Why should you care about the 90% of the church who don't care what the elders say? So that they actually listen to the elders. Thats like saying "Why should I care about the opinions of the people not voting for me in an election?". SA is eager to kick people out of the church and silence everyone, but doesn't care for discussion or actually involving the church in a crusade. Some people are a little crazy in what could have been done, but certainly more could have been done than was with priests.
90%? Really? Want to write up a list of those PRO-Niselur and those Anti-Niselur? 'cause I can't see it being 90%. After all, Consuls are elected, and not a single consul (or elder) voted against the Holy Inquisition.
As for "why would I care about the opinions of the people not voting for me in an election", well, that's pretty obvious. Because they didn't put you in power, and you don't need them to get in power again. Constantly courting those who are against you is a great way of alienating those who are actually for you.
SA isn't eager to kick people out. The war has been going on for a LONG time. The Church had declared a crusade against it LONG ago. Yet it let everyone be. It just now came to a breaking point where the elders had to act in order to respect the Charter and protect the foundations of the Church. Alaster, by the way, isn't an elder.
The problem with SA are the elders, simply because of the fact that the majority of the discussions is kept private and then the members are just told what to do. If you want an involved church, involve the members more. If you want discussion in the church, you actually have to start it and add fuel to it. Almost none of the elders spoke in discussions in members in the past and now you are creating an unnecessarily conflict to hide your, and I will say it nicely, "laziness". Niselur could have easily rejoined the church and Astrum got have gotten their old borders back, if the elders would have been more pro-active.
And for me this situation is annoying really, wanted to spend my time building up a better realm, instead my time is being spend on giving some other nobles attention.
"Oh no, I'm trying to build my power by attacking someone, and they decided not to let themselves be bullied! How dare they distract me!"
It amazes me how anyone in Niselur can seriously claim that the Church is, in any way, the instigator. Literally everything that could have been done to piss off the Church was done.
Secrecy is what is killing most realms or the game really. To keep people interested you have to share most of what is going on, you don't have to copy all letters but you certainly can involve people a lot more then just say "do this, do that" and that's it.
Says you. A large part of the faith is made up of nobles that don't even want to hear any discussion and are intentionally holding aspirant ranks. A lot of realms are decaying, and a lot of them aren't secretive, while a lot of those who are are losing just as many people that are "in the know" than those who aren't. The elders don't refuse to talk to the full members, it's the full members that rarely say anything worth replying to. And there has been a LOT of public talk over the months that preceded this decision. It really doesn't come out of the blue.
