[Aptorian]

I don't think Chaos is aware. It's a natural force, it's not like it's scheming with the CG to do no good. Just like there's no such thing as "order" aswell.

[SiriusL]

Aptorian;292735 said:

I don't think Chaos is aware. It's a natural force, it's not like it's scheming with the CG to do no good. Just like there's no such thing as "order" aswell.

So what is the freaky hungry storm thingy that's following the Dragnicart?

[Vengeance]

Well that is the EYE of terror, in it resides Q21....Duh...

No really I think that it is the death spell of the matrons trying to get into the darkness and kill mother dark....

[Mentalist]

SiriusL;292835 said:

So what is the freaky hungry storm thingy that's following the Dragnicart?

well, just b/c it feels hunger and devours everything in its path does not mean it's sentient per se....

[Venerus]

Aptorian;292735 said:

I don't think Chaos is aware. It's a natural force, it's not like it's scheming with the CG to do no good. Just like there's no such thing as "order" aswell.

Changing it's nature voluntarily suggests a degree of sentience, which applies equally for both Chaos and Order. Isn't that consistent w/SE's world though? Forces get embodied; even warrens are hinted at as being sentient at times (even though Kulp would disagree).

Quote

'Just as Chaos possesses the capacity to act in its own defence, to indeed alter its own nature to its own advantage in its eternal war, so too can Order. It is not solely bound to Darkness. It understands, if you will, the value of balance.'

[L'oric]

Whats with the Seguleh 2nd? Who killed him and what's he doing now that he is Hood's Soldier or whatnot.

Did Menandore's deal with Hood mean that she is not as dead as we think she is?

What exactly is Tavore capable of? Clearly she has some ability at identifying magic. Has the Otatoral given her abilities similiar to that of the adjunct in GoTM? Namely. Speed strength and the like.

It seems that it is up to Paran to decide if the two assassins in the Darujhistan Azath come back to life or not. Will he? Will they be part of whatever he has plans for?

Its been mentioned but I must add my....What did Paran agree to with Hood?

What role are the Bridgeburners left in Darujhistan going to play? What about Duiker?

Will Crokus find some magical ability within himself?

Who will we see from the previous books? I hate complete departures from characters we have been reading about for the last 3 or 4 books.

and finally

Who killed Asmodean?

[Aptorian]

It's funny, I was begining to try and answer your questions, seperating them into catagories and such, and then I looked closer. These are just nonsense questions looking for hypothetical answers.

None of your questions have an answer because we don't know. We have no info that sheds light on any of those questions. Your guess is as good as ours.

People can come up with crazy theories and best gueses but there really is no answer.

[L'oric]

If I/We knew the answers I would not ask the questions.

I would like the above answered I know Read and Find out is probably the only answer to most of them. Which is why I added the Asmodean question.

I might have missed an interesting tidbit on the Seguleh 2nd. It seems probable that we might see more of the Seguleh. Although I have no idea what they would be needed for other than to kill Deragoth or something similiar.

In short. Just because a question can only be answered by RAFO doesn't mean they shouldn't be asked since the questions themselves offer us reminders of what we would like to read about. Thats my significantly unimportant opinion.

[Aptorian]

No, really, we don't know anything about your questions.

We don't know why the Seguleh soldier is dead, if he really is the second, why he works for hood, we don't understand what hood planned with menandore, we don't know what he arranged with paran, we don't know what capabilities tavore has, we don't know what is going to happen to crokus, etc. etc. etc.

There are no answers to your questions yet. You can't read and find out before the next books are published.

[L'oric]

"What exactly are we looking for answers to in the coming books? would it be possible for people to list them?"

The first post leaves us with this question.

Now I can't answer with anything but conjecture to most questions that have been asked so far in this thread.

I tried my hand at the whole thread and really can't come up with too many credible/concrete answers. For instance.

I have a feeling that the Shadow Hounds and the Deragoth were once one and the same. The Deragoth being originals and the Shadow hounds being reflections of them. The two groups were maybe seperated at some point when everything came out of Darkness. I got the impression during the Paran killing Poliel scene where they seemed to be chasing the shadow hounds, but what would the Deragoth gain by capturing/killing the Shadow Hounds?

[Mentalist]

There is supposedly a connection
But: Degaroth are OLD. they are a sentient species, that used to have more then 7 --these were just the last ones.
The Hounds are much more recent, possibly related to Dissimbelackis, and the First Empire--their number being 7.
The name "Hounds of Darkness" is just that --a NAME, it does not really indicate their connectedness with MD.

[L'oric]

So the Statues that Paran found in the realm of the dead that is no longer the realm of the dead had nothing to do with mother dark? Hmmm blows chunks in that theory.

I thought that it was too much coincidence with the two Shadow Hounds going through the Gate of MD under Dragnipur's Cart and two Deragoth showing up on the mortal plane. Now there are five Deragoth "Hounds of Darkness" and 5 "Hounds of Shadow" Shadow Hounds and that too seems food for conjecture.

