[Illuyankas]

OK, after the reread:

Kruppe has more of a goatee than a beard.

Ditch could have had a reminder of Draconus' name from Paran running around shouting it earlier.

I think the greyhaired stranger sitting with Kruppe and K'Rul, and the greyhaired bard earlier, is Duiker. From finishing the song lyric to the expression, I think it's him.

The demon is could be the Galayn Lord or Pearl, but is more likely another demon entirely.

Or, and Edgewalker - the Edur are tall, right?

[Optimus Prime]

Yes the Edur are taller than humans, probably the tallest gets to close to 7feet.

I still say if the third person with ST and Edgewalker was Hood, why not mention him by name if it appears that obvious?

Edgewalker as a TTT? That was interesting....it seems Edgewalker is a power unable to use his power...but used or summoned by others....I wonder how the hell he got into his current situation?

Has Apt not read this yet?

[Illuyankas]

I'M BEING FACETIOUS DAMN IT

Also, how would the memorarily-challenged dead people know Hood? Not everyone gets the personal touch.

[Abyss]

y'know... i wouldn't mind at all if Karsa's daughters and the dog have their own plot-line for a while before Daddy shows up. The description, about how they've been watching the dog, they grab WEAPONS and supplies, and they have their own language, is really all quite interesting.

- Abyss, also, spooky...

[Jorram]

Obdigore said:

...

Anyone else think that last scene might hint that Kruppe is an elder god, and they had another elder god, who we hadn't seen before, come sit with them to talk?

Yep, I mentioned it as an idea on the previous page

How was Pearl a demon??? I've kinda missed that part in TBH, apparently.

In fact, the more I read the first scene, the weirder it seems. The priest's comment about the Hounds of Shadow vaguely hints that his priesthood has been dedicated to Shadow. However, on Shadowhtrone's appearance he doesn't react, so it's not Shadowthrone who is his god. Who then? In fact, it is very weird how the two dead people and the three gods don't interact at all, apart from stating the fact that they are all there.

The man's comments about the fourth person coming and the repetitions and the town's name seem all the more weird, compared with Hood's dismissing comment about (rephrase) "such places being ubiquitous".

[Quick~]

Quote

How was Pearl a demon??? I've kinda missed that part in TBH, apparently.

Its not Pearl the claw but rather Pearl the demon, the one that Quick Ben lets out to face Rake in GOTM.

[Optimus Prime]

Quick~;266065 said:

Its not Pearl the claw but rather Pearl the demon, the one that Quick Ben lets out to face Rake in GOTM.

Exactly. It's the demon that allows QB and Kalam to get the hell out of there. QB feels bad because the demon is toast as soon as Rake shows up.

@Illy:P Sarcasm meter was offline

[Vengeance]

Ok I was thinking about this after Abyss's post and If Krul is the god of dreams, and Burn is asleep dreaming this world. (If she wakes up then all on this world die) Then perhaps what Icarium meant when he said (at the end of RG) That if Krul could do it why not me. Is Krul created his own reality, and then let it run wild. This is might be what Icarium wanted to do, but his machine was broken so It wouldn't work. If each warren is a world unto its self then perhaps Krul was or is Father Light. The person who brought order to Chaos.

I know that Togg and (can't remember her name) are older then Krul and his siblings, but it could be that they are just formed from older Chaos. When Togg went into his warren it was Chaos, and he was afraid of other things in there.

I went way off topic sorry.....God that was a Great Prologue.....Thanks Hetan......

[Aptorian]

HOLY CRAP.... HOLY CRAP...
WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Righ, now that's out of the system, I would like to take one minute to bitch about my luck.

