Quote from: Redeagl on September 05, 2017, 04:21:04 pm

A Mutilated PoV would be intriguing, but too revealing?

It would be silly, but perhaps they keep Malowebi around on the salty emperor statue commemorating Resumption, and he can continue his role as eyes and ears without comprehension or explanation. Or Aurax POV could serve the same purpose, again with limited ability to grasp what was being conveyed.

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Hi there,

I haven't really participated in the discussion here, as I rarely have the time to actively follow-up on posts but I've been reading a lot on the forum since I finished TUC. There are two thing that - to my surprise - I haven't seen being discussed and I wonder about your take on them.

(1) There hasn't to my knowledge been a very serious discussion about what the Mutilated mean when they say the No-God can read the code of Earwa by using deaths. Up to this point, the acquired wisdom has been that the No-God is a means to cut off the number of living souls and thus seal Earwa (and maybe other worlds as well) to the Outside. The entire code-reading narrative goes into an altogether different direction, signifying, at least to me, that the Ark was designed to gleam meaning from the specialness of Earwa where the Outside is closest to the physical reality and thus achieve world-sealing in some other, scientific, way.

I find it irritating that while Bakker claimed TUC would reveal or at least hint at who is right and who is wrong w/r/t understanding of Earwan metaphysics, he in fact only introduced further uncertainty. For example, Cet'inigra muses that the Oblivion approach of the Nonmen is fallacious although the text makes special effort to show that at least one Erratic does in fact escape Hell (granted, this might have been a special case, as has been discussed here). The book therefore keeps lacking clear authority on what exactly is the proper way to achieve salvation and what mechanisms allow it, and therefore fails to deliver at least on that front of Bakker's promises.

(2) More excitingly though, don't you find it highly revelatory that unlike Cnaiur/Ajokli, Mimara was in fact able to see the No-God with the Judging Eye? Literally leading to the important conclusion that the eschaton/invisibility argument doesn't extend to the God of Gods itself but just to the Hundred. I think this has immense metaphysical implications, which I am not altogether ready to summarize. It's also noteworthy that her perception of the sarcophagus didn't involve any descriptions of either damnation or salvation that have hitherto been present when she sees other entities with the Eye.

  Not only that, but Esmenet is also that which the No-God enters the world.  And if Kellhus is to be believed, the Darkness that afflicts him.

Quote from: Bolivar on August 03, 2017, 05:15:56 pm

Quote from: The Sharmat on August 03, 2017, 03:32:34 am

Kelmomas was simply escorted inside by a skin spy on the orders of the Consult. Why is that hard to believe?

Because you're pulling this entirely out of your own ass!

I just read his entrance into the golden room and the end of his captivity - Esmenet brings him a file, as he did for Inrilatas. There is absolutely zero textual support that either a) a Skin-Spy brought him or b) the Consult invited him. Unless I'm missing something in between those two moments or an AMA answer (which, by all means, I'm all ears!) there's no compelling reason to make this inference.

You're doing the author's work for him.

If that were true I might feel the same way but you seem to have somehow totally missed the scene where an escaped Kelmomas encounters a Skin-Spy wearing Esmenet's face that picks him up.