I never got the impression that there were a lot of Deragoth although I seem to remember a passage that said that they once were the one's that were the masters over the first humans the Eres (is that name wrong?). Those first humans, who were older than the elder races such as the Imass and thus as old or older than the contemporaries of the Imass edler Jhagut, TTT, and FA. So somewhere in the middle/just before of the Eres timeline or even at the same time, the Jhagut were enslaved by the KCCM and warred with dragons. Timelines have always suffered in this series and I do not have a problem with paradoxes.

[SiriusL]

Quote

Steven Erikson: The deragoth mystery will be revealed in due course. Thus far, all that's been revealed (maybe) is that the two hounds Rake killed who escaped the sword ended up conjoined with the Deragoth in those statues. Either that or the Hounds of Shadow and those of Darkness are diametrically opposed -- if one's around its opposite can't be. The secret lies in Dessimbelackis (no connection to Dassem, btw).(Q and A with malazanempire No 1 (2003))

Now that I read that, he's not giving us any confirmation of anything.

The conversation between Trull and Onrack strongly implies that the Hounds are the Shadow counterparts of the Deragoth. However, later books strongly imply that the Deragoth aren't really connected with Darkness, and appear to be a species all on their own that is native to Wu/Malazica/7Cs/whatever.

Me? I think the Hounds of Shadow are ascended Deragoth. I also think the Deragoth we see in HoC and BH are special, because of what SE says above with Dessimbelackis. This vague connection is why the Deragoth are chasing the Hounds.

[Mentalist]

look, i'm not denying the connection, and the Degaroth we see are obviously special, due at the very least to the fact that they're the last survivors of millenia-old species. And they're ridiculously powerful, and were worshipped, for the name of the continient came from the number of Degaroth. There's just more to it, with Dissimbelackis, of whom we know infuriatingly little, being right in the middle of it all, by all accounts.

[Aptorian]

I think it is a generally accepted theory that Dessimbelakis did something crazy involving the Deragoth and the Hounds of Shadow emerged after this. Possibly the Hounds of Shadow are Dessimbelakis.

[Mentalist]

Not that we know of
However, we are heading back to Genabackis, and the early book cover suggested a heavy involvement of Death, so we may get to see the Gildrath-with-swords-stuck-to-his-arms again.

[SiriusL]

Aptorian;297099 said:

I think it is a generally accepted theory that Dessimbelakis did something crazy involving the Deragoth and the Hounds of Shadow emerged after this. Possibly the Hounds of Shadow are Dessimbelakis.

"A said:

HoC, Chapter 8
Onrack: The Logros crossed paths with them [the hounds of shadow] only once, long ago, in the time of the First Empire. Seven in number. Serving an unknown master, yet bent on destruction.
Trull: The human First Empire, or yours?
Onrack: I know little of the human empire of that name. We were drawn into its heart but once, Trull Sengar, in answer to the chaos of th Soletaken and D'ivers. The Hounds made no appearance during that slaughter.

Onrack thinks the Shadow Hounds predate the human FE, which would seem to negate the idea that they are also Dessimbelackis.

My theory on them being ascended Deragoth doesn't make a lot of sense either, considering how they were scare shiteless of the Deragoth on BH. Unless, again, those Deragoth are not your average Deragoth, but are like the gods of the original Deragoth, or something.

[Aptorian]

SiriusL;297390 said:

Onrack thinks the Shadow Hounds predate the human FE, which would seem to negate the idea that they are also Dessimbelackis.

Your assumption is faulty. The first empire existed for a looong time, perhaps as long as 30.000 years seeing as there is talk of the first empire existing 100.000 years ago and 130.000 years ago, these could of course be two very different civilizations, but the important thing is that it was old. (I think I'm mixing up colony dates with FE dates, but what ever)

It is said that when Dessimbelakis made his ritual, supposedly veered and disappeared, was long before the FE Ritual of the Beast. The Hounds of Shadow could have existed for thousands of years at the time of the FEs fall and the T'lan Imass' cleaning up.

[Kurt Montandon]

Er, the Hounds of Darkness are Deragoth, not the Hounds of Shadow. Ganath mentions that Dessimbelackis made some kind of deal with the last of their kind (a deal that supposedly upset the Nameless Ones), but we still don't know the details.

And the Edur were once masters of the Hounds of Shadow, implying that they were present in KE before the sundering, and therefore vastly pre-date the First Empire.

[Aptorian]

I know these arguments I have myself brought them up on occasion.

The deal that upset the Namless ones could very well be the creation of the Hounds of Shadow,

Th Edur being once masters of the Hounds of Shadow, allthough with what little knowledge of Malazan history we have it seems unlikely, could have taken place within the last one hundred thousand years. A hundred thousand years is a very long time and the Edur people spread all over the world could have built up several empires that fell again during that time. There are the Edur that mingled with the Moranth and there's the Edur from Sepik(sp?). It could even just be a small populace of very skilled and knowledgable Edur that bound the Hounds to their will for a time.

We know very little of these things