Earwa > The Almanac: PON Edition
The Slog TDTCB - Part One: Prologue & The Sorcerer [Spoilers]
locke:
"The flame twirled with abrupt incandescence."
Across all five books variants on the word incandescent only and exclusively are used to accompany and denote the presence of sorcercy. The word is never used in the absence of sorcery except this line--which indicates sorcery is probably occurring unbeknownst to the POV. The prologue concludes with kellhus definitively wrong about sorcery and this use of incandescence is within the context of a conversation in which he is wrong about sorcery. Leweths concise evaluations of the supernatural is accurate on all counts per later evidence and kellhus is wrong on all counts, in other words a good place to slip in a kellhus error of not recognizing the presence of sorcery.
"It speaks the language" almost as though mek were waiting for someone speaking a very particular language, a language mek was waiting to particularly hear--THE language.
Camlost:
Just some preliminary thoughts and/or notes on the Prologue. I'll follow up on some discussion later and post a few more things from following chapters. But for now:
--- Quote ---Ganrelka had only wept at Ishual, raged the way only an Emperor of nothing could rage
--- End quote ---
Interesting little parallelism to the name of the trilogy
--- Quote ---His food ran out, and he continued to walk. Everything---experience, analysis---became mysteriously sharp
--- End quote ---
Wouldn't being starved and exhausted dull or muddy one's experiential inputs?
--- Quote ---The world had always been strange with significance to the trapper, but now it had become terrifying
--- End quote ---
For some reason I feel like Leweth has a considerably more complicated past than his current situation would allude, but ultimately his role in the narrative is primarily as a cipher for Kellhus.
--- Quote ---There were witches, Leweth had told him, whose urgings could harness the wild agencies asleep in the earth, animal, and tree
--- End quote ---
I could simply be overlooking obvious references, but Akka's doll aside, I can't recall very many other mentions of witches pre-TAE and those are more a sanctioned sect than hedge magic. Are rogue magic users more openly accepted in the North in the absence of Inrithism?
--- Quote ---And in the gloom of a faltering fire, Anasurimbor Kellhus slowly drew Leweth into his own descending rhythms---slower breath, drowsy eyes
--- End quote ---
Thought it was worth pointing out the first instance of Kellhus using hypnosis
--- Quote ---On the far side of the stele he saw tracks in the snow
--- End quote ---
Is it mere coincidence that a group of Sranc are hanging out around an ancient Kuniuric relic? Are they genuinely in there area solely to pilfer Leweth's runs?
--- Quote ---For Kellhus the threat existed only in the fear manifested by the trapper. The forest was still his.
--- End quote ---
This is quite the conceit, even for one of the Conditioned; especially one who very nearly became consumed by the chaos of it. The entire prologue seems like a series of colossal missteps by Kellhus. It's a wonder he makes it.
--- Quote ---The ruins of a gate and a wall towered over the nearer slops. Beyond it, a dead oak of immense proportions bent against the sky
--- End quote ---
Another ancient, massive tree shows up at the Nonmen ruins in the South does it not? What fascination do the Nonmen have with trees?
In the scene immediately following, Kellhus enters the courtyard before being rushed by Sranc. He comments
--- Quote ---So clear, this place
--- End quote ---
. I only direct attention to it because it seems partially incongruous with his situation. Why, if one must necessarily fight a group of enemies, would he choose open ground? Arrow catching aside, it seems like a tactical mistake to me. I might be reading more into it than it warrants, but I can't help but feel that perhaps the very ground resonates with something in him.
--- Quote ---A powerful voice rang out in Kuniuric
--- End quote ---
It seems odd to me that the Nonman's first attempt at communication would be in the language of a long dead civilization. Unless I'm mistaken and it is still used amongst the North? I almost wonder whether their encounter was as much happenstance as it appears. Compound this excerpt with the Sranc prints near the Anasurimbor stele and it seems less likely it was chance
--- Quote ---"I see that you are a student. Knowledge is power, eh?"
--- End quote ---
To what is he referring? A student of sorcery? The Gnosis? A student of the Logos? If the latter, wouldn't he know the Dunyain cult disappeared during the Apocalypse, presumably wiped out? How might it be the former if Kellhus bears no Mark?
--- Quote ---"For us life is always a...decision. For you...Well, let us just say it decides."
--- End quote ---
Is the emphasis on it meant to signify something other than life? If so, what? Just something that struck me as odd as it seems he is ruminating on something as he speaks.
--- Quote ---"This Sranc here---you could not pronounce its name---was our elju...our 'book,' you would say in your tongue. A most devoted animal. I'll be wrecked without it---for a time, anyway."
--- End quote ---
What is an elju? What does it do? Why is it necessary that he have one in his entourage?
--- Quote ---A furious incandescence...Sorcery? How could it be?
--- End quote ---
Noted this because of locke's previous comment in regards to "incandescence." Also, can't Kellhus see the Mark? Whether or not it might be something he even recognizes as such, surely it would be something particularly out of place in the context of what he has come to learn in Ishual as well as with Leweth. It strikes me as something that should come up in his scrutinizing. Unless Kellhus develops a means to identify the Mark unrelated to be one of the Few?
locke:
First item suggests Ganrelka was something of a prisoner.
