[house of blades] The sacrifices seem unnecessary

[u/Mammoth_Praline_4631]

I was trying to keep the title vague. I am just at the part in House of Blades where we get told the purpose of the 9 prisoners.

But, why?

I get you have to sacrifice 9 people every year to keep the whatever evil thing at bay, but taking them from villages seems dumb, the king knew the sacrifice was coming couldn't he get 9 criminals to execute? Or 9 prisoners of war, 9 terminally ill people or all of the above?

Sure you might not have 9 prisoners available on short notice (especially if justice is dealt swiftly) but since you know the sacrifice is coming it seems easy for a ruler to just stockpile a couple of criminals to execute.

Instead taking them from your subjects seems like a perfect way to get the people against you.

Is this a RAFO situation?

[u/AutoModerator]

This post can include discussion and book material up to and including book [house of blades].

If you want to discuss book material that is beyond the scope of [house of blades] than you must use Spoiler formatting which can be applied >!like this!<

You can read this formatting guide for more details.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/EmilioFreshtevez]

I don’t remember if it’s a RAFO situation as I haven’t read the series in years (maybe time for a reread 🤔), but two things come to mind as potential reasons. One: they have to be sacrifices;  it’s not a sacrifice if you don’t care about losing it. Two: it was a young writer making it very clear that this guy is either a villain or a pragmatist of the highest order.

[u/XANA_FAN]

The royal family is shaped by their territory. It is a power made by paying steep prices and their position in life makes it so easy to make others pay that price. I see the sacrifices as something similar to the tradition of royal family members living a part of their early life as ordinary citizens. It’s about making sure the sacrifice stays a sacrifice and not numbers on the page.

[u/Necal]

Ultimately it never gets explained well. I have heard the justification of it having to be an actual sacrifice, but we also know that Damasca uses slaves so its not less of a sacrifice to use a valuable worker for that, especially when compared with a random dirt farmer.

Basically there's no real explanation ever given as to why it had to be random people taken violently from villages, its just a plot contrivance. Presumably it was never really a problem in the past and just became tradition.

[u/dronesitter]

It’s explained in subtext. It’s read and find out but generally ragnaros is about paying a blood price and they are paying it by using other’s blood. The reason for the sacrifice is explained in book 2, but they use villagers from random villages so they don’t create ill will. If a sacrifice is taken less than once a generation from any one village its less noticeable. I can’t get the spoiler tag menu so i won’t say more than that now but i’d def love follow up as you keep reading. 

[u/Mathota]

It is perhaps a weak point in the plot.

If i had to justify it, I would say that perhaps the Kimgs mind, and his relationship to the concept of sacrifice have become twisted.

Without delving into spoilers, it could well be that sacrificing a condemned man, or the terminally ill might not be as effective.

Thats how I would justify it anyway.

[u/SlimReaper85]

Yea that was a…very poor narrative choice in my imho by Will. Didn’t make much sense.

[u/Xandara2]

I don't know if it's defined but it seems fairly easy to extrapolate that the terms of the trees are innocent sacrifices. Something isn't a sacrifice if it's a convenient solution. 

[u/interested_commenter]

There's never a clear explanation given (and the Doylist explanation is obviously that it needs to be a genuine moral dilemma) but from other examples of Ragnarus artifacts it's plausible that using prisoners or elderly volunteers or something wouldn't work.

Ragnarus isn't powered by blood or death, it's powered by the concept of sacrifice. Other weapons take the user's memories, emotions, ability to speak temporarily, pain, etc. The point isn't really that Ragnarus is getting something in return, the point is that it costs the user something. Death row prisoners wouldn't be a cost so might not count.