[Spooky]

What exactly happened here?

I like anytime Bakker actively and intentionally channels Harold Lamb's Of Iron Men and Saints and this was particularly notable with his introduction of the intact Quya. Astute literary observers call it derivative, but I think he just updates upon the original and adds Gene Wolf esque prose.

But while cool, it didn't make much sense. They attacked Mankind.

So these epoch level experienced combatants (far too veteran for it to be dismissed as Fog of War), the now unified Quya of Ishoriol, so passionately dedicated to the opposition of the organization/species which caused the literal extinction of their race and culture that they were willing to kill the precious few other members of their kind in existence in a coup, arrive and attack the forces of Men?

• Why did the Quya of Ish attack Men?
• Why did the Red Ghoul attack Men, specifically? His Lamb esque flavor text indicates high affinity
• Why would Quya (or any Non-man) commit suicide? They know what damnation is, what little we know of their philo-religious background indicates the pursuit of Oblivion. Our tour of Ish showed indisputably that they go to incredible lengths to keep their few members alive, because even this tortured ennui/max hard drive level existence is better than damnation.

[EDIT Madness: Title.]

[Stip]

this is the perspective/memory of one read where i rushed to what happened next, but didnt ordeal sorcerors attack first?

[themerchant]

To be fair it was Vippol the elder, who is called "madborn" and was screaming the name of his lost brother as he relived battles they had endured thousands of years past.

So the description isn't an accurate reflection of the text.

The Red Ghouls is described as having a "legendary thirst for destruction"  and was alternatively cackling and sobbing and was "triggered" by the "gold-embroidered Compass" on the Grandmaster's chest.

So the Quya were befuddled reliving the past, crying out names of relatives dead for thousands of years. Fog of war might not work but being erratic might.

[themerchant]

Earlier on in the text

"Each was riven, be it by murderous cold, wailing grief, or convulsive laughter". Even the intact displayed some besotted rictus, for the many quya held that battle was ri, beyond all law and restraint. Hunched above the brilliance of their theorems, they wept and cackled, screamed and calculated, punished the white-roiling tracts beneath them"

[Wilshire]

Many argue Nil'Giccas committed suicide, so its not without precedence.
They are also extremely erratic and susceptible to, if Four Revelations is any indication, some kind of hallucinatory memory overlay. Quite simply, they went crazy.

Either are plausible explanations imo.

[Madness]

I have to say, not quite there yet, but I thought disappointing or fulfilling certain readerly expectations on Bakker's part was well done.

In this instance, we cheer because, at last (!!), the Quya of Ishterebinth take the field... and then it gets messy.

I actually can't help grinning every time I read that these foiled expectations frustrate people. Bakker might as well just go around holding up a damn mirror in people's faces .

WHAT DO YOU SEE?