Tyene Sand's interest in the High Septon

[The Duke]

I actually think Tyene is going to be roped into the religeous fervor, and her part is going to backfire on Doran.

[Dany Girl]

I don't get the hate of the Sand Snakes at all. They seem like bad ass girls. And with how well loved their father is on this board I'm surprised to see all the hate. They haven't even had a chance to prove themselves one way or the other.

I think Tyene is going to cause a lot of problems for Cersei for one thing. She's going to try to get on the HS's good side, maybe get him to let her judge Marge, or tutor Tommen or attend to Cersei. She likes to poison so I see some people dying.

Also, I believe the HS is either a puppet of Varys or LF, so him going along with her may be in his best interest to achieve his goals.

[Pod The Impaler]

Tyene seems to have more internal discipline than either Obara or Nym. As such, I can see her playing the obedient and charming young septa perfectly. Maybe the High Sparrow would not trust her (after all, he likes to keep the hard-bitten older ones around him), but he might make her one of those watching Margaery or Cersei. From there she could learn much, and commit much mischief.

Makes me wonder who even knows her - chances are Varys would know something about all the Sand Snakes.

She might be in league with him.

I actually think Tyene is going to be roped into the religeous fervor, and her part is going to backfire on Doran.

Would be a funny development. A pious poisoner.

[direwienerdog]

ADWD revealed that Tyene was tasked with establishing a relation with the Sparrows that could be used to benefit Dorne's goals. She is said to give off the aura of a Septa and plans to try to influence the High Septon. What all might she do on her mission to advance the Martell cause? Since it seems extremely likely that Doran is going to declare Dorne for Aegon, the following analysis will be based upon that. Doran dying would also not fundamentally change the nature of Dorne's goals; if anything support for a militantly pro-Aegon, anti-Tyrell/Lannister approach would be inflamed.

One possibility that has often been discussed is that Tyene will try to convince the Faith Militant to accept her as one of the judges for the trial of Margaery Tyrell, perhaps as a false maiden. The case against Margaery is weak and based heavily on fabricated confessions extracted through coercion and torture. However, there is a possibility that a sufficient number of judges who do not care about the truth will be appointed to enable a convinction. Tyene and others may simply view the trial as a tool to damage the enemy alliance and decide to support a guilty verdict in advance. More than almost anything other single action, getting the High Septon to act against Margaery would inflict maximum damage and confusion amongst the Tyrell/Lannister leadership.

Other actions Tyene Sand may take: Convince the High Septon that Aegon was delivered to Westeros as a true king and shining champion to "cleanse Westeros of evil." The HS appears to realize that the incest pertaining to Cersei is true, but he has been lacking an acceptable alternative to first Joffrey and now Tommen. His answer could lie with Aegon. Perhaps Tyene will urge the High Septon to offer the help of both military orders to Aegon if, as king, he agrees to assist the Faith Militant against its enemies. Most of its enemies happen to be Aegon's as well. The biggest problem for Aegon is that this would cause him problems in areas where R'hllor is believed in as well as create antagonism with the North and Iron Isles. The HS's approval would help a lot against the Tyrells, though, should they continue to support the Margaery/Tommen combination.

If the Sand Snakes discover the truth about UnGregor they will definitely want the High Septon to hear of that. The HS would rise up against the Lannisters upon learning that Cersei/Qyburn are using a corpse animated by dark magic. Qyburn's Area 51 will be something that the Faith Militant will view as particularly loathsome. Resorting to necromancing would probably be a worse offense in his view that simply following another religion.

Will be very interesting to see what Varys thinks of this High Septon as well. Varys may also continue his assassination campaigns.

Whether Jaqen could have assassinated a High Septon, due to the renounciation of the use of personal names by holders of that office, would also have been interesting to know.

Varys will takeout Qyburn unless he can get qyburn to work for him. Idk if Qyburnwill go for it.

Varys know all the secret passages in the castles and can watch and learn Quayurn plans.

[The Sunset King]

You do realize we've had at least three High Septons in the ASOFAI timeline? The first one was some fat dude who got ripped apart by an angry mob. The second some old dude Tyrion chose. Third one wasn't chosen (or in the pockets) of any high nob. He was chosen, it seems, by the Poor Fellows or Sparrows, which induced Moonboy to quip that the current one is the High Sparrow. Ever since elected he's pretty much proved to be a player in the Game. Hopefully we'll find out who he was before he became a Sparrow but that isn't likely I suppose.

The High Sparrow wasn't arround when Joff was crowned IIRC. Or even when Tommen was crowned IIRC.

At any rate something tells me we'll hear a lot more from mr. High Sparrow next novel.

Yes, I realize that there have been at least three and took that into account when creating the thread. Will rephrase the part about Joffrey/Tommen into something that more closely approximates what I meant to imply in that post.

I suspect the High Sparrow just might ending up supporting Aegon (ironically, as the HS will no doubt shame the Lannisters for putting an abomination on the throne, yet Aegon isn't who he says he is either). If so Varys won't kill him. At any rate the HS is doing a decent job in creating chaos in KL. Not since LF has Varys had such a good buddy to work with.

I agree that the present HS is a massive boon to Varys and has a very decent probability of backing Aegon. I suspect he will not realize the truth about Aegon's identity, instead buying into the propaganda (in part generated by Varys) that this is the legtimate Targaryen heir returned back to save Westeros. Possibly the Prince that was Promised myth that Rheagar believed about the real Aegon will also be brought into play to further create a hype about the religious nature of Aegon's mission.

Setting aside the problem of whether Aegon is authentic or not, he represents essentially the only current claimant that the High Septon can seriously support. Stannis would have been option but is deemed irrevocably compromised by Melisandre.

Mutual foes of Varys and the HS may remain at risk of assassination by the spider, or possibly by the spider in conjunction with the Sand Snakes.

[The Sunset King]

I would say that the Westeros's present situation is unusually propitious for some level of challenge to the power of the nobility to emerge. Of course, the aristocracy will not disappear and there are limits to how much diminishment it can experience by the end of the series, yet several factors are in favor of alternate social forces acquiring power at its expense.

One sign of this is that the suppression efforts against the BWB have been going quite poorly. This is in part due to hatred of the BWB's opponents, however, there are other reasons as well.

Another case is found in the present potential of the Faith Militant versus its past record.

In the past, at least during the reign of the Targaryens, religious resistance to political power faced far more a unified and determined political system. This was the case during the Faith Militant uprisings which occurred during that dynasty's rule. There resultantly was less incentive for nobles of various levels of power to risk associating with it. However, now the scene is much more fragmented and the space for stirring up a climate of hysteria is massively increasing. Given that this is a premodern society, aspiring kings and noble elites have much to gain by hammering away at opponents on the theme of being true believers vs fighting faithless opponents. Thus, the wave of religious revivalism has a strong potential to keep gaining momentum. The longer that the High Septon and the sparrows can keep building up their networks without heavy resistance, the more likely it is that political powers will be forced to work with, rather than against, them. Confirmations of necromancy and the like will only exacerbate the desire to setup an inquisition-like approach to eradicating such forces.

It is a technique that is used repeatedly in basically all political systems under a variety of guises but is particularly effective when it is centered around an enormously powerful force like religion.