Iirc, Belt, Eltan, Silvershield, and the mage were more or less counterbalances. Sarevok would be very restricted by the remaining 2 Dukes, so he needed them gone. I asdume he was planning to blame their deaths on Amn, giving him even more freedom to attack. He wasn't concerned with winning outright, but Amn was already at war, and not winning it, so it wasn't doomed to failure.
Iirc, Belt, Eltan, Silvershield, and the mage were more or less counterbalances. Sarevok would be very restricted by the remaining 2 Dukes, so he needed them gone. I asdume he was planning to blame their deaths on Amn, giving him even more freedom to attack. He wasn't concerned with winning outright, but Amn was already at war, and not winning it, so it wasn't doomed to failure.
Right, but killing them publicly was needlessly risky. My point was that it would have been better to do it in private, where the Dukes would be separate and not surrounded by Flaming Fist. If they could be caught without weapons, that would also be nice.
Killing them privately wouldn't have been as dramatic or have as much of a "Holy shit they are striking at us in the very heart of our city in everybody's view during our effing coronation ceremony and not even our Dukes are safe and only Sarevok is strong enough to protect us and we need to take revenge on the Ambush for this savaging of our national pride and because it is the only way for us to be safe from them we need to strike now before it is too late holy shit guys" factor. He wants to tip the already angry and paranoid and feeling under thread (at, of and from Amn) BG populace over the edge to a full on raging warboner. It needs to be visual enough that nobody can doubt the "under attack" narrative because like everybody would have had at least one friend or acquaintance that was there and saw it with their own eyes.
Hmm. All of that said, I'm kind of baffled as to why Sarevok insisted on making a scene of killing Liia and Belt. Could he not have slit their throats in the night and replaced them with Doppelgangers as well? Granted, they're pretty tough, but killing them would surely be easier when they're not surrounded by Flaming Fist and in range to support each other. I feel like that was his ego running away with him, honestly. Just doesn't make a lot of sense in comparison to his other plans.
Because there had already been rumors about doppelgangers, and there would be no way to link it back to him. I got the idea that the plan was for him to kill them after Belt and Liia had died, saving the day.
For whose benefit, though? The Flaming Fist? They're the only non-cronies left in the room, and they were all too easily corrupted by the existing chain of command. There's literally no one left to impress at that point.
You don't think word would spread with so many people in the building? Guards, Flaming fist, Cooks, other noblses and so on. Word will come out on the street, and when that word is the two dukes have died but Sarevok came in to kill the assassins, he'll get even more praise. The people already love him, this would only improve his image.
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