What does it take to get you to comprehend the point I am making? It does not matter what the AS think, it matters what Morgase thinks! It is Morgase's appointment, NOT the Tower's! Elaida got to Morgase. This does not matter to the Tower, but it does to Morgase. Yet you persist in assuming the Tower is behind her position in Morgase's household. You are arguing from the results, not the process, and in doing so, making false assumptions about the process.

It is not a diplomatic post! She is not representing the Tower in an official capacity, she is advising Morgase as a member of her court. She might be the de facto ambassador, but she is not the official one, and she does not need to negotiate, because she is operating through her relationship with Morgase. It would be highly inappropriate for an ambassador officially and formally in service to a foreign power to sit alongside the queen at an audience. She was not there as an ambassador, but as an adviser of the queen, in the same capacity as Gareth Bryne. She was there because Morgase trusted her advice. She's no more the ambassador from the Tower than Henry Kissinger was the ambassador to the US from Germany.

And when have Elaida's diplomatic skills been shown to be lacking anyway? She has never been seen to attempt to function as a diplomat, only an adviser and administrator.

They did NOT pick her for the task, Morgase did.


There would never have been a challenge if she represented any legitimate authority. She was appointed by a dissident faction that was raising armed rebellion against the Tower at the worst possible time. There was no challenge to Toveine until the whole thing fell apart. None of the stronger sisters who came from Salidar with her EVER challenged her authority, just women who lacked any loyalty to the fake Hall.

Kiruna and Bera are described as "at least as strong as Masuri or Faeldrin or Rafela". None of them said anything until Merana let the embassy fall apart with her own lack of confidence in her authority, and knuckled under to Kiruna & Bera. So was she put in charge of three stronger women? All of the same stuff applies to them. The difference was the lack of official authority over Kiruna & Bera. Official authority trumps strength, AND strength is not a criterion in determining the former.