[caladanbrood]

darkwolf;185995 said:

In my mind, Caladan is portrayed as a warrior and general. With very good healing skills, but not as magic centered like Rake or QB.

Absolutely - his access to High Tennes is via Burn. The High Denul, however, is all his own, as far as we know. So yes, a healer, but technically still a mage;)

[Dolorous Menhir]

I suppose he's as much a mage as Mallet is. Not a combat one.

[fan_83]

darkwolf;185988 said:

400 000 Tiste Andii vs. 60 000 K'ell
200 000 Tiste Edur vs. "core troops" (unspecified number)
additional suicide squads of TA and TE + Ruin + Scabby vs. 4 sky fortresses of the shorttails
left alive: 2000 Andii, 18000 Edur, Ruin, Scabby

As by core we commonly understand the leading party (a commander, if such exists), I assume it was Scabby and not Ruin who killed two matrons out of three.

Non-combatants were left in the camp and did not participate in the battle, so they are a non-issue. (MT prologue, Ahlrada Ahn's retelling of the story in BH)



About a thousand, more or less. Some were still in a city when Whiskeyjack's and Korlat's group has reached Coral.

Undead hunters (with help of human soldiers and demonic condors) killed about seven thousand Malazan troops (including most of Bridgeburners), Trake's Legion (a hundred, at best) and part of Grey Swords.

i believe you are mistaken.. the edur non combatant was left at camp while the andii were all there.. korlats mother mentioned it.. thats what led to teh high casualty count as well as the fact that they are facing the hunters whiile the edur wasn;t..

at coral... if you read the description, a single undead hunter killed 20 + elite bodyguard of whiskeyjack... that tells you the speed and strength of a single hunter in comparison with humans..
that lead me to conclude that ruin is indead a badass and thus is stronger than qb by a fair margin

[phart]

caladanbrood;185553 said:

Clearly drained.

And here is the quote to prove me wrong, lol.

Fair point but he still managed it.

I'm slowly resolving my QB issues i think.

[phart]

caladanbrood;185608 said:

Don't really see what Ruin has to do with QB... but powerful enough for the three sisters to agree they needed to work together to take him down. And QB couldn't have defeated the three of them either, if they hadn't turned on themselves, one fled, and Hedge Ranalling another.

Likewise against Ruin, I don't reckon he'd have been able to match him on his own. It was the two cussers that gave him the edge.

The fact is we dont know if QB could have defeated all of them, what we do know is 2 turned on each other and the thoughts of the third make it clear that she is very frightened of him and never wants to meet him again and if she didn't meet him again she ould have a life without fear (paraphrased)

Now i was wrong with regards to him not feeling drained, but that doesn't alter the fact he was still able to swat them down, some with bone crunching force, earlier QB states that the CG god won't turn up as he would be overmatched by Menadore (hedge thinks he meant him but he replies not me you fool/idiot) so QB has met the CG and knows his relative power, him unleashing his host of warrens does nothing to stop him getting dragged towards the CG, and Burns helpers get him out of that fix.So QB at least thinks that Menadore is enough for the CG not to bother turning up. But QB is, well lets just say competitive, when it comes to confronting the three, it's all a bit contradictory to me.

I would also like to state that i love the QB, in fact i love most of them Erikson being my favourite current author.

I'm probably just being a pedant.

[caladanbrood]

phart;186232 said:

Now i was wrong with regards to him not feeling drained, but that doesn't alter the fact he was still able to swat them down, some with bone crunching force, earlier QB states that the CG god won't turn up as he would be overmatched by Menadore (hedge thinks he meant him but he replies not me you fool/idiot) so QB has met the CG and knows his relative power, him unleashing his host of warrens does nothing to stop him getting dragged towards the CG, and Burns helpers get him out of that fix.So QB at least thinks that Menadore is enough for the CG not to bother turning up. But QB is, well lets just say competitive, when it comes to confronting the three, it's all a bit contradictory to me.

I'm probably just being a pedant.

Not necessarily pedantry, there's clearly a discrepancy, as you point out.

Again though, QB is considerably more powerful in RG than in MoI, I think. I think that it might simply be an insight into his character - he is quite modest while he's talking to his friends, if not his enemies. And, of course, Menandore wouldn't be underestimating the CG, because I imagine she's encountered him before, at chainings.
And, of course, QB had a little while to prepare a ritual while waiting for the dragons. As we've seen, that can dramatically enhance power, especially in such a magic-soaked place as the Imass realm.

[polishgenius]

caladanbrood;186250 said:

Again though, QB is considerably more powerful in RG than in MoI, I think. I think that it might simply be an insight into his character - he is quite modest while he's talking to his friends, if not his enemies. And, of course, Menandore wouldn't be underestimating the CG, because I imagine she's encountered him before, at chainings.

