Earwa > The Almanac: TAE Edition

The Slog TJE - Chapters 1-3 [Spoilers]

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themerchant:

--- Quote from: Wilshire on March 17, 2016, 08:22:49 pm ---presumably the obscured face makes the fact that he is a nonman not readily apparent, but the depth of his mark worth a double take. Even it it was a normal mark he probably wouldn't have bothered with the double take.

--- End quote ---

I don't see a double take in the text.

"A second man, his face concealed by a black cowl, sat three paces behind him, leaning forward as though straining to hear something in the water's ambient rush. The traveller peered at him for a moment, as though trying to judge some peculiarity, then returned his gaze to the first man."

He "peers at him for a moment" then returns "his gaze to the first man" , does he look back again in the rest of the text?

I'm not sure if he does see a mark or not. I don't see him doing a "double take" For me it's looking turning away, brain catches up with eyes and you look again.

He stares at him as he is peculiar thinks of him as a "man" we know it's actually a non-man, couldn't this also account for the action?

MSJ:
@Wilshire, that's why I asked the question, it doesnt make sense. The Consult has no control over the No-God if I remember correctly. And,  for some reason I don't recall Kellhus being near any Chorae. Just might've missed something, dunno.

Wilshire:
I haven't gotten here yet, but I don't think we have any idea why sakarpus was spared. Atrithau, specifically, is said to be spared due to anarcane ground, but even then we don't know why that helped.

Bolivar:
Started reading this week, really enjoying it. I thought it was funny, given the real world situation, when Kelmomas asks:


--- Quote --- “When will Father return?”
...
“Not for some time, Kel,” she said. “Not until the Great Ordeal is completed.”
--- End quote ---

I might be reading too much into this but I found it interesting how the first chapter begins:


--- Quote --- The tracks between whim and brutality are many and inscrutable in Men, and though they often seem to cut across the impassable terrain of reason, in truth, it is reason that paves their way. Ever do Men argue from want to need and from need to fortuitous warrant. Ever do they think their cause the just cause. Like cats chasing sunlight thrown from a mirror, they never tire of their own delusions.
--- End quote ---

It goes on to describe how the great Ordeal was prepared for the rest of the first section. On the one hand, it's a cynical assertion that Earwans don't actually care about the No-God or the Apocalypse, it's just the rationalization they use to take what they want from others, purge the non-believers, and eventually sack cities like Sakarpus. At first I actually thought it was about Kellhus and wondered what whim or want, as opposed to the need and reason of averting apocalypse, would cause him to call the ordeal. Either way, it confirms what the Judge suggests before the prologue and what many of the characters and ourselves suspect, that the Ordeal not exactly what it claims to be.

As far as Esmenet, it seems she's already been driven to the brink at the beginning of TJE. Her control over her ministers is tenuous at best, the world knows her as a tyrant, and she admits to having episodes where the gravity of it all floods in and overwhelms her while conducting affairs of state. At the end of WLW, she and Maithanet suspect Kellhus does not care if the new empire falls but this reread pushes me more to the idea that he willfully intended for it to happen, Which makes this all the more horrifying:


--- Quote --- Short of the No-God’s resurrection, nothing can save Golgotterath. The Consult’s only hope is to fan the embers, to throw the New Empire into turmoil, if not topple it altogether. The Ainoni have a saying, ‘When the hands are strong, attack the feet.’”
--- End quote ---

Much like the first holy war, Maithanet suggests the Consult might be exacerbating political strife for their own gain. That they could be goading or assisting Fanayal and Psatma Nannaferi. The mysterious significance of the Satyothi skin spy in this chapter could be to confirm they have agents in the Zeumi court, the last true rival to the new empire, and who we know is considering throwing their support behind Fanayal.

We know the Interdiction was likely imposed to keep the soldiers in the dark about the conflict that would surely erupt about the power vacuum. But what would it do to morale if it went one step further and the Consult actually truly destroyed these cities? And what are the implications of Kellhus opening the door for the Consult to do so? Perhaps he had no other choice if Golgotterath is to be destroyed but at again, it really feels like he went out if his way to set Esmenet up to fail.

Wilshire:
The difference here though is that the collapse of the Empire, at this point, is not rellevent. They would have needed its collapse before the holywar disembarked.

The vacuum left behind, the collapse of the empire, does not stop the men already marching, bent on the destruction of the Consult.

Even then, as many suspect, Kellhus purposefully left behind  a broken empire such that Fanayal and/or Zeum could easily take control in a way that no one he left behind could do. Could maybe Maithanet hold the Empire together better than Esmi? Probably, but unlikely that he would be more effective than the entire military dominance of another whole nation.

Also, recall that the  TTT requires that all people of all faiths unite, which should include the remaining crumbling Fanim and the yet untouch Zeum. The Ordeal's failure unites the rest of the 3seas in a way impossible to do without such an event. Seswatha coming back to warn the Three Seas seems extremely likely to happen again - whoever becomes that harbinger is not terribly relevant. What is relevent is he/she/their effectiveness at convincing those left behind that more action is needed.

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