What do you think prompted the Triarchs of Volantis to permit the construction of a massive Temple of Rh’llor right outside the Black Walls and the creation of a religious militia wholly responsible to the priest of said temple? Even if the anti-slavery angle is a new one for the Red Priests, arming the Faithful like that seems like a very bad idea.

Well, as I said in my essay, Volantis is a particularly unstable slave society desperately trying to keep ahead of the ball, and that’s especially true with R’hllorism. 

The problem with R’hllorism is A. it’s too popular to destroy (half their slave soldiers worship the Red God, so even a radical reactionary like Malaquo knows that he doesn’t have the internal resources to pull it off), B. it’s not their religion, so they can’t dominate the hierarchy and re-fashion practice or doctrine into pro-slavery messages, and C. it’s an institution that crosses too many boundaries of nation and caste to be cowed by the hegemony of the Old Blood of Volantis. 

So consider their options? They say no to having the Temple built by the Black Walls – the High Priest has it built over in the Shadow City, and now it’s far less under their influence and a de-facto alternate government HQ. They say no to a religious militia – the High Priest tells the faithful that “all those who die fighting in [the] cause shall be reborn,” and now the Old Blood are fighting a religious civil war against the better part of five-sixths of their population, with an army whose loyalties they cannot trust.