[mrganondorf]

We have a general Ciphrang possession thread:

http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=909.0

but I thought it might be fun to have one dedicated just to guessing the one or more ciphrang possessed characters who will be revealed in The Unholy Consult.  Bakker has been dropping so many hints in TJE and WLW, surely at least one character will be revealed as possessed, so WHOOOOO?

i'm betting it's KOSOTER and we'll be hearing that dead head growl again!

[Francis Buck]

Kosoter seems very likely, though like most of these sorts of twists it's hard to tell what's real and what's just a red herring. If Kosoter WASN'T possessed, then he was certainly a red herring.

As for other characters...it's hard to say. None really jump out. Maybe Inrilatas? Do we actually know for certain that there's a possessed character (like Bakker mentioned it or something), or are we just going on the admittedly fairly large amount of hints.

Fanayal seems possible as well. His extreme conviction of his own fate always felt a bit suspicious to me.

[rnblut]

If someone is possessed I would guess it is Kelmomas.  He has an interior voice that guides him.  He is focused on his desire for his mother's affection on one hand and the utter destruction of everybody and everything else on the other.  Sounds like demon like behavior to me.  Inrilatas notes that Kelmomas is singularly responsible for the meeting with Maithanet, the overall isolation of Esmi (driving Mimara away, killing Sami, creating the conditions for Inrilatas to be killed), the Yatwer civil war (through killing Sharacinth), and as Inrilatas notes, "He [Kelmomas] is not what he seems, Uncle."

[Francis Buck]

If someone is possessed I would guess it is Kelmomas.  He has an interior voice that guides him.  He is focused on his desire for his mother's affection on one hand and the utter destruction of everybody and everything else on the other.  Sounds like demon like behavior to me.  Inrilatas notes that Kelmomas is singularly responsible for the meeting with Maithanet, the overall isolation of Esmi (driving Mimara away, killing Sami, creating the conditions for Inrilatas to be killed), the Yatwer civil war (through killing Sharacinth), and as Inrilatas notes, "He [Kelmomas] is not what he seems, Uncle."

See, I was thinking about Kelmomas as well, but I felt unsure because if Kosoter is one of the demons, he would appear to have been...I don't know, "aware" that he was a Ciphrang? He at least said that he knew what Hell looked like, whereas we never get anything like that from Kel. Than again, Kel is a young child, and a Dunyain to boot, so maybe the "vessel" reacts differently?

[rnblut]

For what it is worth, they all "saw" hell in Cil-Aujas and Kosoter, to the extent that his reaction is noted, didn't behave like someone who had been there before.  Also, he is clearly serving the interest of Kellhus, and it seems willingly.  This does not match with the behavior of the other Ciphrang described in the series.  But who knows, maybe Kellhus 'Jedi mind tricked him" when he visited the Outside!!!!?

[mrganondorf]

If someone is possessed I would guess it is Kelmomas.  He has an interior voice that guides him.  He is focused on his desire for his mother's affection on one hand and the utter destruction of everybody and everything else on the other.  Sounds like demon like behavior to me.  Inrilatas notes that Kelmomas is singularly responsible for the meeting with Maithanet, the overall isolation of Esmi (driving Mimara away, killing Sami, creating the conditions for Inrilatas to be killed), the Yatwer civil war (through killing Sharacinth), and as Inrilatas notes, "He [Kelmomas] is not what he seems, Uncle."

awesome!  Kelmomas does seem to equal "hunger"!  i can't remember where, but i think Malowebi is musing about Ciphrang and asserts that they always cause chaos--so Kelmomas would fit that too!  i don't see any obvious reasons to doubt Malowebi's expertise on the matter, however, if Kellhus is the possessed, then he might be aiming for a categorically larger level of chaos

continuing down this line, i don't think that Kellhus is possessed unless he is possessed by one of the top gods like War or Ajokli.  you would think that the gods would know what to do with an uppity, ordinary ciphrang possessed person and would trouble about them like Yatwer is concerned with Kellhus

while i'm at it, why not speculate that the entire Great Ordeal is just the world's greatest decoy, designed to attract the eyes of heaven (or maybe just Yatwer's) so that they too become ignorant to x.  what the hell is x?  maybe Kellhus is designing a new and more permanent abode for the Dunyain even further from the reaches of Yatwer and co than Ishual?