[Mitsurugen]

OK! So, I'm having an arguement with a friend of mine about the poison that Pearl used against Kalam near the end of his struggle against the claw. I say that its a poison that swarms through your blood stream, kills your motor functions and slowly kills you.
My friend is saying that it kills you slowly but also baby spiders are born from the poison crawling through your body causing great pain.

It's the forbidden poison among the assassins that Pearl used on kalam in BH, but I can't remember the name for the life of me and we don't have the book at the moment to check for ourselves, any help on who's right lol?

p.s. Pearl is a coward...

This post has been edited by Mitsurugen: 12 September 2009 - 05:28 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

It's Kartoolian Paralt, and it slowly shuts down your internal organs while you are immobilized, equalling excruciating pain. Where the hell does the baby spiders thing come from?

Apsalar:

Quote

'I give you back the quarrel that killed him, Pearl.' And... even as the first horrifying puleses of fire began to sear his veins, gathering behind his eyes - a poison that would keep him alive for as long as possible, feeding his heart with everything it needed, even as vessels throughout his body burst, again and again and again -

Grub to Lostara:

Quote

....'There's only the pain. it's the spiders, you see, they breathe the blood of their victims, they need it rich, bright red. And so the venom, it doesn't let go. And then, there's the acid in the stomach, leaking out, eating everything up.'

The point of the preservation is that the Kartoolian spider needs the blood of its victims to breathe, so the victim must still be alive. Not that spiders are born of the poison.

This post has been edited by HoosierDaddy: 12 September 2009 - 05:38 AM

[Silencer]

I believe that is a psychological side-effect, rather like certain (real) drugs can cause people to hallucinate about "bugs under the skin" and suchlike.

I think we may have had a brief mention of something similar by Pearl. But yes, it is White Paralt, and more to the point it keeps you alive for as long as it can, feeding your body with the nutrients and other items it needs to survive, while causing unimaginable pain. This is because the White Paralt Spider from which the poison gets it's name and is sourced from like their victims to still be warm when they begin to feed.

-Silencer, keeps tabs on this sort of stuff...

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Don't wan't to be pedantic but Pearl used Kartoolian Paralt which comes from the spider. White Paralt comes from the snake.
In fact when Pearl kills his Liutenant he says that it was whte paralt and that as such it was much more quicker.

This post has been edited by Bauchelain the Evil: 12 September 2009 - 07:43 AM

[Silencer]

Bah, pedantic bear does not listen to you!.

Good catch, though. Oh, and white paralt is both a type of snake and a type of spider - the spider is the one most commonly referenced. Wiki page.

[Roldom]

pearl was awesome! and he was on his way to get rid of that swine mallick rel the jhistal priest and save the empire single handed!

[lobo the wolfman]

roldom, on 27 February 2010 - 11:33 AM, said:

pearl was awesome! and he was on his way to get rid of that swine mallick rel the jhistal priest and save the empire single handed!

He could off saved the Empire single handedly, but didn't because he was a pansy.

[Tsundoku]

Meh, don't get me started. Pearl was my favourite character to that point, and I'm still peeved at how SE pussified him before offing him so sadly. Not a worthy end for him at all.

[maro]

Sombra, on 28 February 2010 - 05:57 AM, said:

Meh, don't get me started. Pearl was my favourite character to that point, and I'm still peeved at how SE pussified him before offing him so sadly. Not a worthy end for him at all.

I saw it as Kalam being Pearl's Achilles Heel - he hated him.

Shame though as it didn't read well.

[Red King]

Pearl was a favorable character in the HOC book, and after the whole siege in TBH, he dramatically changed and i was a little disappointed. At least he got to die quickly, other wise, I would of felt alot worse for Pearls demise.

- Ultor

This post has been edited by First Sword Ultor: 13 April 2010 - 11:26 PM

[DarkFox]

pearl deserved everything!! he was going to let everyone else die, torture Kalam for no more reason than that he failed to kill him the first time, shot another claw in the back, and would let anyone die in exchange for his own life!!! he was always a pus and an ass. it just never showed cuz he had no one who could stand up to him. let himm burn! let him die slow! and finally, i never reaaly liked his sense of humour

[anothevilbadguy]

Pearl wasn't really evil, he was heartbroken and distraught because he thought the only person he has loved had died. It was shown previously he was sort of kind, well for an assassin. He was one of my favourite characters, but I felt the way SE gave him such a tragic demise was quite excellent. SE sure does love his tragedy.

[hmqb]

Why couldn't they just be friends? Kalam and pearl, just be good friends always. Maybe quick ben comes in, they all become friends, maybe fiddler or something comes in.
But I think its agreed that Pearl used poison that hurts, alot, on Kalam.

