Whoever blew it up, they could have a shitload of goodies.  Think what the Consult could do with a hoard of compulsion-slave dunyain.  The information and the bodies.  Hope Kellhus thought of that one.

I'd also postulate that a Dunyain would be significantly worse at the Anagogis than the Gnosis.

Huh.  So Dunyain + Anagogis would run into some of the same issues as Dunyain + Psukhe.  I'm not sure, Kellhus doesn't seem to have much problem with imagery when he preaches.  I am hoping for at least one battle between a dragon and a fully conjured sorcerous dragon.

And I'm just left wondering who Mimara's father was and how come he broke the shell's spell of infertility.

WONDERFUL

Candidates: The God, a god, really was Akka, Moe?

@ lockesnow - It never occured to me that Moe 'rode' a sranc heard to the south.  It's a cool idea, but I still find it a hard sell.  Moe's encounter with the sranc always left me wondering what they hell they could have done to him and would the actions be on a level of "breaking" a dunyain (in the same manner Moe asserts that K is broken).  Mewonders if Moe was 'tainted' in some way and that it's going to effect the fulfillment of the TTT.

I'm hesitant to think that Moe simply overcame the sranc because (apparently) Kellhus did not and that would have been a phuckload more easy than fighting all the way to death's door just to be rescued by Cnaiur in the nick of time.

About your longer post--I LOVE IT!!!  I don't know if it's true, but I just love the idea that K's whole adventure follows Moe's plan (God has a plan for your life, Kellhus).  All those coincidences line up real nice to see Kellhus exalted and PERSONALLY CONVINCED of his special stature.  Plus all the other events too good to be true: Esmi's rare womb available at the right time, Akka pushed into Kellhus' path and preserved, a daimotic spared till he can teach, etc. 

I'm really hoping that TUC ends with a big reveal that someone's been masterminding the whole time and then BAM, but they didn't think of X!  But actually they did.  But they didn't think of Y!  But they did.  They thought of everyt..stabbed in the neck.  The NG is loosed without anyone to control him.

Moe's Plan reminds me of Gandolf taking care to off Smaug and a balrog before the final confrontation with Mordor.

The only ammendment I might propose: no reason that Moe must do it all alone.  He could stand at the head (or be a principal member) of a cabal of dunyain, cishaurim, and new/turned ensouled skinspies.  Whole hoards of markless sorcerers conditioning Kellhus' path from hobbit hole and back again.  Cish on hand to send dreams (just to K), Cish on hand to distract/prevent Mekeritrig overdoing it, Cish on hand to make sure Conphas wipes out Scylvendi to allow for Nansur might to join holy war and clear the path for the great ordeal later.

BUT, then I start to wonder if I'm just confusing Moe with Bakker.  Circumstances have to be contrived or else there is no story! 

I haven't thought about Conphas and Fanayal together as kids.  I think I'd like to see that in the Atrocity Tales.

About Conphas being both conditioned by Moe AND resistant to Kellhus, this, to me, made the conversion of the holy war possible in the manner of thesis- antithesis- synthesis.  Kellhus' eventual possession of the holy war (in that he holds their hearts like no other) needed a drama of tension to create the crisis moment when almost all of the holy war would suddenly become K's.  I think...

i have nothing to add about how ses escaped, but one thing sticks out to me about this event: what about compulsions?

we know akka resisted the scarlet spires compulsions because of seswathat within, but how did it go with seswatha? 

possibilities:
1) ses told them everything because there is no way to resist compulsions other than being possessed by an ancient and powerful sorcerer (would he have planned for this eventuality?)
2) ses resists the compulsions via superior skills - would be the first we know of
3) ses resists the compulsion via possession - who moves the unmoved mover?
4) ses was not compelled - why would mekeritrig miss this opportunity? he's already got the collar on him

i think this is significant because i'm counting on someone in tuc or later to appear compelled but really be free, cast doubt on the efficacy of compulsions

Quote from: Mog Kellhus

I also wonder about the scene with the boy. It could just remind us that the Consult is still watching despite the end of the Holy War and of course there is always emphasis to its evil and perverted nature.But i am not so sure..

