[Lachgar Yassin]

Hi everyone. I'm getting back to the series and I resumed reading in the part where it is revealed that the toblakai who was guarding Shai'k in DG was in fact Karsa Orlong.

My question in fact consists of two sub-questions.

1st: I stopped reading HoC for a while now and after i resumed Chapter 7 Karsa is shown directly with the army of the Apocalypse. I mean did i miss something? Or will it be revealed how he joined the army and how he escaped from the Malazan imprisonment ?

2nd: SE revealed that Karsa Orlong has submitted and even KNEELED to Shai'k. How is that even possible? The mighty Karsa kneeling to someone? I mean can the journey and the hardship he has been through explain his total submission, because I honestly couldn't digest it. I had great expectations from him.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by Lachgar Yassin: 21 February 2018 - 10:40 AM

[Gorefest]

Lachgar Yassin, on 21 February 2018 - 10:40 AM, said:

Hi everyone. I'm getting back to the series and I resumed reading in the part where it is revealed that the toblakai who was guarding Shai'k in DG was in fact Karsa Orlong.

My question in fact consists of two sub-questions.

1st: I stopped reading HoC for a while now and after i resumed Chapter 7 Karsa is shown directly with the army of the Apocalypse. I mean did i miss something? Or will it be revealed how he joined the army and how he escaped from the Malazan imprisonment ?

2nd: SE revealed that Karsa Orlong has submitted and even KNEELED to Shai'k. How is that even possible? The mighty Karsa kneeling to someone? I mean can the journey and the hardship he has been through explain his total submission, because I honestly couldn't digest it. I had great expectations from him.

Thanks.

1) In chapter 4, Torvald frees Karsa from the Malazans who were transporting him to Otataral Island. Karsa flees into Raraku with another prisoner, Leoman. Leoman is already a Sha'ik follower, so he brings Karsa to the army of the apocalypse. Then we catch up with Karsa and Leoman again after the events that went down in Deadhouse Gates, I believe. So the first bit of HoC takes place before the events in DG, the next part follows on from those events.

2) We know that Karsa is haunted by all the people that he killed and drags them around on chains. We already saw in Deadhouse Gates that Karsa was driven to tears when looking into the Book of Dryhna. I guess he is at a rather sensitive stage of his life (maybe he is hitting puberty...?).

[nacht]

The second question goes directly into the character development of Karsa. You make it seem that he is so proud that he will never bend to anybody (and that might even be a virtue) . Maybe that is how he started off but by the time he is part of the Apocalypse, that is no longer the case. He is more intelligent, understands that his actions have nuanced effects, that good and evil are not black and white. He is still very strongly anti-oppression but knows the limits of what change he can directly bring.

Finally the original Shaik might have something to do with convincing him. She did not come out as a power-mad oppressor, and might have genuinely needed Karsa's help with all the vipers in her midst.