I couldn't help but think, as all the craziness was going down, "on second thought, let's not go to Ishterebinth, it's a silly place."

The Fanim appear outside Momemn as Esmenet reconciles with Maithanet only as he is murdered by the White-Luck Warrior...

Well, we don't see it, but I can't imagine that Psatma had nothing to do with the timing.  No doubt she had them arrive at the "opportune" time...

The thing is, did he actually expect it to succeed?  Of course I forgot my ARC at home, so I can't add quotes at the moment, but doesn't Kellhus basically say to Serwa that whole Niom is a fraud?  Just a way to get agents into Ishterebinth?

I don't see much value in the collapsible headers, since we have so few sub-fora, but some people might find it useful, I guess.

I think a decent outline of the Tusk wouldn't be bad, but it's really a toss up between that and the Circumfix, I think either is fine.

I do prefer a darker color theme, I really liked the old board's black, gray, gold and red theme, but again, that is just personal bias.

I feel we should salvage what we can and make the new one look like the old Three-Seas board.  I really liked that look, but I might be in the minority.

Part 2:

They had stained him, somehow, polluted him with their wicked craft–he could feel it!

Feels it in his second heart, I am guessing?

So they described the Carythusal they needed to balm their own blistered hearts, or to stitch the mercurial rifts that arose between them. For them, she was a place where the fires of damnation licked as a whore’s tongue, anything but the gleaming marvel that Stitti had described.

Even with the debate above, I still like this line.  How the "consequences" of damnable acts is so very different in life than in death.

Carythusal was simply what came after, a civilization that had run out of blank scroll, and so
began to overwrite what was written. It was a place where anything was allowed so long as it did not impede commerce, where aimlessness was not a crime...

Interesting line here, considering how "the darkness that comes before" guides the world in the books.  Here, we are presented with the idea that Carythusal rewrites that, that it seeks to be new, guided by the now.

‘Shinurta claimed that Nagamezer survived,’ Eryelk amended.
‘He didn’t, but there’s no way Shinurta could admit as much. As far as the city is concerned, Nagamezer has to be alive, otherwise the Spires would be releasing someone who had murdered one of their own.’

I think Shinurta was being kind of cheeky and was implying that they know full well where Nagamezer is, damned as he would be.

Shinurta cackled in his soul’s eye. Claws combed the ginger haze across his abdomen.
His stomach lurched. His second heart flexed into a brandished fist.

So, Shinurta inhabits he second heart's soul?  Or a ciphrang?  Or both?

The barbarian blinked, saw Shinurta hunched, a greased grotesquerie toiling over his loins. The world kicked and yanked about chains and manacles–
What did they do to him?

It seems as if Shinurta is the ciphrang, at least, somewhat through these descriptions.

Chained to a thread above Hell. Choking sulphur. Bolting terror. Something horrid convolving about his hips, climbing, mounting...

His second soul was bound to the Pit?

Screaming. Thrashing. Bestial glimpses of spider eyes and puckered cunnies.

This would seem to be the result of the ciphrang inhabiting him.

Shinurta had no need to curse him, he realized. He need only trust the curse that was his blood. He need only know  him to transform him into a knife for yet another hand...

The curse of being twin-souled?

Lol - H, you most certainly won't be available if you have an ARC on Monday the 9th .

But Excellent. I'll send out a PM after work tonight because I slept in today and have to rush off and we'll see what's good for next week.

And thanks, Bolivar, I'm really looking forward to not having these totally wasted days where all I do is wake up, go to work, have a pint after work, and come home to sleep to do it five days in a row.

A good point, initially eBay said the 10th, but the actual USPS says the 9th.  I may be totally incommunicado if it actually is in hand though, haha.