Ok I am slightly more coherent about this update. Slightly. But honestly one of the biggest tragedies of Silent Salt's backstory to me is the fact that he was almost doomed to fail, just from the system he had set up in his lands.
There is no denying his noble mindset and heroic actions, of course. He was probably the most benevolent of the virtues, taking the values and power he was bestowed with to heart. He welcomed the "downtrodden" into his open arms regardless of who they were, and gave them a space to reside while the Kala Namak knights did everything they could to provide for them. He made sure his knights protected his fellow Virtues and their lands, he worked with Elder Faerie to ready the world for when new Virtues could serve cookiekind, and he never used the position of authority he had with only himself in mind. He and his knights were, in an informal sense, the custodians to the inevitable tensions that are bound to arise within societies.
But that's the issue in itself. They fixed things, but they couldn't prevent them. There was no system put in place to give the people of The Great Barren consistent resources (food, medicine, even undamaged clothing), there was nothing done to permanently stop the power grabs in the other Virtues' domains (such as ending the bloodlust in the spice lands, giving the hungry a free source of food in Shadow Milk's domain, etc), hell there wasn't even a system in place to make sure the other Virtues weren't having any issues with their duties before their corruption. And I'm not saying that all these chores are solely Silent Salt's responsibility, but he and his knights were the only cookies that cared enough to do anything. They were the only ones to address the issues of Beast-Yeast, but you can't fix gaping wounds with a new band-aid every time the blood flow quickens.
Not to mention that the knights of Kala Namak were already stretched thin enough as is. Was anyone other than the calm knight (the one who did the trials) guarding the Great Barren, or could they only spare for one knight to consistently guard the poor cookies they took in? One of the first cutscenes we see with the happy and cheery knights are them bemoaning about how much time they barely spend in their own lands before they're off on another mission. Was it just a nap and then duty once more? They were stretched so thin, going across an entire continent to help all the downtrodden, coming back with only just enough resources to get by for themselves and their people (and not even replenishing resources, this was a never-ending task of survival), of course they were going to slip up. Of course they couldn't protect everyone from a destructive hand, or untwist a lie to find a truth, or prevent every bandit from invading the Ivory Pagoda, or stop cookies from being immortalized in a statue. The task was too high of a demand for a limited team with a growingly absent leader.
This system Silent Salt operated under was unsustainable, much like how Mystic Flour's wish giving was eventually going to deplete her of everything she had to give. Much like how Burning Spice could only watch so many civilizations fall to poverty or war or disease or whathaveyou, before he became the single death for all of them. Much like how Shadow Milk can only be so honest, until lies and misinformation tainted his words enough that he might as well partake himself. Much like how Eternal Sugar couldn't keep up the happiness of every cookie forever, no matter what she did to fix their heartache and grief and rage. They all worked as temporary solutions and never as systematic changes, they were doomed to fail from the start no matter how noble their intentions or actions were.
It's just even more tragic that, when he couldn't fall alongside them, the Beasts dragged Silent Salt down to their level until he was forced to share the same punishment and scorn as them. Silent Salt you deserve the world :(
Silent Salt + the Kala Namak Knights wanted so badly to spread the good of their Virtue. I think as the other Beasts were corrupted, that's when it started getting more difficult. Silent Salt mentioned to Elder Faerie that the Beasts had always worked together for the good of Cookiekind, no matter how different their priorities were. combined with what seemed to be really sudden opposition to the Kala Namak Knights' efforts, the Beasts probably worked alongside them until they were corrupted, and because all of Beast Yeast had to be covered by a single group of Cookies instead of five, it made it immensely more difficult for the knights to do their job. Silent Salt refused to let it stop him, and he still tried to encourage the knights to work hard. they believed in him and his cause and kept working, even when food was scarce and they were exhausted. to keep the Virtue strong, they had to spread themselves thin, inadvertently making it easier for Silent Salt to be corrupted and for the Beasts to slow him down
there's only so much fixing to be done when you're trying to take care of an entire continent with four other groups working against you (or bare minimum not working with you anymore). no matter how strong their efforts, how much they care, how much they want to, the odds were so stacked against them. they had no chance
