Talk:The Great Burning/@comment-192.0.189.206-20160309002826

I'm sure many of us have speculated that a Marked one was behind the Burning cult: in a pre-industrial era, anti-magic/pro-technology groups like the Abbey of the Everyman could not have been formed. People want to serve powerful leaders who can protect them. In an age before guns and grenades, magic would be the ultimate power.

However, I was thinking: how can (a) maked one(s) form such a formidable army? Having supernatural powers makes an individual powerful, but what about the rest of their army? An individual, no matter how gifted, can only do so much. Then I remembered: Arcane Bond. Not only would the Marked one possess powers, but the rest of their followers would as well. Without industrial technology to counter their powers, they would have had a significant edge in combat (imagine the Whalers engaging in open warfare on the city). Even if only a fraction of the army developed powers (Daud mentioned this peculiarity in his journal),  10 000 followers x 25% gain powers = 2 500 people with powers. Even if the percentage is much lower (5% - 10%), applying it to any large group of people (100 000 or even 1 000 000) would result in a large number of powered individuals. Such an army would be unstoppable. The Empire's lucky that Daud's not too greedy.

This brought me to an interesting thought: what would have happened to the Empire if Delilah suceeded? Would we have a repeat of the Great Burning on a worldwide scale? And if it took Daud to defeat Delilah, was it another Marked one who stopped the Great Burning?