[Somnambulist]

psychological - (agreeing with your distinction that 'mind,' per say is irrelevant) psychological is 'real-world' subject matter projected on Earwa but which is mediated by the soul and its connection to the brain and the brain, not the brain alone - otherwise how can Kellhus dominate people so?

How?  Easy.

Kellhus is deluded, and other people's perception of him is correct.

The Dunyain, with no knowledge of soul metaphysics, have built an elaborate (and false) physical architecture to explain the insights they get through soul metaphysics.

In other words, Kellhus does not read faces, this is just an elaborate delusion that has been built into him, a delusion of mastery.  Kellhus in fact reads souls--as everyone who encounters him believes he does--and since Kellhus is incapable of believing he is wrong, he never questions his underlying assumptions (that he is reading faces), he never questions the vocablulary, the language that was inscribed onto him and conditioned into him. 

Moenghus figured out that his eyes were a mechanism of control, and to truly see what comes before and read souls without the illusions seeing forced upon by the Dunyain he had to go blind.

LIKE

[locke]

I'm kind of in love with the idea at the moment, we're in idea-honeymoon phase.  It's such a simple and completely elegant reversal.  Kellhus was wrong the entire time.  The whole time he spent gloating to himself about how deceived everyone was and how superior to them he was, all that time, he was the deceived one, and they were right, knowing more about him than he knew about himself.  It completely upends all readerly expectations, and it would make you completely reinterpret most of the text without changing any of the protagonist antagonist structures or beliefs, it makes you see Earwa and its characters in a new light while alienating the reader from kellhus and his blinkered limitations.  It makes the ubermensch less than a mensch.

btw. It works with BBT as well.  Kellhus gets an instant, FTL, read of someone's thoughts inscribed upon their soul.  this bypasses his consciousness and then tells him that he saw x, y, z in someone's face's muscle twitches, because this is what Kellhus expects to believe, that is what he believes, but it's all just pre-conscious--a darkness--happening BEFORE he gets to believe he had a conscious thought.

I feel like there is a connection in the above paragraph that should cause it to fit with the No-God is reverse-agnosia as well, but I'm not sure how to connect the dots.

If Kellhus has been reading souls and not faces, and the whole face reading thing was just a delusion of his consciousness, then I also feel like that fits in with Serwe's heart and Ent's explanation, what Kellhus does in pulling out the heart bypasses his consciousness exactly as his soul reading bypasses his consciousness, it's a thing he does without his consciousness getting it.  Note how his conscious mind thinks it is separate from his bodies action preceding the event, and note that his conscious mind explicitly does not mention Serwe's heart as an example miracle to Moenghus.  It is an event that challenges and shatters his own notions of himself, so he avoids thinking about it, like Akka avoiding thinking about how he got Inrau damned, or Esme avoiding thinking about that she sold Mimara to slavery; classic human failure.

[Madness]

Lol. +1, lockesnow. I like how you ran with that.

I can't say that the narrative completely validates your nerdanel but it's as coherent and supported as most.

We shall have to see what happens... I do like the "Kellhus will be borne out wrong" types of hypotheses but I have a strange feeling that TSA ends more like Neuropath than Lord of the Rings.

[Wilshire]

... but I have a strange feeling that TSA ends more like Neuropath than Lord of the Rings.

I imagine I can't ask how Neuropath ends without it being ruined...

[Madness]

Not my interpretation of it, no. It's pretty bleak. But exactly fits the standard mold of the genre. Except for Frankie, I guess.

[mrganondorf]

I read too fast and misunderstood the initial post initially and thought that this bit

"Aorsi (zsoronga, proyas, kayutas) - first effects of eating sranc"

was referring to ancient Aorsi.  They were stalwarts against the evil north, despite being sparesly populated because they ate sranc?  Really I think someone else said this and I'm just repeating it -- whoever you are, your words are echoing through my soul

[mrganondorf]

Any ideas on the side effects of eathing Bashrag/dragon?  Different/same?

[Wilshire]

My vote is for different. Every weapon race was created from a different template, and would have significantly different 'genetic code', leading to different results when consumed. Also, effects might differ depending on the species doing the consuming as well.

[mrganondorf]

Whatever the side effects of eating sranc, Kellhus is going to be conditioning a lot of warriors to eat things with nonman faces.  Will he have the Great Ordeal simply EAT Ishterebinth?

[SkiesOfAzel]

Any ideas on the side effects of eathing Bashrag/dragon?  Different/same?

If i had to guess i'd say they definitely give you gas.

[mrganondorf]

This is how the Great Ordeal dies--eating sranc gives you bad mud butt.  Diarrhea before Dagliash!

Seriously, perhaps eating sranc is a real threat to the Consult (will make the Great Ordeal unstoppable battle madness) so that's why they made the critters so obscene, to create an insurmountable taboo.  Then Kellhus starved his men till eating sranc sounded like a good idea!

[locke]

Any ideas on the side effects of eathing Bashrag/dragon?  Different/same?

If i had to guess i'd say they definitely give you gas.

sranc would be sulferous, wouldn't they? 

It'd be sort of amazing if the meat itself were yellowish when cooked because of that.

[Madness]

That is one sad notation - Bakker changed the colouring of dead Sranc between TDTCB and WLW.

It seems so strange that once humans warred against each other when all the world is Sranc .

I'm still hoping for Zombie Ordeal .

This is TUC. It's time to get weird.

[SkiesOfAzel]

This is TUC. It's time to get weird.

Yea i agree, if something is missing from this series till now, its weirdness .

[mrganondorf]

This is TUC. It's time to get weird.

Yea i agree, if something is missing from this series till now, its weirdness .

The final scene is a musical including cross-dressing Inchoroi, sranc dressed up as bronies, the great ordeal synchronized swimming in neleost, and the no-god pumping out dubstep.