The Second Apocalypse
Earwa => The Aspect-Emperor => The Great Ordeal => Topic started by: JerakoKayne on August 27, 2016, 01:07:35 pm
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They have many different varieties. I've been puzzled since PoN about the laser weaponry... but now that it's revealed they had nukes, too?
I really don't understand why they ever had the need to fashion sranc, bashrag, wracu, skin-spies etc. If their goal is to reduce the soul-count why didn't they just do that with their weaponry that clearly sorcery doesn't effectively defend against? It's not like they were particularly attached to Earwa; irradiating the whole land doesn't seem like something that would stop them from their salvation.
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I kinda assumed the hardware or the knowhow was lost in the crash.
I suspect the Nuke was a one off functional device, saved for a real emergency?
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Almost their entire population died in the crash, including most of their experts, and most of their technology was also smashed. They've been forced to use whatever they could jury rig into functioning and salvage. They've been using half trained, trial and error bioengineering using what remaining semi functional tech they have, because that's all they got. When they fought the Nonmen they used up almost all their remaining weaponizable technology and that's what ultimately lead to their defeat because their Weapon Races alone weren't strong enough to prevail. It's surprising that they had a nuke left, but the Consult has had two thousand years to search the Ark and try to repair anything they found.
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They have many different varieties. I've been puzzled since PoN about the laser weaponry... but now that it's revealed they had nukes, too?
I really don't understand why they ever had the need to fashion sranc, bashrag, wracu, skin-spies etc. If their goal is to reduce the soul-count why didn't they just do that with their weaponry that clearly sorcery doesn't effectively defend against? It's not like they were particularly attached to Earwa; irradiating the whole land doesn't seem like something that would stop them from their salvation.
They had to live in Earwa after they "cleansed" it of souls. Somewhere in one of the books it's said they wanted to live in earwa so fashioned weapons that wouldn't render it inhabitable. Or words meaning similar. Trying to think where but drawing a blank at the moment, maybe a post by Bakker in zombie 3 seas.
Plus only 0.1% of the inchoroi survived the "landing" so lost the vast majority of their skills and workers.
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Yeah. Biotech can be quite a bit less infrastructure heavy than, say, manufacturing tanks. And once you've got sranc they just go ahead and manufacture themselves.
They did, as Cynical Cat says, use tekne artifacts. Apparently Nonmen Quya could at least counter them a bit with wards, long enough that they all either exhausted their power-sources or lost irreplaceable parts or simply became nonfunctional due to lack of people capable of maintaining them. If all but one out of a thousand humans died today in modern western civilization, it wouldn't be long before we'd have trouble fighting off spear armed tribesmen ourselves.
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I kinda assumed the hardware or the knowhow was lost in the crash.
I suspect the Nuke was a one off functional device, saved for a real emergency?
They clearly had to have more than one, and to have used them in the antique wars. Even with his ubermensch deductive reasoning, Kellhus' knowledge of the effects of the weapon, had to come from somewhere. Especially detailed knowledge of things like radiation sickness among the survivors, implies that much at least. Predicting the effects of a technology that otherwise doesn't exist in the world really stretches suspension of disbelief, even for Kell. He has to know what came before to know what comes after.
Almost their entire population died in the crash, including most of their experts, and most of their technology was also smashed. They've been forced to use whatever they could jury rig into functioning and salvage. They've been using half trained, trial and error bioengineering using what remaining semi functional tech they have, because that's all they got. When they fought the Nonmen they used up almost all their remaining weaponizable technology and that's what ultimately lead to their defeat because their Weapon Races alone weren't strong enough to prevail. It's surprising that they had a nuke left, but the Consult has had two thousand years to search the Ark and try to repair anything they found.
Fascinating. This makes a great deal of sense. Thanks! I need to alter a few assumptions; I had the impression it was more a predisposition of their species to utilize the biologic components of the Tekne over the technological, and any loss of ability to comprehend it was due to a cognitive decline from their repeated augmentations.
Golgotterath itself seems to be the source of the Tekne, and skin-spies among other things seem to be a new invention which implies it's still functional post-Arkfall to some degree, so the infrastructure, as it were, already seems to be there. Perhaps this means it produces biological Tekne only? I've always thought if it could make one, it could make the other. But I suppose there are different classes of 'Tekne', or perhaps this has simply become a blanket term for any artifacts the Inchoroi brought with them, regardless of origin? It does explain a finite supply of some Tekne, but not others.
