Hermes guild was victorious in their campaign to capture a strategically crucial fortress. After that, they negotiated a truce (and the other side was in no position to refuse) to rest/repair. Hermes guild realize that by this point most of the other guilds have united against the threat Hermes poses, so they plan that the next time they go to war they won't stop till they've conquered the whole continent. As far as the evil church goes, although it's gaining power rapidly, it's still mostly in the north, and I don't think it threatens any of the countries Hermes controlls. They probably view them as one of the threats they will have to overcome to conquer the continent, but not yet as all that severe a threat. Remember, all of the most powerful countries (by far) are in the central continent.
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That's actually backwards. The evil church may have originated in the north, but now it is everywhere except the North Continent. Weed has built the influence of the church of Freya and other 'good' denominations so strongly that they could not get a foothold as a religion and his 'benevolent governance' and the cultural bonuses of Mora create constantly happy NPC citizens in all the kingdoms so there are no dissatisfied NPCs to convert to the evil church. He also encountered the North continent sect of the church in an earlier volume and completely demolished them. It is actually the central continent that is the most afflicted with the church's influence. While the Central, South, East, and West continents all have a presence of the evil church it is because of the constant war and fighting on the Central Continent due to the Hermes Guild conquest attempts the Central continent that has made it so strong in the Central continent.
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From what I can gather, the strength of the evil church is based on the amount of dissatisfaction the NPC population has with the way the game is run. Constant warfare and oppressive policies and taxes generates a higher number of converts to the church while peace and happy citizens reject the church. There also seems to be a snowball effect so if the church is successful in their attacks the conversion rate is increased, and if they are repelled the conversion rate decreases. When Weed smashed three of the church's forces with catastrophes he reduced the conversion rate of NPCs to the church by 3.5% From what is chanted by them, it seems the common thread they have is to destroy the established order and restore things back to the way they were. Their rise and emergence also coincides with when PCs started to take political power in Royal Road so you could say it is the game system's measure of rebellion against player rule. The more oppressive the players are to the NPCs, the stronger the evil church that appears and attacks them. If the players do not mount an effective defense against the church, their influence grows and subsequent attacks are stronger.
It was even mentioned in passing that the attack on Rojam would've failed if players succeeded in the quest warning the kingdom in time and people on the Central continent weren't preoccupied with all the guild wars instigated by the Hermes guild.
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Fair enough. When I said they were stronger in the north, I didn't actually mean the far North, where Weed is becoming the dominent influence, but rather what was considered "north" before Mora was established, such as Rosenheim kingdom. Basically, the things between the core of the Central continent and the North. As far as Hermes goes, though, from what I can tell they keep the territories they rule orderly enough, and defend them strongly enough, that the evil church hasn't been able to make much headway in their territory, so they don't view it as much of a threat, and probably view it as useful to weaken their opponents.
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ray bard had a nightmare wer weed destroyed hermes guild and kept killing him until he dropped all his items
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