[The Dark Wanderer]

Anybody got a link to the map floating around as I'm trying to work out how the children at the beginning can be west of Kolanse and be involved in the story? Or maybe I'm just screwing up the Malaz world geography again?

Also who's still hunting the K'Chain? Plus warriors better than the K'ell? What's going to be able to stop them?

Also where is Heboric (or is it some 'ghost world'?

I seem to have an obsession with geography from this prologue!

Wow! though in many wonderous forms. I think once more I will appreciate this prolgue once I understand it all! (Isn't it always the way?)

This post has been edited by The Dark Wanderer: 25 March 2009 - 10:53 PM

[masan's saddle]

 kcf, on Mar 25 2009, 10:16 PM, said:

 Urizen, on Mar 25 2009, 03:07 PM, said:

I wonder who/what the starvers and the bone-skinned inquisitors are?

bone-skinned seems like T'lann Imass to me

Or possibly Forkrul Assail ?

I seem to remember them being white skinned with load of extra ribs/joints ?

That also clears up Redmask's crapness for me !

Massive, flying KCCM Assassins.....OMG!

[Urizen]

 kcf, on Mar 25 2009, 11:16 PM, said:

 Urizen, on Mar 25 2009, 03:07 PM, said:

I wonder who/what the starvers and the bone-skinned inquisitors are?

bone-skinned seems like T'lann Imass to me

My first thought was that the inquisitors might be Tiste Liosan. They are supposed to be really light/white in appearance , just as the Andii are really dark, and maybe that could be seen as "bone-skinned".

[Sinisdar Toste]

not done reading yet, but i got to the part with taxillian and rautos and all those and just squeeled "its icarium! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

way to happy now

Edit:

now for thoughts... the starvers and the bone- skinned inquisitors didn't strike me as anything else than the last mutant creations of a society that had stripped its land of all resources and was forced to turn on itself to survive, perhaps employing dangerous magicks to imbue certain members with power, like the bone- skinned inquisitors control the starvers and ribbers (big hungry dogs, maybe created to try and keep order) and send them to do their boney bidding.

the Fathers are different matter... no ideas there

I think Heboric might be becoming a god of some sort, whether he likes it or not, the jade power is not letting him go, and the fact that he says "Behold my friends, i am justice." seems to imply some sort of ascension.

plus the idea of icarium walking around with seven people riding in his skull and dominating his consciousness is just so delicious. imagine him and mappo meeting now!

This post has been edited by Sinisdar Toste: 25 March 2009 - 11:10 PM

[blackzoid]

We should have known that there was a connection between the Otatoral Dragon and the KCCM. Pearl and Lostara found it in the Imperial Warren, the scrapped off part of Jacaraku. The continent where KCCM used to be.

The last 2 books are going to be HUGE!

[Sinisdar Toste]

oh another thing about icarium and his cranium mates, could the fact that he believes that he no longer exists physically, that his mind has been removed from his body, have cured the chaos infection?

[Tiste Simeon]

Mind... blown... too many... questions...

[exael]

wow just wow. I should have not read that; I just cannot wait now till it is released. Is there any word on the relative size of the manuscript compaired to previous ones?

[Slow Ben]

Pure, unadulterated awesomeness.

[Mushroom]

Wasn't Heboric the Shield Anvil?

Not the Destriant.

[Sixty]

 Mushroom, on Mar 25 2009, 08:46 PM, said:

Wasn't Heboric the Shield Anvil?

Not the Destriant.

AFAIK he was named the Destriant (by Fener, I believe) and took on the role of Shield Anvil.

[Salt-Man Z]

Holy CRAP.

[polishgenius]

Is it just me, or is this one much more surreal than most previous prologues? The way it's written, with half the PoVs being obviously insane or damaged in some way, gives it something of the tone of a fever dream, and nothing is presented clearly (and not just in the "I'll explain later" style of most Malazan books).

Interesting, but it'll be odd if the whole book is like that. Ambition in it, anyway. It's got me interested...

[D'rek]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!



Righto then:

1. So looks like we're going for a giant convergence in the Wasteleands east of the Letheri Empire.

-The KCCM mountain is north of it and Kalthya's party is heading south into the Wastelands
-The trail of kids is from the lands on the east side of the continent and heading west into the Wastelands
-and presumably the 14th, Letheri, White Faces, Perish, Khundryl, etc will be getting involved from the eastside of the Wastelands.