Actually, you mentioning that made me notice something.

In MoI, QB and Bauchelain talk as if there are finite reserves of magic for one person - and he's used up after a bit.

In BH, however, he doesn't run out, after using seemingly far more - his body fails him, not his magic. At least that's what I got. And it's also the impression given in RG when he stumbles up the hill after beating down the sisters. His magic wasn't running out in any way, he was just tired from using it.

[caladanbrood]

polishgenius;186256 said:

In BH, however, he doesn't run out, after using seemingly far more - his body fails him, not his magic. At least that's what I got. And it's also the impression given in RG when he stumbles up the hill after beating down the sisters. His magic wasn't running out in any way, he was just tired from using it.

It's a fair point - once a mage gets beyond a certain power, it their body that can't cope anymore. Look at Hannah [sic] Mosag, the K'risnan and Beak. Most mages never reach this power, so don't have that problem. Others, like Sinn, seemingly have a greater resistance to their own power, and can channel more without adverse effects.

Of course, the Edur were using Chaos, so it doesn't relate directly.

[polishgenius]

I get that, and it seems a fair reason.

My point is that the reason for power levels seemed to change somewhere between MoI and BH. The damage to the body thing never really came up before Midnight Tides.

[phart]

caladanbrood;186250 said:

Not necessarily pedantry, there's clearly a discrepancy, as you point out.

Again though, QB is considerably more powerful in RG than in MoI, I think. I think that it might simply be an insight into his character - he is quite modest while he's talking to his friends, if not his enemies. And, of course, Menandore wouldn't be underestimating the CG, because I imagine she's encountered him before, at chainings.
And, of course, QB had a little while to prepare a ritual while waiting for the dragons. As we've seen, that can dramatically enhance power, especially in such a magic-soaked place as the Imass realm.

You know this is like a self help group for me, the Beak and QB issues are the only ones i had, Beak is gone and im feeling pretty good about QB now, so thanks to everyone who has put up with my whining about this.

I think that QB certainly had time to prepare the ground and knew where they were coming from( the pebble in Menadores clothes) so its conceivable that there was some other factors in this.

The good thing is there is probably a very easy answer for this which will be given later in the series and will make me look like a fool for doubting Erikson, now i just need to work out my "why didn't Rake fight Osserc in RG prologue when he appeared to in MT" and then i will have zero issues at all with this series, which (and im sure you can guess) is not a situation i ever find myself in.

[phart]

polishgenius;186263 said:

I get that, and it seems a fair reason.

My point is that the reason for power levels seemed to change somewhere between MoI and BH. The damage to the body thing never really came up before Midnight Tides.

In HOC the healers are so used up there bones are snapping when lifting kettles from fires.

I can't recall any other instances but most mages rest before it gets that far.

[polishgenius]

Erikson has loads of minor consistency niggles, if you're scrutinizing - and you have to. And maybe the occasional major one. It's just that the tidal waves of awesome drowns those out.

[phart]

polishgenius;186267 said:

Erikson has loads of minor consistency niggles, if you're scrutinizing - and you have to. And maybe the occasional major one. It's just that the tidal waves of awesome drowns those out.

True i'm forgetting the time lines thats easy to lose control of, but the Rake Osserc and QB are what i would consider "Major", however i feel im working out my issues lol.

[caladanbrood]

The easiest way to deal with timelines in these books is to adopt the "stuff happened, then some more stuff happened" approach:) - you'll go crazy trying to scrutinise it, otherwise, because some of the dates given are simply wrong.

As for Rake and Osserc... well, Rake avoided him in the prologue because he was just about to start cleansing Emurlahn - he'd need to be fresh for that, I would imagine;) They've fought enough times before for Rake to recognise it as... futile, I would imagine.

[phart]

caladanbrood;186272 said:

The easiest way to deal with timelines in these books is to adopt the "stuff happened, then some more stuff happened" approach:) - you'll go crazy trying to scrutinise it, otherwise, because some of the dates given are simply wrong.

As for Rake and Osserc... well, Rake avoided him in the prologue because he was just about to start cleansing Emurlahn - he'd need to be fresh for that, I would imagine;) They've fought enough times before for Rake to recognise it as... futile, I would imagine.

The Timeline stuff doesn't bother me in the slightest he did a far better job than i could ever do, though i would kinda like to see Osserc and Rake fight, as would most.

I believe you have cleansed me of my doubt Brood High Denul indeed. I shall now go to other threads and discuss all the awesome things from this book, cheers

[caladanbrood]

Lets just hope I haven't been talking complete crap, shall we;)

[phart]

caladanbrood;186277 said:

Lets just hope I haven't been talking complete crap, shall we;)

Even if you have we'll just call it a placebo ;-)