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Messages - Francis Buck

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241
The Great Ordeal / Re: [TGO SPOILERS] Souls too strong to eat
« on: April 08, 2017, 09:57:41 pm »
My theory is that the Demon Gods feed on the spectrum of emotion, sweet and salty. Maybe umami too. So they reward some of them to feast on their pleasant emotions.

----

So while I like the pretty metal idea of Cnauir being such a badass that he becomes a demon I can't square it with the Inchoroi. I mean their whole existence revolves around carnality and murder, entire worlds reaped and annihilated. Their Wracu certainly resist death and deform reality. How are none of them Ciphrang just waiting to shed their mortal bodies? They certainly don't lack willpower or conviction. They might only lack...belief?

I also believe that Ciphrang feed on emotion, however, I think they only feed on certain types of emotion -- negative ones, broadly speaking. Regret, sorrow, shame, guilt.

Gods are on the opposite end of the spectrum, as beings which feed on "positive" emotions, aspirations, desires, reaching, etc. Of course, I think the point here (as epitomized with the Inchoroi) is that neither end of this hypothetical spectrum is intrinsically good or bad, since it's all subjective or intersubjective.

This would also, at first blush, make the Inchoroi "angels" to the Ciphrang "demons". And the Inchoroi did descend from the Void (heavens), and historically were even referred to directly as Flesh-Angels, with the No-God being called the Angel-of-Endless-Hunger, and Aurang as the Angel-of-Deceit.

242
General Earwa / Re: TSACast (SA Podcast)
« on: April 06, 2017, 02:15:32 am »
I'm definitely down for a podcast. My schedule is a bit whacky but I should manage.

Also, if my "primary" computer is working by then (it better be if it knows what's good for it) then I could assist in recording. I have a pretty nice mic as well, and I've learned a tiny bit about general audio stuff in the last few months. Emphasis on "a tiny bit", but it's something.

243
Atrocity Tales / Re: The False Sun
« on: April 03, 2017, 04:06:31 am »
This link: http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/stories/the-false-sun/

Down at the bottom of the text, above the comments, there is a "Share this:" section.

Click More.

Click print.

Select PDF.

Royce, I can't believe you missed this story :)


Thanks Wilshire. Yeah, I am not sure how that happened either:).  When is it recommended to read this story?  I have not read TSA in almost 3 years so I remember very little of it.

Honestly I think the story itself can be read pretty much at any point after the first trilogy. I actually think it would have made for a crazy-as-fuck epilogue to The Judging Eye or something, but it is rather long and relatively self-contained (sorta).

It still feels like 100% essential reading to me, way more than the other shorts, though I suppose that feeling could change after TUC.

244
This is from TGO, so beware spoilers. While this doesn't really have the uncanny insight of a good Bakkerism, it's perhaps my favorite example of "Bakker the Writer" in the entire series thus far, in-so-far as the pure aesthetics of prose and all that. Nobody else does epic fantasy like this today:


Quote
     "I see him so clearly!" the high King gasped. "He's taken the sun as his charger, and he rides among us. I see him! Galloping through the hearts of my people, stirring them to wonder and fury!"
     Gilgaol, War, come to claim him... Come to save, despite everything.
     "Shush.. Conserve your strength, my King. The surgeons are coming."
     The vision's eyes were fury, his hair the tangle of warring nations, and his teeth were as whetted blades. A crown gleaned above his brow, four golden horns, clutched in the arms of four nubile virgins--the Spoils. Bones and bodies clotted the ravines of his grim expression. And his cloak smoked with the burning of fields.
     Gilgaol, the Dread Father of Death, the All-Taker.
     Brave, broken King...
     He did not so much fly toward the high King as grow, bigger and bigger, bloating until he blotted the Whirlwind, crowded the very sky. Fire sheathed and pulsed across his four horns, streams that plummeted in skyward oblivion. He opened his hands, and lo! Another stood within the curved palms, bright as a ceremonial knife. A Norsirai, though his beard was squared and plaited in the fashion of Shir and Kyraneas. His dress was strange, and his arms and armor bore the glint of Nonmen metals. Two decapitated heads swung from his girdle...
     Behold the son of a hundred fathers...
     Behold the end of the World...

245
General Earwa / Re: Bakker AMA on r/fantasy scheduled for April 3rd!
« on: April 03, 2017, 12:35:22 am »
I have a question and I don't know if I'll be able to ask it as I work. So, on behalf of MSJ could someone ask Bakker if he could give us anymore of the Nonmen principles for the Gods? I'd be very appreciative.

I got you bro.

246
General Earwa / Re: Bakker AMA on r/fantasy scheduled for April 3rd!
« on: April 02, 2017, 07:31:14 pm »
Is there a specific time it goes up or anything?

Maybe I'll just start working on my questions.

247
General Earwa / Re: Zaudunyanicon 2017
« on: March 26, 2017, 09:33:11 pm »
Barring some unforeseen disaster, I will be there. Any ideas on the venue/lodging? I remember talk about a pool hall or something such, unless I'm making up memories again.

248
General Earwa / Re: TSA related art and stuff. (VI)
« on: March 26, 2017, 09:29:16 pm »
Hmm, those are good ones actually haha. Large scale battle scenes are an area I definitely to need to work on, so I'll work on that first (though the Maithanet one sounds fun too, might play with that a bit).

249
General Earwa / Re: TSA related art and stuff. (VI)
« on: March 26, 2017, 12:25:18 am »
Obviously I am nowhere near as skilled as Som, but if anyone has a suggestion or a particular scene/character/whatever they'd like to see, I'm glad to give it a shot. No idea how it'll turn out lol but I'm working on getting better and challenging myself.

