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Topics - TheCulminatingApe

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1
General Earwa / Cants of Compulsion
« on: March 31, 2019, 07:01:06 pm »
Much is made in PON of the Cants of Compulsion, of how they enable the sorceror to possess the 'self' of another, blurring the distinction between the two.  The victims (as per Ch 6 TTT) in 'no way feel compelled', whilst others may control their words and actions, they nevertheless 'choose' to say or do.

We also see at the end of TTT what Kellhus can achieve by adding a second inutteral to a Cant of Calling - essentially turning telepathy into teleportation.  The implication for TAE is what therefore happens when he adds a second inutteral to a Cant of Compulsion (which he must surely have done)?  Is this the process by which he can physically move souls from body to body- i.e. the head swapping?

2
General Earwa / Inri Sejenus
« on: March 31, 2019, 06:26:37 pm »
We never learn much about Inri Sejenus, do we?  Which seems a little bit suspicious given that he's the series Jesus-analogue.

The Glossaries state that he was born c.2159 (note the c. - therefore his birth is ambiguous).  This is only four years after the defeat of the No-God at Mengedda (and could be less if he was born earlier), and overlaps with the life of Seswatha, who doesn't die until 2168.

Is Sejenus therefore a byproduct of the First Apocalypse - i.e. has his mission been imparted to him by a significant survivor/survivors/protagonist, or is he a totally independent occurrence?  We know he reinterprets the Tusk, and we also know that the Consult were responsible for 'editing' the Tusk prior to the Breaking of the Gates.  What's going on?

Inri also sounds similar to Inrau - which could just be coincidence, but Inrau does seem to have a 'holier' quality than the other characters.  A thematic link?

3
The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Encyclopedic Glossary
« on: March 24, 2019, 02:07:09 pm »
If anybody want's to comment on or discuss the Glossary, then feel free.

4
The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 17
« on: March 03, 2019, 12:37:34 pm »
Quote
Faith, they say, is simply hope confused for knowledge. Why believe when hope alone is enough.
- CRATIANAS, NILNAMESHI LORE

Quote
Ajencis, in the end, argued that ignorance was the only absolute.  According to Parcis, he would tell his students that he knew only that he knew more than when he was an infant.  This comparative assertion was the only nail, he would say, to which one could tie the carpenter-string of knowledge.  This has come down to us as the famed 'Ajencian Nail', and it is the only thing that prevented the Great Kyranean from falling into the tail-chasing scepticism of Nirsolfa, or the embarrassing dogmatism of well-nigh every philosopher and theologian who ever dared scratch ink across parchment.
But even this metaphor, 'nail', is faulty, a result of what happens when we confuse our notation with hat is noted.  Like the numeral 'zero' used by the Nilnameshi mathematicians to work such wonders, ignorance is the occluded frame of all discourse, the unseen circumference of our every contention.  Men are forever looking for the one point, the singular fulcrum they can use to dislodge all competing claims.  Ignorance does not give us this. What it provides, rather, is the possibility of comparison, the assurance that not all claims are equal. And this, Ajencis would argue, is all that we need.
For so long as we admit our ignorance, we can hope to improve our claims, and so long as we can improve our claims, we an aspire to the Truth, even if only in rank approximation.
And this is why I mourn my love of the Great Kyranean.  For despite the pull of his wisdom, there are many things of which I am absolutely certain, things that feed the hate which drives this very quill.
- DRUSAS ACHAMIAN, TEH COMPENDIUM OF THE FIRST HOLY WAR

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 16
« on: March 03, 2019, 12:36:08 pm »
Quote
Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion.  Verily, it is conviction that kills.
- PARCIS, THE NEW ANALYTICS

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 15
« on: March 03, 2019, 12:34:50 pm »
Quote
If war does not kill the woman in us, it kills the man.
- TRIAMIS I, JOURNALS AND DIALOGUES

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Like so many who undertake arduous journeys, I left a country of wise men and came back to a nation of fools.  Ignorance, like time, brooks no return
- SOKWE, TEN SEASONS IN ZEUM

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 14
« on: March 03, 2019, 12:32:51 pm »
Quote
Some say I learned dread knowledge that night. But of this, as with so many other matters, I cannot write for fear of summary execution.
- DRUSAS ACHAMIAN, THE COMPENDIUM OF THE FIRST HOLY WAR

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Truth and hope are like travellers in contrary directions.  They meet but once in any man's life
- AINONI PROVERB

