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Thought experiment: What happens if we have two sorcerers using the Cants of Compulsion on each other simultaneously? How would anyone differentiate those two souls? Would they become (at least temporarily) a single self-moving soul?.This works both here and as potential fodder for the Shauriatas-Mutilated crackpot.
I like this a lot. They're only the Absolute as a system. Individually, each is moving/manipulating/hunting the other. Intellect and hunger. Taken as a single entity though, the system is moving itself. It bootstraps itself into existence and gives itself power from nothing.QuoteIn my mind though, I think that what we are seeing there is more of a Ajokli-spiked-Kellhus, rather than just Ajokli. To me, Ajokli making pacts with Hell really doesn't make much sense, since he (seemingly) would already have tremendous power there.
There's the tiniest spark of suspicion in the back of my mind that the truth of Ajokli's nature/origins isn't quite as simple as we've been led to believe. Yeah, Cnaiur becomes Ajokli at the end of TUC. That's pretty clear.
But just who is Cnaiur at that point? He's spent 20 years hating Kelhus, hunting Kellhus, devoting his every moment, every last smoking swazond of his crocodilian soul to seeing Kellhus brought to ruin. But hatred binds souls even more surely than love. He is still Kellhus' puppet. His soul is entirely bent around the head-on-a-pole that is Kellhus. Goaded by the hatred that Kellhus seeded in him, he has made himself into the perfect place for Kellhus to hide from the judgement of the Outside.
That's why Ajokli cannot find Kellhus' soul. Because a god cannot look inside himself. Ajokli is, at least in a sense, both Cnaiur and Kellhus, because he was created by Kellhus's soul acting upon (moving) Cnaiur's soul.
The scene in the Golden Room and Malowebi's revelation mirrors Cnaiur-as-Ajokli's blindness perfectly. Ajokli is carried into the World hidden inside Kellhus, and Kellhus is carried into the Outside hidden inside Ajokli.
And if I'm right about all that, then it actually makes perfect sense that we cannot find a logical division between Kellhus speaking and Ajokli speaking in the Golden Room scene. Because neither Kellhus nor Ajokli can tell where one starts and the other ends either. Statements that don't make sense from either standpoint exclusively are exactly what we should expect there.
I now confidently expect, at the end of TSTMNBN, to read of Mimara gazing upon Ajokli with the Judging Eye and seeing Cnaiur and Kellhus. Fucking.
(Of course, my track record with this sort of thing is abysmal, so...)
I tend to agree but since we're talking Dunyain it could also be an attempt to obscure the fact that they run the Consult now by resorting to a ploy a Dunyain would not attempt and they know will fail.And if we attribute the novel Sayothi Skin-Spy at the beginning of TJE to the Mutilated learning the Tekne [...]
I don't think this makes any sense. It seemed that the consult was testing their abilities to detect the skin-spies with this alternate skin-spy. If the Dunyains were in control of the consult they would immediately know that they would be able to see right through it. If anything this is a sign that the Dunyains were not in control of the Consult at the time.
Or it could just be a weird anomaly like the skin-spy with a soul.
Given Cu'jara Cinmoi is never described as Tall I think this is a purely biological phenomenon. He just needed new armor when it became clear he was going to keep growing.One of the entires about a Nonman has a line in there to the effect of "when he grew Tall" - to me implying this isn't a sure thing to happen and that its unusual... Any idea on the mechanics?Off the top of my head, meaningful things have more impact on the physical in Earwa than in our world. So the greatness of feats might make those who accomplish them physically great. In this instance, Tall.
Yeah I think Bakker screwed up with how many are left by the time they get to Golgotterath. It was only reduced to 1/4th its size? Realistically, the host would probably be reduced that much just from an unopposed march of that size, much less the battlefield attrition suffered, autocannibalism, and the god damn nuke. He did a better job with the Holy War.Great post, Ciogli.
Yeah... not a lot going for Earwa's humanity right now. As far as I recall, the omnipresent war POVs in TUC describe Kellhus' Ordeal the largest army assembled, ever, by almost double if I recall correctly.
Plus Kellhus' was the only empire in Earwa's history that institutionalized Witches.
The size of the Ordeal never made sense to me because if you go back to PON the First Holy War was the same size, around 300k. The Ordeal definitely had many more sorcerors however. That is the biggest problem is the death of so many magic users. The cream of the Three Seas military is dead but there are still enough people in Zeum and the Three Seas to assemble big armies.
I think the book makes it pretty clear that Aurax is the only Inchoroi left. At least on this world. Maybe there are other Arks flying around elsewhere.I was going to post this. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Progenitors sent many ships out into the void to find the Promised World that could end their damnation.
The non-men who were exposed believe oblivion is a lie, but we have seen that even erratic can attain it.Since that's the only one we've ever seen manage it, for all we know only an erratic could attain it.
Outside Kellhus!Seemingly calm, at times. But if Ajokli is Cnaiür I think the "legs crossed like a monk, slouched forward like an ape" (or however it went) descriptor is pretty apt imagery to sum up Cnaiür's conflict.
I always felt the individual in the visions was calm, collected, rational. Not traits I associate with Ajokli, from what we've seen of him so far.
