[kruppetehol]

Hi, I am new. I am a first time reader of the series and getting close to being done! I asked a few questions on Reddit but they weren't answered so I thought I would try here.

• If I read it correctly, Rake probably could have killed Traveller if he wanted to. Did Shadowthrone and Cotillion know that Rake wanted to die/conspire with him? Why did they want Traveller to fight Rake? And did Traveller know that Hood was within the sword? Finally, I know Rake's soul was dissolved into Kurald Galain but what does this actually mean? And why did this mean that Mother Dark turned to her children again?
• I love how Kruppe makes the Brood and the cart stop for a second, Brood must hate that guy. But my question is likely RAFO but who is Kruppe? I know he is the Eel and has this bird's eye view of the city and works with K'rul but he stands down Brood, throws aside Baruk's wards like it is nothing. Is he a god?
• I am confused what happened with Silanah at the end. So did Silanah kill the cult members? And shouldn't the High Priestess of the Redeemer have died if so? So how could Spinnock find her?

[Gorefest]

Yes, ST and Cottillion are in on the plan. There is still a fair bit of debate on the role of Traveller in all this. Some think that he thought Hood was behind Rake and that Rake was shielding him, but it may also be that he knew that Hood was in the sword so in order to get his vengeance he would have to go in himself as well. Judging by the conversation between Rake and Dassem though, the first seems the more likely option.
Why Traveller? There is a range of good reasons, take your pick. Firstly, he is about to (or already has) ascended to be the manifestation of Dessembrae, the Lord of Tragedy. And it doesn't get more tragic than that stand-off. So you could reason that he was fated to be there. Furthermore, he is carrying Vengeance/Grief, which is a blade made by Rake (as we learnt in HoC) for his brother Andarist. It is also stated in HoC that Vengeance cannot break even against much heavier weapons, and at that point there was no heavier blade in existence than Dragnipur, one would imagine. So Vengeance is probably the only weapon in existence that could turn/deflect Dragnipur. And Traveller is one of the very few swordsmen skilled enough to be a match for Rake. You could argue that Rake could have just cut himself with Dragnipur to get inside, but perhaps that is not how the sword works. Maybe it requires to be swung in aggression or combat for it to absorb souls. Perhaps we will learn more about this in the Kharkanas trilogy. Finally, there are various entities after Dragnipur, so it would be prudent to have someone like Traveller around once Rake is gone to protect the sword until Brood can destroy it, or at the very least who will not take it for himself.
Rake sacrifices himself to force Mother Dark to acknowledge her children and return to the Andii. She had turned away from them and hid away somewhere in the realm of Kurald Galain. Rake thought that the only way to draw her attention back was to give himself over completely to Elder Dark, to reach out to her and force her to acknowledge him and his people again. And clearly it worked. She accepted/was moved by his sacrifice, and she returned the gate of darkness to the human realm in Black Coral.

2) I don't think we ever find out explicitly who Kruppe is. But one thing is important to keep in mind when reading TtH: Kruppe is the actual narrator of the book. It is a weird stylistic choice that Erikson is experimenting with. This does mean that Kruppe makes himself look a bit more epic and impressive than he actually may have been in the situation, although we will never know for sure because without his story we have no situation. Compare for instance also the epically silly donkey standoff between him and Pust. Pure self-gratification. So there is an unreliable (boasting) narrator at work in the background. But at the same time, he probably is pretty powerful. Perhaps as a mage, or simply because of his ability to affect dreamscapes/reality. Kruppe may be Erikson's alter ego in the books, the 'writer' who comes through in his own work and meddles with things.

3) erm, I can't recall atm. Might get back to that later.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 24 July 2018 - 11:23 PM

[kruppetehol]

Thanks for the response. Another couple of questions based off of that:

Did Endest end up dying when he was finally accepted by Mother Dark or is he still alive, but at peace? And in terms of the physical realm of Kurald Gulain, did anything change other than the place where the gate was?

Gorefest, on 24 July 2018 - 11:07 PM, said:

Yes, ST and Cottillion are in on the plan. There is still a fair bit of debate on the role of Traveller in all this. Some think that he thought Hood was behind Rake and that Rake was shielding him, but it may also be that he knew that Hood was in the sword so in order to get his vengeance he would have to go in himself as well. Judging by the conversation between Rake and Dassem though, the first seems the more likely option.
Why Traveller? There is a range of good reasons, take your pick. Firstly, he is about to (or already has) ascended to be the manifestation of Dessembrae, the Lord of Tragedy. And it doesn't get more tragic than that stand-off. So you could reason that he was fated to be there. Furthermore, he is carrying Vengeance/Grief, which is a blade made by Rake (as we learnt in HoC) for his brother Andarist. It is also stated in HoC that Vengeance cannot break even against much heavier weapons, and at that point there was no heavier blade in existence than Dragnipur, one would imagine. So Vengeance is probably the only weapon in existence that could turn/deflect Dragnipur. And Traveller is one of the very few swordsmen skilled enough to be a match for Rake. You could argue that Rake could have just cut himself with Dragnipur to get inside, but perhaps that is not how the sword works. Maybe it requires to be swung in aggression or combat for it to absorb souls. Perhaps we will learn more about this in the Kharkanas trilogy. Finally, there are various entities after Dragnipur, so it would be prudent to have someone like Traveller around once Rake is gone to protect the sword until Brood can destroy it, or at the very least who will not take it for himself.
Rake sacrifices himself to force Mother Dark to acknowledge her children and return to the Andii. She had turned away from them and hid away somewhere in the realm of Kurald Galain. Rake thought that the only way to draw her attention back was to give himself over completely to Elder Dark, to reach out to her and force her to acknowledge him and his people again. And clearly it worked. She accepted/was moved by his sacrifice, and she returned the gate of darkness to the human realm in Black Coral.

2) I don't think we ever find out explicitly who Kruppe is. But one thing is important to keep in mind when reading TtH: Kruppe is the actual narrator of the book. It is a weird stylistic choice that Erikson is experimenting with. This does mean that Kruppe makes himself look a bit more epic and impressive than he actually may have been in the situation, although we will never know for sure because without his story we have no situation. Compare for instance also the epically silly donkey standoff between him and Pust. Pure self-gratification. So there is an unreliable (boasting) narrator at work in the background. But at the same time, he probably is pretty powerful. Perhaps as a mage, or simply because of his ability to affect dreamscapes/reality. Kruppe may be Erikson's alter ego in the books, the 'writer' who comes through in his own work and meddles with things.

3) erm, I can't recall atm. Might get back to that later.

[Abyss]

Yes Endest died.
RAFO re the warren, but the only point of the ritual was to move the gate to Black Coral.

[worry]

I won't tell you any revelatory info about the rest of MBotF, its offshoots, or its characters, but I will say this: ICE's book Orb, Sceptre, Throne is a direct sequel to some of the threads in TTH, and Kruppe is in the Dramatis Personae.