jklburns

Thank you for the responses! I'm still not convinced there was sound strategic reason behind the treaty on the party of the Hallandrens (I don't buy that they wanted a 20 year pause, that's what the Idrians wanted -- their incentive to enter into the treaty was to keep the Hallandrens from starting war sooner rather than later; the Hallandrens had no real reason to oppose going ahead and conquering unless they got something good out of waiting). I'll just have to accept the thought that those priests who had control of agreeing to the treaty weren't the same priests who were keeping the secrets regarding substitute God-King Returned babies.

Thank you for the response! But I'm afraid that doesn't really fully answer my question, as I already fed you the part about the priests teaching him how. (Even if true, I believe it's a flimsy reasoning, one not mentioned at all in the book, and kind of a cheap way around a pretty major plot point.) I may not have been originally clear, but the gist of my question was really geared more to whether I've missed something in the reading, not whether we can jump around with unwritten suppositions. And we still don't have an answer re: intent. What was the intent of the treaty on the party of Hallandren if not to introduce the royal bloodline? Postponement of war got them what? But since you bit on that part re: priests teaching, that brings up more questions -- Do the priests know that Returned can change their form at will? If you teach the God-King how to change his hair, what keeps him from providing himself with a tongue? Does doing any of that go against the belief that the God-King should not be using the Breath he is supposed to keep in trust (and the reason they removed the tongue in the first place)? Or would that not be considered using Breath since it wouldn't technically use up Breath? Ultimately, it just feels like a major flaw in the line of thinking and I'm not getting a clear "ah, that's why they did it" moment. It basically says there was no real strategy and/or reason for them to enter into the treaty, but now that we have it (the treaty) we've got to jump through hoops to make it work. You don't just give an opposing faction 22 free years for nothing (and more work for the side that gets nothing).

I'm sorry if this has been asked/answered -- I tried searching and I might have missed something. I'm a bit confused on the strategic thinking behind the Idrian treaty with Hallandren. We are told that the treaty was written to postpone war between the factions, and once the marriage consummated, to unite the factions and presumably resolve authority claims (The Idrians have the real royal family, but Hallandren has the armies and power; the Idrians realize the Hallandren's will eventually attack once they get what they want, presumably the royal bloodline, but it at least gave them a 22 years delay). Support for that: In Chapter One, it says "The Hallendren needed a daughter of the royal blood to reintroduce the traditional bloodline into their monarchy. It was something the depraved and vainglorious people of the lowlands had long coveted, and only that specific clause in the treaty had saved Idris these twenty years." Question: Why would the Hallandren priests agree to a treaty with the Idrians to marry one of the royal daughters to the God King to presumably produce a God King heir with "royal blood," when in all likelihood they would actually substitute another Returned baby as heir as part of their regular sham? Was Dedelin wrong about the motivations of the treaty on the part of the Hallandren's? And if so, why would they agree to postpone for 22 years if they got nothing in return but the off-but not guaranteed-chance that the daughter would produce a true heir? Assuming Dedelin is not wrong about the motivations, playing this out strategically...they'd marry the Idrian daughter to the God King, she'd get pregnant (or not, but they'd claim she was), and then substitute in the Returned child, presuming she didn't actually get pregnant. But what happens when the new God King clearly doesn't have "royal blood" and can't unconsciously change the color of his hair? Returned can change their appearance at will, but most of them don't even realize that. Whereas the Royal Family have to work hard and learn how to control their color changing hair, because it happens naturally with changing emotion. Would the idea be that the Priests would "teach" the sham God King how to change his hair color at will to allay suspicion? I'm just not sure I see how this was supposed to play out in order to intermingle the blood lines. I know there is a way for Returned to conceive, but there was no guarantee (at the time the treaty was made) that it would happen in this case. And we know that they have a substitute Returned baby ready and waiting when they pressured for the treaty terms to be fulfilled.