[Sinisdar Toste]

ok on a recent reread of RG, i came across many passages where everyone in the malazan force refers to their abject fear of Sinn and what she can do. ebron has no idea how she holds back the ice, and even her own brother(shard) is terrified by her.

where did she get this power from? i really cant remember what happened to her, and what exactly is she destined to be? there has to be something in store for her because as yet all we know is she is an adolescent high mage. 13-14 yrs old and holding the same title as QB and tayschrenn? something big is gonna happen with this one

[Gem Windcaster]

remember Y'Ghatan?

[Vengeance]

Gem Windcaster;215774 said:

remember Y'Ghatan?

I believe what Gem is referring to is (BH British edition pg 374) "Faradan Sort followed suit, for she could now see what he had seen - a strange black stain spreading out within the flames, the tongues of fire flickering back, dying, the stain deepening, circular, and out from its heart staggered a figure shedding charred leathers, clasps and buckles falling away to bounce on the street.
Stumbling towards them, flames dancing in the full head of hair - dancing, yet not burning. Closer, and Faradan Sort saw it was a girl, a face she then recognized. 'She's from Cord's Ashok squad. That's Sinn.''

And on pg 388 "The child Grub clambered up the slope, flanked by the dogs Bent and Roach. And now the other figures were swarming past Blistig. Khundryl. Warlocks, witches. Keening voices, jabbering undercurrents, a force building, rising from the battered earth. Fist Blistig twisted round - a ritual, magic, what were they doing?...Nil's voice, loud from the road. 'We can feel her! Someone! Spirits below, such power!'
'Help her, damn you!'
A witch shrieked, bursting into flames on the road. Moments later, two warlocks hudled near Blistig seemed to melt before his eyes, crumbling into white ash. ... Fire flickered round another witch, then snapped out as something rolled over everyone on the road - cool, sweet power - like a merciful god's breath. Even Blistig, despiser of all things magic, could feel this emanation, this terrible, beautiful will. Driving the flames in the breach back, opening a swirling dark tunnel. From which figures staggered. Nether was on her knees near the Adjunct - the only person on the road still standing - and Blistig saw the Wickan girl turn to Tavore, heard her say, 'It's Sinn. Adjunct, that child's a High Mage. And she doesn't even know it -'"

That should answer the question of how and why Sinn is such a power house. I personally think that she is a Telas adapt. However based on what she was able to do to the Jaghut ice flows it is possible that she is using Tellann or even Kurald Thyrllan. To support my wild accusations I give you "'Kurald Thyrllan, but the ascendant shaping it remained unseen. Onrack wondered at its nature. If these Liosan were any indication, it found sustenance from purity, as if such a thing was even possible. Intransigence. Simplicity.'(HoC, UK Trade, p.409) Sinn seems a little simple to me. And for the Tellann theory it would explain how she is able to just make the ice disappear. Because Tellann causes Omtose Phellack to unravel.

[Aptorian]

I think the real reason to the fear of Sinn in RG is Sinns personality.

She's a high mage with the personality of sorry or smiles. There's a passage in the begining of the Y'ghatan invasion where Sinns is cutting of fingers from the dead, she also poisoned an entire army with a ... paralt was it? she's a nasty bitch. Now she's able to use magic instead of a knife, how much more devestation do you think she can cause?

That said the whole destroying huge mountains of Ice thing was pretty impressive. It's bound to be some clever trick, one of the soldiers even says this, because battering mountains of ice into icecubes would take a power like an ascendant.

[Skywalker]

Aptorian;215946 said:

she also poisoned an entire army with a ... paralt was it? she's a nasty bitch.

I forget... when was this? Is Sinn the one Kalam ran into in DG right before he discovered the Enkaral/ Thelomen Toblakai thingie?

[Aptorian]

sky_walker;216053 said:

I forget... when was this? Is Sinn the one Kalam ran into in DG right before he discovered the Enkaral/ Thelomen Toblakai thingie?

Yup, come to think of it, she was already batshit back then, wasn't she

[Mentalist]

yup... that was when he was at that city, where the ashok regiment was holed up... i don't remembr what city tho (Pan Pots'un, maybe?)

[Puck]

Yes, that was Sinn.

Edit: too slowly^^

[Dag]

What confuses me is that in HoC (NOT in DG) where Kalam first met her, Sinn seemed to be quite a different person, much bolder and more open, a grown-up woman and not a little silent girl we encounter in the Bonehunters. Kalam's first impression of her is that "her mind is broken"*, but later he realizes that she is just acting in front of the Apocalypse warriors to hide her desperation.

