[Felisin Fatter]

So, after reading FoD I restarted the series, now halfway MoI. And I'm pretty convinced many of the players date back (somehow) to th FoD days. Including QB, Tayschrenn and Nightchill. What also jumps out at me is all the discussion / mangled history around the cult and/or the warren of Rashan. Which represents darknes, or shadow, it's very muddled. But in general it seems Rashan/Meanas/Thyr are the reflection of Kurald Galain (Andii) / Kural Emuhrlan (Edur) / Kurald Thyrllan (Liosan). With Mockra thrown in for added confusion. This also relates somehow to some particular Dragons - hopefully some explanation about that will be in the later parts of the Kharkanas trilogy because it baffles me.

All this led to the thought: the thing at Pale, maybe was just another chapter in the light/dark war. See, it is Tayschrenn, who uses Thyr and is hence light-aligned - possibly Liosan aligned if he is indeed an old ascendant or god. He kills:
- Nightchill ('Rashan' but more likely Kurald Galain or an even older version of Darkness),
- Hairlock ('Rashan', which I kinda doubt as I don't think he was human, but he definitely uses Darkness),
- A'Karonys ('Telas', fire - but maybe it was Rake who killed him after all, using Kurald Galain!).
- Calot (Mockra, pretty sure that's true).
- And Quick Ben was possibly supposed to die too ('Rashan', he was a high priest of it even... and no, I don't think QB is human, so this is very interesting).
- Tattersail (Thyr, definitely) was spared.

I have two conflicting conspiracy theories here:

1. The simpler one. Tayschrenn is on the Light side of an ancient war, right now he is fighting the knight of Dark. But many of his allies are Darkness or shadow aligned, and he knows that Rake knows this. Rake opend by killing A'Karonys (fire, kin to light), Tayschrenn fears that his allies will switch sides and kills them pre-emptively, starting with Nightchill who is the most dangerous and least likely to care for a mortal empire over old 'famlily'. Hairlock and Calot have to go too just in case, Tattersail maybe, but maybe he considers her as on his side. Everything else is collateral damage.

2. The more complicated one, but more likely imho. Tayschrenn knows all the above, and also knows they will soon need Rake's Andii to fight the Pannion Seer. But all the darkness aligned mages present are actually Rakes personal enemies, because they chose to leave his side and fight for 'shadow(throne)' instead. They would never agree to an alliance, so they had to be taken out of the picture to make it possible.


A different puzzling thing is: Bidithal and QB. Bidithal was the head of the cult of Rashan (he was known as "Rashan'ais"), before ST took that empty throne + control of the cult. Kel, Dancer and QB murdered that whole temple during the 7 cities campaign, except Lostara (who wasn't a true believer). And QB let Bidithal go (pissing off Kellanved). We know it can't have been because QB liked the man, nor because he had any redeeming qualities. So why? My best guess is it has something to do with the blood sacrifice thing, the chains that can make high priests fatally dangerous to their gods. See also Mallick Rel and Feather Whitch, among others. It must have been unsafe for QB and/or a god he cared about to kill Bidithal. (This means it was probably good that it was Karsa who killed him.)

Source: this is from HoC, chapter 8, Cotillion speaking to Lostara about the massacre in the temple they were both present for:
The man shrugged. 'Delat, who had a different name for that mission and was my partner's responsibility besides - Delat let Bidithal go. I suppose it seemed a... a betrayal, yes? It certainly did to my partner. Certainly to this day Shadowthrone - who was not Shadowthrone then, simply a particularly adept and ambitious practitioner of Rashan's sister warren, Meanas - to this day, I was saying, Shadowthrone stokes eternal fires of vengeance. But Delat proved very capable of hiding... under our very noses. Like Kalam. Just another unremarked soldier in the ranks of the Bridgeburners.'
(And why this mention of Kalam here??)

[Aptorian]

Your conspiracy theory makes little sense and ignores the actual known conspiracies at play during the Siege of Pale.

Nightchill isn't alligned with anyone but herself. She was there at Pale to attempt to take Dragnipur from Rake. She was aware of the swords purpose and wanted to ensure the safety of the Gate into Darkness/Have the power for herself.

Tayschren and by proxy the Empress were legitimately paranoid and murderous in GotM (something the is retconned in DG and MoI) but Tayschren is also shown to be an utterly incompetent commander. The empire wanted the Bridgeburners dead but the collapse of the tunnels was just dumb luck.

Tayschren or the Empire would not have needed to make such a public showing of killing their last Mage cadre. They could just have had claws do it quietly if that was needed. The mages that die in that battle die either from being in the wrong place at the wrong time or because they are a danger.

This post has been edited by Apt: 12 October 2015 - 10:43 AM

[Mentalist]

Also, Tayschrenn' main warren is Telas. And he's a priest of D'rek, who isn't related (in any way that we know of) to the Tiste.

Nightchill is an Elder Goddess, who may or may not be Tiste. In any case, her interest is with Dragnipur and freeing her "brother" Draconus.

Also, Tattersail wasn't "spared". Calot sacrificed himself to block the sorcery wave that was going to kill her.

[Kanese S's]

Nightchill of course goes back to the Kharkanas trilogy. She's an elder goddess/azathanai, slumming it with mortals because she finds it interesting. However, she still may have found an eventual alliance with Anomander Rake... distasteful.