[dawnkiller]

So I'm working through DoD and taking down notes -- figured I might as well chuck them onto the pyre of Quotes we have. (Please forgive any incompleteness, I'm only 500 pages in.)


The Nature of Olar Ethil

'From my ancient blood ran every stream of Soletaken and D'ivers. And my blood, ah, it was but half Imass, perhaps even less. I am old beyond your imagining, warrior. Older than this world. I lived in darkness, I walked in purest light, I cast curses upon shadow. My hands were chipped stone, my eyes spawned the first fires to huddle round, my legs spread to the first mortal child. I am known by so many names even I have forgotten most of them.

...Parts of me sleep, tormented by sickness. Others rail in the fury of sumemr storms. I am the drinker of birth waters. And blood. And the rain of weeping and the oil of ordeal. I did not lie, mortal, when I told you that the spirits of your worship are my children. I am the bringer of a land's bounty. I am the cruel thief of want, the sower of suffering.

So many names...Eran'ishal, Morther to the Eres'al -- my first and most sentimental of choices. Rath Evain to the Forkrul Assail. Stone Bitch to the Jaghut. I have had a face in darkness, a son in shadow, a bastard in light. I have been named the Mother Beneath the Mountains, Ayala Alalle who tends the Gardens of the Moon, for ever awaiting her lover. I am Burn the Sleeping Goddess, in whose dreams life flowers unending, even as those dreams twist into nightmares. I am scattered to the very edge of the Abyss, the possessor of more faces than any other Elder.'

'Perhaps you were once all those things, Olar Ethil. But not any more. It's all torn away from you, isn't it? Scattered and lost, when you gave up life -- when you chose to become this thing of bones--"

'I am promised! The Stone Bitch shall awaken once more, in plague winds and devouring locusts, in wildfires and drowning dust and sand! And you will fall upon each other, rending flesh with teeth and nails! You will choose evil in fullest knowledge of what you do-- I am coming, mortal, the earth awakened to judgement! And you shall kneel, pleading, begging--your kind, human, shall make pathos your epitaph, for I will give you nothing, yield not a single instant of mercy!'--DoD p. 456-457 (Olar Ethil & Torrent)



"You imagine, nothing more. Tiam's daughter did not outlive her mother-- this thing has embraced the Ritual of Tellann--she is less than she once was."
"Less, and more, I think." --DoD p. 491 (Errant and Knuckles debate whether or not Olar Ethil smells...yeah)



When Knuckles had last seen her, he recalled, she was still mortal. He remembered the strange headgear she had worn, for all the world like a woven corded basket. With no holes for her eyes, or her mouth. Matron of all the bonecasters, mother to an entire race. --DoD p. 491



A little speculation...


To set the tone, a little about the KCCM's background:

In an unbroken line from each mother to every daughter, memory survived, perpetuating a continuous history of experience. --DoD p. 461

There was a goddess of the K'Chain Che'Malle. Immortal, omniscient as such things were supposed to be. The goddess was the Matron, mahybe of the ternal oil. Once, that oil had been of such strength and volume that hundreds of matrons were needed as holy vessels. --DoD p. 462


Now the old argument from MT:


'But you can't. We're all poisoned by the mother's blood, after all--'
'Her daughters have fared worse than poison! There is nothing balanced to this shattering of selves. Look at us! Spiteful bitches - Tiam's squalling heads rearing up again and again, generation after generation! And what of you, Father? That she-nightmare sails out on feathered wings from the dark of another realm, legs spread oh so wide and inviting, and were you not first in line? Pure Osserc, First Son of Dark and Light, so precious! Yet there you were, weaving your blood with that whore - tell us, did you proclaim her your sister before or after you fucked her?'
'You shouldn't speak of your mother that way, Sukul. She died giving birth to you, after all--'
'She died giving birth to us all! Dies, and is reborn. Tiam and her children. Tiam and her lovers. Her thousand deaths, and yet nothing changes!' -- Osserc, Menadore, and Sukul Ankhadu right before chucking Sheltatha Lore into an Azath, MT p.196-197



From what we know now about Olar Ethil's nature it would appear that she is not only multi-faceted, but imparts some of herself into the next generation, at least the female faction -- explaining how she's constantly killed and reborn with each death, and how she can be simultaneously mother/sister. "Tiam's squalling heads" living into the next generation, etc. I would hazard to say this is somewhat less literally reflected in the KCCM and their inherited memories.

Now, way back in the casting of the Tiles in MT it's noted that "the Queen lies dead and may never again rise" (MT p. 207). Since Tiam's nature is one of death and rebirth, one can only imagine how screwed up it's become now that Olar Ethil is one of the T'lan Imass -- neither dying nor unable to perpetuate life. It's true she has other aspects, but something clearly went pear-shaped for the Eleint along the way and I'm wondering if Olar Ethil's participation in the Ritual of Tellann was a factor.

[worry]

Don't know if you're right, but I do have a similar feeling that Olar Ethil is just as important as Korabas in terms of Tiam's fate, however things played out.

[D'rek]

dawnkiller, on 15 April 2010 - 05:12 PM, said:

Now, way back in the casting of the Tiles in MT it's noted that "the Queen lies dead and may never again rise" (MT p. 207).

I'd take that one with a grain of salt. If we were to assume everything in that casting was true then Draconus would have been devoured, Korabas would be insane (and male), K'rul is "staggering on the edge of a precipice". Considering that casting portrays the Wolves on the Beast throne before they, in fact, assumed it, that line above could even be a prediction of what will happen to Tiam...