[The Archivist]

First, I am publically stating that I have not finished my reread of RG yet...

Second, I welcome good Errant quotes, I have not considered ... please, please send them at me...

Third, this guy is quite the interesting secondary character ... my second favourite behind Dessimbalackis...

Some quotes that have bothered me about him in the past and presently:

(Bugg to Shurq) "The language on the door belongs to an extinct people known as the Forkrul Assail, who are collectively personified in our Fulcra by the personage we call the Errant." (MT, Bantam PB, 449)

(Bugg to the Errant) "So, how much of you was at the heart of this mess, I wonder? Feeding the Queen's greed, the Prince's estrangment from his father. Did the notion of the Seventh Closure simply amuse you?"(MT, Bantam PB, 737)

(Bugg musing to self about the possible return of the Human FEs remnants, the Pack and the Jheck): "What had driven him to act now, then? In this particular matter? The answer came to Bugg and he smiled without humour. Guilt. (MT, Bantam PB, 738)

(Bugg to the Errant) Why not act for yourself? Bugg asked. I cannot. My aspect enforces ... certain prohibitions. Note: This leads Bugg to gather the Crimson Guard (Iron Bars and Corlo) to attack the "Jheck God."

More to come ... misplaced my RG ...

[Sinisdar Toste]

the errant is quite the god. hated passionately by most on the forums, i believe he is a god, elder in the same way as draconus and k'rul. others respectfully disagree, citing various holes in my theory.

anyways, the errant and the FA had some sort of falling out in the past, if they were even in in the first place, which seems to be doubtful. they kind of have the same aspect, errant=random chance, FA=balance, but then again they really dont so the connection is sketchy. the errant did kill a whole bunch of them at one poiint which i think reinforces my idea that he is elder, like seriously elder, not just from FE times, cuz how many FA were around in the time of the FE that the errant could have slaughtered? certainly not the piles of em we see in udinaas dream. they were getting fewer when the tiste invaded.

[Gem Windcaster]

More Errant quotes, what, do you want me to puke?

I don't care if he's an ascendant, a god, or a fricken leprechaun. He should be hammered into pieces and sold on eBay.
And I disagree that he's random - he's just an arrogant twit that thinks he's all that. Random - pfft! He's doing it all on purpose, he is, and he's stupid enough to think he can't be beaten.

Wait for it, slimy worm! *angrily shakes fist*

And please don't use 'good' and 'errant' in the same sentence, it makes me cringe.

[The Archivist]

I agree with you ... and have some more musings to add which will aid in that argument, mate.

[The Archivist]

*chuckles* Yes, I hate him too .. and can not wait for his come uppence but I lack your passion.

[Gem Windcaster]

Well for one he gloats too much for it to be random. He doesn't seem like the guy that are hold into place by some force of nature. No, he's making choices. He acts. Random my ass.

[OtataralDragon]

The last time we see the Errant in RG, he seems to be hating what he does, even as he does it. Unable to help himself?

P. 1246, Bantam pb:

Watching from an unseen place, the Errant stepped back, pulled away as if he would hurl himself from a cliff.

He was what he was.

A tipper of balances.

And now, this day - may the Abyss devour him whole - a maker of widows.

[Gem Windcaster]

He, hating himself? Are you mad?

He might be unable to help himself, but that, friend, is not an excuse!

"oh my, I just killed that guy, well, I couldn't help myself." BLEH!

[Optimus Prime]

I think the Errant's character is great for the series, much like Kallor a lot of people LOVE to hate him....but I wonder about that Forkrul Assail connection as well. Are they his children? Did he adopt them and then they fought each other? Perhaps we'll get more info later on.

So, since he is flawed and scarred now, is he part of the HoC?

[Gem Windcaster]

To any other argument you might come up with that makes him a little more human, a tad more likable, no, no and no. There is no excuse for what he is. He's not some mindless drone. He does what he does because he chooses to. You can't forgive that.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if the CG wanted him on his team, but I wonder if that would work. The Errant is more of a loner, he's doesn't want help, and in his mind he doesn't need help. He'd probably just laugh at the invitation. Although, it's possible it's one of those forced things, like it is with Karsa.

[OtataralDragon]

Gem Windcaster;321393 said:

He, hating himself? Are you mad?

He might be unable to help himself, but that, friend, is not an excuse!

"oh my, I just killed that guy, well, I couldn't help myself." BLEH!

Never said it was an excuse. Not trying to make excuses for the Errant - I loathe him. I was just speculating on his nature, and what drives him.

[Gem Windcaster]

What drives him? Greed. It might have been something else once, but now his motives are corrupted. Greed for what? I'm not sure. Possibly it's a combination of greed for power, self preservation and whatever other twisted goals he has. Maybe he's just crazy. Who knows - he's been in the game too long.