I was about to leave for work this morning, when I hit update on the "new posts" button. What appears? The freaking PROLOGUE!!! I was probably the first person to actually see the post. What to do, what to do?!!! Well I missed work last Friday, so I had no choice. I actually need money to survive, so I left! Man, this has been one torturously long day with the forum in the back of my mind all the time, a constant whisper haunting me, prologue, prologue, prologue, prologue, prologue, prologue, prologuezzzzz,

Right, down to business. lots of speculation already, lots of stuff I hadn't considered, lots of stuff that smells of BS. Here's my take on things, sorry if I repeat someones earlier brilliance, but my opinion is more important than yours.

Is it just me or is the prologue terribly short? It's chalked full of awesome, but it's very short. I also think it may be the first prologue since DG that doesn't have parts that took place (long) before the current events of the series. This to me is again a sign that things are bottlenecking.

First scene inside Hoods realm. I have no doubt the cloaked figure is Hood, Edgewalker and ST don't respond to summons from henchmen.

Personally I don't think we'll see the two people in the city of the damned again. If we would, I would have expected to have their names. It was weird, for a brief moment I thought the scene was taking place in one of the ghost towns of the Panion Domin and it was Envy walking with Baaljag. Perhaps having hit her head, but by the end of the scene, it was obviously not her. I think the priest could be anyone or no-one, would be cool if it was one of Feners though.

As for the confusion of the two, it's because they are dead. Like the mythical greek underworld, when you die and wonder Hoods realm you loose all that you were. It's described several times that everything decays in hoods realm, even people.

This scene had me wondering:

Quote

From the hills, thunder and jade rain slashing down like the arrows from ten thousand battles. From down the street, the sudden rumble of carriage wheels.
She turned at that latter sound and smiled. “Oh,� she said in relief, “here comes my ride.�

The Jade is mentioned twice in that opening part of the prologue, two mentions is more than a coincidence. What is Jade doing inside Hoods realm? Is this perhaps an aftereffect of Hood releasing Heboric and Heborics negation of the Jadestatues power? Did Hoods realm take damage?

As for the carriage. I was actually thinking that KB and Bauchelin were finally coming to Hood to try and save their hides before Hood finally caught them. But I agree, Paran is a very good guess for who's arriving.

Finally, Flaweds views on the two dead dogs had me thinking. Perhaps they are an omen. A sign that the Deragoth and Hounds will meet, it will be bloody and none of them are going to live.

Next scenes, Dragnipur, just about the most awesome scenes ever, well since th RG prologue anyway.

The sword is obviously done. The weight of the wagon and the strain on the chained is growing exponentially. It's just not possible for Rake to keep the wagon going any longer.

What was up with the chaos storm / KCCM-curse thing chasing the wagon. Look at the description:

Quote

Onward, onward, even as the storm behind them drew closer, cloud piling on cloud, silver and roiling and shot through with twisting spears of iron. Ash had begun to rain down on them,...]

What is this curse exactly? I thought it was just pure power, but... Iron? Is there a construction inside this chaos storm?

I think the demon Ditch meets was one of the Kenrylalala variations, the royal ones, but I doubt it is one we've yet seen. I don't think it was the Korvala demon, Peral (sp?) from GotM, since that one was etheral. Unless of course Pearl could take on a more solid form if needed...

Obviously Apsala'ra never took part in the Ritual of Tellan, which is interesting in itself. I was going to speculate that Apsala'ra could have been T'lan Imass ascendant, like Olar Ethil is an ascendant (or is she?), but I don't think that's even possible because a T'lan Imass wouldn't have a soul to chain to Dragnipur. The Imass souls of course already being claimed by the first ritual.

It was nice to see a explanation as to why no one else has tried the "darkness under the wagon"-escape plan before. Negation sounds like death by darkness.

Finally, please, no more "Ooohh grey, that has to be Kallor" insinuations. Why are you even proposing that it's Kallor in K'ruls inn? Are you actually that optimistic that A) people, the BBs that own the tavern among them, would welcome Kallor in their midst? and that Kallor and K'rul are going to sit down by a hearth together and enjoy watching Kruppe dance?... really???

Now for people to start picking apart my guesswork.

