[Roldom]

Didnt want to put the name high king on the thread and spoil anyone who hasnt read it yet

who is the high king that errastas and setch are thinking of running off to?

It cant be kallor can it? I mean humans cant be up and about and creating world spanning empires yet can they?

is it another azathani who has started an empire?

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Is it specifically stated anywhere that Kallor is human and/or that he isn't azathanai or something similar / equally old?

Being most of the way through GotM again, I recently read the passage where Kallor says that he was around when t'lan imass were children (of something to that effect), so unless he was lying, it seem to be reasonable -- at least to me -- that there's a good chance of the High King mentioned in FoD being Kallor.

[Hoods Breath]

Kallor has been around forever. He was cursed before Draconus finished Dragnipur. I expect that the High King is Kallor but the question is: Is Kallor an Azathanai?

[Kanubis]

Hoods Breath, on 12 October 2012 - 01:49 PM, said:

Kallor has been around forever. He was cursed before Draconus finished Dragnipur. I expect that the High King is Kallor but the question is: Is Kallor an Azathanai?

It kind of makes sense in the terms of Draconus/K'rul/Nightchill's curse. Other Azathanai like Errastas and co. get to ascend and be all Goddy and stuff, Kallor doesn't and has to trundle around as merely a tyrannical double-hard bastard for eternity instead.


I've only read a third of the book (and shouldn't be reading threads on it yet) but that makes sense to me?

[Abyss]

We don't know that the ref'd High King is Kallor, but the hints are strong.
Given revelations in TtH about just how many empires he's had, i think Kallor as Az'i would make sense.

[Orlion]

But do Azathani need to resort to various alchemies to hold the ravages of time at bay?

Aside from that, Kallor being Azathani makes a lot of things make sense.

[High Fist]

Orlion, on 12 October 2012 - 03:19 PM, said:

But do Azathani need to resort to various alchemies to hold the ravages of time at bay?

Aside from that, Kallor being Azathani makes a lot of things make sense.

Remember, Kallor was cursed with mortal life unending. This may have turned his Azathanai/God style immortality into something that needs alchemy to keep him from truning decrepit.

[Roldom]

But isnt it said somewhere that he used alchemies to make him look younger before he was cursed by krul and co?

[tiam]

Some good points here. He was cursed with mortal life unending and never to ascend. Really this means that he was mortal to begin with. The curse was his mortal longevity but his soul candles keep the ravages of age at bay. We see too much of kallor for him to be ana azathanai. Also the curse before the swrd was made reference in the moi prologue will likely be retconned. It will probably be him but i hope its not. Weve had alot of kallor pov sections and it would be an annoyance if he was immortal. Wouldnt it be interesting if wu was across the vitr?

[High Fist]

I'd just like to make a few points here.


1. The High King does not have to be Kallor. It might be some other guy; the title of High King might predate Kallor. One possibility is that Kallor conquered/usurped a/the previous High King's empire.

2. If the High King is Kallor, there are three main possibilities.


a. Kallor, the human, has been using alchemies for hundreds of thousands of years. Despite living for this time (and forging a few empires to boot), he has yet to ascend. This makes the curses of the Elder Gods about denying him the chance to ascend.

b. Kallor, the Azathanai, was cursed by the Elder Gods specifically with mortal life, thus stripping him of his Azathanai-ness. This could give some idea as to how he was able to utilize the blood/sacrifice of the people he killed to curse K'rul/Dracs/SoCN. It might also help explain how he knew things about K'Chain tech.

c. The timeline, being unimportant, is wrong.

This post has been edited by High Fist: 12 October 2012 - 06:51 PM

[Kanese S's]

The idea that Kallor is a demoted Azathanai does fit with his claim to have been around when the Imass "were but children." As for how that would work, how K'rul, Sis of Cold Nights, and Draconus were able to strip him of his Azathanai powers... do we really know how anything the Azathanai do works?

Also, his empire could be the first place that Imass became humans.

[worry]

I'm in the it's Kallor camp. And I hope we get to see what sours him, at least around the periphery. Errastas does come to mind somehow.

[Kanese S's]

Hmmm... Kallor was once a very good, kind ruler whose mind was possibly poisoned by the whisperings of Errastas? Definitely an interesting idea. That would make Kallor, in my view, much more of a tragic character, as opposed to a big butthole as he appears in most of the series.

[worry]

I don't necessarily mean whispering. If Kallor's kingdom or anyone he cares about is hurt even as collateral damage in Errastas's schemes -- and Kallor already has enmity with the Azathani it seems -- then he can be driven to some pretty terrible extremes. I could also see him making mistakes of some sort, and the rest of his life being driven by self-hatred (in spite of or in tandem with his ego). Perpetual, repetitive self destruction that has its own massive collateral damage, time and time again. Sisyphus, if every time his rock rolled back down the hill, it smashed a few million people.

[Kanese S's]

Oh wow, I hadn't even considered that.