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Tekne is general term for Inchoroi technology, but it must be remembered that this is seen through the perception of people who don't have modern science. They know Inchoroi science can produce fantastic results and they know it is distinct from sorcery, but they treat it like a kind of sorcery because that's their closest analogue to super science. So they know skin spies and ray guns are both products of the Tekne but they don't know the biology or engineering principles behind them or how different those two fields are. That's also how they can confuse skin spies for products of strange sorcery because that's what it is to them. The Inchoroi were heavily into biological modification and augmentation and that the Ark is huge and supported a vast population. That probably resulted a wider spread of biolotech skills and an extensive network of supporting machinery that might have survived in one form or another.
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Doesn't someone at some point even erroneously call the Tekne the "sorcery of the material" or something like that?
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I think there's one more big reveal for how the Consult is trying shut out the world. If all they wanted to do was kill everyone then they could have just waited inside the Ark and let the No-God let humanity die of old age and stillborn babies.
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I think there's one more big reveal for how the Consult is trying shut out the world. If all they wanted to do was kill everyone then they could have just waited inside the Ark and let the No-God let humanity die of old age and stillborn babies.
And let humans unite with Nonmen, gather their numbers and strength, and beseige the Ark? Not a good plan until you've broken human civilization's capacity to resist. That giant horde of wild Sranc has to be harnessed and directed by the No-God to do that. Remember the Sranc aren't nearly as numerous because the North is still full of human nations and there are fewer Erratics and more Nonman Mansions standing. The No-God guarantees eventual victory, but you need all those Sranc, Bashrags, and Wracu to prevent humans and Nonmen from kicking the Consults ass in the here and now.
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I think there's one more big reveal for how the Consult is trying shut out the world. If all they wanted to do was kill everyone then they could have just waited inside the Ark and let the No-God let humanity die of old age and stillborn babies.
And let humans unite with Nonmen, gather their numbers and strength, and beseige the Ark? Not a good plan until you've broken human civilization's capacity to resist. That giant horde of wild Sranc has to be harnessed and directed by the No-God to do that. Remember the Sranc aren't nearly as numerous because the North is still full of human nations and there are fewer Erratics and more Nonman Mansions standing. The No-God guarantees eventual victory, but you need all those Sranc, Bashrags, and Wracu to prevent humans and Nonmen from kicking the Consults ass in the here and now.
Even as a worst case scenario, the Consult can't really lose so long as the No-God is kept safe. The humans never regained any sense of initiative in the first Apocalypse. The Consult could have just settled for a stalemate and they'd have won. The No-God has no business fighting in actual battles so I think we're missing something if the No God.
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I think there's one more big reveal for how the Consult is trying shut out the world. If all they wanted to do was kill everyone then they could have just waited inside the Ark and let the No-God let humanity die of old age and stillborn babies.
And let humans unite with Nonmen, gather their numbers and strength, and beseige the Ark? Not a good plan until you've broken human civilization's capacity to resist. That giant horde of wild Sranc has to be harnessed and directed by the No-God to do that. Remember the Sranc aren't nearly as numerous because the North is still full of human nations and there are fewer Erratics and more Nonman Mansions standing. The No-God guarantees eventual victory, but you need all those Sranc, Bashrags, and Wracu to prevent humans and Nonmen from kicking the Consults ass in the here and now.
Even as a worst case scenario, the Consult can't really lose so long as the No-God is kept safe. The humans never regained any sense of initiative in the first Apocalypse. The Consult could have just settled for a stalemate and they'd have won. The No-God has no business fighting in actual battles so I think we're missing something if the No God.
The humans never gained any initiative because they were not allowed to. They were constantly under attack by the No-God. It's worth noting that the No-God was kept back from the front lines until Megedda because the enemy was so strong at Megedda that the No-God had to put in an appearance. Offence was the correct strategy. Break the human nations one by one, before they unify. At Megedda the combined remnants of the North and South was strong enough to compel the No-God to take the field. To allow them to combine while the North was full of Nosirai and not ruins would have resulted in absolute disaster.