About Cnaiur i believe Bakker said that his story arc is over and so i assume that he indeed commited suicide. After killing Moe he did not really had any other purpose.....I really miss him, such an interesting character to read about!!!

I think this is the most likely thing.  Consult just perverts.  BUT, what about the dead not escaping the plate?  That's the one quote that's got me musing on the Inchoroi's motivation.  Why risk death and damnation when you already live forever?  Do they think they can reverse the thing?  Would getting Sil back (or whoever, Aurang's first girlfriend) be motivation enough to fight the long long war?

I'm going to go with the notion that the Cish killers were sent from Moe, BUT I don't want to rule out other Dunyain interaction.  I could see a Dunyain/Cishaurim conspiracy stretching way back.  Dunyain+Cishaurim would make the execution of the TTT eeeeaaassy (what with all the little circumstances that needed to happen before the holy war to eventually get all of the 3 seas under one umbrella).

@ locke - I think that skull stumble is vary important too.  Whatever Kellhus' plans, there's going to be something unforseen and deadly in his blindspot.

Also like your point that a consult skin spy in atyersus would just do the obvious thing and destroy the heart.  Even if there are a lot of wars and even if the Consult are playing a long con, it seems too important to simply snuff out Seswatha in the world to pass up.

@ Francis Buck - As for Moe getting his followers to die for him, that really clashes with Kellhus' assertion that Moe only had power when he had the ear of the great.  This makes me think that Moe's water level is really really irrelevant so long as he's got others to do it.

@ Madness - I had never considered the discovery of the skin spies as anything other than a Moe thing!  +1!!!  That would be cool, the Cish playing a game deeper than the Dunyain, making a tool out of the slavers!

As far as Moe thinking about what sorcery Kellhus would acquire, I think Moe would have been in the south long enough to know that the gnosis was preferable to the anagogis, BUT I totally agree with you that Akka is too much of a wild card.  I bet that Moe was planning on Kellhus getting the easier to get magic first, and then being so awesome with it + holy mission of destroying Consult = he would eventually get the gnosis.

THAT IS, unless Moe/Dunyain/Cish are manipulating events at a very specific level.  They could do it with enough Cishaurim and lordy knows that Moe has been in the south long enough to have a Cish army far larger than the SS's estimation.  In that case, Akka is just pushed into Kellhus' path.

Back to Moe, why does he lack the gnosis?  He would certainly know about it and would have all the means to capture/seduce a mandati, thus: 1) the psukhe prevents his acquisition of the gnosis or 2) he doesn't want it.  I'm thinking its #2, Kellhus gets to be damned for the sake of all the rest of the Dunyain/World.

@ Curethan - I'm really torn about the difference in sight between Kell/Moe.  I think it might be somewhat plausible that using snakes to see makes you see even better.  I wonder what the limit is on Moe's seeing-through-critters?  Could he watch Kellhus through a Sranc's eyes in snowy north?

@ Borric - I have to agree with you, I think that the assassination/invitation to the SS was Moe's way of efficiently including another great power of the 3 seas into the new union.  Without this motivation, who knows, maybe the SS would have forbid Ainon's involvement in the holy war, thus making it harder to overcome Kian/Nilnamesh and setting up more conflict in Ainon later (even more than Kellhus had to deal with anyways).

@ Somnambulist - Totally!  The SS had to be humbled in order to be dominated.

@ Wiltshire - I don't know, I think Moe would have projected Kellhus getting sorcery much sooner than he actually did.  It took Kellhus so little time to actually learn the gnosis once he got started, in an alternate world, Kellhus ends up near the SS early on and has the Anagogis before they even get out of the desert?

@ themerchant - I love the idea that Somas is Moe-made!  That would tie up something that I've been worried about: how can Maitha & Co be so sure that Somas is an accident?  I was wondering if the Ordeal was going to be overun by a hoarde of skinspy sorcerors.  You have converted me.  Welp, I wonder where else Moe has got his skinspy magicians and wtf are they doing?