[Rat Mentor]

Does anyone think that the carriage could be containing our two Necromancer friends....

EDIT APT beat me to it!

[acarl]

Thank you so much, made my day.

I think Flawed touched on some important points in regards to the first part of the prologue occuring before the rest.

I believe the meeting is in hoods realm
- how every day seems the same
- misinformed view of enlightenment
- the fact they are dead
- etc...

the rain of jade indicates to me this scene takes place right after hood and parans deal in BH. The individual drops are each a soul from the statues as hood collects them.

Therefore hood is definitely the "hooded one" and this is the first meeting in regards to an anti CG alliance of hood and ST. It also explains Edgewalker being a mediator and why there seemed to be some familiarity between hood and ST in the scene in RG.

As far as the identity of the two strangers watching this whole occurence I'd imagine the man is someone who died awhile ago in one of the earlier books and the lady is someone who died in tBH maybe just before the jade statues came. Your guess is as good as mine, could be anyone really.

The third party joining the alliance is interesting. In RG it was Menandore? I think. This is clearly not her. I'd imagine whoever they are waiting for is a third very important ally against tCG. Draconus. So the original anti CG alliance is ST, hood and draconus with Edgewalker mediating. A few points supports this, one that the third party is late -we know the wagon is moving more slowly now - and second that the carraige wheels are said to "rumble" rather than "clatter" or some such. Rumbling indicates size to me like the body laden wagon of draginpur.

Anyway this is all highly circumspect but my initial reaction on reading this was that it was the original anti CG alliance meeting occuring before not after events in RG. The rest of the prologue seems to be later though.

The rest of the prologue was simply amazing I'll comment more later.

[Aptorian]

The problem I have with the carriage approaching being "Dragnipurs" is this. It's considered an amazing feat that Paran walked into the sword and came out by his own will, it earned him the name Jen'isand Rul. Dragnipur isn't easily accessed, it's a selfcontained pocket warren, and if the vagon along with it's entire warren of eminent doom is suddenly rolling through Hoods regions... well, that's just damn amazing!

Also, the description of the carriages approach, isn't remarkably "special". The two souls don't notice the screaming of a million souls, a GIGANTIC CLOUD OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION trailing it, the sounds of terrible chains or experice the awesome feeling of dread and doom that the entire thing emanates.

I could buy that the gods are planning, with the help of Paran, to fashion a new place for the sword to dump it's load when it breaks, but I don't think it's in this "necropolis".

[Optimus Prime]

@Apt. Doubtful you were the first to see it Brood read it as it appeared and I shortly thereafter In yo face!!!!

I just don't get why Hood was mentioned by name? Makes no sense? It gives me this itchy feeling the third guy was someone else. Edgewalker is driving me nuts, mainly because we know nothing about him at all.

The old/gaunt guy IS NOT KALLOR.

[caladanbrood]

I was reading it within 10 seconds of it being posted... luck of the refresh I suppose;)

[acarl]

@apt

I agree there are some serious problems with the approaching "carraige" being draginpurs "wagon". But if the rest is true, especially that this is the first forming of the anti CG alliance since the chaining, then I still think the third has to be someone of great importance, maybe it is Paran and the TTG, their carraiges seem to be large enough to rumble.

[Optimus Prime]

@Apt, it was odd we had no flashbacks to Elder days...I love those snippets.

Rake HAS to know what is coming, doesn't he? The way he shrugged off Envy's warning in MoI makes me think he's got something up his sleeve.

[Skywalker]

HETAN FOR PRESIDENT!!! Thanks!

**This post was written as I read along (for the second time) the TtH prologue.**

I find the lack of timestamps disturbing - well ok, not disturbing so much as interesting. I read it to mean SE is telling us to stop reconciling events with the timeline. As if he were saying "The Timeline Does Not Matter"

So many POVs, so many wonderful glimpses. I'm loving it!