2. Iccy seems to be schizophrenic now, and I wonder if perhaps he is walking in the wastelands and, being so insane, will make a good Mortal Sword for the insane Matron.


3. Ampelas Rooted is a weird name. As noted previously, Ampelas is a dragon, one of the ones chained near Shadowkeep whom Cot talks to.


4. I'm betting the ribbers, Fathers, etc etc is a new culture that isn't particularly connected to any major previous stuff, but is CG influenced, since he's gotta fit in there somehow.



And of course, I like the worms in the kid, that was great!

This post has been edited by D'rek: 26 March 2009 - 04:23 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

Not too bad on the guesses:

 HoosierDaddy, on Feb 22 2009, 07:10 PM, said:

Hmmmm... Well, the first part of the story is going to be in Lether, so I doubt anything will elude to that. How about some nice K'Chain hisotory, maybe the fight with the dragons or the cause of the Rent at Morn?

 HoosierDaddy, on Feb 22 2009, 07:14 PM, said:

Well, why was she fooling around with Chaos? It could still be discussing the magical powers of Matron's as we are led to believe they will be involved in the last 2 books, and the only example we have is nut-job Matron from MoI.

 HoosierDaddy, on Feb 22 2009, 07:19 PM, said:

Shouldn't we get a brief preview of this "new area" that is about to be explored in the Prologue or do you think the brief pre-chapter writings about the Eastern Wastelands in RG did that?

Thoughts:

Icarium's machine was BIG-TIME broken. Instead of getting "his" memories, he has the personality/souls? of the other people who got incinerated.

K'chain: Another nutty matron, whom I assume is nutty because of otataral staked Ampelas (thus the Ampelas Rooted)... drawing power from the eleint? Plus, super-powered K'chain? Who's going to stop them guys?

Elan: Wut? I, too, thought Forhuk Assail when talking about the "bone-people", but T'lan Imass is a good guess as well. Crazy...

This post has been edited by HoosierDaddy: 26 March 2009 - 04:25 AM

[Skywalker]

 Sixty, on Mar 26 2009, 06:27 AM, said:

 Mushroom, on Mar 25 2009, 08:46 PM, said:

Wasn't Heboric the Shield Anvil?

Not the Destriant.

AFAIK he was named the Destriant (by Fener, I believe) and took on the role of Shield Anvil.

First of all... MIND BLOWN

Now... IIRC, Heboric was Destriant to Fener before the boar god fell... then for a while he thought he had become Destriant to Treach/ Trake - but actually he had become Shield Anvil and just didn't know it... at the end of BH, I assumed he had become a Itkovian-esque Shield Anvil without a god backing him up, giving solace to the souls trapped in jade...

Following the Itkovian analogy, that would mean that Heboric has now ascended having done more or less what Itkovian did only with a different species of soul. But the fact that he is hanging out in his incorporeal dream place with Tog, Fanny, and Fener made me think - where is Treach? Also, will Heboric be running into Toc the Younger sometime soon? (he rode off to the gods of war after all)

On the other stuff... I loved the guided tour of the Matron's (I assume) crashed Skykeep. 'Ampelas rooted' huh? and all the "other rooted". Interesting.

Also - holy cow, the K'ell were junior warriors! And they gave the Grey Swords a tough time (ok, undead ones but whatever). Those flying assassins sound like pure win.

Couldn't make much out of the snake of kids... I actually thought the grey tree might be another tree-fied Jaghut or something when I first started reading... but that doesn't seem likely.

And... seeing Rautos Hivanar got me thinking initially that Iccy's machine threw the victims of the blast into a warren or some such. And then the moth's eye view was...



Pure awesome. Looks like Iccy's headed to be a champion for the Matron... which makes me think there is suddenly some logic to the spider goddess from Kallor's time (Ardatha) blessed and saved Mappo and gave him a personal webby forcefield. IIRC, the Kallorean empire had KCCM remains all over the place, and Ardatha was irritating Kallor by not bowing to him... maybe before Kallor came around she had fought the expansionist KCCM?


Skywalker - strangely feeling sated and can't wait eager simultaneously.

This post has been edited by Skywalker: 26 March 2009 - 05:27 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

 Skywalker, on Mar 26 2009, 01:26 AM, said:

 Sixty, on Mar 26 2009, 06:27 AM, said:

 Mushroom, on Mar 25 2009, 08:46 PM, said:

Wasn't Heboric the Shield Anvil?

