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Initially I liked this theory. Simply a vessel containing information, the carapace acting as some kind of virus like protein shell that holds the information, and it 'infects' people with information. It does fit into the Tekne very well and its more inline with the Inchi's whole persona. Though to me the analogy kind of breaks down there.

It would almost need to have some kind of consciousness to drive it to 'consume', or in this case, infect. I say this because its not being blow around in the air and randomly destroying civilization, its actively seeking it out things to control and to destroy. Also, symptoms of this information infection include what? I think everything around the no-god dies, so its hard to say from what, especially with the mobs of sranc. On that note, what would keep them at the side of mog if it were a simple virus.

There probably would been more of a case for this if not for the whole damnation/soul/afterlife story that became extremely important in the WLW, and a virus wouldn't do a very good job in continuing that theme.

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So: The Indigo Plague.

Possible, but seems to elaborate.

I think the Indigo Plague is Radiation Sickness

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Radiation sickness was kind of my conclusion as well, fallout and such. What would that mean for what the no-god actually is? Why would destroying it make nuclear fallout/radiation, why not the rest of the energy release affects associated with nukes?

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well it only looks like magic for the NG, right?  could the NG really be casting a 'make whirlwind' spell when there's all those chorae there as well?  I think it's a mechanistic explanation to drive the whirlwind and make the NG fly.  The Consult got the power via some sort of Nuclear Fusion.  However I doubt that they had very stable control over the reactor.  Hell maybe the No God took the field because everyone in Golgotteranth was dying from the Indigo Plague.

I like this explanation, because it suggests that DA's final dream in TTT is accurate, The Heron Spear didn't work when Anaxophus tried it (which would fit with the continuity that Mek presumably depleted the spear trying to breach glamour around Golgotteranth).  If the dream is true, it is highly probable that Anaxophus tried the spear it didn't work, and then the NG went boom on its own, just a happy, coincidence (or a convenient explanation).  Seswatha's wards saved himself and Anaxophus, and they took all the credit for an event they couldn't explain.

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Seswatha's wards saved himself and Anaxophus, and they took all the credit for an event they couldn't explain.

Ouch!

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The No-God is described like a talking singularity in a can/carapace. The whirlwind sounds sort of like the accretion disk of a black hole. If that imagery is significant, then it actually represents the death of information. Which would be thematically appropriate for a "No-God" that deprives the universe of objective meaning.

Also some kinda high tech containment device for sustaining a microscopic black hole against hawking radiation, if destroyed, might well result in a shitload of radiation or a gamma ray burst once the thing evaporated.

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Hawking radiation and singularities? This is a writer/philosopher we are talking about, not a physicist. You really think this is the avenue that Bakker was going down?

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I'd say he's crazy enough to meddle in such matters

Though I'm leery of the idea of an actual black hole. And really it only needs to work at this soul thingy level, rather than any grossly physical level like a black hole does.

Might even be a kind of soul anti-black hole. Black holes form from massive gravitational effects of collected matter. Earwa has that magical number of people - you go above it and there's enough 'mass' (hey, kinda a pun there!) to connect to the gods. Or perhaps create a black hole of the soul variety. The no god is the anti black hole. Perhaps stopping it from collecting more mass/souls/children from being born.

Death of thought is kind of my pet theory as well - it's like how light might be seen intensely around a black hole, as it mostly gets dragged in but before the event horizon. The no god doesn't think/speak by the efforts of a system (brain), but instead by the collapse of a system.

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Hawking radiation and singularities? This is a writer/philosopher we are talking about, not a physicist. You really think this is the avenue that Bakker was going down?

He has tissue and genetic engineering. And extraterrestrials in a fantasy setting. If he wanted to write a book about nothing but philosophy he'd write a philosophy book. You can have more than one element in your narrative.

I wasn't thinking it likely that it was so much for a literal black hole as we understand it, more that the imagery was probably not coincidental. More along the lines of what Callan S. says. Though I did like the symmetry of the Indigo Plague being radiation poisoning and the idea of a singularity exploding. Although who knows? Maybe a spiritual singularity produces gamma rays too?

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Likely a spiritual singularity would produce some kind of magical radiation that killed people like radiation = P

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"A typical Mongolian shaman, if a shaman could ever be considered typical in any sense of the world both spiritual and tangible, calls his or her spirit from one of three Heavens: The White Heaven, which generally contains benevolent spirits, the Black Heaven, which is the opposite of the White, and the Red or Mixed Color Heaven, also known as the home of wrathful spirits."

- British man becomes Mongolian shaman[/b]

My bolding in the quote.

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What or who is the No-God? What are the Dunyain? What is the nature of Earwa?

I can see many parallels between Bakkerverse and real life. But it's very hard to determine anything before the author has revealed it.

Bottom line, Bakker is the darkness that comes before in Earwa, and I for one have no real idea what his worldview is in reality; thus it's very hard to know what the nature of his universe really is.

I could interpret it from my own worldview in real life, but I don't know how effective that is.

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Have you never ventured to Three Pound Brain[/u][/b], KRST IS?

This whole thread is devoted to your first question, along with another I've been unable to assimilate into this, in Misc. Chatter.

It's funny that you mention the Dunyain, as the only thread going that I can find is Dunyain and Nonmen... I'm actually surprised at this as they remain one of the biggest question marks of the Second Apocalypse.

The nature of the World and the Outside is a much debated idea in many of the various ongoing threads.

Explore when you have time, KRST IS, start some threads if you sense a void in our understanding.

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Thank you for the reference, Madness.

I think I've been to Bakker's Three Pound Brain a few times before, it looks familiar. He writes a lot of content on there, though, so I suspect I'll have to frequent his blog often and sift through the infinite levels of his psyche to get a good grasp on his overall worldview. Which would take some time, respectfully.

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I still think of the no god as rather like the death of thought - like light condensing at the event horizon of a black hole - you see what light escapes. The 'What do you see?' is just the part that escapes.

I like this idea, if only because the idea of the No-God's desperate inquiries being meaningless and reflexive, because it's not even aware it's asking them, being fairly creepy.
.

For some reason this reminds me of Daniel Quinn's book in which a character says that an animal in captivity would pace back and forth constantly asking "Why?" but if you could ask it "Why what?" it would have no response.  I'm not suggesting it has any relevance here, but I mention it just the same. 


I had forgotten that Kellhus had the vision of a figure with legs like a beast.  No idea what to make of that. 

For the love of all that is holy we need this unholy book now.