Wait a minute...

[Forealms]

I've been reading back through the strips, and I just realized something. Why WOULDN'T O-Chul know more about the gates? Why wouldn't he know about how the gates are protected?

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0277.html) Shojo describes how the gates are protected. In the 3rd panel on the second page, Shojo says these exact words:

"And now you know the Secret Lore of the Sapphire Guard."

Doesn't this imply that all paladins are taught this knowledge? As in, this is Secret Lore that only the Sapphire Guard knows about. If this is the case, O-Chul really is hiding something.

(Of course, everyone else might have realized this before, and this is just a stunning revelation to me.)

[bluish_wolf]

No, it implies that the paladins are protecting it, not that all are privy to that information.

[David Argall]

Using the exact wording is dangerous, but by saying "the secret lore", the assumption is that they know all of it, and we are told only Roy knows the actual location of the Gate. So the gate location is not part of the secret lore, but a deeper secret, which was not communicated at that time.

So O'Chul and the rest of the paladins would not know the locations, beyond the general description of illusions in the Western Continent and maybe that it is in a desert. They would not be able to guide Xykon.

Now The idea that the paladins could wipe out all knowledge is distinctly suspect. Indeed, we know it failed in one case. So it is entirely reasonable that O'Chul knows on an informal basis even if the knowledge has not be formally confirmed. More interesting is the chance he has heard a "false" story about the location. Thinking it nonsense, he has more or less forgotten it, but decides it is good enough to fool Redcloak and so passes along the real location.

[Mauve Shirt]

But don't they already know the location? Because of the diary?

[factotum]

They don't know how the gate is guarded, though. They almost got killed because they didn't expect Soon Kim and his retinue to be guarding the Azure City gate, and Redcloak at least doesn't want to see a repeat of that situation.

[Yendor]

They don't know how the gate is guarded, though. They almost got killed because they didn't expect Soon Kim and his retinue to be guarding the Azure City gate, and Redcloak at least doesn't want to see a repeat of that situation.

And as Hinjo said, only the ruling family (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0449.html) knew that Soon and company were there. If O-chul doesn't know the details of the Gate he was guarding, why would he know anything substantial about the others?

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Using the exact wording is dangerous, but by saying "the secret lore", the assumption is that they know all of it, and we are told only Roy knows the actual location of the Gate. So the gate location is not part of the secret lore, but a deeper secret, which was not communicated at that time.
Thing about "secret lore" is that usually only the folks at the tip-top of any organization keeping such lore know all of it. That's how it's kept secret. And it's not always all that uncommon for only the supreme leader of such an organization to know everything when this trope is employed.

[Chronos]

Besides, all that the "secret lore" says is that Girard's gate is somewhere on the western continent, and that it's guarded by illusions. That's nothing that Redcloak and Xykon didn't already know. What they don't know is which things around the Gate are real and which are illusionary, where precisely the Gate is, what the Gate looks like, if there are any real traps/monsters/spells mixed in with the illusions, etc. That's the information that Soon and the rest of the Guard were prohibited from seeking out.

[Yoritomo Himeko]

No, none of the paladins know anything else about Girrard's Gate. It says so right here. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0505.html) The only two people who would know anything useful are Lord Shojo and Roy. And they're both dead.

The Sapphire Guard are only the guardians of Soon's Gate, not any of the others.

[Felixaar]

Even if O-Chul knows all that, all he knows is "most cunning illusions". Thats not really helpful.