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The humans never gained any initiative because they were not allowed to. They were constantly under attack by the No-God. It's worth noting that the No-God was kept back from the front lines until Megedda because the enemy was so strong at Megedda that the No-God had to put in an appearance. Offence was the correct strategy. Break the human nations one by one, before they unify. At Megedda the combined remnants of the North and South was strong enough to compel the No-God to take the field. To allow them to combine while the North was full of Nosirai and not ruins would have resulted in absolute disaster.
Humanity was well past the point of no return when the Battle of Mengedda occurred. I forget where this was mentioned but in the Dreams the only victory they could hope to attain was to take as many of their foe with them before they all died. It was, for all intents and purposes a last Stand and everyone knew it. ,Even with an unlikely victory at Mengedda, humanity is still in the same bad position. They'd have still lost all its most powerful nations and it would just be a few months to replenish the Sranc. If humanity couldn't gain any ground against the Consult with all its great nations intact, then a stalemate is the best they could hope for and even that would be a long shot. IIRC the great legends of the Apocalypse seem to be of fortresses standing or halting the Consult advance even temporarily. Taking the No-God out for that last glorious battle honestly made no sense.
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Humans could feel the direction of the NG over the horizon if I remember correctly, so any attempt at evasion would likely be pointless. Difficulties in concealing and transporting a large artifact also would have narrowed down its possible locations. A massive force that could cull the disorganized Horde enough to approach the Sarcophagus would be a threat enough to warrant bringing NG's command mode into play. One could also simply split your armies and have one delay, stall or divert while another attempted a suicide run at the Sarcophagus. The difficulty of adequately managing the Horde to respond to human strategic overtures likely necessitated the application of NG's presence more than the Consult would have liked.
EDIT: Ancient/Medieval warfare is difficult. Inchoroi for all their sophistication and cunning are working with a large set of constraints and I would even say a degree of inexperience. They are likely used to steam-rolling the opposition with technological prowess. Prior to establishment of military academies and official doctrines, commanders also played by the gut a lot of the times which lead to both stupid/brilliant moves in history. At loss for all their technology and knowledge, tactical and strategic fuck-ups are to be expected. Besides they are a race of lovers. I'm betting they were sporting some mighty fine boners at the time, risk of damnation be damned.
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I kinda assumed the hardware or the knowhow was lost in the crash.
I suspect the Nuke was a one off functional device, saved for a real emergency?
My assumption has been that the Consult has been working hard for the last few thousand years to rediscover and understand tekne knowledge that was lost, and applying it in new ways. Thus the appearance of skin spies (improved biotech) and nukes (improved understanding of physics)
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The people at Mengedda had no hope because the Consult had worked hard to deprive them of it. Every time they rallied they were met in the field and shattered. The No-God had to keep the hype up. If it just left after Cil Aujas you'd have had Kyraneas and Shir and Nilnamesh and High Holy Zeum all deciding maybe they'd like to have babies again and team up. Then you have to hold them off for the next few decades, in concert. Not feasible.
The lack of experience may apply too, as JRControl said. I imagine the Inchoroi traditionally used orbital and air dominance to reduce greatly technologically inferior foes to ruin. The Cuno-Inchoroi wars were likely a very different matter as well. Now Aurang has had plenty of time to learn, but that may be no substitute from being born into an iron age martial culture.
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I kinda assumed the hardware or the knowhow was lost in the crash.
I suspect the Nuke was a one off functional device, saved for a real emergency?
My assumption has been that the Consult has been working hard for the last few thousand years to rediscover and understand tekne knowledge that was lost, and applying it in new ways. Thus the appearance of skin spies (improved biotech) and nukes (improved understanding of physics)
The skin spies are easier than the nukes because we know that some of the Inchoroi's biotech technology survived (Weapon races, grafts, Womb Plague) as well as two full blown Inchoroi. We know some of their weapons survived but most were used up or destroyed. Two thousand years is a lot of time for instruction, learning, experimentation, and refining. Nukes are a different matter from biotech as they have very demanding material and technological requirements to produce. Nukes also require maintenance over the long term and its been a very long time since the Ark fell from the sky. The Ark is, however, big and was once full of functioning tech and genocidal hypertech weaponry. The Consult doesn't have to build one from scratch, they just have to cobble together a new one from parts or restore a damaged one to function. It's even possible that the bomb wasn't a nuke. A small amount of antimatter would have roughly the same effect.
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To be fair we don't know that Golgotterath DOESN'T now have a facility capable of enriching uranium. Depending on what magic scifi stuff Bakker is assuming that might be more or less plausible than sequestering enough antimatter to make a bomb like that.
