[amblingalong]

I have a couple questions - RAFO is a totally fine answer if things are explained in later books, but I feel like there were a ton of things I was supposed to pick up that went totally over my head.

• As I understand it, Karsa was able to go to the realm of the CG and free Rhulad because of a confluence of factors — the blood ritual by Ublala, the spirits in Samar Dev's knife, the spirits that had been chained to him, etc. At least some of this was planned by Karsa after Ublala told him the 'secret' of Rhulad's immortality. But how did Ublala learn said 'secret?' And was the rest just... coincidence, or was someone manipulating things behind the scenes to get Karsa in the right place at the right time?
• Who or what created the Refugium, originally? Is it some side effect of Gothos' ritual that 'froze time' in Lether? And why did Gothos use it to hide the Finnest with Scabandari's soul?
• What exactly, was Menandore's plan? She raped Udinaas to father a child, which she then put in the Refugium... why? At one point she was tracking KCCM skykeeps in the Imperial Warren... why? She wanted to take Scabandari's Finnest, but why didn't she just take it all the other times she was in the Refugium and it was right next to her (in the possession of Ulshun Pral)? And what did she even want the Finnest for? And what was the deal she made with Shadowthrone and Hood?
• Kettle, as best I can understand, was Trull and the Eres'als child, and also had a Forkrul Assail soul, and also had the soul of a Nameless One priest. What does that even mean... she has three souls? From three wildly different time periods? Whose plan was that, and why? I found that super vague and hard to follow.
• What happened when the Silchas Crew got to the Refugium? I.e. why did everyone immediately start trying to kill each other? As I understand it, Fear tried to kill Silchas to stop him from attacking Trull, and then Trull attacked Silchas because he was trying to get to Fear... isn't that kind of circular? I found the order of events hard to comprehend.
• Silchas seemed to think interring Scabandari was a 'reprieve' or a mercy, and explicitly rejects the idea that he is taking vengeance. How is being interred in an Azath any different from being stuck in the Finnest?
• Less importantly, but what was the big deal about the spear Seren found in the ice near Bluerose? Silchas made a huge deal out of it, and Trull ended up using it to fight him, but it never was explained why it was so meaningful.
• Brys Beddict lost two fingers dueling Rhulad. Feather Witch took one and performed some (gross) rituals to tie him to her. The other one wound up in Selush's possession... how/why? Then, Hannan Mosag resurrected Brys to try to be rid of Rhulad, and Feather Witch almost was able to control him as a result of her rituals, except something happened and she wasn't able to follow through. I assume it was something to do with the finger in Selush's possession, but what/why/how?
• What exactly did the Rat Catchers guild do during all this? We kept seeing them plotting but I was left totally confused by what their actual goals or actions were.
• Why did the Errant want Trull dead and Mael imprisoned? I know his thing is "lolz so rand0m" but there seems to be some sort of overarching goal here — he wants to return to power as Master of the Holds. We've even seem him use his power altruistically, shielding Letherii civilians from magic during the Edur invasion. So it's not like he's just acting 100% randomly, etc?
• How did Withal get back to the CGs realm to destroy the sword, and why didn't the CG even try to stop him? Overall, I'm confused by how much power the CG is able to exert — sometimes he seems able to perform incredible feats, and other times he seems totally helpless in the same situation. On that note, the three Nachts, which also showed up in the CGs realm with Withal, were last seen impaling themselves on a sword, then jumping off the ship they were on. What was that about?
• The power dynamic between Feather Witch and the Errant didn't quite make sense to me. I get how becoming a god with human worshippers suddenly provided new constraints on him - we even hear about how he only has access to the power she 'allows' him. But it turns out that all he has to do to get rid of her is drown her — presumably he could have killed her whenever he wanted. So, to put it inelegantly, what was he freaking out about?
• What was going on with Kurald Galain, and how Silchas seemed to be able to control the day/night cycle? There was a whole scene about how the sun shouldn't be there, and the blind minnow was the key to understanding it, but it never clicked for me.

[zenobiaeason]

amblingalong, on 15 March 2019 - 02:22 AM, said:

I have a couple questions - RAFO is a totally fine answer if things are explained in later books, but I feel like there were a ton of things I was supposed to pick up that went totally over my head.

