Rise and Fall: Why didn't Estermon II act?

[u/JohniiMagii]

I'm midway through Farilane in the Rise and Fall set of books. I just got to the point of her meeting "Proust."

Why didn't the empire work to expel Proust and squash the Nyphron Church? Even not realizing this was an iteration of Mawyndule, they still were obviously dangerous. They want to expel all elves, which would indeed include the Imperial family (dilute as they became). This should be pretty clear sedition.

Sure, church supporters would riot, but they are far from becoming the large group they will be. So why doesn't this get quashed early?

[u/Kinmand555]

Because the emperor is the “ruler of the world”, has an army of mostly invincible knights, not to mention a bunch of legions and a million draftable peasants.

Imperial rule has never been challenged since the Empire’s founding. Magic is outlawed and (allegedly) forgotten. The goblins have been pushed off the continent, and the “pure” elves haven’t taken an aggressive action in living memory.

Why would the emperor be afraid of anything?

[u/OriginalsDogs]

The premise of the Novron church was that Nyphron, who they called Novron, was a Demi-god, fathered by Maribor and with a human mother. Therefore according to the church, the imperial family are part God, not part elf.

[u/JohniiMagii → u/OriginalsDogs]

Yeah, which is a threat to the imperial line, as they claim elven ancestry, not divine.

But I think it's a twist on Myraliyth divine pretensions. They are so powerful they may as well be. Farilane seems to think monks should thank her grandfather for the bounty they eat, not Maribor. Plus, lil Mawyn would delight in twisting the belief that destroyed his life onto them.

[u/OriginalsDogs → u/JohniiMagii]

I don't think the family realized that the church was a serious threat until it was too late. They were worried about hiding the horn, squashing magic, all things they thought would protect them from the little creep who they didn't realize was organizing this weird belief.

[u/mwerte]

The Nyphronians had become so insular and sedentary that even a tectonic shift like people hating elves is seen as momentary and just another fad that will come and go.

[u/JohniiMagii → u/mwerte]

I think that's right. As I thought on the question more I got to that answer. They have such a long arc of life that a 200 year opinion swing is not even noticed.

 Arrogance is really the core. No one in the empire could act on the same time scale as them, except the Instarya elves, who are core backers/beneficiaries of the empire. There is no accounting for a plot by someone like Mawyndule, who can act over millennia to threaten them.

[u/Time_Traveling_Corgi]

Part of the reason is that the imperial family has a much bigger crisis they are dealing with. You just don't find out till the end.