Before reading the forums, I took the quickened birth as a result of the qirri and the stillborn yielding the Eye - but the Eye still opens for Mimara after the stillborn birth, so the No-God could've killed it since it hasn't birthed yet. Not sure of the chronology if that makes sense, but I think the No-God "shows" once the trans mutilations of Kel complete.

I took it scared them, it did give rise to the Chorae - the Quya didn't want nothing to do with that. But I seem to remember a more specific response to it ( just can't remember ), maybe they saw or knew of a connection with that study and the techne and/or the Ishoroi and they were in conflict/war with them at the time.

Friends, you’ve been so patient – for that, I thank you. More so than any zCon or Bakker Q&A or AMA or stealing Bakker’s notes/computer, you’ve been biting at the bit wondering what I have to say about all of this. Accept my apologies, it is not for design/manipulation/drama I have forestalled until now. I slow … so it took me a few weeks to “experience” the text. And I reread many parts, so much was the joy, delaying the ending to embellish the experience – really take it all in as it were. I made the decision to allow the text to surprise me over the joy I would have had talking with the author in Q&A ( I would have been pissed knowing it all went to salt before reading it – didn’t want the spoilers to rob me of living the story ).

Caveats/emptors/relegations aside, what you’ve been waiting for – the TH brain dump/insight/truth.

My big take away from the work ( maybe not intended by author, I do not know ), even more so than the discovery of the truth of soul ( conceptualized/derived or scientifically ) is the implication of damnation. Damnation is thrown about like candy at Halloween without giving it its due. Damnation ( if it’s a real thing ) is not a simple punishment – it is the mad everlasting cosmic shaft. We have “competing” religions damning each other for “not getting” the truth. Damnation is a so beyond serious accusation and we would do well to really grasp what we’re saying before distributing it. If some of us REALLY believe it to be a true thing, a possibility for our “souls” in the afterlife, then the logic of murdering 74+ million people is not out of bounds, even for your progeny. This state is FOREVER with no apparent way for redemption out of it. I think Bakker is saying if damnation is real, then the gods are evil pure and simple. Unforgiveable perpetual nightmare pain/agony is evil – no human, regardless of wares, deserves such a fate ( not even the likes of Hitler ).

In Earwa, it pushes the point to theological/logical limit with the stain yielding damnation without hope of redemption. In Earth, you can “choose” redemption, but the dicey nature of that with competing religions renders it really the same having the mark – it’s simply unrealistic to “ask” someone who was brought up in a different location/different culture/different parenting/different laws to “wake up” and see the truth of a foreign invading religion. The “realness” of what it is to be a Muslim is identical to the “realness” we Christians feel ( apologies for assuming more Christians than Muslims would be reading this – just reverse what I’m saying if you’re of a non-Christian faith ).

So if you are damned and you know it ( clap your hands! Sorry, couldn’t resist – a nod to our scribbler’s new “life” ) … then ANY path to avoid it is valid and not available for moral scrutiny. The Consult/The Mutilated/The Mangaecca may well be on the “right” path if it does lead them to successfully avoiding damnation. It’s “obvious” to us they’re evil and at best, misguided … but if we really take in what damnation really is, implications, then they aren’t. Is there a better way to remove the stain without killing off so many people? Who knows, but every day you’re trying to figure it out is a day you could die and it’ll be too late.
I think the ( maybe one of several ) overarching “message” of this story is a warning for us to be careful for how we “indulge” in distributing damnation. Without something more than what we’ve experienced ( i.e. thousands of years of communal belief ), it is simply either an awful manipulation by religions or horrible evidence “the god” is not good.

Would’ve been cool to have thrown this by Bakker, but I can wait – the deliciousness of the ending was too good to pass up. Maybe I’m a garden variety sadist, but Bakker knows how to put a smile on my face 

oh, right, sorry - you'all talking about rpg - i've had my full of KS, starting to compromise my brain. For RPG, you can simply create a D&D or Gurps Fantasy campaign with Earwa as the world. Think Bakker said PON books came from his original idea for an RPG campaign ( think it was D&D ).

UPDATE!

Still sucks.

Ha, funny sig line, Ape - good to meet ya. Hope you guess my name.

And what would the winner's title be?

I submit we'd mail our goods to Bakker's family, especially if we don't tell him first . Maybe include a single sentence "and baked goods came swirling down".

What a hilarious annual tradition that would be.

You know how to make me smile, Wilshire - you're awesome! We have to come up with something REALLY clever tying "Bake" and his last name ( you're on to it now, just need to go one step further ) - Beard! Where the hell are ya?!

And not telling him is hilarious - it would make him paranoid someone's out to poison him ( or at least it would me, all this anonymous baked goods shipped to my front door step ). I imagine next day shipping ( need to eat them fresh! ) to Canada from the US would cost me some coin, but it would be so worth it to have the Bakker family worship me after partaking in what they will consider communion given the holy nature of my cookies' enchantment. No kidding, true story, my father ( rest his soul ) was typically honest in his "judgement", even with family, so his compliments were rare, but when he bit into one of these beauties, he told his wife ( my mother ) "Barry's been poaching God's cookie jar". Er, I mean he said Tao Horror ...