• As I understand it, Karsa was able to go to the realm of the CG and free Rhulad because of a confluence of factors — the blood ritual by Ublala, the spirits in Samar Dev's knife, the spirits that had been chained to him, etc. At least some of this was planned by Karsa after Ublala told him the 'secret' of Rhulad's immortality. But how did Ublala learn said 'secret?' And was the rest just... coincidence, or was someone manipulating things behind the scenes to get Karsa in the right place at the right time?
• Who or what created the Refugium, originally? Is it some side effect of Gothos' ritual that 'froze time' in Lether? And why did Gothos use it to hide the Finnest with Scabandari's soul?
• What exactly, was Menandore's plan? She raped Udinaas to father a child, which she then put in the Refugium... why? At one point she was tracking KCCM skykeeps in the Imperial Warren... why? She wanted to take Scabandari's Finnest, but why didn't she just take it all the other times she was in the Refugium and it was right next to her (in the possession of Ulshun Pral)? And what did she even want the Finnest for? And what was the deal she made with Shadowthrone and Hood?
• Kettle, as best I can understand, was Trull and the Eres'als child, and also had a Forkrul Assail soul, and also had the soul of a Nameless One priest. What does that even mean... she has three souls? From three wildly different time periods? Whose plan was that, and why? I found that super vague and hard to follow.
• What happened when the Silchas Crew got to the Refugium? I.e. why did everyone immediately start trying to kill each other? As I understand it, Fear tried to kill Silchas to stop him from attacking Trull, and then Trull attacked Silchas because he was trying to get to Fear... isn't that kind of circular? I found the order of events hard to comprehend.
• Silchas seemed to think interring Scabandari was a 'reprieve' or a mercy, and explicitly rejects the idea that he is taking vengeance. How is being interred in an Azath any different from being stuck in the Finnest?
• Less importantly, but what was the big deal about the spear Seren found in the ice near Bluerose? Silchas made a huge deal out of it, and Trull ended up using it to fight him, but it never was explained why it was so meaningful.
• Brys Beddict lost two fingers dueling Rhulad. Feather Witch took one and performed some (gross) rituals to tie him to her. The other one wound up in Selush's possession... how/why? Then, Hannan Mosag resurrected Brys to try to be rid of Rhulad, and Feather Witch almost was able to control him as a result of her rituals, except something happened and she wasn't able to follow through. I assume it was something to do with the finger in Selush's possession, but what/why/how? cat mario
• What exactly did the Rat Catchers guild do during all this? We kept seeing them plotting but I was left totally confused by what their actual goals or actions were.
• Why did the Errant want Trull dead and Mael imprisoned? I know his thing is "lolz so rand0m" but there seems to be some sort of overarching goal here — he wants to return to power as Master of the Holds. We've even seem him use his power altruistically, shielding Letherii civilians from magic during the Edur invasion. So it's not like he's just acting 100% randomly, etc?
• How did Withal get back to the CGs realm to destroy the sword, and why didn't the CG even try to stop him? Overall, I'm confused by how much power the CG is able to exert — sometimes he seems able to perform incredible feats, and other times he seems totally helpless in the same situation. On that note, the three Nachts, which also showed up in the CGs realm with Withal, were last seen impaling themselves on a sword, then jumping off the ship they were on. What was that about?
• The power dynamic between Feather Witch and the Errant didn't quite make sense to me. I get how becoming a god with human worshippers suddenly provided new constraints on him - we even hear about how he only has access to the power she 'allows' him. But it turns out that all he has to do to get rid of her is drown her — presumably he could have killed her whenever he wanted. So, to put it inelegantly, what was he freaking out about?
• What was going on with Kurald Galain, and how Silchas seemed to be able to control the day/night cycle? There was a whole scene about how the sun shouldn't be there, and the blind minnow was the key to understanding it, but it never clicked for me.

You must have read this book many times to find the answer like this

[CoconutBackwards]

Great post. All these questions you asked are things that I didn’t understand and some didn’t even understand at the level you didn’t understand.

I enjoyed this book, but what a complete mess of gobbledygook. Nothing that happened was explained or made any kind of sense.