Also, I didn't get the impression she poisoned that water with tralb because of being particularly "nasty b**ch", but rather because she wanted to save her brother & co at any cost and had no idea how horrible the effects of that poison would be. (She said herself that a healer told her he used tralb to stop tremors, so she took all she could find to put into the casks of water, for having nothing else at hand.)** She wanted those Apocalypse guys dead, yes, but I think not until Kalam came along did she realize what a terrible death that would be.

Also, if it is of any significance for the discussion, when Kalam asks her where she learned what she knows about magic, she says it was from Fayelle, Kamist Reloe's mage, who killed her parents. So it is possible that she learned some quite scary tricks from a pro, which combined with her natural talent might - just might - explain a little bit about why she is capable of doing such awesome things.

*HoC, pg. 419
**HoC, pg. 423

[Aptorian]

I agree on the not really knowing what the poison would do bit, but she still poisoned them. Perhaps leading to their subsequent slaughter anyway.

Her personality change from HoC to Bh caught me aswell. To me, and I admit it's along time since I read any of the two, she sounded older in HoC and seems to much younger in BH. She goes from clever little fox, to psycho pre-teen, tween murderess.

[Abyss]

It was suggested in HoC or TB, i think, that she kept herself together to save/rejoin her brother, and that once she had done so, she pretty much lost what was left of her mind. Plus i think she watched her teacher, Fayelle, off her parents, then killed Fayelle herself.

Sinn was already a mage of perhaps the squad mage variety when we first meet her in HoC.

I like vengeance's explanation above re why she's probably KT or High Thyr at a minimum, altho someone, elsethread, suggested she was the first human High Mage of Omtose Phellack, which is such a cool (no pun intended) theory i also have to raise it just for kicks and tickles.

- Abyss, actually, pun intended.

[cannabishead]

I believe that sinn may have access to multiple warrens hence the control over both fire and ice

[cerveza_fiesta]

don't the other high mages have access to several warrens? I thought that was kind of the distinction. The lowly cadre mages usually only have one and maybe a limited second, but high mages like Tayschren has a bunch. right?

[Aptorian]

Possibly, but I think the distinction between highmages and squadmages is the level of skill and power. I always thought a highmage was also someone with vast understanding/knowledge and experience with their warren, but Sinn sort of disproves this.

It's been said that you can be taught to use a warren, so a skilled mage could use any warren, but I'm sure they'll always default to the warren they started out with/ have a connection to.

[Silencer]

Yeah - I was under the impression that to be a high mage you only needed to be a master of a single warren - e.g. you control High Thyr, however we are finding as the series goes on more and more high mages that have multiple warrens. Although in RG we are told that some of the squad mages were force-taught several warrens, and they didn't become High Mages.

Re the original post - they are afraid of Sinn because of her attitude - like was mentioned previously, she is a silent, almost insane killer, commanding power the equivalent of, say, Tayschrenn - someone who is a High Mage of at least Thyr and Telas. Now, they are not so afraid of Quick, who has been seen to help them - his is awe-inspiring due to his intelligence and 'friendly' use. Whereas Sinn is an unknown quantity as to her allegiances.

Of course, we only know the relative difficulty of the ice to stop based on the other squad mages - who are not very powerful at all (although Ebron is quite clever, Quick-style, if you count the thing in HoC). We really don't know what Tay or Quick could have done in this situation.

-Silencer, would not be afraid of insane sorceress

[Aptorian]

Well if we want to get tecnical on the icebreaking there's NoK.

Spoiler

Agyala, Obo and Tay work together to repell the Stormriders, breaking down or just slowing the ritual the riders are making and destroying the ice.

It's not like we see them forceblasting icebergs, rather it's some kind of weaving, combining of warrens, tapping of power. Now there is a difference between the two situations, there's probably more ice comming Sinns way but the Rider ritual was probably harder to fight than the natural movement of ice.

The question is, how did Sinn get so competent with warrens that she's able to make complicated weavings? Or is this some common thing a mage learn on their first year and that mage from 7C taught her?

[Abyss]

Sinn's probably acting on instinct and limited teaching from Fayelle and mages in the 14th.

The situation in NoK was a lot more complicated than what Sinn dealt with in RG.

- Abyss, ski bum.

[Dolorous Menhir]

Sinn seems like a natural talent to me.

Someone like Tayschrenn, he's got a lifetime of study under his belt. That's the source of his mastery and power.

Sinn, well, she just knows. Perhaps not even that. She just acts, and reacts.

[Gem Windcaster]

The horror when she starts to know stuff.

[Blend]

Gem Windcaster;216402 said:

The horror when she starts to know stuff.

...if she starts to. She'll have to stop being insane first to start putting some kind of structure into her thought and thus her actions, don't you think?

She's like a five year old with a laser.... scary as fuck.