Not the Destriant.

AFAIK he was named the Destriant (by Fener, I believe) and took on the role of Shield Anvil.

First of all... MIND BLOWN

Now... IIRC, Heboric was Destriant to Fener before the boar god fell... then for a while he thought he had become Destriant to Treach/ Trake - but actually he had become Shield Anvil and just didn't know it... at the end of BH, I assumed he had become a Itkovian-esque Shield Anvil without a god backing him up, giving solace to the souls trapped in jade...

Following the Itkovian analogy, that would mean that Heboric has now ascended having done more or less what Itkovian did only with a different species of soul. But the fact that he is hanging out in his incorporeal dream place with Tog, Fanny, and Fener made me think - where is Treach? Also, will Heboric be running into Toc the Younger sometime soon? (he rode off to the gods of war after all)

No, Heboric had been a possible Destriant, but then he was cast out of Fener's cult because of the Reve. Karnadas (of the Grey Swords... I think that was his name) WAS the Destriant, until he died and Fener was pulled down to Earth.

As for the Itkovian thing... very interesting theory. The Redeemer replaces Hood and Heboric/Justice replaces...either the gods of war, another portion of Death (judgment), or perhaps an ordered-Justice God to deal with the inorder/Chaos of the Crippled God?

[Sinisdar Toste]

 Skywalker, on Mar 26 2009, 12:26 AM, said:

On the other stuff... I loved the guided tour of the Matron's (I assume) crashed Skykeep. 'Ampelas rooted' huh? and all the "other rooted". Interesting.

Couldn't make much out of the snake of kids... I actually thought the grey tree might be another tree-fied Jaghut or something when I first started reading... but that doesn't seem likely.

well if the thing that icarium sees from the plain is Ampelas Rooted it seems unlikely that it's a skykeep, "too narrow for a mountain" was the quote i believe. also Rooted implies, well, a certain non-flying aspect. but i could be wrong i thought it was a tower city or something

and i loved the grey leaves and Badalles poem about them. capemoths are freaky

This post has been edited by Sinisdar Toste: 26 March 2009 - 05:47 AM

[Mentalist]

He was Destriant of Treach, I believe.
and then he converted himself into a Shield anvil to save Wu from another Jadepocalypse.

[Mentalist]

 HoosierDaddy, on Mar 26 2009, 01:31 AM, said:

 Skywalker, on Mar 26 2009, 01:26 AM, said:

 Sixty, on Mar 26 2009, 06:27 AM, said:

 Mushroom, on Mar 25 2009, 08:46 PM, said:

Wasn't Heboric the Shield Anvil?

Not the Destriant.

AFAIK he was named the Destriant (by Fener, I believe) and took on the role of Shield Anvil.

First of all... MIND BLOWN

Now... IIRC, Heboric was Destriant to Fener before the boar god fell... then for a while he thought he had become Destriant to Treach/ Trake - but actually he had become Shield Anvil and just didn't know it... at the end of BH, I assumed he had become a Itkovian-esque Shield Anvil without a god backing him up, giving solace to the souls trapped in jade...

Following the Itkovian analogy, that would mean that Heboric has now ascended having done more or less what Itkovian did only with a different species of soul. But the fact that he is hanging out in his incorporeal dream place with Tog, Fanny, and Fener made me think - where is Treach? Also, will Heboric be running into Toc the Younger sometime soon? (he rode off to the gods of war after all)

No, Heboric had been a possible Destriant, but then he was cast out of Fener's cult because of the Reve. Karnadas (of the Grey Swords... I think that was his name) WAS the Destriant, until he died and Fener was pulled down to Earth.

As for the Itkovian thing... very interesting theory. The Redeemer replaces Hood and Heboric/Justice replaces...either the gods of war, another portion of Death (judgment), or perhaps an ordered-Justice God to deal with the inorder/Chaos of the Crippled God?

I don't think we can stretch the parallel that far
Itkovian took up his burden on a battlefield, it was recognized and his sacrifice was acknowledged my the numerous soldiers + T'lan Imass who created his Barrow.

Heboric, otoh, died at sea, and no one aside form the existing gods + Mappo and his crew actually knows that he saved Wu.
He doesn't have the prerequisites to be worshipped and to ascend.

the way I figure it, he's gonna be a conduit for the Jade power, possibly a beacon for where the next Jade chunks should fall?