[Old Hunch Arbat]

I keep seeing things like...

...Verge of the Nascent, the 943rd Day of the Search
1139 Burn’s Sleep

Who is doing the search and what are they looking for?

Dok

[Aptorian]

What page and book are you getting this from? Might it be HoC?

I can think of two things this might be referring to but the year 1139 is... odd.

It would be a spoiler to reveal the possible meaning here. If you desperatly need the info I could make a spoiler box.

[Skywalker]

Those are the opening words of the HoC prologue you have there...

To be on the safer side, since the answer pertains to The Bonehunters and RG more than HoC/ MT, I'm using spoiler tags here:

Spoiler

I believe the 'search' is actually Rhulad's search for champions. The basis being Trull's shorning scene (which we see in the prologue too):

"HoC Prologue" said:

Rhulad rants: "... From nothing, was forged an empire. And still our strength grows. Yet. To grow stronger, what must you, my brothers, do?"
"We must search."
"Aye. And when you find what must be sought?"
"We must deliver. To you, brother."

later...

"Yet, even as you searched, this man, our once-brother, spoke against me."
"He did."
"Worse, he spoke to defend the new enemies we had found."
"He did. He called them the Pure Kin, and said we should not kill them."
"And, had they been in truth Pure Kin, then..."
"They would not have died so easily."
"Thus."
"He betrayed you, brother."
"He betrayed us all."

So if you've read BH/ RG, read the spoiler to find out. If not, RAFO

EDIT: Realized that the quote is not an HOC spoiler. So a HoC/ MT friendly answer would be "the search was for something Rhulad wanted"

[Old Hunch Arbat]

I've read all the books and am now going back to them all in "study" mode. And this is unique for me because I *never* re-read novels. So go ahead with the spoilers. I suspect I am like many on these forums...following each thread as carefully as I can. In doing so I have actually read the books in a somewhat different order so as to make each of the plot lines stand out more starkly.

Dokter

[Aptorian]

Uh oh... Sky made an oopsie.

[Skywalker]

Aptorian;273899 said:

Uh oh... Sky made an oopsie.

No I didn't

The quote is from HoC so not a 'oopsie' on an MT board!

EDIT: And there is more stuff than the quote between the spoiler tags.

[Old Hunch Arbat]

...OK so we're posting back and forth so fast as to cross posts.

This would suggest, given ...

Verge of the Nascent, the 943rd Day of the Search
1139 Burn’s Sleep

...if this is indeed an accurate relationship, a different time line than generally accepted. It would imply that the Edur had conquered Lether and then started the search for folks Rhulad could fight almost 30 years before the siege of Pale. No?

[Aptorian]

Skywalker;273900 said:

No I didn't

The quote is from HoC so not a 'oopsie' on an MT board!

EDIT: And there is more stuff than the quote between the spoiler tags.

O'rly?

Dokter;273903 said:

...OK so we're posting back and forth so fast as to cross posts.

This would suggest, given ...

Verge of the Nascent, the 943rd Day of the Search
1139 Burn’s Sleep

...if this is indeed an accurate relationship, a different time line than generally accepted. It would imply that the Edur had conquered Lether and then started the search for folks Rhulad could fight almost 30 years before the siege of Pale. No?

The dates surrounding MT and the Edur are completely useless. Erikson admitted that they are screwed.

[Skywalker]

First of all: (I can't believe I'm getting to say this so often)

The Timeline is Not Important.



The whole thing about timelines is discussed authoritatively in this thread:

http://malazanworld....read.php?t=9774

With a message from SE himself!

[Imperial Historian]

Moved to RG so you can all discuss this properly...

But the search is as far as we know the search for someone to fight and kill Rhulad, and while the date 1139 is wrong(and that date has been changed to 1159 in recently published editions, which is still wrong), I wouldn't say it's to far out, my understanding is that MT takes place maybe 10-15 years prior to GotM, so in the middle of the 1139-1159 range.

[Aptorian]

If this is right, it lends new strength to the idea that the Edur could be as long lived as the Andii... also explains why we don't hear of Edur elders in the villages in MT.

[Abyss]

Speaking strictly of pure blood Tiste and not mixes like Pearl, Toppe, the Shake and the 'kin' Trull's father found on the search, I don't see why all the Tiste races wouldn't be equally long lived in theory.

That said, the Andii in Moon's Spawn, having been living in a big rock for ages, may have maintained a bit more of the characteristics they had when they emerged from KG than the Edur who have been living in fishing villages and beating up on each other for a few millenia. I imagine the Liosan, living in their isolated warren most of the time (with the odd exception, see: Just Wars), have been fundamentally unchanged from whenever they were created.

I agree the Search is Rhulad's 'find people to kill me' thing, which was further corrupted by the CG's influence into basically a massacre crawl by the Edur and eventually Letherii.

- Abyss, prefers pub crawls...

[Venerus]

Throwing this out there, I don't necessarily believe it but... the only other "search" theme that I can think of involving the Nascent is one by Hentos Ilm/Legana Breed/et al chasing the renegade Imass. It was suggested, but not definitively, that that particular search was fairly acute, so, not super likely but still. Some slight possibility.

[Dolorous Menhir]

The Tiste Edur are searching for two things:

- champions to oppose Rhulad (noted above)

- the Throne of Shadow