two different things.  He also might not have been lying.  He's clearly traumatized.  He might not really remember much of his life before his family was killed.  He's on his way to being an Erratic without being a Nonman.

Kellhous isn't fighting this fight for the quick win.  He's got it in the bag because as powerful as Meppa is Kellhous is the greatest Metagnostic Sorcerer alive.  He's methodically examining his foes and then dispatching them as he sees fit.  Even Meppa, for all his power, crumples the moment the Metagnosis is unleashed against him.

And it would have made Requires Only Hate that much madder.

Not possible since Requires Hate just manufactured reasons to attack people with social justice flavored rants.  Fun note, most of Requires Hates targets were minorities, women, or both. 

I'm now curious how Kel even knew what a woman was the first time he met one.

Bred for intellect.  And breasts.    You don't have to be a Dunyain to figure out the humanoid with breasts is female.

That's why the last two sentences of my last post are so open ended.  We know as a school the Mangaecca were obsessed with cheating death and avoiding damnation.  The scene with Shaeonanra is the only time we've seen on the Mangaecca post exile.  Of course Shaeonanra is going to get the cool titles and curse names, he's their leader, but we don't know how representative his fate is of the rest of the Mangaecca or if he transitioned to something else.  The Consults increased mastery of  the Tekne may allow other options.  I'm sure Scott is going to show us something truly appalling (and perhaps combat capable) before the end.

I thought we've heard somewhere that the Consult had a few thousand Erratics on their side. I could be making it up, but I thought Bakker said that at one time.

Actually, I'm rereading the book and have just come to that point.  Oinaral Lastborn tells Sorweel that thousands have gone over to the Consult.  Plucking a few numbers out of thin air that could mean thousands means two thousand and twenty-five percent of them are Quya then that's five hundred Quya mages minus however many got killed at Ishual.  The numbers could obviously be much, much worse.

The Mangaecca numbered around thirty when they were outlawed which is the only time numbers have been given for them.  They don't seem to have much opportunity to recruit and we haven't had any evidence of them directly taking the field.  They may no longer be capable of it, but they might have worked out some atrocious way of managing.  They seem to leave the fighting to their minions. 

There is, of course, also the case of the Wracu if Mog-Pheru is resurrected.  All in all, Kellhous seems to need everyone he can lay his hands on.

That's an important recurrent theme in the series. It's very blatant in particular in that segment at Mengedda when Saubon asks his groom "Is good simply good because God wills it?" or something along those lines. If it is, then the statement is indistinguishable for all practical purposes from "Might makes right".

I agree absolutely.  The question is actually closer "Is something right just because the gods ask it?" and the answer, according to Kesult's memories of the Tusk is "no." 

They're all going to be damn horrified when they meet up with the Ordeal, though.

Maybe.  I'm not so sure after seeing the Gloom in Istererbinth.   They don't have to leave home to see horrific things happening to people they care more about than humans.  As an alternate possibility, the state of the Great Ordeal might be so horrific that it stirs up memories of the Second Apocalypse of the Cujo-Inchoroi Wars and thus make the Nonmen more sane.

I do think going so hard in for the misogyny is a mistake.  Sure there were ancient societies as bad (the Assyrians managed to be worse than the Greeks and the Romans who managed to pretty much push women out of public life), but not all of them were, and its just so god damn relentless its almost numbing.  A little variety would help the rest of it keep the impact.  It's not like the Dunyain don't do other horrible shit.  Anyone filled with joy about how they treat their defectives?  No, I didn't think so.

As for the Judging Eye, it's pretty clear that the judgement of God is nothing to yearn for.  Absolute morality means that the circumstances of your life and your decisions have no impact on how your judge.  Your beliefs about right and wrong have no impact.  The best reasoning of the wisest moral philosophers is worthless.  The only standard that matters is that which is upheald by an inhuman tyrant who punishes those that break its arbitrary rules with eternal damnation irregardless of weather or not those rules are just or not or that its victims even knew the proper rule set.  The Nonmen and Inchoroi seek to avoid God for very good reasons.