[HiddenOne]

Pearl became a "mere shadow of his former self" near the end. Kalam would be hard competition for anybody in the assassin business, I'm sure that lots of killers moved up the ladder with him out of the picture.

Tragedy is a cornerstone of this series, badguy.

Anybody caught wind of the disposition of Kalam post- Malaz City?

[Salk Elan]

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

torture Kalam for no more reason than that he failed to kill him the first time,

Let me remind you, that he did NOT fail to kill Kalam before. From what we saw on board the Ragstopper he could have killed Kalam more than once. He could have stabbed him the first time he sneaked up on him but was just to courious (maybe one of his flaws) and in the end of DG he stabbed him in the side (where it wouldn't cause serious damage) deliberately, as was his job as a Claw… to keep the hunt on.

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

shot another claw in the back

Well… Pearl shot (out of frustration)… and Kalam stabbed, slashed and used every other means available at various times through various doubtlessly nicely choreographed fighting-scenes, which makes them both not the most honorable persons in the books. So what? – They are assassins not knights.

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

would let anyone die in exchange for his own life

If you mean the special Hand he had trained to kill Kalam. I'd say they knew what was their purpose, which included the possibility to die in the process. But that's the risk inherent to be an assassin. And why Pearl didn't attack him face to face in the first place? – Because that would have meant to give up his edge over Kalam, forcing him to play by Kalams rules and let's be honest, even I think that Pearl is physicly inferior to Kalam (but hey… who is not, at least out of the average guys?).

If you mean the fourhundredsomething Claws taken out by Apsalar… well, that was just plain common sense. He had the advantage to be on a rooftop so he had a good vantage point and saw what was going on. So what use would it have been (to anyone) if he had made a heroic last stand? I dare say nearly everyone else, perhaps to the exclusion of powerhouses like Gods, Quick Ben, Tayschrenn or Fiddler with a big box of Cussers handy, would have taken their chance an run, too.

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

he was always a pus and an ass

If

risking his own life to help Coltains night-time raid - and probably saving Duikers life during it, which I cannot prove of course, but you cannot prove it wrong in turn – (which he would not have to),

searching a decent resting place for the living severed head of a person he just met (which he could have simply dumped by the wayside),

killing Henaras – I know that Kalam said that was nothing, but that doesn't mean Kalam didn't lie out of pride, especially with Quick Ben at his side to back him up – as a peace-offering (which he would not have to),

or the simple fact that he was about to cleanse the Claw from the corruption within and get rid of Korbolo Dom and Mallick Rel, both of whom I would regard as a greater evil,

then he was.

Just because he picked a private feud with Kalam (and let's not forget, he would have finally won and gotten away with it, if not for divine intervention), is not enough reason in my eyes.



Of course, poisoning anyone with the most painful and illegal poison available is not very nice or honorable, but given the state of mind he was in, when he did it, like anothevilbadguy said 'heartbroken and distraught' because of the loss of his love but, as I interpret it, even more so full of pure genuine loathing for Kalam, I can understand it.

Kalam is anathema to the Claw… one they adopted into their rank from outside because of his skill, but never learned to BE one of them… and finally left them.

I can really comprehend how Pearl, raised and indoctrinated by the Claw, truly one of them and fircely loyal to the Claw as an organisation and the empire itself (which is how I interpret him), must have felt - in addition to his already fringed state of mind- when the b**h Laseen, disregardful of Pearls own rank and his right to be Clawmaster, wanted to hand the lead of the organisation of all things to fu**ng Kalam the traitor!

That was probably the last straw for him. He

Grub in TB said:

"hungered for vengeance"

, not from Kalam personally imo, or even from Laseen, but from the world in general, from fate, that has taken away from him everything… his luck, his love… everything he has achieved… and now it wanted to take the last thing that was left to him: the Claw, as in 'his home'. He couln't have let that happen, he had to act… had to hammer everything into a frame in which he could have puzzled together the shards of his life to something sane again.

Kalam was just the beacon he was drawn to first, the Epitome of all that was threatening his world view.

I mean, Pearl said it himself:

Quote

"I am sorry, Kalam Mekhar. But you…I cannot accept… your existence. I cannot…"

It was simply a matter of killing Kalam, whatever the cost, or jumping off the roof himself. He could not have lived and kept his dignity, his self-perception as a Claw while Kalam was still alive.

