[Lady Senjak]

Why does Erikson say that K'rul, Draconus, and Nightchill are "the last of the elder [gods]"? Clearly this can't mean what it appears to mean. Were the others temporarily absent? Thanks.

By the way, I put this here in the MT forum because of Mael's and Kilmandaros' relevance to the question.

This post has been edited by Lady Senjak: 09 February 2011 - 09:28 PM

[worry]

Have you read the whole series so far?

[Lady Senjak]

 worrywort, on 09 February 2011 - 10:17 PM, said:

Have you read the whole series so far?

Yeah, up to MT.

[MTS]

Keep in mind that whole bit is from K'ruls perspective, and he might not know all the facts.

[worry]

Yah, fully agree with MTS. Very rarely (never?) is any of the information we get not from a character perspective, so don't consider it SE telling you anything.

[Lady Senjak]

 worrywort, on 10 February 2011 - 12:19 AM, said:

Yah, fully agree with MTS. Very rarely (never?) is any of the information we get not from a character perspective, so don't consider it SE telling you anything.

A reasonable enough response, but I guess I assumed it would be something K'rul would know a little about. They can apparently communicate by thought at a distance, after all. There's also no apparent reason for us to be told this detail.

[MTS]

 Lady Senjak, on 10 February 2011 - 12:55 AM, said:

 worrywort, on 10 February 2011 - 12:19 AM, said:

Yah, fully agree with MTS. Very rarely (never?) is any of the information we get not from a character perspective, so don't consider it SE telling you anything.

A reasonable enough response, but I guess I assumed it would be something K'rul would know a little about. They can apparently communicate by thought at a distance, after all. There's also no apparent reason for us to be told this detail.

Perhaps it would be something he'd know about, but here I assume you must be able to sense their presence to be able to communicate thought to them, and that might not be the case.

As for there being no other reason, don't be so sure. Just looking at it from my own literary perspective, it does add a certain emphasis to Kallor's curses, in that he's condemning the last of the Elder Gods to what amounts to oblivion. It also adds a certain pathos to the scene, and cements the loneliness of the wolf-god who's lost his mate.

[WhiskeyJackDaniels]

Alternate explanation, from DoD:

Spoiler

Mael was in hiding as a human or whatever, Grizzin Farl could be wherever he is now, Olar Ethil was already a T'lan Imass, Ardata was probably in hiding (maybe even presumed dead from the fall of the CG), the Errant was probably already hiding away, Kilmandaros was in an Azath along with Sechul Lath. K'rul probably believed that they were the only 3 left...or at least the only 3 active

[D'rek]

It doesn't have to mean that the physical entities of the other EGs had been destroyed, just that they were no longer being worshipped or had lost their power or something along those lines.

Does bring up some interesting questions of when exactly the Human First and Kallorian Empires might have moved on from EG worship to something else...

[Tapper]

 D, on 10 February 2011 - 04:34 AM, said:

It doesn't have to mean that the physical entities of the other EGs had been destroyed, just that they were no longer being worshipped or had lost their power or something along those lines.

Does bring up some interesting questions of when exactly the Human First and Kallorian Empires might have moved on from EG worship to something else...

And what the something else was.
Although I guess that was Kallor in his own empire, and Dessimbelackis or Dessimbelackis and the First Heroes in the First Empire.

[HiddenOne]

Maybe some of the Elder Gods don't consider others to be on the same level, as newcomers, upstarts, young bloods, whatever

[Siergiej]

WJD pretty much explained the case. But it makes me wonder...

Spoiler

...when did Mael go inactive? Do You think he had already retired from god-bussiness when Kallorian Empire was going down with a bang?

[Lady Senjak]

Thanks for the replies. I haven't looked at the spoilers provided here, but based on responses to them I take it that things will become clearer later on.

[Jegna Til]

 HiddenOne, on 10 February 2011 - 07:11 PM, said:

Maybe some of the Elder Gods don't consider others to be on the same level, as newcomers, upstarts, young bloods, whatever

I like your interpretation. I have to wonder if perhaps it's the 'perception' of the evolution of god-hood. Eventually as they go beyond the need to have believers, they move up to the same level as the ancients uih, elder gods and just say in thier own warrens. They become so powerful, they look around and go 'huh, I don't need you to believe in me as long as I do?' That make sense at all? Sooner or later, perhaps in another thousand years, their is a whole new deck of cards with new ascendants because of this or have I just gone off track?