Hello, Mr. Bakker!
First, I want to congratulate you on finishing "The Aspect-Emperor" at long last! I'm very grateful for your work, and have no desire to blame it or you for anything. And I'm very satisfied with the ending.
I actually have quite a complicated relationship with the Second Apocalypse. I couldn't read "A Song of Ice and Fire" (and have no plans to do so, as well as only superficial plans to watch "Game of Thrones") because it was too violent and cynical for my taste. Instead, I've read wikis on it, following the bits of the plot and setting that interested me. When I first heard about the Second Apocalypse (browsing TV Tropes, actually), that was my first instinct, too. But then a strange thing happened. Wikis and spoilers actually clarified nothing for me, and after some consideration I began reading the books themselves. And so it is: "A Song of Ice and Fire" is too grisly for me, but I've read the Second Apocalypse (more than once, and will re-read it again). Needless to say, I have no regrets.
And the concept that first and foremost caught my fancy way back when? The No-God.
It's my belief that you've spectacularly succeeded in your quest to make a work that challenges, even abhors, but keeps people reading all the same, imparting thought and making them more then they were. It most certainly did in my case. If you're proud of your accomplishments, then you should be! I can only concur.
At this point I have two questions for you:
1. I should not expect Earwa to be perfectly thought out in every respect, since no writer is God, but there seem to be actualized philosophical principles in the world of the Second Apocalypse. Some of them are created by the Tekne (the Inverse Fire and the No-God), some have unknown origin (the Outside, possibly the Judging Eye), and some are sorcerous (Chorae, though I feel only to an extent). This troubles me since there are no real world alternatives to such things, and so I can't relate. Which means any kind of logical reasoning about the nature of the world of Earwa is fundamentally flawed (more than usual), because those are things in themselves, working as you want them to or as needed for the narrative. Could you comment on this issue?
2. In my opinion, there is (after the end of "The Unholy Consult") one and only one undoubtedly heroic character in the Second Apocalypse and that character is Anasurimbor Serwa. She was, of course, by no means perfect, but her intentions and actions (as I see them, and my sight is also by no means perfect) speak for themselves. She followed her father, because she wanted to save the world. She battled the Horde and suffered hardships of the Great Ordeal. She lived through Ishterebinth. She saved Moenghus. She was capable of love, and loved Sorweel. She mourned him when he died. She saved Mimara, Achamian, and Esmenet before attending to her mission, which makes her human as opposed to Kellhus. Oh, and she also killed a dragon with all its retinue. A dragon that kept the entirety of the Great Ordeal at bay. Some people argue that your books are misogynistic. And yet the most heroic character in them is a woman. Are you laughing now? I know I would be, quite evilly so!