So, I don't jump around joyful exclaiming Kalam got what he deserved, but I just can't condem Pearl for what he did either. After all, no matter how painful the poison was, after a while Kalam would have died, and there are any number of ineffably inhuman atrocities, infinitely more painful throughout the MBoF, so this is just a minor case, really.



And finally, I really liked his sense of humour. He was just likable with all his affectations, from the first time he stepped out from the Imperial Warren in the middle of nowhere…

anothevilbadguy, on 03 June 2010 - 11:41 PM, said:

He was one of my favourite characters, but I felt the way SE gave him such a tragic demise was quite excellent. SE sure does love his tragedy.

That's my feeling exactly. And I took a little comfort in the fact, that it was at least Lostara that finally put him out of his misery.


----------------------------

(I don't intend any personal offence with this post. Even if it sounds angry in some parts, I don't mean it so. I just lack the linguistic finesse to phrase it otherwise. After all english is not my native language. )

[Gatekeeper]

Salk Elan, on 08 June 2010 - 04:52 PM, said:

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

torture Kalam for no more reason than that he failed to kill him the first time,

Let me remind you, that he did NOT fail to kill Kalam before. From what we saw on board the Ragstopper he could have killed Kalam more than once. He could have stabbed him the first time he sneaked up on him but was just to courious (maybe one of his flaws) and in the end of DG he stabbed him in the side (where it wouldn't cause serious damage) deliberately, as was his job as a Claw… to keep the hunt on.

WORD. I love Kalam, (and I think this is the reason for so much **cough, cough** VENOM, against Pearl. But, in DG, Kalam really did get owned by our favorite ring wearing assassin.

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

shot another claw in the back

Well… Pearl shot (out of frustration)… and Kalam stabbed, slashed and used every other means available at various times through various doubtlessly nicely choreographed fighting-scenes, which makes them both not the most honorable persons in the books. So what? – They are assassins not knights.

EXACTLY. They are ASSASSINS.

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

would let anyone die in exchange for his own life

If you mean the special Hand he had trained to kill Kalam. I'd say they knew what was their purpose, which included the possibility to die in the process. But that's the risk inherent to be an assassin. And why Pearl didn't attack him face to face in the first place? – Because that would have meant to give up his edge over Kalam, forcing him to play by Kalams rules and let's be honest, even I think that Pearl is physicly inferior to Kalam (but hey… who is not, at least out of the average guys?).

If you mean the fourhundredsomething Claws taken out by Apsalar… well, that was just plain common sense. He had the advantage to be on a rooftop so he had a good vantage point and saw what was going on. So what use would it have been (to anyone) if he had made a heroic last stand? I dare say nearly everyone else, perhaps to the exclusion of powerhouses like Gods, Quick Ben, Tayschrenn or Fiddler with a big box of Cussers handy, would have taken their chance an run, too.

Darkfox, on 03 June 2010 - 06:05 PM, said:

he was always a pus and an ass

If
risking his own life to help Coltains night-time raid - and probably saving Duikers life during it, which I cannot prove of course, but you cannot prove it wrong in turn – (which he would not have to),


searching a decent resting place for the living severed head of a person he just met (which he could have simply dumped by the wayside),
killing Henaras – I know that Kalam said that was nothing, but that doesn't mean Kalam didn't lie out of pride, especially with Quick Ben at his side to back him up – as a peace-offering (which he would not have to),
or the simple fact that he was about to cleanse the Claw from the corruption within and get rid of Korbolo Dom and Mallick Rel, both of whom I would regard as a greater evil,

then he was.

Just because he picked a private feud with Kalam (and let's not forget, he would have finally won and gotten away with it, if not for divine intervention), is not enough reason in my eyes.



Of course, poisoning anyone with the most painful and illegal poison available is not very nice or honorable, but given the state of mind he was in, when he did it, like anothevilbadguy said 'heartbroken and distraught' because of the loss of his love but, as I interpret it, even more so full of pure genuine loathing for Kalam, I can understand it.

Kalam is anathema to the Claw… one they adopted into their rank from outside because of his skill, but never learned to BE one of them… and finally left them.

I can really comprehend how Pearl, raised and indoctrinated by the Claw, truly one of them and fircely loyal to the Claw as an organisation and the empire itself (which is how I interpret him), must have felt - in addition to his already fringed state of mind- when the b**h Laseen, disregardful of Pearls own rank and his right to be Clawmaster, wanted to hand the lead of the organisation of all things to fu**ng Kalam the traitor!

That was probably the last straw for him. He

Grub in TB said:

"hungered for vengeance"

, not from Kalam personally imo, or even from Laseen, but from the world in general, from fate, that has taken away from him everything… his luck, his love… everything he has achieved… and now it wanted to take the last thing that was left to him: the Claw, as in 'his home'. He couln't have let that happen, he had to act… had to hammer everything into a frame in which he could have puzzled together the shards of his life to something sane again.

