I was planning to write a big battle for Dimitri and Linkle next, but I decided to do a non-action chapter first. The Elites will attempt to take their revenge for Gautier next chapter; for now, enjoy a chapter of politics!
Before the battle against Nemesis, the Rising Sun Company had been at most a curiosity. A few strange warriors, even ones that had the favor of Saint Seiros and Hubert of the Shadows, weren't of much interest to most of the soldiers. But after the battle against Nemesis, that had changed. Now they were the holy warriors who had scarred Nemesis.
Edelgard had mixed feelings on that change in reputation, but being seen as a great hero had its advantages. Including that people were willing to socialize with you, to talk about subjects you wanted to discuss. Though on the other hand, many of them would tend to say what you wanted to hear. Fortunately, she was decent at telling when people were lying.
When she asked about Seiros, everyone she talked to who was from Adrestia had only positive things to say, that she was a great hero, and a woman of excellent character besides. Most of the time, they were telling the truth, though a few weren't being entirely honest. Usually, when Edelgard picked apart the stories of those in the latter category, they either resented the fact that the Nabateans had chosen to face Nemesis in Fódlan rather than elsewhere (most of this group understood that it wasn't exactly a fair grudge to hold, but couldn't quite set it aside completely), or cared little for the driving forces of the conflict and only fought for Adrestia because that was where their homes happened to be.
And most of them didn't seem to see much issue with the Church of Sothis she and her family members had founded.
That alone wasn't necessarily cause for concern to Edelgard. Hubert and Mercedes hadn't stayed behind to keep Seiros from forming the Church, after all, but rather to influence the form it would ultimately take, so that it wouldn't be plagued by the flaws it had in their Fódlan.
But what Edelgard had been expecting was a Church that was less of a political organization and more of a purely religious one. It would have a powerful hold on the culture, certainly, but its power would be mostly soft power. The kind of institution that could be overstepped without violence if it came to it.
As she conversed with more people, she realized that was not what Seiros and her kin were building. If anything, the Church was built to be even more powerful in this Fódlan than hers. At least in her Fódlan, the Church was largely independent and most of the power it exercised over the three other nations was soft power, even if it was a lot of soft power. Seiros had set the Church up in this timeline to have much more hard power than in hers.
She needed to have a discussion with Seiros and Hubert.
She decided to bring Zelda with her. Hyrule's government more or less had a clean slate at the moment. Maybe she could teach her some things.
So, the four of them were inside Seiros's tent, to discuss politics. "Hubert has discussed your political theories with me," Seiros said. "I love your idea for senates of elected representatives from among the commoners being able to ratify or nullify laws passed by the nobles. It's something that doesn't make sense to implement now, but Lycaon and I are planning to establish it after the war ends."
"I'm glad you like it," Edelgard said. "But that wasn't the only aspect of my political ideas I wanted to talk about. For example, I do champion a strict separation of church and state. Perhaps you have discussed that with Hubert?"
"Yes, well, you can't be right about everything," Seiros said.
"Explain why you don't think I'm right, then," Edelgard challenged.
"It's very simple," Seiros explained. "This form of government is only effective in a society with shared values that are so universal that they are seen as unassailable, as self-evident. If that isn't the case, the values of egalitarianism are supplanted by the values of tyranny. The church is needed to uphold those values."
"If the shared values aren't self-evident enough to actually be unassailable, if they actually need to be upheld, then shouldn't they be supplanted?" Edelgard asked.
Seiros sighed. "A question only a human could ask. No. Good and Evil are absolute, fundamental truths of existence, not titles defined by the will of the people. But humanity will still continually try to redefine them, to try to turn to philosophies that define Evil as Good and Good as Evil, even seeing that doing so has never ended well. They always think that this time, it will turn out differently."
"The Most Despicable Lie," Zelda interjected. When the three turned to her, she elaborated. "It's a tenet of Hylian religious doctrine. The Most Despicable Lie states that when ideals clash, Good is used to refer to the winner and Evil to the loser, and if Evil wins, it becomes the new Good."
