ARC: TWP Chapter 6

  • 9 Replies
  • 4211 Views

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

TheCulminatingApe

  • *
  • Kijneta
  • ***
  • Posts: 274
    • View Profile
« on: September 09, 2018, 01:29:03 pm »
Quote
One sorceror, the ancients say, is worth a thousand warriors in battle and ten thousand sinners in Hell
- DRUSAS ACHAMIAN, THE COMPENDIUM OF THE FIRST HOLY WAR

Quote
When shields become crutches, and swords become canes, some hearts are put to rout.
When wives become plunder, and foes become thanes, all hope has guttered out
- ANONYMOUS, "LAMENT FOR THE CONQUERED"
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.

TheCulminatingApe

  • *
  • Kijneta
  • ***
  • Posts: 274
    • View Profile
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2018, 06:22:48 pm »
First battle of the Holy War.  Bakker has his own unique (and awesome) way of writing battle scenes - reminiscent of Tolkien in some respects.

Quote
A warring we have come
A reaving we shall work
And when the day is done,
In our eyes the Gods shall lurk!


It was a song as old as the Ancient North, a song from The Sagas.  And as the Inrithi gave it voice once again, they felt the glory of their past flood through them, brace them.  A thousand voices and one song.  A thousand years and one song!  Never had they felt so rooted, so certain.  The words struck many with the force of revelation.  Tears streamed down sunburned cheeks.  Passions ignited, swept through the ranks, until men roared inarticulately and brandished their swords against the sky.  They were thousands and they were one.

In our eyes the Gods shall lurk!

Should something be read into this?  Many become one - have one voice - through time.

The Inrithi charge, and seem to break the Fanim.  They are deceived by Fanim tactics and are in danger of being broken themselves until rallied by Saubon.  The Fanim throw themselves at the Inrithi line.

Quote
Then, as though stepping out of the blinding sun, the Cishaurim revealed themselves

Saubon sees his own face on a dead man - and holds his own hand.  Kussalt arrives, tells Saubon he (Saubon) has stemmed the breach in the lines.
Quote
Saubon blinked at the blood trickling into his left eye.  An inexplicable cruelty overcame him.  "You're old and slow... Give me your horse!"
Kussalt's look soured.  Old lips tightened.
"This is no place to be thin-skinned, you old fool.  Now give me your fucking horse!
Kussalt jerked, as though something had popped within him, then slumped forward, staggering Saubon with his weight.

Quote
"I would have you know..." the old man wheezed, "how much I hated you..."

Nobody seems to want Saubon.

He decides that it is time to punish the Shrial Knights, and orders them to charge the Cishaurim.
No-one is expecting that - many Knights die in the charge - including 'Sarcellus', but the Cishaurim are destroyed.  Battle continues for the rest of the day - the Inrithe remain unbroken.

Quote
As the sun lowered in the western skies, the Fanim flinched more and more from the Inrithi line, charged with ever greater trepidation.  For they saw demons in the eyes of their idolatrous enemy.

Actual demons?  We can 'see into the outside' from Mengedda.

Then as Skauras sounds the retreat, Proyas arrives.  The entire Inrithi host charges and the Fanim rout and are massacred.

Saubon seeks out Kellhus, but finds Achamian.  Akka tells him about the Battleplain.

Quote
"Topoi are like heights, places where one can see far... But where heights are built with mounds of trauma and suffering.  They are heights that let us see farther than this world... some say into the Outside.  That's why this ground troubles you - you stand perilously high... This is the Battleplain.  What you feel isn't so different from vertigo.

Quote
"Even amongst topoi", he called, "this place is... special." ...
"The soul that encounters Him, " the Schoolman continues, "passes no further"...
"The dead do not escape the Battleplain, my Prince... This place is cursed.  The No-God died here."

Foreshadowing of Golgotterath, which is the topos.

Shades of Tolkien - Battleplain (a direct translation of Dagorlad at the Gates of Mordor), and the Dead Marshes.
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2018, 12:27:27 pm »
I actually read Bakker before Tolkien and missed most of the references. It's interesting to seem them brought up after-the-fact.

Bakker did a great better job with the references in a way that didn't cheapen the overall experience, which is something I see most authors struggle with.