POV 1

So a huge dusty rotting afterlife village with 2 people and 2 dogs huh? Interestingly, since Edgewalker is bound to Shadow/ Emurlahn and he can be there, this village must be in a fragment of Emurlahn, not in Hood's realm.

Who are these two people? Well...

Quote

“I was once a priest,� the man said, as his dog edged up against his feet and lay there, gasping with blood dripping from its mouth. “Every time we saw a storm coming, we closed our eyes and sang all the louder.�

Sounds like a priest of Beru (or whoever the god/dess of storms is - I think its Beru). The lady could be anyone... Sinital is as good a guess as any.

Then Edgewalker cometh. with him is the "stranger, cloaked in frayed dark grey, hooded, of a height to match the other." My first thought was that this was Cotillion, who also likes to be hooded. Makes sense that he could then 'call' both Edgewalker and Shadowthrone. Could be Hood of course... but it was Cotillion who was plenty disgusted when last we saw him, head in hands, at the end of the Bonehunters.

Quote

“You have called me here,� said the one named Edgewalker, “to … mitigate.�

Hmm... mitigate what? The pantheon war? The Jade Rain? The overall after-life experiences in Wu? I hope SE doesn't leave this meeting unexplained the way ST/ Hood/ Menandore's meeting kinda sorta was in RG

POV 2

Amazing stuff... Ditch was an inspired POV character choice. I definitely think that was the Galayn Lord (royal blood was mentioned). Looks like Dragnipur will be pwned soon.

POV 3

Apsal'ara might just become the third entity to escape Dragnipur after the two Hounds of Shadow. Really cool of SE to confirm she exists (is not a myth).

POV 5

Karsa's back home baby! Those are certainly his daughters and his pet.

POV 6

Good ole Kruppe! And K'rul! And the stranger I took to be Duiker...

So K'rul is the prize every other god is fighting for - looks like my death of all magic by the end theory is getting credence from TtH.

Out!

[Murrin]

"Aptorian" said:

Is it just me or is the prologue terribly short? It's chalked full of awesome, but it's very short. I also think it may be the first prologue since DG that doesn't have parts that took place (long) before the current events of the series. This to me is again a sign that things are bottlenecking.

Actually, both HoC and BH had entirely "recent" prologues. All of the even-numbered books had no ancient-history bits; it's a pattern that's been brought up quite a lot on these boards, so I'm surprised to see so many people mention the lack here...

[Vengeance]

Ok so I just had a better thought.

In GOM there was a lot of talk from QB and from Rake about how they felt that there was a higher power directing them as it were. Then we had Kruppe pulling strings. It seemed like he was the one directing everybody but it didn't seem like he had the power to. Then in MOI when Brood swung the Hammer and Kruppe was unaffected every body was like it is his relationship with Krul that protected him. The problem I have with that is at that time Krul couldn't protect Harley when the dead KCCM attacked the Caravan. So how could he have protected Kruppe from Burns Hammer. Now with this

Quote

“Join us, friend," said Kruppe. "Sit here by this fire: this scene paints the history of our kind, as you well know. A night, a hearth, and a tale to spin. Dear K’rul, dearest friend of Kruppe, hast thou ever seen Kruppe dance?�
The stranger sat. A wan face, an expression of sorrow and pain.
“No," said K'rul. "I think not. Not by limb, not by word.�
Kruppe's smile was muted, and something glistened in his eyes. "Then, my friends, settle yourselves for this night. And witness.�

We see that Kruppe is a lot more powerful then previously thought. It is my thinking that he is the Tyrant of Darujhistan. The person who the both the Cabal and the Seguleh ultimately serve. We don't know how old he is, it is possible that he has been around in one form or another since the Age of Tyrants.

[Aptorian]

CrAzY tHeOry!i!

I actually thought it was silly of K'rull to say he hadn't seen Kruppe dance "by word". Dancing from word to word, weaving one sentence through another, is all Kruppe does when he speaks.