250
The Great Ordeal / Re: [TGO Spoilers] [ TUC Spoilers] MG teaser 3
« on: March 26, 2017, 12:14:15 am »
Xenophobia, the need to repudiate something that is anathema, I don't know.

If we have the Sirwitta/Cimoira issue as a case study, the halfbreed girl was integrated back into the Cunoroi and considered "of the tribe". Anasûrimbor Sanna-Jephera, another halfbreed was integrated into human society, then the Anasûrimbor line goes on. Maybe the issue isn't the miscengenation in itself, but the fact that the Anasurimbor decided to become part of human society and repudiated Nonman culture. Like a human deciding to go into the wilderness and join a sranc tribe, something so utterly absurd so as to be worthy of contempt.

Honestly this reminds me of Elros and Elrond from the Silmarillion. Two Half-Elven twin brothers: the one decides to become fully human and become the first King of Numenor, the other decides to become fully Elf and becomes a great lord of the Noldor.

I like this, particularly the Elros/Elrond bit, which I never thought about at all in relation TSA and definitely seems like it could be an influence.

This is more of a crackpot idea from me, but I do think it's a part of the story in some degree, if not this exact sense, but:

There are a couple references to the "secret of the Anasurimbor blood", the one I'm remembering off the top of my head being the showdown with Maithanet, Inrilatas, and Kelmomas.

Regardless, my suspicion is that, similar to Dune, there are basically two "families" that the Consult (or someone) has been surreptitiously breeding together in order to create some kind of Kwisatz Haderach. One family is the Anasurimbor, the other is/was the Ikurei. They are like the Atreidies and Harkonnens.

One of these two (not sure which) have blood from the Inchoroi in their line. The Inchoroi (particularly Aurang) are very much like the biblical "Watchers", or fallen angels, who bred with humans to create the nephilim ("giants"). The Nonmen might be the Nephilim analogue, but I'm not sure it works quite like that. It might just be Nonman blood, but the Inchoroi's similarities to the Watchers and so on is pretty hard to dismiss.

Now, the name "Ikurei" has two possible etymological roots that I can think of, though I'm certain there are plenty more. The most obvious, I suppose, is that Ikurei looks/sounds very close to "Ichor", which in Greek myth is:

Quote
-the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of the gods.
-any blood-like fluid.
-(archaic) a watery, fetid discharge from a wound.

More obscurely, it could be from the Yoruba mythology/language, which I've thought might be a linguistic influence on the series for a little while now.

In Yoruba, there is Iku, the name for Death, King of the Ajogun (demons). Rei is very common in multiple languages as the title of a king or ruler.

So yeah, I dunno lol. Even assuming the whole Ikurei/Anasurimbor thing is true, I'm not sure which makes more sense to have been the one with the "accursed blood". Gut reaction is the Ikurei since they're the "bad guys" and I definitely don't think the name was pulled out of thin air, but it really could equally apply to the Anasurimbor. Also "they're the bad guys" is, I suspect, a misguided way of looking at just about anything in the series for now.



251
General Earwa / Re: TSA related art and stuff. (VI)
« on: March 21, 2017, 10:43:53 pm »
Redux of my old Akka v. Zioz.

War-cant Master

http://spiralhorizon.deviantart.com/art/War-cantMaster-low-669697552

BTW, thanks for fixin' the permissions, guys!

That's fuckin' awesome man. I confess having wanted to see you do another rendition of this scene -- not that the old one was bad, simply because you've certainly grown tremendously since the last one. Really just more Ciphrang in general, which are strange because they have rather vivid, spectacular descriptions but they're often spread across in little chunks, and then even what we do get is pretty alien and abstract, perhaps more-so than any of the other "races" so far. Zioz, Ankaryotis, Sohorat, etc. could all be rendered in wildly different ways and still be faithful to the books.

252
General Earwa / Re: TSA related art and stuff. (VI)
« on: March 15, 2017, 12:05:48 am »
And glad to here the poster made it to your wall lol.

LOL. Noted and credited.  ;)

Nice, I really like the moon/halo effect there.

Thanks dude! That was the initial kernel of the idea for me actually.

253
The Great Ordeal / Re: [TGO SPOILERS] Kellhus and the Voice.
« on: March 15, 2017, 12:00:56 am »
Yes, we have to disagree to even have a forum, ya know?

I disagree!

254
General Earwa / Re: TGO in the Gemmell awards
« on: March 14, 2017, 01:47:09 am »
I voted a while ago as a result of this thread, but was just checking in to see how things went. So...did TGO not make the finals or whatever? The website's listings are different now. Are they still deciding? Am I just a moron?

Also, has anyone read any of the competition? I only ask because I basically never read new fantasy literature, primarily because I spend the allocated time mostly reading nonfiction in order to write my own fantasy bullshit, but also because I (unfairly) assume most of what the genre has to offer is going to bore me, as I am quite pretentious despite my best efforts.

I mean, is there a new "big thing" in fantasy now? That's actually good enough to get in the ring with say, KJ Parker or Guy Gavriel Kay or James Abercrombie?

I'm not being sarcastic, I genuinely have no idea.

255
General Earwa / Re: TSA related art and stuff. (VI)
« on: March 14, 2017, 12:29:50 am »
Thanks man, much appreciated! It was inextricably influenced by your Mimara TGO poster that hangs on my wall, haha.

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