I just finished HOC on my first read through of the series. So far I have enjoyed every book and have managed to get my best friend to read the first one (who is now hooked also!) after begging everyone I know to give it a shot.
Its been a few months before I started HOC after finishing MOI so I just want to write down my thoughts and anyone can feel free to say whether that's correct (or if I am just making up stories in my head).
To anyone that actually reads all this... Thankyou for your patience
So I will start with my thoughts on Karsa. Pretty much a bad ass right from the start, although I am under the impression that he has softened up somewhat at the end, as evidenced by releasing the shorn T'lan Imass into the ocean (speaking about mercy). Also his path to become worthy of leading Bairoth and Delum envoked emotions and I feel was a pivotal point in his changes and "growing up". So he is know the Knight in the House of Chains, although he doesn't willingly work for the crippled god and even gets in the way of his plans - by killing that evil dude Bael...whateverhisnameis and then fighting the 2 hounds (when the unchained told him not to), so I don't really see why you would want someone who will most likely do the opposite of what you ask him to be your Knight. Karsa really becomes a deliverer of harsh justice in the end. ALthough the crippled god would be pretty reluctant to release someone as powerful as Karsa. I presume Karsa is now an ascendent?
Karsa brings me to the next point. I have trouble defining Ascendancy as it seems to involve a range of different things. I am under the impression that anyone who is in a House (eg Knight, King, Queen, etc) has Ascended (correct?), but then we have characters such as Gesler, stormy and ... (one other who I dont think is mentioned as much in HOC) who become ascendents or are close to becoming them. This reminds me of the scene between Gesler and Coltaine which helped me understand how someone can ascend - I believe there was a conversation about ascendecy being the firm belief by an individual that they can't die or they have such a firm belief that they push past mortal barriers (or some such).
Which brings me to my observations and theories on Gesler and co. SO we know know they were in the Elder warren of Shadow on the ship then they followed an undead Soletaken dragon into Kurald Thyrllan and had fired breathed on them. I'm starting to get the impression that because of this event, all those who were on that ship began to lead remarkable lives because of they were becoming ascendants. My evidence is that Felisin wound up a vessel for a Goddess, Baudin became Knight of High House Death and Heboric is now Treachs Destriant - which leads me to conclude that big things are expected for Gesler and co. The reason that Gesler and co have bronze skin is because they were on the deck on the ship and in direct contact with the flames while the others were underneath. Holes in this theory include Kulp who died (although maybe we just haven't heard about him yet).
The obvious question is about the Hounds of Darkness. Those bad boys!! Obvious questions include (and yes I have read the deragoth topic in HOC thread) are they related to Hounds of Shadow, evidence being the fact that 2 were "alive" in the shrines/monuments/carvings (whatever you would call it) which could relate to the two that were 'freed' by Paran and jumped in Kurald Galain. So far I am under the impression that either the two hounds transformed (energy swap or some such) from shadow to Darkness when entering warren of darkness, oooorrrr for some reason I feel that from small snippets of conversation in the 4 books so far that Hounds of Shadow are the actual shadows of their Darkness counterparts - which might explain why the shadow hounds are smaller and presumably weaker - and that when the 2 Shadow went into Warren of Darkness they brought back their Darkness counterparts to life in the monuments.
That leads me to another possible theory which relates around the three Kurald warrens of Darness, Light and Shadow which might mean that there are 7 hounds of light aswell and that the hounds of shadow are smaller because they are a cross breed between light and darkness.
To make it even more chaotic, I don't think the 7 headed dog found by Icarium and described by Karsa after the fight scene has been mentioned in relation to the hounds of Darkness. So this could be some kind of shrine by the primitive humans to their 'masters' or is it intrinsic to the storyline in the future. Hmmm.
ALso I cant even be certain that the Deragoth are even related to Kurald Galain as there isn't a concrete link between them. There are numerous references to Dargjhodshfdhgfj (you know....) (that guy with the long name who ruled human empire before they all ritualized into soletaken/di'ivers) about him making a pact with the Deragoth, but then I have a feeling there is a quote somewhere about him becoming a di'ivers which consisted of 7 - suggesting that he became the Deragoth? Or the Shadow Hounds?
Who knows, no doubt I'm way off and looking into it far too indepth. But who knows with Erikson (Man-crushing on him).
Also are all the places filled in the Houses, such as Magi, Knights, etc - because I feel like even though we dont actually know all the characters it would be pretty silly to just have empty spots all the time.
Lastly, why isn't Shadowthrone sitting on the throne of shadow. Why is the Kurald Emurlahn throne on this world and not in the actual warren? Unless Drift Avalii is actually a fragment from the warren. Anyway, back to Shadowthrone. I thought you had to kill him to take his place as shadow ruler, not merely sit on his throne. I get the feeling that I haven't uunderstood everything that was in HOC relating to this. I believe he is trying to take over all the Houses and thrones, but doesn't want to have too much power too quickly as it will cause a massive convergence on his arse, so maybe he hasn't sat on the Shadow throne yet because of that. ALso something from MOI keeps popping up in my head that Shadowtrhrone isn't doesn't actually sit on the Kurald Emurlahn throne, but rather sits on a throne that is like a gatekeeping warren?? Sorry if this made things confusing?
Really lastly, the Otataral dragon. Really cool, although staking it to a cross seems excessive and smells like something someone heartless might do such as the T'lan Imass, although dragon footprints walk away from it so thats interesting. Could be the undead T'lan Imass soletaken dragon as elder warrens aren't affected by Otataral, althought again I get the feeling that otataral isn't what it seems. Then agaiin there were names left behind that killed the dragon, which is weird because weren't those names in the Kurald thryallan warren where the god lived while the otataral dragon was in the Impreial warren?
Really, really lastly. Osric says that he isn't actually a god of the Liosan, rather they make him out to be one. So I am feeling that he is basically the Tiste Liosan counterpart to Anomander Rake. - Also cool how they are both Soletaken dragon.
Goodluck sorting all this mess out, and thankyou for taking the time to read!
This post has been edited by Elwood: 20 September 2013 - 03:35 AM