Was watching a TED talk today, learned that the "topos", in greek, means "place". Not a particularly enlightening experience, but I thought it was interesting

Umm... yeah. See Reply #23 in this very thread.

...is bizarrely Bakkerish today.

http://xkcd.com/1240/

I think if the connection was more between souls then Mekeretririgaighagigiggggg, one of the most powerful Nonmen with a very storied history, wouldn't have elevated a sranc of all things to that position.

Yeah. It's a cool theory, but it rather runs aground on the fact that sranc, since they explicitly lack souls, simply could not function as elju if the relationship was a metaphysical 'soul-to-soul' connection.

Interestingly, the character Elju in the Old Testament is a friend of Job, his role in the story being essentially to remind Job that suffering/trauma can serve a purpose in God's plan and isn't necessarily just a punishment for sin.

Amazon.co.uk says the 4th of July next year. Several other online bookstores say the 4th of July this year. Still others rather hilariously list a date in July last year. So who the fuck knows?

Just about every religion has a rule that approximates to "Don't be a dick". How the rule is actually interpreted by the religion's followers, however, is usually something more like "Hey, you see those guys over there? They're being dicks. You should totally go slaughter them all."

My current thinking is that the Dunyain are Seswatha's descendants (and that Kellhus knows this thanks to that little chat he had with Akka's inner Seswatha) and that Esmenet (and therefore Mimara) is descended from the true Anasurimbor line. In the PoN books, there are references to Esmenet having quite pale skin, despite being Ketyai, which perhaps suggests she has some Norsirai (and maybe Nonman) blood. We know Mimara reminded Cleric of his wife. And both Esmenet and Mimara are supposedly super-smart for non-Dunyain humans (the given reason for Kellhus choosing Esme to bear his children), also suggesting some influence of Nonman blood. In particular, Mimara has the Nonman talent for making great conceptual leaps in her understanding of the metaphysics of the world.

IMO, any male pronoun used in reference to the Anasurimbor who returns at the End is purely an artefact of the rigidly patriarchal culture of Earwa (both in Seswatha's time and in Kellhus'). I.e. everybody in Earwa who knows of the Celmomian Prophecy would naturally assume it'd be a male descendant. Including Celmomas himself and Seswatha.