ARC: TWP Chapter 7

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TheCulminatingApe

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« on: September 09, 2018, 01:30:36 pm »
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Sleep, when deep enough, is indistinguishable from vigilance
- SORAINAS, THE BOOK OF CIRCLES AND SPIRALS
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.

TheCulminatingApe

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« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2018, 06:30:00 pm »
The Synthese is flying over the battlefield at Mengedda.
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Who could blame it indulging in nostalgia?  To be here again after millennia, at the place where it had almost happened, where Men and Nonmen had almost flickered out.  Almost.  Alas...
Soon enough.  Soon enough.
It lowered its small human head and studied the patterns the innumerable dead had sketched across the plains, marvelling at the resemblances to certain sigils once prized by its species - back when they could actually be called such.  Genera. Species.  Race.
Inchoroi, the vermin had called them...
...At least the Holy War had prevailed - over the Cishaurim, no less!

Do we know the difference between Inchoroi and Consult - not at this stage, as far as I am aware.
The implications of this brief POV suggest that the No-God is intended to extinguish life (or human and non-man life).  It is inferred that the Inchoroi are less than once they were - or different.  They want the Holy War to succeed.

Achamian dreams of the No-God.
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Secrets... Secrets!  Not even the No-God could build walls against what was forgotten!

What has been forgotten - the Dunyain?, or something else?

Esmi talks to him about Kellhus - when he speaks he seems 'near and far', but he is distracted by the Dreams, which seem to continue whilst he is awake.
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...I know this sounds mad, but I think this place - I think this place recognises me... M-me or Seswatha within me
Is Akka more than one person? - does he therefore have more then one soul?  The possibility of twin-souled individuals is hinted at in TAE.  Are all the Mandate such?  Two souls in one person, one of which is of a dead man - which takes precedence? - is Akka alive or dead?  Echoes of quantum physics (see below)?

Kellhus is ruminating on events.  The Nansur and Ainoni have turned up, meaning the entire Holy War is assembled at Mengedda, and a full Council of the Great Names is called.  Interesting that the Fanim equivalent of Great Names seem to be Grandees - which is from the Spanish grande (or great) - and an interesting comparison with the Consult 'Old Names'.

Many men and women are having nightmares.
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...It was as though the ground had hoarded the final moments of the doomed, and counted and recounted them each night on the ledger of the living...

Kellhus has dreamt nothing - neither have Proyas and Gothyelk.  Clearly some are more susceptible than others.

However, Kellhus is
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...beset with questions, quandaries, and enigmas...
...Events, in other words, had unfolded presiely as Kellhus had predicted.  Precisely.
But the problem was that he hadn't predicted anything.  He'd merely said what he'd needed to say to maximise the probabilities of securing Saubon and destroying Sarcellus.  He'd taken a risk.
It simply had to be coincidence...
What came before determined what came after... This was the basis of the Probability Trance.  This was the principle that made mastering circumstance, be it with word or sword, possible.  This was what made him Dunyain.
One of the Conditioned.
Then the earth began spitting up bones.  Wasn't this proof that the ground answered to the tribulations of men, that it was not indifferent?  And if earth - earth - wasn't indifferent, then what of the future?  Could what came after actually determine what came before?  What if the line running between past and future was neither singular nor straight, but multiple and bent, capable of looping in ways that contradicted the Law of Before and After.
Could he be the Harbinger, as Achamian insisted?

I'm no expert, but I think this is starting to sound like quantum physics - as opposed to Newtonian physics.

Kellhus surveys the assembled.  He has noted eleven skin-spies already.  He notices Sarcellus - a new Sarcellus.

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The original copy had been killed, Kellhus realised, just as he'd hoped.  The position of Sarcellus, however, had not.  His death had gone unwitnessed, and they'd simply replaced him.
Strange that a man could be a position.
Man as a position - relates to the Dunyain Shortest Path, to the Koringhus chapters in TGO, to the concept of momentum of souls (e.g. Scyvendi swazonds, and perhaps elhusioli from TUC) - probably other examples as well.

Saubon is declared Battle-Celebrant.  Conphas is unimpressed.
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..."Fool-Celebrant, I say!  The man who nearly saw all of you killed on these cursed fields! And trust me, this is the one place where you don't want to die..."
..."You know what you did was errant folly"

Kellhus is about to intervene, but Cnaiur beats him to it.
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Stupefied, Conphas stared at the Scylvendi, his fingers kneading his pommel.  He'd been roundly defeated.  And so swiftly...
"Time for another scar on your arms!", someone cried...

Kellhus realises that Conphas could not care less about shame or embarrassment.  He is almost as immune to Dunyain techniques as Cnaiur.  Kellhus also realises Conphas plans some sort of catastrophe for the Holy War.

Conphas is in his tent with Martemus.  Martemus would die to defend the imperial banner (the Concubine) rather than the Tusk, out of habit.  Conphas thinks Kellhus is a Cishaurim plant (which is in very indirect and roundabout way true - Moenghus).  Martemus is instructed to play the part of disciple.

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"It's strange", Conphas said, "but I feel young".
A quote which ends the Chapter.  He is young - why say it.




« Last Edit: September 23, 2018, 06:33:18 pm by TheCulminatingApe »
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.