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Yeah, we don't know if they have an operational nuke factory but we do know if they have a bunch nukes then they don't really need the No-God. So they probably don't have a nuke factory. ;)
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I dunno. A big spread out iron age population would be less susceptible to nukes than a modern urban one. No-God would probably still be more effective in this case. Especially if they want to live in the world once they're done.
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My assumption has been that the Consult has been working hard for the last few thousand years to rediscover and understand tekne knowledge that was lost, and applying it in new ways. Thus the appearance of skin spies (improved biotech) and nukes (improved understanding of physics)
Indeed, I speculated on that earlier I think. As for the "why now" question on suddenly "developing" a nuke, I think that there are some plausible reasons why they such a thing wasn't used previously.
First, during the Apocalypse, they had the No-God. Bakker loves his, "when you have a hammer, everything seems like a nail" analogy. Why should they have needed more? We get the benefit of hindsight here that they should have obviously needed more, but at the time, attrition probably seemed like a pretty good strategy. Since the Consult couldn't find/get back the Heron Spear, there was reason to believe it might have been just totally lost. They rolled the dice wheeling out the No-God itself and lost that bet. Nothing that they lost though was irreplaceable though, from what they said even during tDtCB.
Second, I actually think this nuke was far more of a one-off thing than anything else. A fuel cell or whatever, rigged up so it could be detonated. It's the proverbial kitchen sink. So, why now? Well, because Kellhus is a real danger to actually kill the Consult, not just foil their plans. This was not a real danger during the First Apocalypse. The Consult knew that the Ark was unassailable. But now? I don't think they are so sure. It's time to find everything not nailed down and start throwing it in Kellhus path, hoping it somehow screws up his plan.
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I dunno. A big spread out iron age population would be less susceptible to nukes than a modern urban one. No-God would probably still be more effective in this case. Especially if they want to live in the world once they're done.
Which isn't a problem if they nuke the south and retire to Golgotterath for a decade. Remember they have the wild Sranc to finish the job for them. It isn't like they have to see each last human die. I'm in the "jury rigged improvised explosive camp". If they have multiple nukes, the Ordeal is pretty easy to destroy. Don't overestimate the effects of radioactive fallout. There are plenty of people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today. If the Consult has dozens of nukes, it can use them.
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They'd need so many nukes to impact such a decentralized agrarian population though, that they'd really almost need to rely on producing as much fallout as possible to get the job done. And having a nuke and having a delivery system are two separate problems. They probably don't have ICBMs or they wouldn't have just planted it in the dirt.
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I dunno. A big spread out iron age population would be less susceptible to nukes than a modern urban one. No-God would probably still be more effective in this case. Especially if they want to live in the world once they're done.
Which isn't a problem if they nuke the south and retire to Golgotterath for a decade. Remember they have the wild Sranc to finish the job for them. It isn't like they have to see each last human die. I'm in the "jury rigged improvised explosive camp". If they have multiple nukes, the Ordeal is pretty easy to destroy. Don't overestimate the effects of radioactive fallout. There are plenty of people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today. If the Consult has dozens of nukes, it can use them.
Eärwa's Sranc and Bashrag count was recently given a considerable blow at Dagliash/Viri though. There are others as far as we know, but the inexhaustible supply is possibly no longer as endless as it was pre-Ordeal.
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They didn't draw many clans from Kunuiri itself IIRC but without the No-God they're irrelevant now. I'm not sure how many bashrag there ever were or where they tend to live. Outside of Cil-Aujas we've only seen Consult bashrag rather than wild ones.
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They didn't draw many clans from Kunuiri itself IIRC but without the No-God they're irrelevant now. I'm not sure how many bashrag there ever were or where they tend to live. Outside of Cil-Aujas we've only seen Consult bashrag rather than wild ones.
There was the Ten Yoke Legion spotted by Sorweel/the Scions that came from Kuniüri, no?
Apart from that, I think you're right: The way the Scylvendi patrol the area suggests there are more Sranc out there.
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Yeah. They needed exscursoi to get throuh the Kuniuri wilds. And the Ten Yoke Legion was a relatively small force of sranc in the great scheme.
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The Horde's Sranc were mainly tribes from the Istyuli Plains,Sheneor and Aorsi.There are many tribes in Kuniuri and Akksersia.But yes they are irrelevant now for the Ordeal unless the No God walks.
