Ah, here comes the Rudolf Hess Problem again.Sareth wrote:Yes, *you* wouldn't, and most of us readers, having the inside story, would understand her motivations as being trying to *save* the elves, not *betray* them. Even if it means turning against their rules to do it.runic wrote:i wouldn't see that as betrayal. most of us can see the fricking incredible potential downside to disturbing another elven demigod. sarine is just another example of the road to hell being paved with good intentionsItterind wrote:Sarine shouldn't keep betraying her people if she isn't emotionally ready to kill her old friends/ex-friends/beloved aquaintances.
However, *we* have that inside story. The elves do not have it, and Sarine doesn't even have some of what we have. From their perspective, Sarine has taken their secret plans to restore their former glory and possibly restore their virility as well, turned it over to a potentially hostile nation (that may or may not include half-elf blood in it), and then, as if setting a foreign nation in opposition to their plans isn't enough, has taken up arms directly against them in an effort to stop them.
Betrayal *is* the word...
Turn this around for a minute. Suppose Sarine had gone to Praenubilus Astu, knowing exactly the same things that she knew, and decided NOT to try to stop the elves from awakening Senilis -- in the full knowledge that that inaction had a very good chance of leading to the extinction of the elves. Or instead, that she had gone there and done everything that she did there, then taken Meji back to Tsuirakushiti, said "Screw this, I've done everything I can, I'm going to run off to the Anuban Colonies with my human love slave," and left the elves to their fate. (Which, btw, is about what the elves expected her to do, and perhaps, ordered her to do.)
So which of the three possible paths constitutes "betrayal"?