The Inchoroi

  • 167 Replies
  • 70706 Views

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Madness

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Conversational Batman
  • Posts: 5275
  • Strength on the Journey - Journey Well
    • View Profile
    • The Second Apocalypse
« Reply #120 on: July 22, 2014, 01:23:01 pm »
Fuel for fire:

Quote from: TTT, p366
Once he'd even had occasion to speak at length with Nil-Giccas, who had battled through the halls of this place thousands of years before. But nothing could prepare Seswatha for the horrid immensity of the Incu-Holoinas. According to the Nonman King, not one in a hundred Inchoroi survived the Ark's fall from the heavens, and yet a thousand thousand of them had warred against the Nonmen over the course of their innumerable wars.

My bold.
The Existential Scream
Weaponizing the Warrior Pose - Declare War Inwardly
carnificibus: multus sanguis fluit
Die Better
The Theory-Killer

mrganondorf

  • *
  • The Mouth of Bakker Fans
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Nurse Leweth
  • Posts: 2002
  • PSUKHE ALL THE THINGS!
    • View Profile
    • R. Scott Bakker Fans (on Twitter)
« Reply #121 on: July 22, 2014, 03:24:41 pm »
Goddamnit, Madness.  You must get so much pleasure from picking random passages, bolding bits, and watching us scuttle about trying to make sense of it.

OK, well here goes: that must mean the ark is big, really big, like so fucking big you could hides something just monstrously fucking large in it, like a land-shark the size of a small moon.  That's what's going to eat the Great Ordeal.

Madness

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Conversational Batman
  • Posts: 5275
  • Strength on the Journey - Journey Well
    • View Profile
    • The Second Apocalypse
« Reply #122 on: July 22, 2014, 03:39:54 pm »
Goddamnit, Madness.  You must get so much pleasure from picking random passages, bolding bits, and watching us scuttle about trying to make sense of it.

Not as much pleasure as I did partaking with you all. But it's a salve for my broken soul.
The Existential Scream
Weaponizing the Warrior Pose - Declare War Inwardly
carnificibus: multus sanguis fluit
Die Better
The Theory-Killer

Garet Jax

  • *
  • Guest
« Reply #123 on: July 22, 2014, 03:47:13 pm »
That's what's going to eat the Great Ordeal.

...and come back to life.

SilentRoamer

  • *
  • The Smiling Knife
  • Great Name
  • *****
  • Posts: 480
    • View Profile
« Reply #124 on: July 22, 2014, 03:49:00 pm »
I have already considered the size of the Ark in great detail.

I have some calculations somewhere. Based on the impact Crater, the damage to the local vicinity and the size of the VISIBLE ark. I estimated the Ark to be approximately the size of a large city.

This would make sense as taking the figures literally there were a 100 million Inchoroi prior to the crash. The crash we KNOW must have been controlled to some extent otherwise the impact would have put Earwa into a nuclear winter and constituted an ELE.

If there were that many Inchoroi it would be necessary to contain an entire industrial base which I expect has been steadily failing, the Inchoroi, not producing in the normal fashion do not necessarily need the same facilities as would be required in a human analogue. They are still living, breathing beings with dietary and environmental requirements(we know they breathed via different methods - gills initially.)

Wow maybe too much SciFi for SR recently...

mrganondorf

  • *
  • The Mouth of Bakker Fans
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Nurse Leweth
  • Posts: 2002
  • PSUKHE ALL THE THINGS!
    • View Profile
    • R. Scott Bakker Fans (on Twitter)
« Reply #125 on: July 22, 2014, 05:46:22 pm »
Whoever struck the Ark from the skies is the 'hidden hero' of Earwa.  No way anyone has a chance against the Inchoroi at full strength.

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #126 on: July 23, 2014, 03:36:55 am »
I have already considered the size of the Ark in great detail.

I have some calculations somewhere. Based on the impact Crater, the damage to the local vicinity and the size of the VISIBLE ark. I estimated the Ark to be approximately the size of a large city.

This would make sense as taking the figures literally there were a 100 million Inchoroi prior to the crash. The crash we KNOW must have been controlled to some extent otherwise the impact would have put Earwa into a nuclear winter and constituted an ELE.

If there were that many Inchoroi it would be necessary to contain an entire industrial base which I expect has been steadily failing, the Inchoroi, not producing in the normal fashion do not necessarily need the same facilities as would be required in a human analogue. They are still living, breathing beings with dietary and environmental requirements(we know they breathed via different methods - gills initially.)

Wow maybe too much SciFi for SR recently...


I'd like to see those calculations.

Anyway, that seems to coincide with the "Blind Prophet" that we get a passage from somewhere, talking about a whole city lifting into the sky. I think? Can't remember.

Controlled decent of some kind would indeed be required, but given the size of that impact crater its likely that there should have been a forced ice-age/nuclear-winter esque impact. You don't create a huge mountain range without throwing a shit ton of particulates into the air. I write that off as "its fantasy, relax", in my brain.
One of the other conditions of possibility.

