How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph.)
Quote #1
He knew what it meant: the ship had kept to timetable: he was abandoned. He felt an unwilling hatred of the child ahead of him and the sick woman—he was unworthy of what he carried. (1.1.125)
The priest isn't just a little vexed; he's infuriated. He's mad as Hello Kitty's evil twin and…he's…just going to keep taking it. We're introduced to the priest as a man who will grudgingly make a sacrifice, despise the people he's sacrificing for, but go along because that's what he's been doing. Not exactly magnanimity.
Quote #2
Something you could almost have called horror moved him when he looked at the white muslin dresses—he remembered the smell of incense in the churches of his boyhood, the candles and the laciness and the self-esteem, the immense demands made from the altar steps by men who didn't know the meaning of sacrifice. (1.2.24)
The lieutenant has some deep wounds. We don't know exactly what happened to him as a child, but we're sure it's left him jaded. And as we learn from the old lifestyle of the priest—full of pomp and circumstance and unearned deference—the lieutenant's assessment has some merit, even if his actions do not.
Quote #3
It seemed to him like a weakness: this was his own land, and he would have walled it in if he could with steel until he had eradicated from it everything which reminded him of how it had once appeared to a miserable child. He wanted to destroy everything: to be alone without any memories at all. Life began five years ago. (1.2.49)
The lieutenant is something of a tragic figure. He could only find purpose once he was in a position to suppress the Church he grew to loathe, and his purpose is as fantastic as he deems the promises of heaven. In his heart, he's a Final Fantasy villain. In reality, he's just a man.