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The Bashrag are going to require a lot more food than the Sranc and probably were designed to consume something higher up the food chain so they aren't competing for the same food in the wild as the Sranc. Their numbers are undoubtedly limited compared to the teeming hordes of Sranc. However, like Sranc they will attack human civilization on their own and Sranc breed far faster than men. If the Consult has nukes it doesn't need to kill every human. The Sranc and the Bashrag will finish the jobs of their own accord. The No-God will make it easier, of course, but taking out the Great Ordeal (why nuke it only once when you have more?) which conveniently concentrates much of the military power of men in one target, will start the ball rolling. Nuke a few more strong points and the Second Apocalypse will start No-God or no No-God.
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Do you think we will see further weaponry, biological, technical or sorcerous, as the new Apocalypse progresses?
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Do you think we will see further weaponry, biological, technical or sorcerous, as the new Apocalypse progresses?
Absolutely.
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I think it's a near certainty. We've really barely seen any Consult intervention at all. Now that the Horde is gone (and, apparently, Kellhus as well), it's time to bring out the big guns and truly start the war.
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If the older tech is in such short supply, or degraded, or whatever else, is it more likely to be a new biotech? Or something crazier than a nuke.
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Personally I'm giddy like a chinese schoolgirl that we are finally stepping into the pit of obscenities.
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New biotech seems more likely since more of the infrastructure seems to have survived. Plus at least in the real world biotech infrastructure is usually somewhat less demanding than other forms.
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Up till now the Consult have been able to use the ruined North and the wild Sranc as a defensive barrier. As that's no longer possible we're going to see all the toys. They will hit them with everything they've got. The Consult aren't exactly eager to die.
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I really don't think that we're gonna see a ton of Tekne weaponry. Maybe, maybe another Nuke, but I doubt it. I believe all efforts have been put into the resurrection of the No-God. The Nuke was a trap within a trap, trying to take out the Ordeal in one fell swoop. Its sorcery from here on out, and I imagine it's gonna be awesome.
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Other Tekne weaponry doesn't mean a nuke. It's much more likely to biological in origin, such as the hypothetical Battle Synthese.
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Other Tekne weaponry doesn't mean a nuke. It's much more likely to biological in origin, such as the hypothetical Battle Synthese.
And/or wracu, let's not forget about them. They grow bigger over time, according to the scene with Wutteät in WLW, right? According to accounts, at least some should have survived the defeat of the No-God, IIRC. And Wutteät, although himself no weapon of the Tekne and beaten by Akka + Cleric, is still Shrödinger's Dragon... Or at the very least, the whole box has not been lifted from him.
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Other Tekne weaponry doesn't mean a nuke. It's much more likely to biological in origin, such as the hypothetical Battle Synthese.
Yeah, Battle-Synthese!
The big revelation at the end of TDTCB for Achamian was that the advent of the No-God was close because the Skin-Spies were new artifacts of the Old Science, the Tekne.
Ur-Sranc were surprising in WLW but seemed to be a "they were there all along" thing. Same with the Sranc at the end of TGO, who emit pheromones to repel their "wild cousins" and keep the Consult's "human allies" safe.
I have a curious relationship with body horror - in that I don't know if I'm disturbed by it or not - but I'm really hoping Bakker goes full Silent-Hill in TUC.
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We're talking about the guy who had the Inchoroi show up for their first battle armoured in corpses and depicts Srancs wearing hauberks of human fingernails. I'm sure you'll get some body horror.
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Silent Hill body horror is a specific style. Although the description of bashrag anatomy is getting there.
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I've been curious about projectile weapons, too. If the Inkies ever really used ballistics is another question entirely, but some of the effects in the few sorcerous battles leads me to wonder just what gets through Wards and what doesn't. Certainly sound does, but perhaps some form of momentum? It's unclear how exactly the 'Odaini Concussion Cant' functions, exactly, but it does seem to go through Akka's opponent's Wards. That whole battle (where Achamian is captured by the Scarlet Spires in Iothiah) makes me wonder how sorcerers would far against, say, a gatling gun or similar. Loud reports and continuous stress produced!
