Lol.
I'm so out of practice. But this is good, it'll help to be reacquainted with this habit before school.
So rather than respond specifically because I'm actually overwhelmed by text right now I'm just going to pick out the themes of posts so far.
The Trap at Dagliash:
I remember in my first read through I thought for sure that Consult had captured Kellhus until I realized that he Translocated - like a passage later. "
Flee! Flee! Each must save himself!" So awesome. I also enjoy that Kayutas heard Kellhus tell the Raft Party to flee from the back of the Ordeal's devolution.
But a timeline of sorts regarding strategy:
The Consult are obviously avoiding a direct engagement for as long as possible. As far as we have the Ordeal's side of tactical theory, it is believed that the Consult cannot contend with the combined sorcerous might of the Three Seas, especially the Metagnosis, which is a completely new development in the algebra of Earwan Warfare. That the Metagnosis exists at all is one of the few things the Nonmen of Ishterebinth work to verify when they interrogate the Hostages of the Niom in the Chamber of Endless Ingress.
So the Consult must do anything they can to sap the Ordeal's strength before this sorcerous conflagration to come - one denied to us since TDTCB - and they know the Great Ordeal will eventually draw the Horde. They try to use the Ten-Yoke Legion to take the Ordeal unawares but don't account Yatwerian intercession (something for another topic).
First Battle of the Horde: Consult - 0, Ordeal - 1.
Consult tries again at Irsulor. Since Kayutas made the choice to unveil the Swayali at the First Battle, the Consult have a little more understanding of how the Ordeal deploys the Schools. They secret Bashrag in the Horde and wait to deploy them until the Vokalati and the Mandate get lost in the Shroud above the Horde.
Second Battle of the Horde: Consult - 1, Ordeal - 0.
Now - as something of a strategy nerd - I really enjoyed TGO and the approach to Dagliash for the insight we have into Kellhus' tactical acumen (which is why I would love a Unifications Wars narrative, regarding how Kellhus conquers the Three Seas with the Mandate).
It's actually remarkably simple. Kellhus uses the Urrokas and Schools, the Neleost Sea, The Raft Party, and the Ordeal to box the entirety of the Horde in. Arguably, the Swayali are the most powerful School next to the Mandate and Saubon's forces are some the hardest Veterans of the Ordeal. Kellhus himself goes to Dagliash because he knows it is the only place where the Consult might catch him unawares.
If the Ordeal chases the Horde to Golgotterath, the Ordeal are just doing the Consult a favour. So the Consult knows that Kellhus must stop the Horde at Dagliash. They load up Viri's buried Mansion with Legions upon Legions.
Forgive that long-winded summary but it bears the crux of the matter. Given all that, the Consult either do or don't know that the Metagnosis is powerful enough to excavate Nogaral from the Viritic Well in which they buried Titirga...
Probably, since the Consult were willing to destroy the Horde with the Tekne-Nuke, they simply meant to take out as many of the Ordeal as possible. It's possible they knew which School Kellhus would bring to Dagliash but I doubt it. It's just another part of the Consult's strategy - to this point - which is take as many of the Ordeal out, bonus points for sorcerers, before the Ordeal reaches a place where the Consult must actually engage.
And as per the future, The Consult seems to intend to point the Scylvendi spear at the Ordeal's back... Whether Cnaiur is a Conphas or a Saubon, circa Shimeh, remains to be seen.
The Meat/The Cannibal Ordeal:
Lol - I'm still not convinced I understand what's happening with the Meat. I do side with those who feel that Kellhus has commanded Proyas to feed the Ordeal the Ordeal. I don't know why continuing to eat the flesh of Man would keep up the same effects as eating Sranc over time but there are other Sranc - both Saubon and Achamian comment on the Sranc wearing Consult epaulets at Dagliash and with the Scylvendi.
The Leper Ordeal:
In my read, it seems like Proyas and Hoga Gothyelk's son (don't have the draft on me to name check, is it Hogrim?) are arguing that the Leper Ordeal must continue to participate in the assault on Golgotterath, that not even the devastation and sickness at Dagliash frees the Leper Ordeal from their duty. And while I don't really understand what happened with Sibuwal Vaka at Pas-Erreot (or Wreoleth, if that was how it indeed was referred to in the ARC - as I mentioned, lots of little changes from draft to ARC regarding many adjectives and pronouns, which I find exceedingly interesting) but Vaka simply comes to the conclusion that he will continue to war against the Consult regardless what the Leper Ordeal decides and so leads that truly heartbreaking vigil across the dead Sranc to Agongorea.
Proyas/Saubon:
Kellhus actually foreshadows Saubon's death years and years previous to TGO as per a reminiscence by Proyas in the early chapters. Something about Proyas being upset with Saubon's conduct in the Unificiation Wars and Kellhus simply responded that he's "training warlords to die on wicked heights."
Again - I mentioned this in another thread but Kellhus literally name drops Nietzsche's
Beyond Good and Evil when talking with Proyas after the battle. Kellhus seducing Proyas - for me anyways - mirrors Moenghus' seduction of Cnaiur. The love between a man and a man is anathema to the Galeoth, the Scylvendi, and the juxtaposition that the Dunyain create in the objects of their seduction results in a cognitive dissonance so extreme, at least in Cnaiur's case, that it enables/breaks Cnaiur to be capable of... well, anything.
Kellhus needs Proyas to be unconstrained.
I wonder if Proyas ever thinks back to that moment when he arrived at the beaches of Momemn and just wishes he'd fell off the launch, then and there, drowning in knee deep water
.
Lol - that's one. Definitely not going to get through all of these this morning.
