Thanks for the comments, guys.  Like your stuff, Quinthane.

Wilshire:  I have a couple of sketches to that effect.  I think I got a little invested in the parallels between the Inchies and Sobek, so made this particular one along those lines.  Still dusting off the old art skills, but I'll probably try a version more like the one you're suggesting as time allows.

Cheers.

What if the No God is Kellhus?

I am currently re-reading the series (what else am I gonna do until TUC comes out?), and am on TWP.  Reading the part where the Holy War is camped out on the Plains of Mangedda, and Akka is having a particularly intense dream of the First Apocalypse.  Between dreaming and waking from this dream, he's having a conversation with Esme about Kellhus.  The No-God is shown speaking, threading his dialogue in with the conversation about Kellhus.  Seems like it might be supporting your theory, giving some foreshadowing.  Does Kellhus succeed in obtaining the Absolute, thus transforming into the No-God in the process?  Classic case of 'be careful what you wish for'...

I lol'd.  Hilarious!

So, I don't know if this looks 'more' like a chorae or not.  Quite challenging to get any detail that small and not just look muddled.

Thanks, guys.  Got the itch, so I took a little time and made a better one.

Continuing the derailment...   Graham Hancock also wrote a book about DMT and shamanistic trips in which he and others interacted with 'other' entities.  It is called Supernatural and definitely skews the perspective to fit his own agenda, but was an interesting read.

I don't even believe that the Gates in question (the Breaking of the Gates) are remotely physical.  Everything in Aspect Emperor indicates Gates are metaphysical.

Follow that line of thought long enough and you get to my crackpot that Earwa is HEAVEN, the Nonmen are seraphim, and the inchoroi have succeeded in waging war on heaven, ala Satan in Paradise Lost.  The humans in Earwa are the ones who have already attained salvation, thus the need to avoid getting kicked out of Heaven. 

or at least, that's my spoil it all take on the overall setting.

To expand on your theory (which I like very much btw), the Inchoroi (demons/devils) 'crashed' Heaven, found they couldn't destroy the Nonmen on their own, so looked to Eanna (Purgatory) to the humans there (who had not YET attained salvation like the Emwama had) and convinced them to storm Heaven, breaking the seals (gates) between realms, thus damning everyone for their transgressions in the process.

Or maybe Earwa is Eden instead of heaven itself.  The Inchoroi would then become the serpent.  If I remember correctly, before they birthed mouths, the Inchoroi spoke in the 'gasping tongue,' which sounds like how someone might describe the voice of a talking serpent.  Either way, I think the invading tribes damned themselves by breaking the gates.  I wonder what the Judging Eye would see when gazing upon a Xiuhianni in Eanna.  Did they escape damnation, I wonder, by refusing to enter Earwa?

I also believe it might have something to do with societal caste prohibitions.  The warrior caste has access to arms and armament with nary a question raised because they need those items to fulfill their duties.  I doubt jnan would allow for cross-caste access to the accoutrement of other castes.  Certainly caste-menials would not be allowed arms and armament.  I think when you become a schoolman, you're automatically prohibited from owning or at least displaying certain items, armor probably being one of them.