its me again with the ffxiv worms and i need to put this somewhere down outside of my brain
okay so. walk with me. house fortemps is one of the four high noble houses in ishgard. each of the houses "specializes" in something; haillenarte does weapos/gear, dzemael does construction/fortification, durendaire raises the strongest soldiers/dragoons. and house fortemps' focus is that they deal with outsiders as diplomats
house haillenarte is accused of heresy for flopping and losing two of their vigils, confirming that not even nobles are exempt from the power the church holds. everyone has adapted the holy see's traditions and mentality in one way or another, subconsciously or not, either bc it profits them or bc they believe in it wholeheartedly, etc etc. its this dogma abt how Outsiders = Bad. Dragons = Bad
so how can house fortemps hold so much political sway and power when their main focus is basically useless, on account of ishgard having zero relations with neighbour nations?
i know they have this other thing about being kind of a jack of all trades house that helps around when needed. they hire adventurers and sellswords, and they kinda act like sellswords that Do Good Things for and with the rest of houses. it makes sense. artoirel got back dzemael darkhold from the garleans in 1.0. and then in heavensward you get to see artoirel in falcon's nest (durendaire/dzemael) and emmanellain in camp cloudtop (haillenarte). i think its also mentioned that they have a lot of money, which obviously helps when you need to mingle with nobles and network and shit
but that got me thinking about how no other ishgardian noble house deals in trade? none of the four high houses does, at least not until the firmament starts being worked on. and house fortemps is in the PERFECT position to do so since their territory is coerthas central highlands which connects to mor dhona and the black shroud. the guys guarding the entry point to ishgard can also easily smuggle anything and anyone in the country
but then i remembered! the botanist questline has an entire thing about introducing new crops to coerthas, and some fucking priest and his son show up to enact an obscure policy about how food that isn't native to ishgard isn't allowed! because of religion!
this is an easy enough thing to work around, ofc. if nobles benefit so much from secret smuggling, house fortemps could enjoy a little bit of immunity, especially if everyone partakes and benefits from it. the tennants that hold ishgard together are already faulty and corrupt so this wouldnt be too much of an issue. BUT THEN! I SAW! THAT IT WAS HOUSE DZEMAEL WHO TIPPED THE VAULT! ABOUT THE NEW CROPS! WHICH HOUSE HAILLENARTE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR! BECAUSE THEY OVERSEE CAMP CLOUDTOP!
the transcript of the botanist's mission ("Seeds Know No Borders")
so that got me thinking even deeper about the politics of ishgard!
on one hand, there is the implication that house dzemael is working against house haillenarte in a way that goes beyond their usual noble house rivalry--which is fucking crazy because dzemael owns to this day a Literal Voidsent Den in dzemael darkhold. but on the other hand! house dzemael has Ser Grinnaux! known member of the heaven's ward! his family has already bought the silence of many despite his crimes! and his connection to the holy see would most likely affect the way house dzemael runs
given the lengths that the holy see will go to cover the truth about noble bloodlines in ishgard--NAMELY the fact that all of ishgardian society can be destroyed if knowledge comes out about how thordan and his knights ate ratatoskr's eyes--it makes sense to me that they would have a policy that FORBIDS the consumption of ANYTHING that isnt vetoed safe by the church! because there is the small chance of heretics smuggling dragon blood into food or water! thus turning everyone into a dragon! and revealing the truth about ishgard's part in further extending the dragonsong war!
and if i go further, it makes sense to me that the holy see would target house haillenarte first through any means possible. its the weakest link of the four noble houses after everything that happened to it AND it is most likely incredibly difficult to make them completely loyal and blind to the church given their bond with house fortemps! by getting rid of house haillenarte, you make house fortemps lose support by default! and this makes sense! bc edmont is one of the very few people who actively fought for the opening of borders in coerthas (the other one being count durendaire, who considered edmont a rival in politics, but he stoped advocating for this after his son's "death") he holds a lot of political power! and you dont want the guy protecting the entrance to the city to have more power and independence!