Also, looks like many have abandoned you on the path TheCulminatingApe ;)
One of the other conditions of possibility.

MSJ

  • *
  • The Afflicted Few
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Yatwer's Baby Daddy
  • Posts: 2298
  • "You killed the wolf"
    • View Profile
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2018, 01:54:19 pm »
Quote from:  Wilshire
Also, looks like many have abandoned you on the path TheCulminatingApe.

Indeed. I for one feel awful about skating on the reread. I guess I don't have much of an excuse since it's only a chapter a week. I just find myself finding and reading new content that I can't put down, or don't want to.

For what is worth, I have been following and reading all of TheCulminatingApe's posts. They are excellent and detailed. I love the new perspective.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2018, 02:08:03 pm by MSJ »
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

TheCulminatingApe

  • *
  • Kijneta
  • ***
  • Posts: 274
    • View Profile
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2018, 06:43:42 pm »
Quote from:  Wilshire
Also, looks like many have abandoned you on the path TheCulminatingApe.
Indeed. I for one feel awful about skating on the reread. I guess I don't have much of an excuse since it's only a chapter a week. I just find myself finding and reading new content that I can't put down, or don't want to.

You don't have to feel bad - the re-read isn't compulsory :)


For what is worth, I have been following and reading all of TheCulminatingApe's posts. They are excellent and detailed. I love the new perspective.
;D 8)
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.

TheCulminatingApe

  • *
  • Kijneta
  • ***
  • Posts: 274
    • View Profile
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2018, 06:48:42 pm »
Also, looks like many have abandoned you on the path TheCulminatingApe ;)

Not everybody can handle the slog ;)
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.

BeardFisher-King

  • *
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Posts: 599
  • The 8-Trackless Steppe
    • View Profile
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2018, 02:48:55 am »
Also, looks like many have abandoned you on the path TheCulminatingApe ;)

Not everybody can handle the slog ;)
Verily, thou speakest truly.
"The heart of any other, because it has a will, would remain forever mysterious."

-from "Snow Falling On Cedars", by David Guterson

Oberstul

  • *
  • Emwama
  • Posts: 5
  • Winter was always here!
    • View Profile
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2018, 06:04:19 am »
Hiya. New member here that recently started the... SLOG (I think that's what you call it) - so I'm extremely grateful that you are marking all spoilers. Props to that.

Anyway, maybe others mentioned this, I didn't notice, but do you think the reference in this chapter to the "Red Lion of Saubon or the Black Stag of Gothyelk" are a courtesy nod to George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire? I mean, I know that Lannister's lion is golden yellow on their flag and not red, but the Baratheon's stag is indeed black too.

That was my 2 cents, guys.

Thanks to TheCulminatingApe for keeping these synopsis chapters going.
Cheers!

homo homini lupus

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2018, 05:29:18 pm »
I'm glad you made your way to the forum Oberstul, sorry it probably took several days of waiting to get membership approval. Anyway, welcome to the forum!

Btw, its probably worth pointing out this particular thread, and the subforum its within, has fairly limited spoiler tags. There are places where spoilers are tagged more judiciously, and they are based on whichever subfoum you're currently in. Generally speaking, we expect a subforum for a particular book to have spoiler tags for anything beyond that book. Meaning in The Warrior Prophet boards (located here: The Warrior-Prophet should have spoilers for anything located in Thousandfold Thought and beyond.

So if you're new to the series ... tread carefully. Probably safest to mention in posts that you're still reading, if you're asking any questions.

FWIW, I doubt there are any references or nods to ASOIAF in TSA. Most references come from real-world history, religion, and philosophy. You'll find a lot of rabbit holes to get lost in if you start looking. Names, places, characters, symbols, etc., in TSA you can usually find a wikipedia page related to them that is tied back to something obscure IRL.
One of the other conditions of possibility.

TheCulminatingApe

  • *
  • Kijneta
  • ***
  • Posts: 274
    • View Profile
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2018, 06:18:04 pm »
Thanks to TheCulminatingApe for keeping these synopsis chapters going.
Cheers!

You're welcome :)
Sez who?
Seswatha, that's who.