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 13
« on: March 03, 2019, 12:30:36 pm »
Quote
What frightens me when I travel is not that so many men possess customs and creeds so different from my own. Nay, what frightens me is that they think them as natural and as obvious as I think my own
- SERATANTAS III, SUMNI MEDITATIONS

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A return to a place never seen.  Always is it thus, when we understand what we cannot speak
- PROTATHIS, ONE HUNDRED HEAVENS

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 12
« on: February 24, 2019, 01:00:16 pm »
Quote
Death, in the strict sense, cannot be defined, for whatever predicate we, the living, attribute to it necessarily belongs to Life.  This means that Death, as a category, behaves in a manner indistinguishable from the Infinite, and from God.
- AJENCIS, THE THIRD ANALYTIC OF MEN

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One cannot assume the truth of what one declares without presuming the falsity of all incongruous declarations.  Since all men assume the truth of their declarations, this presumption becomes at best ironic and at worst outrageous.  Given the infinity of possible claims, who could be so vain as to think their dismal claims true?  The tragedy, of course, is that we cannot but make declarations.  So it seems we must speak as Gods to converse as Men.
- HATATIAN, EXHORTATIONS

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC:TTT Chapter 11
« on: February 24, 2019, 12:54:00 pm »
Quote
Of all the Cants, none better illustrates the nature of the soul than the Cants of Compulsion.  According to Zarathinius, the fact that those compelled unerringly think themselves free shows that Volition is one more thing moved in the soul, and not the mover we take it to be.  While few dispute this, the absurdities that follow escape comprehension altogether.
- MERMENIS, THE ARCANA IMPLICATA

Quote
As a miller once told me, when the gears do not meet, they become as teeth.  So it is with men and their machinations
- ONTILLAS, ON THE FOLLY OF MEN

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 10
« on: February 17, 2019, 12:55:38 pm »
Quote
Souls can no more see the origins of their thoughts than they can see the backs of their heads or the insides of their entrails.  And since souls cannot differentiate what they cannot see, there is a peculiar sense in which the soul cannot self-differentiate.  So it is always, in a peculiar sense, the same time time when they think, the same place where they think, and the same individual who does the thinking.  Like tipping a spiral on its side until only a circle can be seen, the passage of moments always remains now, the carnival of spaces always sojourns here, and the succession of people always becomes me. The truth is, if the soul could apprehend itself the way it apprehended the world - if it could apprehend its origins - it would see that there is no now, there is no here, and there is no me.  In other words, it would realise that just as there is no circle, there is no soul.
- MEMGOWA, CELESTIAL APHORISMS

Quote
You are fallen from Him like sparks from the flame.  A dark wind blows, and you are soon to flicker out.
- SONGS 6:33, THE CHRONICLE OF THE TUSK

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 9
« on: February 17, 2019, 12:49:35 pm »
Quote
In the skins of elk I pas over grasses.  Rain falls, and I cleanse my face in the sky.  I hear the Horse Prayers spoken, but lips are far away.  I slip down weed and still twig - into their palms I pool.  Then I am called out and am among them.  In Sorrow, I rejoice.
Pale endless life. This, I call my own
- ANONYMOUS, THE NONMAN CANTICLES

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 8
« on: February 08, 2019, 07:53:17 pm »
Quote
That hope is little more than the premonition of regret.  This is the first lesson of history.
- CASIDAS, THE ANNALS OF CENIE

Quote
To merely recall the Apocalypse is to have survived it.  This is what makes The Sagas, for all their cramped beauty, so monstrous.  Despite their protestations, the poets who authored them do not tremble, even less do they grieve.  They celebrate.
- DRUSAS ACHAMIAN, THE COMPENDIUM OF THE FIRST HOLY WAR

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 7
« on: February 08, 2019, 07:50:19 pm »
Quote
Every woman knows there are only two kinds of men: those who feel and those who pretend.  Always remember, my dear, though only the former can be loved, only the latter can be trusted.  It is passion that blackens eyes, not calculation.
- ANONYMOUS LETTER

Quote
It is far better to outwit Truth than to apprehend it.
- AINONI PROVERB

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The Almanac: PON Edition / ARC: TTT Chapter 6
« on: January 20, 2019, 06:58:05 pm »
Quote
Of course we make crutches of one another.  Why else would we crawl when we lose our lovers?
- ONTILLAS, ON THE FOLLY OF MEN

Quote
History.  Logic.  Arithmetic.  These all should be taught by slaves.
- ANONYMOUS, THE NOBLE HOUSE

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