Didn't Need An Army

[Provengreil]

In the scout portion of the outline, TE is learning how to get in and out of the city. They should be able, through a combination of simple disguises and magical concealment, (Sanctuary and Invisibility come to mind,) to remain unnoticed.

So no answer to my objections then.

This is where adaptability comes in handy. MitD can eat some, and be seen by the chamber maid leaving the scene. Xykon can Alter Self to look like a Sapphire Guard member, etc. Those who are raised would implicate rival nobles allied to Shojo or Sapphire Guardsmen.

This utterly fails to account for Xykon's actual personality. The only time Xykon has ever showed a willingness to hide in any way was when he was destroyed and regenerating: he'd slip somewhere and someone would figure it out. The paladins not falling would be a big hint that it's not actually the SG. And MitD getting seen would definitely set off a monster hunt that increases the chances of Team Evil being found exponentially.

I'm actually counting on Shojo trying to act against this. Hopefully I have implicated so many, (while keeping Kubota out of it,) that Shojo increases noble dissatisfaction by acting against his own innocent allies.

And Shojo is just not good enough to compensate for that? He's run the city for over a decade without any of these power hungry nobles, to include the one you're pinning this entire plan on, even realizing that he's still doing it. In terms of successfully manipulating ongoing events to their favor, my chips are on Shojo every time here.

From what I have seen, the nobles would side with whoever they see as the probable victor in a power struggle. This plays in my favor.
When one has played crazy long enough, who will believe him when he says he's not

Again, this assumes Shojo got cornered in the first place, and I don't think it'll get that far. He didn't make it to his eighties in this environment without learning how to pick up on and sidestep this stuff.

We do know that paladins were in the past involved in things which compromised their oaths.

Knowingly, and without falling? Because that's what you're trying to sell here.

The Ghost Martyrs are undead, so all you have to do is record their presence and play it on TeeVo. That is the one part where absolute truth is on my side.

That room is warded against this kind of thing. Even if it wasn't, you have Kim Soon, the Paladin of Paladins, taking the fight to...who, exactly? Because people would have to trust the attackers more than the Paladins themselves, which is a heck of a hurdle.

Why would the peasants revolt? None of this impacts them. Nobles have been assassinating each other for decades. As long as the trade ships keep coming and going, and there are no shortages in the markets, why would the commoners care who claims to run the city?

If the paladins violate their oath to obey the orders of the Lord of the city and undertake armed insurrection against Kubota and the lords of the city, that would only confirm that Kubota was telling the truth when he claimed they were trying to take control of the city.

The paladins would make them care. That's the whole point of raising a resistance, and it'd be easier since the political infighting with Shojo would have been heard. Also, this whole coup thing, what with overthrowing the current lord of the city, assassinating however many powerful leaders, deposing the entirety of the royal guard and a major part of law enforcement, does not a stable situation make. You're trusting Kubota to prioritize the citizenry's needs rather than his own petty desires* at this point, which might be the worst bet in your entire scenario.

And once the resistance fighters believe the story that Kubota is illegitimate, the paladins' opposition to "the lord of the city" stops being an inconsistency.

*Which is going to include his desire to actually use the throne room. I just don't see him as the type to accept a deal that involves him letting someone else camp out there for so long without a very, very good reason.