Yeah, I didn't mean to imply it had to be either/or. Obviously both are important, but it just seemed like Bakker really weighted it on one side near the beginning of the story and then abruptly shifted gears later...the emphasis seemed to shift so abruptly and so significantly (from my reading of it anyway) that I found it a bit jarring.

I'm a new poster who just finished _The White-Luck Warrior_ and am anxious to get to _The Unholy Consult_ as soon as possible...great stuff. I have to admit that some of the things that have come more to the fore in the new series in regards to actually getting a glimpse of the gods is making me wonder exactly how the religious metaphysics, and esp. the make-up of the hundred and the One, of Bakker's world actually works.

So, we know that the hundred "can't see" the No-god, which I guess can make some sort of sense from the perspective that their interest/powers/authority resides in the elements of the created world and esp. in the lives of those with souls. So, I guess I can see how in some sort of overarching sense of 'picking up on the life-force' (or whatever) of the No-god isn't happening, BUT how is it really possible that these gods, who have been shown to have close, and even personal, connections with the lives and thoughts of humans could be unaware of the effect that the No-god is having on the world...the utter havoc he wreaked during the First Apocalypse and the subsequent ways in which the No-god's existence was imprinted on the life of Earwa. Are we really supposed to believe that the hundred are unaware of this, or are willfully ignoring it/think it's just a lie?! Kind of hard for me to swallow that they can either be completely unaware of it, or that they choose to ignore the obvious signs/fallout that the No-god's existence brings about.

Also, in regards to the hundred and the One. I also assumed that the hundred were 'finite aspects' of the One...expressions of the One's being that existed apart from him, but were ultimately derived from him. So, based on power level/participation in the fundamental aspects of reality they are contingent to him and thus weaker...but I am unclear on whether or not the One is also unaware of the No-god's existence in the same way as the hundred? If not, then it seems strange to me that there has been no visible action on his part to counter the No-god (unless the ultimate triumph of Anaxophus V and Seswatha is to be attributed to his intervention in some way).

Finally I'm wondering how damnation really works in this world. My initial impressions were that it was pretty much something that could not be un-done and that regardless of one's intentions one would be damned for one's actions if they were classified as evil (though I'm not sure how that can be objectively codified given that amongst the hundred are gods who might view some pretty heinous actions as "virtuous" and therefore one man's damnation might be another's salvation as long as he did it for the right god), but Mimara implies that Galian can be still be saved, though I really wonder how. Does this mean someone like Achamian could be saved if this elusive retributive action can be done? Or is the practice of sorcery a sin that cannot be forgiven?

Sorry for the rambling and incoherence. Any thoughts?