"His food ran out, and he continued to walk. Everything---experience, analysis---became mysteriously sharp"
that's trauma inducing Kellhus to see the Onta. sharpness and onta go together hand in hand.
"So clear, this place"
oblique way of saying conditioned ground.
***
"And in the gloom of a faltering fire, Leweth slowly drew Anasurimbor Kellhus into his own descending rhythms---slower breath, drowsy eyes"
Leweth (or one working through him) hypnotized Kellhus in this scene. Kellhus was just conditioned to think otherwise in the hypnosis.
I love the catch on Kellhus' blunder and egotism in thinking the forest belonged to him.
H:
--- Quote from: Camlost on December 01, 2015, 03:53:07 am ---
--- Quote ---For Kellhus the threat existed only in the fear manifested by the trapper. The forest was still his.
--- End quote ---
This is quite the conceit, even for one of the Conditioned; especially one who very nearly became consumed by the chaos of it. The entire prologue seems like a series of colossal missteps by Kellhus. It's a wonder he makes it.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Camlost on December 01, 2015, 03:53:07 am ---Is it mere coincidence that a group of Sranc are hanging out around an ancient Kuniuric relic? Are they genuinely in there area solely to pilfer Leweth's runs?
--- End quote ---
On Kellhus' mistakes: realize he doesn't actually "make it" in the sense that he survives of his own ability. Leweth is the one who saves him, otherwise he is dead in the snow there. The greatest question is how deep does Moënghus' conditioning of Kellhus' path run? Alternatively, how guided is Kellhus by things Outside? I think that is a very deep tension in the whole first three books we should keep an eye on. On that, Leweth's finding him is no coincidence. Leweth being camped near those ruins is no accident. The Sranc being nearby is also no accident, as it brings Mekeritrig into (or back into) conditioned ground.
--- Quote from: Camlost on December 01, 2015, 03:53:07 am ---Another ancient, massive tree shows up at the Nonmen ruins in the South does it not? What fascination do the Nonmen have with trees?
--- End quote ---
I believe that the trees mark the locations of Mansions.
--- Quote from: Camlost on December 01, 2015, 03:53:07 am ---
--- Quote ---A powerful voice rang out in Kuniuric
--- End quote ---
It seems odd to me that the Nonman's first attempt at communication would be in the language of a long dead civilization. Unless I'm mistaken and it is still used amongst the North? I almost wonder whether their encounter was as much happenstance as it appears. Compound this excerpt with the Sranc prints near the Anasurimbor stele and it seems less likely it was chance.
--- End quote ---
I think that since Scott let slip that the Nonman is Mekeritrig and also considering that Scott said it was a mistake to tell us that, means that one, there is no chance this meeting was just a coincidence, and, two, that the fact that it's Mekeritrig is significant. The reason he could be shouting in Kuniuric though is the same reason why he is prowling around Kuniuric ruins: he is reliving the past, trying to remember something, or someone.
--- Quote from: Camlost on December 01, 2015, 03:53:07 am ---
--- Quote ---"I see that you are a student. Knowledge is power, eh?"
--- End quote ---
To what is he referring? A student of sorcery? The Gnosis? A student of the Logos? If the latter, wouldn't he know the Dunyain cult disappeared during the Apocalypse, presumably wiped out? How might it be the former if Kellhus bears no Mark?
--- End quote ---
This seems to speak to a Moe-Mek connection, perhaps he refers to the Dunyain? We don't know what that word actually means.
There is the possibility that when Moënghus left Ishual, he met Mekeritrig on the way. Or, more likely, is that Moënghus met him in the first place, prompting his dismissal from Ishual. Perhaps it is actually to Moënghus that Mekeritrig speaks when he says, "I can see his blood in your face" not Celemomas or any of the other Ancient Anasûrimbors.
--- Quote from: Camlost on December 01, 2015, 03:53:07 am ---What is an elju? What does it do? Why is it necessary that he have one in his entourage?
--- End quote ---
The elju is a person who aid's an Erratic's memory. I don't really understand how a Sranc fills that role, but perhaps it was just a Sranc with uncommonly good language skill? Remember that Kosoter will be Cleric's elju later on.
I think the prologue is by far the best chapter in the series. So damn layered, but we have no real idea which are dirt and which are gold.
I read Chapter 1 this morning, which, coming from the Prologue, is so much slower, haha.
Only the following stuck me:
--- Quote ---“They call to me. They say that my end is not the world’s end. That burden, they say, is yours. Yours, Seswatha.”
--- End quote ---
This is Celemomas to Seswatha in Akka's dream. So, Seswatha's end is the end of the world? What dos that really mean?
MSJ:
Great analysis guys. I picked up on the incandescence also and could very well be Moe watching Kellhus. Camlost, a elju is someone who keeps the memories of a Nonman. The captain was Nil'gaccas elju.
One thing I picked up on that I hadn't noticed before. Is a quote at the very beginning of the prologue and something Kellhus ruminates to himself.
Prologue
--- Quote ---Thus we shall define the soul as follows: that which precedes everything.
--- End quote ---
Kelhuss
--- Quote ---But what came before , the Dûnyain had learned, was inhuman
--- End quote ---
If the soul precedes everything, and what came before is inhuman, then what's that say about the soul? And, the soul being what the fight is about in these books, I found that very interesting.
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