I thought of something else! Now I am mentally fatigued.
Your story + your temple city fluff (I know it is a big kahuna, but that is still a meaningless word to me) makes me think of the concept of a "convergence" which I think I got from Stephen Erikson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series. I also got very poor and very confused over something like a five year period.
In that series, an artifact / event / vulnerable weakened god / whatever would magnetically draw plot relevant entities and a whole lot of expendable baddies to one place. If Erikson had not named it "convergence" I would have named it "convenience" (ie. plot convenience). He cleverly had a character early on say, "Eeek! A denrathi is coming along as well! There must be a convergence!" he established it as a feature of his universe. He never explained it, but it is quite low on a very long list of things he never explained. Like denrathi. I think there were two or three major battles with a denrathi and I still have no idea.
The word just means "coming together".
Esurc, you may not have noticed it but there is a monumental convergence focused on your little bit of land in the middle of the Great Ocean. Maybe they all just want to hold hands.
I appreciate the strategic importance of the location and the drivers of revenge and greed, but
something must have occurred to trigger the dominoes to fall at this time. It might be something very simple or subtle and it doesn't need to seem significant to any of your characters.
I hope you can flashback or dialogue back to whatever it was so I can better understand where events have come from.
Yes, its the "B" word again.
Botatoes Background.
