Corruption
The Elene Church is primarily a representation of the Roman Catholic Church before the Counter-Reformation. Annias is corrupt and would do anything to get the Archprelate's throne. He has received gold from Otha, King of Zemoch, to buy votes in the election. Many of the Patriarchs' votes are for sale, and even the ones who aren't can be extremely devious.
Also, it is mentioned that the dungeons beneath the Basilica are horrible - no-one has come out of them alive, according to Baron Harparin. There are instruments of torture in them, and this is most likely a reference to the Inquisition, when heretics were tortured and killed by the Roman Catholic Church.
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Famous quotes containing the word corruption:
“Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
“She saw in the rainbow the earth’s new architecture, the old, brittle corruption of houses and factories swept away, the world built up in a living fabric of Truth, fitting to the over-arching heaven.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism, not on the basis of preserving Catholic doctrine or preventing the corruption of her children, but simply to ward off threats to her own security and influence.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)