Kalam was just the beacon he was drawn to first, the Epitome of all that was threatening his world view.

I mean, Pearl said it himself:

Quote

"I am sorry, Kalam Mekhar. But you…I cannot accept… your existence. I cannot…"

It was simply a matter of killing Kalam, whatever the cost, or jumping off the roof himself. He could not have lived and kept his dignity, his self-perception as a Claw while Kalam was still alive.

So, I don't jump around joyful exclaiming Kalam got what he deserved, but I just can't condem Pearl for what he did either. After all, no matter how painful the poison was, after a while Kalam would have died, and there are any number of ineffably inhuman atrocities, infinitely more painful throughout the MBoF, so this is just a minor case, really.


WORD



And finally, I really liked his sense of humour. He was just likable with all his affectations, from the first time he stepped out from the Imperial Warren in the middle of nowhere…

anothevilbadguy, on 03 June 2010 - 11:41 PM, said:

He was one of my favourite characters, but I felt the way SE gave him such a tragic demise was quite excellent. SE sure does love his tragedy.

That's my feeling exactly. And I took a little comfort in the fact, that it was at least Lostara that finally put him out of his misery.


----------------------------

(I don't intend any personal offence with this post. Even if it sounds angry in some parts, I don't mean it so. I just lack the linguistic finesse to phrase it otherwise. After all english is not my native language. )

[T3st0]

Although Pearl was not one of my favorite characters I do agree that his "change" was due to the death of Lostara. Or so he thought.

There were countless passages by him or Empress where they explain that Pearl just does not care about anything anymore. Broken heart I guess.

IMO he didn't die as painfully as he should have. Kartoolian Paralt or not.

[ThinkingMalaz]

I thought Pearl's story was a sad one. He was obviously heartbroken about 'losing' Lostara and he saw no point anynmore. he was heartbroken and 'heartbroken'and 'assasin'don't make for good bedmates. Yes what he did was horrible, but by then he was only fuelled by bitterness and for the gods sake he is an assasin! They're bound to get nasty when they let their emotions get to them.... He really did deserve what was coming for him though

[Orlion]

His change in character wasn't a shock to me. It seemed perfectly in character for Pearl to do what he did. He did it because he wanted to make sure Kalam would die and out of pride. He had to do it then so he could become the new Clawmaster and carry out his plan to cleanse the empire. He did it because he was ashamed of his last words to Lostra and that he hid in his tent as the city burned.

And, for whatever reason, he was a threat to Shadowthrone's plans. Pearl was on Apsalar's list o' folks to kill, and Cotillian's questioning Lostra's loyalty regarding him seem to indicate that Pearl was doing something they didn't want him to do... or maybe they just wanted him dead, it's sometimes hard to tell

[DarkFox]

yes, pearl shot someone in the back, its fair, he IS an assassin. BUT the claw only kill their own when they turn renegade, pearl killed an ally assassin, the lone survivor of a team he prepared to fight kalam i lieu of himself because he witnessed pearl commit a crime by assassin standards. Kalam would have died but i believe the book said it would be days before he truly did.

Pearl did have to kill Kalam, for his prides sake, because he could have killed him but kalam survived and basically hunted the other claw. It was the right choice to make then but he definitely received full blame for it, isn't that why he was in exile later?

I believe when Laseen said she would make Kalam clawmaster, she made it Pearls choice, that's why she gave him full control of the claw. but he didn't want to "purge" the claw of their betrayers, of Korbalo and Mallick Rel, he wanted to plainly annihilate them, and I'm not sure it said anything about him happily serving under the empress either did it?

I can't disagree with how twisted he became after he believed his love dead but he could have gone another way with it, Lostara certainly did. he could kill kalam, even from behind at a distance, a god wouldn't try it another way, but the poisen was just sadistic. and finally, it wasn't pearl who saved anyone, it was apt who followed him, you can read it any way you want but it seamed to me pearl was there as much out of curiosity as duty.

I will take back my "ass and pus" comment. he wasn't an ass until his broken heart and he did follow the T'lan Imass into Kurald Thyrlan. but his only two redeeming acts were to placethe t'lan imass's head in a good spot and to take away Felissin Parans body.

since we're on the Pearl subject, did anyone else notice the demon Rake slayed in GotM was also named Pearl? i couldn't help thinking there was some connection somewhere...

This post has been edited by DarkFox: 09 February 2011 - 01:48 AM