My thought is, maybe the twist of the story isn't that Kellhus is the bad guy, but that he is the (kinda, sorta, slightly, relatively) good guy, and that he seeks to share the Truth with the world. The Truth being, I suppose, that they are ruled by their inner urges, without free will, and that God does not have a personality like one that they ascribe to him, but is in fact beyond such things.
Actually, that raises another question - if the Absolute is indeed beyond care, beyond good and evil, then why does it create a code of morality? In fact, is the damnation that it brings even related to morality?
A few thoughts in response:
1. The Absolute doesn't create a code of morality, it simply recognizes (or perhaps a better word would be illuminates) the objective morality that arises from the actions of men.
2. The Darkness that comes before all men does not necessarily mean that all men are ruled by their inner urges and, hence, there is no free will. It doesn't mean we can't know what moves us; it means we don't know what moves us.
Nice post, Cuttlefish.
1. The idea that the Absolute does not create morality, but rather just comprehends it could be true, but I strongly doubt that it arises from the actions of men. After all, how could it be objective, if it is influenced by men?
2. I think it largely means that they can't control what moves them. The Dunyain know what moves them, and in their folly, they thought that they could control it, but Moenghus flat out confirms that even the Dunyain are still moved by their urges, and Kellhus demonstrates it, I think twice, in the first trilogy and possibly once in the second.
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Generally, though, the conception of the Absolute as being distinct from divinity creates an interesting possibility: what if Kellhus, or someone else, does actually reach it, and since the Absolute is not bound by anything, and therefore can't be bound by time, it exists all at once? In fact, the ways the Absolute influences the world, if it does at all, could be the product of a causal loop; the Absolute creating Kellhus (or whoever else) so that he can become the Absolute.
When I say that objective morality arises from the actions of men, I mean that any action a man takes can be read from an objective viewpoint. I take the Judging Eye to be just that viewpoint. The actions don't influence the viewpoint, just as a photographic subject doesn't influence the camera. But ethics is a thorny thicket, and I am reluctant to opine much further. I hope that's clearer (but am afraid it's just murkier).
I am also reluctant to equate lack of awareness of what comes before to lack of free will. Kellhus, as the reigning ur- Dûnyain, is still surprised by the actions of others on (rare) occasion. So clearly free will is still in play; Kelmomas demonstrates that quite clearly in the final palace scene of TGO, to the dismay of the Narindar.
Finally, some more food for thought: In rereading the final chapter involving the Survivor, it seems that his "senseless" suicide is actually his embracement of the Darkness that comes before. His leap into the abyss is a freely chosen act which he does for reasons
not known to him. It is a rejection of the Logos and of Dûnyain philosophy.
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