User blog comment:X-Machinist-X/Dishonored random stuff/@comment-17194369-20151012171427/@comment-16533050-20151015170709

@ Ox

There are several reasons for the Holy Texts to be present:

1) The Abbey was fighting the Retification War at the time, and the Abbey itself was newly constructed. The Overseers were only just becoming the unifying force they are now; if a large part of your army is going off to fight an enemy, why WOULDN'T you keep your most treasured artifacts with the biggest group of soldiers?

2) As you stated, it WAS a siege, meaning the army would be outside the enemies defenses. Most often these are in non-permanent encampments in trying conditions. Morale slips quickly, especially when your faith is in your fellow man, as opposed to a deity of some sort.

To keep up the spirits of their followers, I would totally see the High Overseer and the Vice Overseers reading passages and holding daily sermons - and what better text to read from than your holiest book, the very SYMBOL of why you are fighting these heretics?

3) Who is to say the tome wasn't already there? Perhaps being transferred en route to the new Abbey in Dunwall, or even more insidious: what if the holy text was stolen by insurgents eager to destroy the growing power and influence of the Overseers?

It was a war after all, and there had to be 'evil' acts by the cultists that needed 'rectifying'. Perhaps the theft of the blessed tomes of the Abbey was one such crime. I wouldn't be surprised to see the cult organizing a ceremony wherein to honor their mysterious deity, they would be willing to sacrifice their greatest enemy's most important artifact.

And good ol' valiant John Breton was the Overseer who braved these conditions and snatched the blessed book from the licking flames of the cult's sacrificial fire. ;)