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1. TUC imo = Fantastic work Scott, bravo.

So your enthusiasm\talk with the author was a lie?

Haha, no.

Bakker's ambiguity makes me want to discuss his stuff. The problem is my inability to effectively communicate with others.

Ergo, I should avoid his work in order to avoid my reaction in order to avoid these situations.

Please excuse my incredulous sarcasm in my previous post. It's become rather clear to me that my interpretation of these books so often runs against consensus that I must be deluding myself as to what I am reading.

I think it's best if I just stay out of these discussions and avoid Bakker's work entirely in future.

You really think the Mutilated let an Anasûrimbor (even an eight year old one) run around the heart of the Ark doing whatever he wants? Wow.

“See!” the child gurgled, squealing for preposterous joy. “I told you! I told you! They can’t see me! The Gods! The Gods can’t see me!”

Kelmomas has clearly been interviewed by the Mutilated extensively and held back for this eventuality.

Fwiw, I interpret the 'oar' as the horde controlled by Mog also. They power and steer the Apocalypse as the no-god's tool and here are used to spank the Ordeal. There is no need for Bakker to invent yet another term for Tsuramah, but there is a need to differentiate the Horde from the Oar as a controlled swarm of sranc.

Also, the Boding is clearly a contraction of 'foreboding' referring to the directional existential dread projected from the Black Heaven.

There is a part when he stands against the Nansur where he looks like he is aspected by Gilgaol, iirc. Possession is really stretching it imo.

Pallbearer; Sorrow and Extinction.

The grinding riffs and lyrics meshed so well with TUC.

Indeed Sausuna. I was referring to the lack of particulars we get. When Mimara looks at Galian she sees why he is damned and his fate in the outside and we share that knowledge. With Esme we just get the bald fact that she is not damned.

I wonder how Yatwer rationalized the failure of the white luck. Maybe she decides that she was really doing something else... or perhaps she blames Ajokli.

 Even more strange that she takes Sorweel after he fails, isn't it? Or maybe he is saved because his real mother intervenes, as per Kinuit tradition.

interesting idea, but didn't the WLW remember killing Esmenet though?

I feel like the Gods get much their knowledge of Earwa from their worshippers' memories/souls. Storks et al do recon but do not impart any meaning.

The first apocalypse was probably like a flash of white noise to them, I think.

Somewhere Sranc are described as "lies made flesh", which is also pretty interesting and perhaps pertinent.

 The WLW sections are revealing in that they describe him doing stuff as though remembering and only focus on specific moments that have great importance to Yatwer. I.e. he moves between moments of giving to the places he needs to be to enact Her will.

I'm not sure that the Hundred have anything to do with Mimara's salvation, and I'm fairly convinced they aren't the source of the Judgement that damns people. Rather, I think their intercession is opportunistic, but I concede that is mostly a hunch rather than for reasons I can properly articulate.

Edit; another interesting thing is that Psatma says only Yatwer and Gilgaol can forcibly take souls rather than just catching those who reach for them when they die. Something Sorweel's fate seems to demonstrate after he decides that the Ordeal is for realzies.