Sarisa I agree. There should be a reason for Scions success. I just don’t get it after ⅔ of the book. Scion is not run by Rephs. Even if they tell the leaders what to do, Rephs have not shown their superpower in warefare. Otherwise Rephs would be known to the world.
Sorry I come up with the voyants effect on warefare so often, but I cannot imagen still free USA watching in silence while Europe gets together under a fanatic leadership like Scion. They would definitely send troops to those countrys who seek help to protect their freedom. And the free Europe would team up against Scion. Sweden, GB and France are part of Scion. But there must surely be an opposition. We have seen that in WW1 and WW2. Those event did not happen in that fictional world, but the treatment of voyant resemble the antisemetism in WW2 and there was an opposition. Scion would have trouble with partisan fighters and wars. The big cities would not be save.
As for the numbers in Sheol 1: I fear there is no good explanation. Just as there ist no good explanation why Bone Season is only every 10 years. I imagen a person who has been imprisoned and isolatet for 9 years will be mentaly very unstable (unpredictable) and physically weak. Just look at the mental strain Corona self-isolation had on many people. But never mind. For plot convenience I go along with a Bone Season every decade.
A supply of new recruits every year would make more sense. Those Buzzers seem to be pretty nasty opponents. Even if something terrible happend, you would stock up your human workforce drastically after a catastroph. But the numbers the book suggest is just laughable and an insult to intelligent readers. I get it: The world is so overcomplicated that readers feel overwhelmed, but the logistic and basic numbers don’t add up.
Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect everything to make perfect sense, I just cannot get over basic faults like how a penal colony works, or don’t for this matter. The more I try to understand the worldbuilding, the more it falls flat.