@MSJ I look forward to future sorcery battles, as well! We know of several different varieties already, all with different ways of focusing their intent. Do the Inchoroi use the Gnosis of the Nonmen, or did they come up with some new version as alien to the Schools as are their very alien thoughts? Aurang was limited before, by distance, when we've seen his. When he brings it up close and personal, I really wonder what his sorcerous arsenal will look like.
For that matter, do the Scylvendi have an analogue to the Schools? I don't remember if the Way precludes this or not. That could be another new weapon, too.
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We know the Mangaecca were Gnostic sorcerers, but the Inchoroi prossibly have access to Quyan magic, as Mekeritrig is a Quyan mage. But a confrontation will surely be spectacular.
As long as the source of an attack is mundane, any Ward seems to work, though Abstractions seem easier and quicker to maintain. It's when magic comes into play that the power levels of the various types of magic comer into play. We haven't seen that many Gnostic vs Gnostic battles yet. It's always Gnostic vs Anagogic.
In a mage battle in equal level, we've only seen Akka's Oidanic Concussion against Cleric, but he wasn't warding.
Quyan magic seems to have been effective during the Cunuo-Inchoroi wars. That leads me to assume the wars would probably work. Possibly maintaining them would cost more energy, but apart from that...
Gnostic magic is simply superior to the Anagogis, as was explained in the first books. Akka explains it from a metamagical perspective.
Scylvendi have no mages, as far as we've seen at Kiyuth.
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We haven't seen that many Gnostic vs Gnostic battles yet. It's always Gnostic vs Anagogic.
In a mage battle in equal level, we've only seen Akka's Oidanic Concussion against Cleric, but he wasn't warding.
Yeah... what a long con Bakker's played. I can't wait for Gnosis on Gnosis.
Quyan magic seems to have been effective during the Cunuo-Inchoroi wars.
Allegedly, Wracu were breed specifically to fight Nonmen Quya.
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This is true. Which suggests their weapons of light weren't enough to overcome the Quyan wards.
I don't remember dragons being specifically immune to magic, either Quyan or Gnostic. But the sheer mass of iron would give them both enough resistance, momentum and impact-strength to crush any sorcerer.
I expect it's more like the difference between using a saw (but then an Abstraction of light) on flesh or on iron. It may work in the end, but the spells used are not developed for this.
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As long as the source of an attack is mundane, any Ward seems to work
I don't think we have enough evidence to support that. A nuke next to a sorcerer would likely obliterate him, no matter how many strong wards... And my reading of the books suggests to me that wards aren't entirely "bulletproof" - they depend on the strength of the sorcerer, and what he/she is facing.
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I agree with you Titan. My choice of words in the previous post may habe been poor: I do not assume Wards block everything continually. The easiest way to try and explain this is by using the Anagogic wards used during the famed Battle of Shimeh:
The wards are being described as Bulwark of this, Carapace of that, etc. That's because that is what it is. The bulwark and carapace can only take so much damage before being pierced/destroyed.
This is mentioned more than once in the books: The way to defeat a fellow mage isby overwhelming the opponents defences faster than that he can "repair" or "reinforce" them. This goes for mundane attacks as well: If my memory serves, in TJE, when Sorweel saves Eskeles, the cracking and breaking of his wards is being described as the Sranc attempt to break through.
In addition, Akka is described as only being able to chant his most simple wards because he is overwhelmed by Cleric's onslaught in WLW, or by the concerted effort of multiple Scarlet Spires in TWP.
Every attack batters an opponent's ward. Magic, or a charge by a dragon will go faster than a lone guy with a sword.
A nuke will probably blast his wards in an instant and kill him stone-dead.
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Not sure where to put this, a quick thought under "Inchoroi Weaponry" seems relevant enough to discussion about the No-God. Had a weird conclusion as I was randomly reading about Minoan burials at Knossos.
Sarcophagus means "flesh-eater" in Greek. I think Bakker is way too much of a classicist for this to be some random creative choice for the Carapace of the No-God to be referred to as a black sarcophagus over and over and over.
We've been saying continuously that the No-God needs to feed upon souls so as to have enough metaphysical juice to be launched, but I think this we may have had it reversed. The No-God consumes the material remains of ensouled beings so that their souls can go to the Black Heaven or whatever.
The repudiation of material reality/existence and reaching some spiritual nirvana automatically made me think of Koringhus committing suicide. Not sure if this means anything at all. But I think the etymology of sarcophagus and its repetition might be a big clue to something bigger.