so halovar and tachonis working together isn't news, neither is the fact that both are enemies of the old path, but i think the fact that they're working together to demolish the old path has gone a little understated?
two priestly houses died with tansul in the shaper's war. the other two looked around in the last moments before their god died, and decided how important is a god, really? if you think about it, serving him is just getting in the way of our jobs - and then they carved up every last chunk of what religion used to mean on this world, and split it between them. halovar took command of the living souls, and tachonis the dead. really, the other six shapers also dying in the war just made their job easier, more market share!
halovar evangelises like they always have, but this time the salvation they're preaching isn't faith in a god, it's faith in their family. every conversion is more power for them, farther reach, more ways to gain control over their end goal of the entire world. and since their demon contracts they've been able to literally collect souls, and have been splitting those down the middle with house tachonis.
tachonis has always worked in the underworld, ferrying human souls to tansul's afterlife, but why limit themselves anymore? they don't need to just command human souls, they can grab everyone. don't need to drop them off with a dead god anymore, add them to your own power instead. no one can escape death, so as far as you're concerned, no one can escape you. and those that try, well, if you can't force them to obey you yourselves, halovar can probably grab them
the shapers did a nice job of demolishing most religions outside of their own, leaving the path so clear and open for them!
except for the one religion that survived 5000 years in secret. those who've kept their traditions against everything that tried to destroy them, who want to restore order to the world in a way that respects life, not commands it. those who can keep souls out of the hands of the houses for good, and more than that, who encourage connection with the fey, with the forgotten magical creatures and the old folk tales, everything that reminds people the shapers didn't own this world, and neither does anyone else
one of the points on primus' plan for if the deva vindicta plan succeeded, that he mentioned in the sundered house meeting, was to demolish every druidic holy site in telmora so the creed could build cathedrals there. i don't think that would have been the first time he'd done that, i think he and yanessa have already been destroying druidic holy sites wherever they can get away with it, and building places of creed worship on the rubble, just like we saw that shrine to trozhna built over an old site of worship to tehana. they're following the same playbook their god left them, because that is how they fundamentally know to conceptualise power. middle management eyeing the empty throne they used to pay fealty to and having no concept of life outside the castle walls
thaisha's had her eye on the big picture this whole campaign, because she's the one perfectly placed to notice the connection. sorcerers, playing at being gods, going after her order, because druids have a connection to this world that's survived too long to ever bow to tyrants, and that makes them the biggest threat. but she's not just a druid, she's a lloy, she knows her history. and she knows how easily a tyrant can fall
