Seeing Total War Warhammer makes me want to have a TSA variant of that.

I don't think I said the 144k part, though it would mesh thematically somewhat. The souled people bit I go from what we've seen of Akka's dreams and the fact if they didn't need them they would have brought NG back ASAP right? So either he's gonna sacrifice GO to the Consult (not everyone can be saved) or he destroyed the Horde and drove GO to the brink of sanity so Kellhus himself could lead the Purge in order to maintain some leverage over the Consult cause obviously you can't trust people whose jimmies have been rustled for countless millennia. I'm sure there are pieces I overlooked and these are rough sketches.

Quote from: JRControl on July 24, 2016, 11:45:54 pm

I am kind of suspicious of this Kellhus who turned over a new leaf and supposedly cares. He point blank said to Esmenet's face: "Love is for lesser souls" or something to that effect, unless I confabulated the whole section.

He says that to Proyas.

Note that the quote, juxtaposed to his supposed revelations to Proyas in TGO, serve the imply that Kellhus, loving nothing, is like the God, also loving nothing.

Double-checked and you're right. I think Kellhus is trying to scrape his way past his madness and become God whereas Koringhus decided to return to stack as it were. The whole cooperate or defect dilemma with a couple of million souls at stake.

The way I understand it ZG or G is just the measuring stick, the all seeing eye. Men made God into what they needed of him, omnipresent observation, judgement, that made cohesion of groups possible. This is good for pack, tribe, city and civilization and these other things are bad. Which gives us order and more importantly in Earwaverse, meaning. Now the Gods and Demons are simply supreme personifications of facets of Men (or Inchoroi or Nonmen) taken to their extreme. I mean war is a thing you do, but usually to accomplish something mundane, but to worship war...or flesh, or deceit, or darkness. Things get a bit fuzzier from there. I think this theological opacity is a good thing, it makes it much more interesting and gives us something to ramble on.

It makes much more sense to me that Kellhus either learned to read Inchoroi and found some cache of their knowledge or he made some kind of deal with the Consult, because I am not yet entirely clear on what Proyas is supposed to do with the remnants of the Ordeal.

The grimness definitively turns up to 11. The descriptions of the Nonmen Mansion...the ultimate asylum ran by the inmates. I don't know why. Their millennial anguish, their depravity...it stays with me.

So I'm wondering if you've done any background research regarding the Holy War (Inrithi-Fanim) in regards to RL Crusades and if so do you have any books on the matter to recommend because I realized I know staggeringly little about that period in history and would like to know more.

As someone remarked once somewhere, it's much easier being stupid today than back in hunter-gatherer societies. Then again, the range and scope of things we have to engage today is far vaster. The world overwhelms us...

That said in regards to what Callan said, I am curious how do you people engage with run of the mill folks, being armed with all these factoids, theories and beliefs? A friend of mine (a dedicated Psych major in NA terms) uses the tools and techniques of her trade for making sales, but outside business she refrains from using it as best she can. She fails miserably of course, she routinely manipulates her girlfriend though she isn't aware of it. I haven't even clued her in on the side of Bakker, Watts and latest in NSC and CogSci, partly because I'm afraid of her skill with actual intent. I struggle myself not to be overly exploitative of people in the dark, to be honest.