Tuesday 9 February 2021

Unanswered Questions

The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

See Northern Autumn.

The Zacharians will be dispersed among the general population:

"'And what will come of that?' Targovi mused.
"Flandry spread his hands. 'Who knows?'" (p. 453)
 
Flandry will enable Diana and Targovi to fare out yonder but will they go as traders, explorers, scientists, artists or Intelligence operatives? He lists these options.
 
He will also fund Father Axor's research and what will become of that? A history of the Chereionites? A new religious movement?
 
Incidentally, Axor killed some Merseians during the escape from Zacharia. I remember hearing that the taking of life disqualified a Catholic priest from continuing to function as a priest.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I don't know about Diana, but Targovi at least seems very keen on having a career in Naval Intelligence. But it was of course good and right of Flandry to say he would help them to have options to choose from.

As for Fr. Axor, you raised a point I never thought of before. I am not sure if the canon law of the Latin and eastern rites of the Catholic Church ABSOLUTELY forbids priests from ever using lethal force in all circumstances. The clergy, like everyone else, do have the right to defend themselves. Which has to sometimes include lethal force. And those Zacharians wounded or killed by Fr. Axor were doing their best to kill or capture him and his friends, after all.

Ad astra! Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I would have stressed that, for their role in the Magnusson affair, the punishment of the Zacharians would be to be dispersed thru out the Empire. Which means they would have no choice but to stop practicing endogamy and seek non Zacharian mates.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Canon law doesn't forbid priests from -killing-, it forbids -murder- srictly defined).

Eg., in WW1 and WWII, French Catholic priests served in the ranks like other conscripts. And earlier, of course, there were militant religious orders like the Hospitalers and Templars, many of whom were ordained priests as well as monks.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

That must have been what I vaguely had in mind. I should have remembered the examples you listed.

Ad astra! Sean