[Kanubis]

Right, I've seen a thread on favourite moments, most emotional moments, favourite characters etc. To me a favourite moment is the bit you read that just takes your breath away with awesomeness.

This thread isn't about the moments that get you when you read, it's about the ideas that SE and ICE got during the creation of the world that, after reading all the books thus far, you think back and think "that idea was just insane, in an awesome way." It could be something fairly pedestrian like the idea of moranth munitions or a certain race. and it's probably been done before, but us newer folk like to pipe up now and again

The inspiration for this occurred about five minutes ago when I was outside having a ciggie after reading the thread where someone describes the Crippled God as a horrible cliché. And I thought, while generally disagreeing, that the most awesome thing about the CG was being overlooked, which was this:

A collection of powerful beings were pissed at a mortal tyrant. Instead of pissing about with mere armies or even slightly more divine solutions - maybe a plague, perhaps a natural disaster, they decide to rip a fucking God out of another realm and pummel said fucking God right in to the tyrant's face. 

Well ok, not in to his face, but I liked the way that read. Regardless, I'd love to have been part of the conversation when the fellas came up with that one.

I would very much be interested to hear what ideas from the Malzan series strike you as immensely cool

[T'renn]

The idea of a friggin Bartender starting an empire (I agree, he was a mage too, but still, a bartender !) which grows during his lifetime to span several continents. Awesome.

[worry]

One thing that comes to mind is the entrapment and exploitation of Rhulad. Deep down he is to me kind of a riff on Gollum, but one that's fantastically original and horrifying (and more than sufficiently distant from Tolkienism). There's tragic villains in all kinds of lit, of course, but Gollum might be my favorite and Rhulad comes closest to recreating those feelings for me.

[Tattersail_]

the uses of magic, it is that complex that no one understands it properly, we know a lot and enough to understand whats going on, but warrens and paths of warrens and unfound paths and unused warrens, this whole structure is brilliant!!

[Gothos]

In addition to the above, I think the concept of Shield Anvil is something I haven't seen much of anywhere else.
Also, Letheras, which seems like a living fossil, a place in the world where things went unchanged for what, 70 thousand years? Preserving old titles, structure, even the old magic, all with a very modern take on debt-based society.
Another thing - cultural assimilation - of the Teblor, of the Trell, the Awl. Might be just me not reading much, but it seems like there's unusual focus on this.
Finally there's the relationship between Jaghut and Imass. A whole race destroying their sould for an eternal war of genocide against another race? Holy shit. That's something totally insane right there.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

I think what happened to Icarium in DoD was really genius. I mean various people who are not real but think they are while the real guy thinks of himself as a ghost who follows them.

On a more general note both The T'lann imass and the Forkrul Assail are two interesting races. One that went undead so that they could follow their one purpose i.e wipe an entire race from the face of the planet and the other obsessed with justice order and peace and who think that the best way to have it is to kill everything.

[Use Of Weapons]

I really liked the interaction of Icarium with the Teblor, integrating the concept of genetic cleansing into a fantasy milieu. And, frankly, just the concept of rage as a character, embodied in Icarium. Everytime he's onscreen, he fascinates. I think he's Erikson's finest creation.

[Use Of Weapons]

The other thing that really struck home (and I have a feeling that SE was saying 'whoa' as he wrote it), was the equating of the ascended Bridgeburners with the Imass when that conversation about whether the ascension of an entire company of soliders had any precedent took place.

[Tattersail_]

Traveller aka Dassem and his desire to kill the God of death aka Hood!!

[Harvester]

I liked the idea of tattooing a pattern on people to build a god. I like patterns.

[HiddenOne]

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on 22 July 2010 - 07:36 AM, said:

The idea of a friggin Bartender starting an empire (I agree, he was a mage too, but still, a bartender !) which grows during his lifetime to span several continents. Awesome.

Wasn't Surly a barmaid? That must have been a place that one should always remember to tip well...

[Harvester]

I would love to see that bar and Urko as a bouncer.

This post has been edited by Harvester: 22 July 2010 - 01:42 PM

[haroos]

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on 22 July 2010 - 07:36 AM, said:

The idea of a friggin Bartender starting an empire (I agree, he was a mage too, but still, a bartender !) which grows during his lifetime to span several continents. Awesome.

how is that different from a shepherd rising to be a saviour/king/god-slayer and so forth.

[End of Disc One]

Gesler and Stormy.

Also just the whole plotline of Tool and the Seguleh in MoI. There's a huge freaking war going on and these guys are dueling in the midst of it.

[Gothos]

haroos, on 22 July 2010 - 03:03 PM, said:

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on 22 July 2010 - 07:36 AM, said:

The idea of a friggin Bartender starting an empire (I agree, he was a mage too, but still, a bartender !) which grows during his lifetime to span several continents. Awesome.

how is that different from a shepherd rising to be a saviour/king/god-slayer and so forth.

that instead of being barely saved from the forces of darkness by a wise sentinel and a mage, he builds his own crew and takes the world on his own terms, and that he's not unwillingly prodded towards it by destiny but by his own iron will and sheer ballsiness.

[T'renn]

haroos, on 22 July 2010 - 03:03 PM, said:

Imperial High Mage Tayschrenn, on 22 July 2010 - 07:36 AM, said:

The idea of a friggin Bartender starting an empire (I agree, he was a mage too, but still, a bartender !) which grows during his lifetime to span several continents. Awesome.

how is that different from a shepherd rising to be a saviour/king/god-slayer and so forth.

Because he's a bartender - Not a farmboy with some magic sword,we've had enough of those shining heroes.

[Abyss]

A few off the top of my thinkymeatz...


Dragnipur. The entire concept of Dragnipur.

The Jaghut, a race that use ice ages as weapons.

The Azath as an immune system for the universe.

The Tenescowri.

A cliff-spanning staircase made out of inanimate T'lan Imass.

Greyfrog. He eats brainz.

An Elder God of the seas content to be a mortal's servant because the mortal is the most entertainment he's had in millenia.

A god wiping out its entire priesthood because it didn't like what it was being worshipped into.

Kaelyk.

[T'renn]

A mortal talking a god out of killing him, after she hust wiped out the rest of the priesthood.

[Tattersail_]

the complexity of the characters and books,

• how he will create a whole character pov over a certain number of books and then kill him off
• how he will write about some characters in one book and then competely different characters in another book and then introduce them to each other!!

also abyss, i like what you wrote, especially Mael, the azath and the jaghut!

[DagOban]

Here are a few concepts/ideas I tought we're great:

- Erikson's spin on the Undead (T'Lan Imass)
- Erikson's spin on the Paladin (Iktovian)
- The magic system (Warrens)
- Relations between Gods and their worshippers
- Ascendency
- Dragnipur

There are many more ... I'll add more later