[OtataralDragon]

Gem Windcaster;321407 said:

What drives him? Greed. It might have been something else once, but now his motives are corrupted. Greed for what? I'm not sure. Possibly it's a combination of greed for power, self preservation and whatever other twisted goals he has. Maybe he's just crazy. Who knows - he's been in the game too long.

For a greedy man/god/entity, he spent an awfully long time drifting through the court of Letheras doing absolutely nothing to accumulate power, or money, or pretty much anything else, as far as I can see. Even Bugg commented on the fact that the Errant suddenly decided to take action (in the matter of the Jheck god).

And that's another interesting thing. Turudal Brizad talks to tha Finadd about needing to kill the Pack in order to prevent the T'lan Imass from deciding they need to step in, the way they did at the Fall of the First Empire. Then Bugg wonders why the Errant intervenes when it comes to the Pack, and "smiles without humor" as he decides it must be guilt. Combine those two passages, and I start to wonder if maybe the Errant has some kind of link to the Ritual which preceded the fall of the FE, which spawned so many Soletaken and D'ivers. Does he have some sort of responsibility for the existence of the Pack? Or for the Ritual itself? The intervention of the T'lan Imass? Why guilt?

I may loathe the Errant, but I still find his motivations and his past too interesting to be dismissed as "He's evil, end of story."

[Seed]

Well he is a tipper of balances, what is a ritual but a gathering of powerful forces that hold in balance until the ritual is completed and the effect realised. It'd image the sheer scale of the Ritual drew him in like a moth to a flame and he was compelled to place a finger on the metaphorical scales due to his nature, causing the ritual to spin out of control and eventuate in the FE's fall.

Oh crazy theory time...I think his nature is all tied up in being able to see possibilities and choices, but in the very act of seeing those potentialities the Errant is forced by his Aspect to choose the dominance of one possibility or choice over all the others. He can elect which potentiality becomes the only one based on whim or circumstance, but he can never NOT choose once they've been brought to his attention.

-Seed ...collapsing wavefunctions since Elder Times. Ask us about our Seventh Closure Special!

[D'rek]

Considering the title of this thead, is there any significant difference between your "musings" and "ponderings"... might I suggest the next one be labelled a "rumination"?

Anyways, as far as the Errant and the FA, there is some history there. As we know from Ganath in tBH, the Errant's worshippers were mainly Barghast, Trell and Humans, but the FA sought to eliminate him. Whatever the motivations all around, it should be no surprise that the Letheri generally got the history completely wrong and managed to incorporate whatever horribly inaccurate version they had into their system of Tiles. Just like the Jaghut whom they represented as frog-like people.

As for the rest, the Errant's ancient power has since been altered and he is now a nudger of chance occurences. He personally delights in tragedy and thus he generally seems to spend more time setting up ass-raping circumstances for our heroes then he does preventing miscarriages.

But hey, that's just another manifestation of the Letheri system. Just like Tehol, the Errant has accumulated vast power by systematic means and thus has the choice of doing whatever the heck he wants with it. If I weren't so lazy, I'd make a wonderful argument for how all you folks who like Tehol but despise the Errant are being hypocritical with your moral high grounds.

[Optimus Prime]

Indeed, Tehol's constant "tinkering" caused untold amounts of chaos and death, much which probably happened off screen, so to say, but who says only the guilty were affected by his economical catastrophes?

The Errant is just doing whatever the hell he wants, or he was until he seems to have lost it in RG, at least temporarily.

I wonder if his ego would allow him to ally or serve the CG.

[Gem Windcaster]

Comparing Tehol and the Errant is just silly. Both their methods and their motives are different, not to mention their goals.

[Reiko]

But we have no idea WHAT the Errant's goals are, besides him being "a tipper of balances"
Personally I expect Erikson to eventually wrap up what it is he is trying to accomplish and I think you are all going to do a backflip and love him.
Go Errant go!
Yes I'm aware most of you hate him but I believe he's one of the better characters in the series

[Gem Windcaster]

I will not.

[Kulp Diet]

It seemed that in RG, the Errant's goals were little more than regaining the influence and power he held before all of these uppity, precocious "lesser" gods from the warrens started mucking around. He whines and moans about the old days, and now the world is spinning out of his control. So he sets a trap for Mael to prove, mostly to himself, that he is still a major player.

The double-edged sword, of course, is that with a resurgence of godly actions comes worshipers and a restrictive structure. So Featherwitch horrifies him. His freedom to meddle at his own, and no one else's whims are equally as important as his ego.