Francis Buck

  • *
  • Guest
« Reply #127 on: July 23, 2014, 04:51:54 am »
Anyway, that seems to coincide with the "Blind Prophet" that we get a passage from somewhere, talking about a whole city lifting into the sky. I think? Can't remember.

Ganus the Blind in WLW, he's one of the chapter headers and he mentions how the sky will be upended like milk poured into tar, cities will burn, and then he goes on about 144,000 people left at the end of the world. I think it's more just a reference to general chaos/destruction, but who knows.

As for the nuclear winter thing, I agree that it's simply going to be one of those things that gets hand-waved. In a series as huge as this (especially a fantasy), that kind of stuff is going to pop up eventually no matter what, I think.

Somnambulist

  • *
  • The Afflicted Few
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Incontinent Water-bearer
  • Posts: 790
    • View Profile
« Reply #128 on: July 23, 2014, 06:51:35 am »
We're actually given the exact dimensions of the Ark in TTT (kindle version about 47% in) as this:  3000 cubits long, 500 cubits wide and 300 cubits deep.  The standard definition of a cubit is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.  The book says that Nil'Giccas ordered the measuring of the Ark, and since Bakker stated that on average the Nonmen we're 6 feet tall, the Nonman cubit should be around 18 inches in length.  So with that in mind, the Ark should be about 4500 feet long (not quite a mile), 750 feet wide and 450 feet deep.  It is also stated as being buried into the ground about two-thirds of its entire length (2000 cubits or 3000 feet).
No whistling on the slog!

Cüréthañ

  • *
  • Moderator Extraordinaire
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Pendulous Fallacy
  • Posts: 772
  • Wizard IRL
    • View Profile
« Reply #129 on: July 23, 2014, 09:21:21 am »
Somewhere someone muses on the Tekne, a power that can lift whole cities from the ground.
Wish I could remember where that was from.
Retracing his bloody footprints, the Wizard limped on.

Madness

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Conversational Batman
  • Posts: 5275
  • Strength on the Journey - Journey Well
    • View Profile
    • The Second Apocalypse
« Reply #130 on: July 23, 2014, 12:56:41 pm »
(click to show/hide)
The Existential Scream
Weaponizing the Warrior Pose - Declare War Inwardly
carnificibus: multus sanguis fluit
Die Better
The Theory-Killer

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #131 on: July 23, 2014, 02:55:28 pm »
Quote
Chapter Twelve: Kûniüri
Skies are upended, poured as milk into the tar of night.  Cities become pits of fire.  The last of the wicked stand with the last of the righteous, lamenting the same woe.  One Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand, they shall be called, for this is their tally, the very number of doom.
   —ANONYMOUS, THE THIRD REVELATION OF GANUS THE BLIND
Thanks to Locke's work of pulling in all the headers for each book.

1 foot = .3048 meters

So the ship is about 1.3 kilometers long and half that in height and width. Could be much larger as we know that some of the Nonmen are very large, probably especially the rulers. They could also have different forearm length vs. body height ratios.

Hmm General Earwa subforum, not sure TFS needs spoiler tags?
That description of tekne vs. sorcery is delicious. I really like it.
One of the other conditions of possibility.

Madness

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Conversational Batman
  • Posts: 5275
  • Strength on the Journey - Journey Well
    • View Profile
    • The Second Apocalypse
« Reply #132 on: July 23, 2014, 02:59:46 pm »
It doesn't. I just did it strictly for ease of notation and access. Maybe as a courtesy for those like MG who sit on the shorts forever (my buddy is an avid follower of the series, can talk shop like us, but yet didn't even know/doesn't have desire to read the shorts online).
The Existential Scream
Weaponizing the Warrior Pose - Declare War Inwardly
carnificibus: multus sanguis fluit
Die Better
The Theory-Killer

Wilshire

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Enshoiya
  • Posts: 5935
  • One of the other conditions of possibility
    • View Profile
« Reply #133 on: July 23, 2014, 03:03:40 pm »
Hmm I guess. Probably fair. Not like we have any forum rules anyway ;)
One of the other conditions of possibility.

Somnambulist

  • *
  • The Afflicted Few
  • Old Name
  • *****
  • Incontinent Water-bearer
  • Posts: 790
    • View Profile
« Reply #134 on: July 23, 2014, 03:18:38 pm »
I found this on "How Stuff Works" website.  Don't know if it's completely accurate, but seems like I've read similar deductions before:

Quote
By the time you get up to a mile-wide asteroid, you are working in the 1 million megaton range. This asteroid has the energy that's 10 million times greater than the bomb that fell on Hiroshima. It's able to flatten everything for 100 to 200 miles out from ground zero. In other words, if a mile-wide asteroid were to directly hit New York City, the force of the impact probably would completely flatten every single thing from Washington D.C. to Boston, and would cause extensive damage perhaps 1,000 miles out -- that's as far away as Chicago. The amount of dust and debris thrown up into the atmosphere would block out the sun and cause most living things on the planet to perish.

If the Ark is longer rather than wider (as the descriptions imply), then the force of the impact may have been mitigated, thus reducing it below the Extinction Level Event based on its size.  Dunno.
No whistling on the slog!