So I have just finished The Unholy Consult and registered on this forum and thought I'd talk about some of the things that don't completely make sense to me. This is going to be a bit disjointed as I have been writing this piecemeal while waiting for confirmation of my account. I apologize for the disjointedness of this post. At this point, I'd also like to take the opportunity to express my anger at Scott (seemingly) killing off Kellhus. He is hands down my favorite character in the series. Anyone else really dislike Achamian? (I am not saying that any of this is bad writing.)

To put things a bit more into context. I was born 1988 and as far as fantasy is concerned, I grew up with Lord of the Rings and have also been reading stories that have important human themes (raise your hand if you do not get the reference). I have started reading fantasy (and some SciFi) books again in recent years. Notable series are The Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Kingkiller Chronicle, and the two Malazan main series (probably my favorite to date). The Gentlemen Bastards was also a fun read. I hated The Magicians, by the way.

Anyway, I have seen some people implying that there is a chance of Kellhus being alive. That is, his actual physical body surviving the chorae attack. I have not seen any of that in the book and the Zeum sorcerer's point of view clearly states him seeing Kellhus' salted body. Granted, he may have been deceived somehow but is there any direct indication that Kellhus actually survived?

I have also seen someone mention the "head on the pole" passage somehow being related to Kellhus' continued existence on Earwa. I honestly did not get that part at all and was wondering if someone could explain the head on the pole sequence and how it relates to him surviving or being reborn etc.

The scenes with Kelmomas and the two (other) instances of the White-Luck Warrior have been bugging me a bit. I feel like the author has either written himself into a corner in regard to the Dunyain's capabilities (making them too powerful to fail) or he did this on purpose to set something up that has yet to be revealed (likely). In their first encounter we see Kellhus surviving because Kelmomas cries out to them and I would think that Kellhus can calculate what would have happened if Kelmomas had not. (In addition to Kellhus seeming to be SURPRISED by Kelmomas appearing in both instances.) When Kelmomas killed Sorweel, Kellhus did not notice that he was trying to take out the chorae (not sure if he succeeded in taking it out but he would have at least noticed the movement) and this, in combination with Kelmomas being involved a second time in a to him unusual-seeming incident (considering that he cannot see the WLW/WLW's actions), seems completely out of character based on what we know of Kellhus' abilities. It is also suspicious that he told Esmenet where he chained up Kelmomas. He simply MUST have known and wanted that Esmenet free him. Anything else does not make any sense given his clearly demonstrated predictive capabilites. Why would he want that? Clearly so that Kelmomas would be free to act again in the future. Chaining him up seemed to have been simply one way to extricate Kelmomas from the situation since him remaining in the tent could have resulted in a confrontation with Serwe and others. It was also a way of making Kelmomas oblivious to the fact that Kellhus wants him free and obviously influencing him in a very specific way. In all of this I assume that Kelmomas was some other god's White-Luck and this is why Yatwer could not see him. Everything seems to point to Ajokli but this defeats my whole point of Kelmomas unwittingly working for Kellhus and against Ajokli. I am sure this is not the only flaw in my reasoning though. I somehow do not buy Kelmomas being the No-God though.

By the way, why was the skin spy suddenly free to move his hand and what happened to Kellhus' god-like reflexes and situational awareness? Why do people on this forum say that Kelmomas appearing at the end exorcized/paralyzed Ajokli? My impression was that Ajokli himself was salted (Ajokli in Kellhus' body at least). Is it eisegesis or am I missing something?

Surely it is no coincidence that Moenghus ended up with Cnaiur and planned by Kellhus/Serwa. What do you think? Why were we shown interactions between Kelmomas and The People? Has anyone gleaned anything from that?

Also, was anyone else disappointed by lack-luster entrance of the Inchoroi? They seemed to be very powerful beings when they interacted with humans in previous books and I fully expected them to be in charge of the Consult. Maybe I just did not pay enough attention to the creation and history of the Consult though. This was most likely done intentionally by Scott but I still would have liked to see more from at least Aurax--even when facing almighty Kellhus.

Just one point concerning Bakker himself. While I do not know anything about his personal beliefs, one thing I like is that they seemingly do not interfere with him telling a good story. While I really like the Malazan universe, this is something that has bothered me about Steven Erikson at times. Anyone else familiar with both authors and the inclination to comment on this?

What is the Canon Artifact?

What happened to the skin-spy with a soul? Was it Fake Serwe?

And lastly the greatest mystery of all: Why were Kellhus' daughters not born as (Half) Whales?

[Wilshire Edit: Changed title to include spoiler warning]