[Seomus]

I'd imagine there is more to the swazond that we don't know yet.

I find it incredibly interesting that Cnaiur gave Serwe one true swazond.

I just read that part today in my reread of the series, and what Cnaiur said about the Swazond to Serwe after marking her really jumped out at me this time: “The man you have killed is gone from the world, Serwë. He exists only here, a scar upon your arm. It is the mark of his absence, of all the ways his soul will not move, and all the acts he will not commit. A mark of the weight you now bear.”

Are the Scylvendi trying to deny the gods, whether it was once intentional or not, the souls they crave to feed on by marking the swazond? And if so, that might piss them off. And, as they say, none bear more swazonds then Cnaiur.

[Cüréthañ]

Remember the Scylvendi worship the No-god. This theology makes a hell of a lot more sense if the gates to outside are closed.

[Triskele]

Isn't there a saying about the No-God along the lines of "the soul that encounters him goes no further?"  That's remarkably similar to what Nayu says about Swazond. 

[Cüréthañ]

Yep. Has an entry in the Glossary, which might be significant in itself.

"A line from 'the Sagas' referring to the Battleplain and the belief that all those who perish there remain trapped."

[The Great Scald]

......the Breaker of Horses and Men, not such a great guy after being Dunyain mind fucked.

Cnaiür fit thematically into this book for that reason; he's the polar opposite of Anasûrimbor Koringhus in many regards. They both demonstrate how damnation relates to free will vs. determinism. Cnaiür was likely "born to damnation" due his culture, no matter what - but he wouldn't be damned to that extreme degree if Moenghus didn't enter his life.

Koringhus's story, by contrast, demonstrates that a form of "free will" does exist in Eärwa (which is absolutely a fatalistic universe, not deterministic). Koringhus was also born to damnation, like all Dûnyain, and was damned by the circumstances - by the facts of life that he couldn't control. But in the rare moments when he did have control, he made the righteous choice, such as saving his defective son from euthanasia. This, along with his epiphany of "All is One", leads to him finding the Absolute (the God of Gods) and being no longer damned.

Maybe things would've been different if Cnaiür had stumbled upon Mimara or found Taoism at an earlier point - but I really doubt it. His death-worshipping culture and violent temper would've damned him anyway, Moenghus or no.

[geoffrobro]

I laughed aloud at Cnaiir in TGO. He just loves the sound of his own voice. Lol give loves to give a barbaricly poetic mouthful of a paragraph to get his simple points across. He's a real dark comic also he says one great line when he slaps Akka. Something like "what do you think this is? A reunion of old friends?" Lmao cnaiir I see that age hasn't dulled that senses of humor you have.

[Triskele]

RSB's quote upthread makes it seem pretty clear that Nayu is literally part demon now, and I think he's described with the very word "demon" in that last chapter either by the narrator or by Mimara's point-of-view. 

I feel like it was hinted at that Kosoter was demonic as well, but now it seems it's been made more explicit. 

So what does this imply?  Is Nayu's longevity related to this?  Is he harder to send back to Hell now than he would have been before the Outside started to seep in? 

[Cüréthañ]

*Crackpot* Maybe Cnaiur is dead but Khellus brought him back?

[Madness]

It's interesting having ended Moenghus that Cnaiur has now spent twenty years obsessing over murdering Kellhus.

I also think it's actually a little heavy-handed (or ham-fisted as Bakker might say) in TGO but the book itself reaffirms my view that Cnaiur basically the only true x-factor - after all, he was *so* unpredictable Kellhus, a Dunyain, couldn't anticipate him. Cnaiur seems to think he plays the Consult to use them as a vehicle so he can murder Anasurimbor Kellhus but they also clearly play him in that Cnaiur seems to have been promised a hand in destroying Ishual (which depending on the future narrative is missed gold - imagine if the Survivor recounting and memories of the Siege and Fall of Ishual had included one mad and scarred human fighting Dunyain amongst the Sranc).

Add to this, the smoking swazond, the most Damned soul... Cnaiur remains the crux of much narrative ambiguity.

[themerchant]

at the end they were the same person for Cnaiur, he struggled to delineate between them.

[Madness]

There is a quote in TTT, something akin to "when did the son become the father" in terms of Cnaiur deciding who he was more obsessed with killing.

[RedSetter4570]

Off the wall idea: could Cnaiur be a skin spy?  Not saying I believe it, but it seems skin spies have gone rogue in the past.

[Wilshire]

Off the wall idea: could Cnaiur be a skin spy?  Not saying I believe it, but it seems skin spies have gone rogue in the past.

Only if by that you mean that before we ever met him he was a skin-spy. if so, then yeah he could be in the same way that everyone could be a rouge skin-spy . I don't think there is any reason to suspect that he is. Is there?

[Cosi]

I don't think Cnaiur can be a skin spy, actually. Mimara saw his crimes with the Judging Eye, which implies that he has a soul, which implies that he is not a skin spy. Unless Mimara lied, or she can actually see skin spies as damned (could she see Soma?).

[Wilshire]

Oh right, forgot about Mimara. I feel like she would have known if he was a skin-spy, soul or otherwise.