The thing about ishgards social structure that gets lost sometimes is that the clergy are their own class. Its not just a job you have. Its not being really intense about faith. Faith isn’t required at all. Its a strict social boundary.
Pre-revolutionary france had what they called the three estates, first is the clergy, then the nobles, then the commoners. Not just financially seperate, they are an entirely different political group. While ishgard doesn’t seem to have monastic orders in the same way (monks and nuns sequestered away from society), but it doesn’t matter because some of ishgards clergy and the inquisition at the least can get married.
I cannot overstate the significance of that. You now have entire families that are solely within the clergy. You would have dynasties. Legacies. The Inheritance of money and power solely within the church. They are not taxed. They are paid by the holy see and by tithe to the church. You’re getting 15th century Vatican hijinks with rampant nepotism and money hoarding and cutthroat politics completely seperate to the rest of society.
Which means that Aymeric’s reforms, removing the archbishop and instituting a house of lords and a house of commons, isn’t just including a previously excluded class in the govt, its explicitly excluding another class.
For this to be even slightly successful long term there needs to be a dissolution of the clergy as a class. Which can happen, but the two houses of governance means that social class is now enshrined in law. And they’re not making new nobles.
No wonder there are assassination attempts.
