abstract
| - When a spacefaring humanity discovered evidence that a hostile alien race was likely to try and annihilate them, they spent the next ten years preparing for the inevitable battle. It wasn't enough. After fighting a losing war for 40 years and in the face of extinction, the human race played a last desperate gamble. They secreted a fleet away to terraform and colonize a new homeworld and prepare for Round Two. To remain hidden long enough to make sure the Gbaba wouldn't find them, those in charge of Operation Ark decided that on this new world, humanity would abandon its technology so the Gbaba couldn't track them down by their emissions. That's when the real trouble began. Eric Langhorne and Adorée Bédard, the Chief Administrator and Psychiatrist of Operation Ark, felt that it was humanity's technological hubris that had led to their destruction. In order to preserve humanity and prevent them from ever reinventing advanced technology, Langhorne and Bédard secretly brainwashed all of the colonists into thinking that they were created and placed upon the world of Safehold by God, with Langhorne, Bédard, and the rest of the Operation Ark command crew named as Archangels and executors of God's will in the gospel of the Church of God Awaiting—a gospel which prescribes the most horrific punishments for innovation and invention. Outraged at the way the original mission plan had been ignored, Pei Shan-wei, Operation Ark's senior terraformer, rebelled against Langhorne, setting up her own colony and adhering to their original orders. However, Langhorne had grown accustomed to being worshipped as a demigod and couldn't afford the truth to get out, and so on his orders, Shan-wei and all her allies and chosen colonists were killed and branded as demons; Shan-wei herself became the local equivalent of Satan. But Shan-wei and her allies had feared something like this from the beginning, and laid their plans carefully. At the core of their plans is Nimue Alban. Originally a soldier who died in the war with the Gbaba, she has been resurrected via the robotic body of a Personality-Integrated Cybernetic Avatar. After emerging from a long sleep, Nimue, under the identity of Merlin Athrawes, has begun to steer Safehold's medieval culture in general, and the kingdom of Charis in particular, slowly but surely towards the improvements it needs to survive—improvements the Church of God Awaiting strictly prohibits. The Safehold series by David Weber consists of five books to date. Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distressed, A Mighty Fortress, and the most recent, How Firm a Foundation, released on September 13, 2011. Upcoming on September 18, 2012 is Midst Toil and Tribulation. Has a Wiki all its own, and a Character Sheet that Needs More Love
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