Hi All! Long time lurker, first time poster.
Overall I really enjoyed TUC. This was actually my first time reading a Bakker novel (I'd literally listened to the series up to this on a few cross country trips). Where I think the book fell down though was in showing the reader a clear plan on the part of Kellus. it left me with a bunch of questions so I figure I'll post them here and maybe, like this board has many times, it'll allow me to get a better grasp on this story.
First though, because I haven't seen it anywhere yet, I want to put together a timeline. I'll skip over a bunch of parts of the book that I don't think are central to the questions I have about the overall plan. Needless to say this will be the spoileriest spoiler that ever spoiled, so stop here if you're not done.
...
TIMELINETGO
-Kellus leave the Great Ordeal, returns to the Three Seas, kills Fanayal and Psatma.
-Before beheading Malowebi, declares he is "weary"
-Beheads Malowebi, replaces his head with one of the decapitants, instructs it to kill Nganka’kull. Malowebi's head goes on the girdle.
-Teleports to the Palace.
-In the Palace he sees Esmenet. Demands to know "what did you do?"
-The White Luck Warrior fails to kill him when Kel interrupts the unerring grace
TUC
-Kellus teleports away with Esmi and Kel
TIME WARP
-Kellus attacks Aurang and forces him to open a door in the Ark.
-Aurang is killed.
-Kellus enters the Golden room and encounters Mekeritrig before gazing into the inverse fire.
-When asked by Mekeritrig what he sees, Kellus responds ""I see...myself...yes."
-When Mekeritrig describes what he sees in the Inverse Fire as torments, Kellus responds "But I suffer no torment."
-Kellus describes what he sees within the fire "where you fall as fodder, I descend as hunger."
-Kellus demands to see Shauriatis
-Shauriatis appears but Kellus immediately reveals him to be an illusion
-Serwa and Kayutas meet in front of the Intrinsic Gate.
-Kellus calls out the Mutilated
-Serwa, sensing that the Consult has placed the Wracu here to keep them from joining Kellus, decides to confront Skuthula.
-The mutilated explain how they have subsumed the Consult to Kellus.
-Serwa begins her battle against Skuthala
-The Mutilated explain that damnation is the impediment to the Absolute, and that in order to attain it, the world must be shut.
-One of the Mutilated uses sorcery to bring the Sarcophagus to Kellus.
The Mutilated explain that Scald used at Daliash was the last working of those devices and that culling of souls must be done by the No-God in order to shut the world from the outside.
-Kellus responds to the Mutilated declaring him the salvation "but I am already saved...I have walked the infernal deep. I have struck treaties with the pit."
-Kellus explains that he is an inverse prophet, set by the living to the eternal to tell them of the Consult.
-Malowebi looks at the other decapitant.
"For the first time he noticed the same obscuring distortion that marked the Anasurimbor-like globules of ink hanging in quicksilver-marring it.
...
Antlers, savage and knuckled, rising mangled as if scribbled by a drunk or a child. Four of them..."
-Kellus stomps his foot, rocking the room but not using sorcery to do so. He declares "I am Master here"
-Serwa's arm is salted off. She attacks Skuthala as the Mandate destroys the chamber he is in. She falls.
-Kellus speaks to the Mutilated. Tells them their goal is to shut the world againt the outside, his is to conquer hell. His head explodes in flame and becomes a black, four-horned image within the fire as he becomes Ajokli
-Kellus/Ajokli decapitates Mekeritrig
-The Skin Spies in the room suddenly have their chorae holding hands pulled and stuck to the ground
-Kellus/Ajokli declares the golden room "my place".
-Kellus/Ajokli declares to the Mutilated "you shall be my angels. You shall be my goad, the scourge of nations. Children shall keen for the simple rumor of your coming. Men shall rage and weep. And whatever horror and anguish you sow, I shall reap."
-Kellus/Ajokli kills the one eyed Dunyain
--Kellus/Ajokli declares
"Four brothers, four horns. Together we shall gore this World, drink of it as a pierced fruit raised high. The Inverse Fire is not but a window into my house. You have seen what awaits you. Adore me, or suffer eternal damnation. I alone...brothers...i am the absolute."
-Malowebi sees Kel running between the skin spies.
-Kel declares "He can't see me either"
-The fire that had consumed Kellus/Ajokli's head sputters out leaving Kellus swaying.
-A skin spy grabs Kellus' ankle with a hand that has a chorae.
-Kellus turns to salt
-Kel is seized by the remaining Mutilated and put into the Sarcophagus.
-The Sarcophagus raises and climbs from the room
OK...so with that done, lets ask some questions
1) Why was Kellus "weary"? He claims that the empire dies in all incarnations of the thousandfold thought, so is he tired of having to keep leaving the ordeal to come back and delay its death?
2) What do you think the overall plan would have been had Skuthala not been guarding the Intrinsic Gate? Serwa and Kayutas meet up with Kellus in the golden room to face the consult? If Kellus has the ability to become Ajokli he didn't really need them.
3) What did Malowebi see when he looked at the other decapitant? He talks about a distortion like the one around Kellus, but I don't remember early in the book where he mentions a distortion the first time.
4) Does Kellus change plans while he's in the golden room. Originally the plan was to get to the ark and destroy the consult, ending the threat of the second apocalypse. But once he becomes Ajokli he tells the Mutilated he will use them as a threat of terror for the world. So what does that mean? It certainly sounds like he's decided to keep them around.
What does everyone think?