"And that Lie has destroyed countless civilizations over the course of history," Seiros said. "And it will destroy Fódlan, unless Good remains seen as Good, and Evil remains seen as Evil. You haven't seen civilizations fall the way I have, so you don't understand."
This was not how Edelgard intended for this conversation to go. "And you want to be the one who dictates what is Good and what is Evil?"
Seiros's eyes went from pitying to subtly angry. "I don't want this position. It ought to be Mother preserving the definitions of Good and Evil, not me. But Mother is dead. And unless you want to tell me that she has come back to life in your time..." she hesitated, and Edelgard shook her head, "...then she left a role that has to be filled by someone.
"I've seen the society humanity creates without the guiding hand of the Gods. It was insane, barbaric, sickening. Governments sent soldiers to die in wars fought not to defend their people, but to line the pockets of arms dealers. Even supposed paragons turned a blind eye to slavery for the sake of money. Expectant mothers were not only allowed but encouraged to end the lives of their children before they could even be born. Governments seeking to eradicate religions and races, and barely receiving dissent from their people. Hedonism and self-indulgence treated as good, and responsibility and honesty as evil, all so that the people would serve governments rather than the gods. Weapons that ended millions of lives in seconds, and left scars on the land that never fully healed. It was a wicked world, corrupt to its very roots. That society being burned to ash was the best thing that could have ever happened to it. Its name was Agartha, and it was the natural end point of society-wide human hubris. A nation living a lie, that chose to burn all that they could see rather than accept the truth."
"And you're any better?" Edelgard asked. "Are you saying the Nabateans are immune to evil?"
"Of course not," Seiros said. "But we learn. We have time to see the fruits of greed and hedonism for ourselves. Eventually, even a stubborn Nabatean will learn. But not humanity. There will always be more humans who want to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors."
Edelgard looked at Hubert, hoping for him to interject on her behalf. He stared back at her. "What? I know you've said immortals aren't fit to rule over mortals, but would the reverse not also be true? Can we truly expect humans to rule over Nabateans in a way that isn't harmful to them? Should they not have a say in Fódlan's future?"
Edelgard felt a chill at that. Hubert never would have taken that position before. Not on his own, and not in an argument where Edelgard was arguing the opposite.
But things had changed. She had dismissed him from being her right-hand man. Now she was starting to understand what that implied.
She took a breath to calm herself. "But humanity won't simply let you decide for them. They'll try to fight back against your decrees, and you may not be able to suppress them peacefully. How many people will you kill to keep humanity from trying to change the world?"
"As many as I have to," Seiros declared. "That world is gone. What lived on has passed it by. And I will ensure it never returns, by any means necessary."
Zelda decided now was the time to weigh in. "Seiros, this isn't sustainable. It might be in Hyrule, where divine intervention is as much a fact of life as the sunrise, but not in Fódlan. People will chafe under your authority. And not just scoundrels, but also people failed by the systems in place. No matter how much you try, you won't be able to help everyone, and they will gravitate to those who they feel can. You'll just keep making enemies."
"I know that," Seiros admitted. "But what else can I do?"
"Lead by example," Zelda suggested. "Discard the Church's political power. Let everyone see the good the Church does and the evil its enemies do. The choice should be self-evident."
Seiros shook her head. "Evil cannot tolerate Good. Its very existence undermines Evil. I would make just as many enemies without the political power. With it, the Church at least has a better chance of defending itself."
The discussion didn't go on much longer; all of those involved could sense that now was not the time. Before long, Edelgard and Zelda were walking away from the tent.
"Maybe I was right about her after all," Edelgard said. "She might think it's for our own good, but she just wants to be an overlord."
"Not exactly," Zelda said. "She's a lot like you, really. You want to destroy a society that failed you and your family. She wants to ensure a society that failed her and her family stays destroyed. And you both decided to do something that wasn't quite the right thing as a result."
Edelgard thought about that. "You could be right. Maybe that's why Hubert latched onto her. Because she reminds him of me. So what do we do? If you think she has just...lost her way, how do we get her on the right path?"
"That is the question, isn't it?" Zelda asked.
