(For convenience I'm kind of going on the assumption that the next series will start off right on the heels of TUC, though really I could just as easily see another time skip)

Achamian
Esmenet
Akka & Mimara's baby
Mimara (kind of a coin flip -- though I think if she does die, it will be early on.)
Son of the Survivor
Moe Jr.
Kayutas
Serwa

Four Mutilated - I think it goes without saying that these fuckers are still around.
Kelmomas - I don't think he's dead, but I'm not sure he's alive either.

Aurax - Pretty sure he survived? Which brings me to...
Aurang - We are told that he was killed and "thrown upon the Horde", but I haven't re-read that sequence yet, and unless it's very clear cut, then I'm not convinced he's truly done with, if only because I find the idea of a disgraced Aurang and Aurax possibly teaming up with "the good guys" to be very compelling.

Kellhus - Even more convoluted than the situation with Kelmomas to me. I mean, I think he's probably "dead", but in a fashion not unlike how Cnaiur is "dead", only probably even more complicated.

Agreed on all fronts. I do feel like the author's penchant for mystery has, to a certain extent, got the better of him, although my final assessment of that is up in the air until this series is finally done.

Regarding the Ark as an artificial intelligence, I do agree, however I don't see that and it being the God as mutually exclusive. I've wondered if perhaps the Ark itself became "ensouled" upon entering Earwa, or if it already had a "soul" of sorts that has become an entity of the Outside.

I do think it's important to note that the Mutilated emphasize how the No-God's Carapace is a "prosthesis" or extension of the Ark -- though how precisely that works or what exactly it even means is, like so much else, a mystery as of yet. Still, that's part of why I think the Ark and/or the No-God actually IS the God, but that the God is still subordinate to the World (thereby making the World the "real God", so to speak.

And indeed, this entry feels like it has raised far more questions than it has answered, but I think that with time a fuller picture of things, or at least more convincing POSSIBLE answers, will arise. Both TUC and TGO are ridiculously dense, and the former is not even released to most of the world yet. I think there's a lot of answers hidden amidst the text, they simply are not obvious (and probably never will be). The books are always overwhelming at first, and I imagine that a full a re-read of the series now will reveal quite a bit of long-seeded hints and revelations.

Great post, and one I could spend a great deal of time on, but so far I've re-read only one sequence of TUC -- the confrontation between Kellhus and the Mutilated -- and so I'm just going to stick with some general gut reactions (given it's all I have with the new material).

One thing I fully agree with you on and indeed have ascribed to for some time now is the atemporal nature of the Outside, the Hells, the Gods, and so on. I'd be very surprised at this point to realize it was anything else, if only because there's no other conceivable way to make sense of the metaphysics thus far.

As for the Thousandfold Thought...

I don't think anyone -- with the possible exception of Kellhus (yes, even now) -- has or even can "grasp" the TT. It is beyond the comprehension of any single being, no matter how great, because it isn't really something "thought of", only "thought about"...if that makes any sense.

I believe there's a very important distinction between the World and the God, although the details are unclear. The God as described thus far seems to me a kind of riff on the Gnostic Demiurge -- a blind entity that, through ignorance, has come to believe itself the Creator of the World. I suspect, however, that the World is not Created, but simply is.

Put another way, if there are "physics" which lay beneath the "metaphysics" of Earwa, then physics belong to the World, and metaphysics belong to the (false) God. The World always exists, no matter what. It cannot truly be ended, or destroyed, for as we know from the text, Nature abhors a vacuum. What's more, everything hungers...

Indeed, Nature and the World are perhaps interchangeable terms, with the notation that the World/Nature is sentient, though really it doesn't matter much one way or the other when talking about an entity on such an absurd scale.

My point -- I think -- is that the TT belongs to the World. It's like, well, the Laws of Physics (of Earwa) rising up to oppose whatever metaphysical bullshit people (or Inchoroi, or Dunyain, or whatever) stir up. These "rules" are relatively simple and leave a lot of wiggle room, but they cannot be broken. No way, no how. Not even by a God. (I wouldn't be surprised if the Demiurgic God I'm referencing is literally just the Ark at this point, for what it's worth).

This is, IMO, why the Consult can't truly bring mankind to extinction. As the Mutilated themselves say, their work is in the art of extermination, not the wholesale achievement of such a thing. The reason is always the same -- to change or break the rules of the World. But this is Earwa, where Souls and the beings which feed on them are as real as our own universe's physical laws. This is what makes the "tragedy" of the series so tragic: trying to seal the World shut (by killing tremendous amounts of people) is futile, and so the insane lengths gone to do so by the Consult are, ultimately, pointless. Damnation is unavoidable. No matter how you bend the rules of the game, the pieces remain the same. This is perhaps illustrated, metaphorically, quite well by the "replacement" of Shauriatas as one intellect spread across many people, with the revelation that it is "Truth" spread across several Dunyain. What's the difference, in the end?

Afterall, something must be eaten, and human souls are apparently the dietary staple of Earwa.