Brother Emmer… we only hear about, er, him… once in TBE series and that is when he is killed by the Pope's assassin. Jorg notes that…
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Emmer had shown little interest in women on the road and seemed a good choice to watch over my queen.
In Prince of Fools we come across Emmer and the Brothers in the pub when Jorg is visiting his favourite father. Drink leads to drink which leads to a bedroom battle between Jal and Brother Emmer… only Brother Emmer is actually "Brother" Emma… now what Jorg says about Emmer makes sense… nice little tidbit…
With this one, we have Snorri's musings about Hell…
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It strikes me that in this Hell a man of sufficient will, a man willing to sacrifice anything, might bend the world itself around his desire and create of himself whatsoever he wished. It also strikes me that I am not such a man.
Hello William/The Dead King…
And I think my favourite nod between books…
In Emperor of Thorns we get this scene after Jorg escapes capture by the Bad Dogs and kills them all, he is talking to the apprentice torturer…
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"We're very much alike, Gretcha, you and I.' I squatted to be level with the girl. The dart came out with a pull and I let it fall into the dust. She watched me with dark eyes. I saw a lot of Mary in her. A granddaughter perhaps. 'I can help.' I smiled, sad for her, sad for everything. 'If someone had done this for me when I was a child it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.'
And with this in The Wheel of Osheim we have a nice echo with Jal thinking about Jorg… god I love this scene…
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I do remember that I confided my problems with Maeres Allus to the good king, and he kindly offered me his sage advice. I recall that the solution was both elegant and clever and that I swore to adopt it. Sadly not a single word of that counsel remained with me the following day. My last memory is an image. Jorg lying sprawled, dead to the world, looking far younger in sleep than I had ever imagined him. Me pulling a rug up across him to keep off the cold of the desert night, then staggering dangerously toward the stairs. I wonder how many lives might have been saved if I had just rolled him off the roof's edge . . .
Both talking about killing one to save thousands…
But for the future connection we get a fair few meta commentary lines like…
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"And the guards have merely forgotten what they saw. Memory is the key to any man. It's all we are.
Talking about what makes you a person and cutting away the memories. Again, here…
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Throw away too much of your past and you abandon the person who walked those days. When you pare away at yourself you can reinvent, that's true enough, but such whittling always seems to reveal a lesser man, and promises to leave you with nothing at the end.
But I didn't record every line like that. Kinda wish I had now though…
Anyways, on to some findings…
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In the middle of the ring a strange blue star burns, without heat but with a light that captures the eye. It rests a man's height above the stone, as unsupported as any other star. I find myself staring at the thing, losing all sense of passing time. They say time is the fire in which we burn. Now I know what time looks like when it burns.
The talk of a "star" that can control time itself – builder tech… it shows the technology the Builders had and what could be again now the Empire is fixed… Also the talk of time burning and we see many of the pawn players burnt… I'll be coming back to the stars later too…
That technology…
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Alica bows her head. "Begin the event." "I have explained that stasis is not possible. Extensive repairs would be required before the generators could provide a sufficient pulse of energy. Generators seven and three are functioning at thirty percent, the remainder at less than ten percent. A failed stasis will result in a quickening. All that might be achieved is a bubble of quick-time, and at a peak ratio of thirty to one."
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It takes a moment but I think I understand. The star's light has sped us up. Those of us closest to it have gained the greatest speed. Quick-time, it said? Has the Builders' engine made our seconds pass faster? Our hearts beat swifter than hummingbird wings?
Sends her army go go turbo killing machines, still kinda working after a 1000 years… what tech will come about now that the Builders could be back…
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Garyus had foisted Luntar's "box of ghosts" on me, saying it might prove useful in Osheim. I suspected he just didn't want a box of ghosts any more than I did. "What is that?" Snorri asked as I carried it away. "That," I said. "Holds the ghosts of a million Builders. Aslaug's in there too."
So… how will the Builders be able to get out and about… Remember this part as it begins to tie in with this question from Cause…
Cause, on 06 August 2020 - 10:05 PM, said:
Just can't remember if the books ever have his real name, mark lawrence needs a better fan wiki. In time I'm sure.
Loki is…
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Taproot cocked his head, staring at Loki's key. He frowned and reached into a pocket for a lens held in a silver hoop. Holding it to his eye, he leaned forward for a close inspection. "The one who made this gave me my first job." He straightened with a smile…
When I first read that I got excited thinking it could be Nick as I remembered Nick funding Taproots research for years to come after the favour he did him but then we do learn who he is…
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"Professor Lawrence O'Kee," I read, puzzling through the twisted lettering. "Dr. Dex—no, Fexler Brews, and Dr. Elias Taproot!" "Taproot was in charge of the Wheel?" Snorri asked, looming over us as Hennan wriggled between Kara and me for a closer view. "Important enough to be on this sign," Kara said. "I'm guessing this one is in charge, though." She set her finger to the oldest of the three, the professor.
And when we meet the Professor Lawrence O'Kee…
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"You say it's your key," Kara challenged. "In a manner of speaking. In several manners of speaking in fact." "You're Loki?" I asked, allowing just a hint of mockery into the question. The professor shot me a look that had some steel in it, and, blowing on his tea, drank deeply. "I guess we should get to it.
But there is also more here too. We also meet Larry…
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"Why should I recognize you?" Kara stared at the man, brow furrowed. "You're a Builder magician." "Oh come on! I'm staring you in the face." He waggled his fingers under his chin and gestured with the other hand toward the alcove. "See?" O'Kee had his back to us so it was far from obvious, but that was where the familiarity came from. He looked a bit like the older man, or at least how I remembered him from the picture. "You're his son? Brother?" "Son. In a manner of speaking." A broad smile. "Call me Larry. In any case, your lad is right. Look, the pen has reached the floor."
And Larry is…
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Larry was out here," I pointed out. "Yes." The professor looked at Larry. The family resemblance was quite remarkable now the young man stood beside the professor's chair. "Well, Larry . . . Larry is—" "A marvellous mechanical man," Larry said, and executed a sharp bow. The professor shrugged. "I built Larry to carry my data-echo—he is, as he says, an automaton, housing . . well, me, or at least the copy of me that the machines hold. We have our little joke: I'm the father—" "I'm the son," said Larry. "And Loki is the Holy Ghost," the professor finished.
A marvellous mechanical man… Does that sound familiar? We see Erris inhabit a mechanical body and we see it here too… so how will the builder ghosts get about in time hmm and what will they do with those bodies…
The more I progressed through these first six books the more I started to think that the Builders are the Missing, just a feeling…
More from the Builders…
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"If everyone dies there'll be no more magic used. The equation may balance itself. The change may stop. The world might survive and the data-echoes held in the deepnet would be preserved." "You'd sacrifice us for echoes? But . . . you're not real. You're not alive," I said. "You're memories in machines?" "I feel real." The ghost-James set ghost-hands to his transparent chest. "I feel alive. I wish to continue. In any event, if we don't destroy you then you'll only destroy yourselves and us with you."
We hear about their feelings even though they are echoes so they still have some feelings to cut away if they are related to the Missing and this relates to what we hear Erris talk about.
Also, the deepnet, we hear Jorg talk about this as a data ghost saying he has plenty to explore. I'm also sure in The Girl and the Stars we hear Taproot's echo talk about being able to travel instantly between the cities before Seus shut the ways off… I always wondered if he was talking about a webway here rather than a physical way but I need to reread TGatS as that is hazy.
Help
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