Help
Anyway, this came up in the prediction thread and got kind of lost, so I wanted to know what people thought of the theory that the CG is from a/the Warren of Chaos, as are the jade statues? Here's what I got:
From MoI, Brood:
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This strides too close a path to the Crippled God for it to be accidental, Rake. The Chained One's poison is that of Chaos, after all.
From MoI, Bauchelain:
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Ah. There are many flavours to chaotic power. That which assails the warrens has little to do with the elements of the Warren of Chaos with which I am involved.
Kruppe listening in on Silverfox:
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'No, Summoner. The renegades have found another path, which as yet remains hidden from us. They have, on occasion, employed the Warren of Chaos in their flight.'
Chaos? I wonder, to whom do these renegade T'lan Imass now kneel? No, muse on it not. Still a distant threat, Kruppe suspects. All in its own time…
Chaos? I wonder, to whom do these renegade T'lan Imass now kneel? No, muse on it not. Still a distant threat, Kruppe suspects. All in its own time…
So, it sounds like the CG at the very least has access to the Warren of Chaos, as well as the powers of chaos itself (possibly the inter-warren chaos, as distinct from the Warren of Chaos).
Then there's this from Anomander talking to WJ about Heboric and Fener's fall:
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In any case, those severed hands were as poison to Fener. He could not touch them, nor could he remove them from his realm. He burned the tattoos announcing his denial upon the high priest's skin, and so sealed the virulent power of the hands, at least for the time being. And that should have been that. Eventually, the priest would die, and his spirit would come to Fener to retrieve what had been cruelly and wrongfully taken from him. That spirit would then become the weapon of Fener's wrath, his vengeance upon the priests of the fouled temple, and indeed upon the Claw and the Empress herself. A dark storm awaited the Malazan Empire, Whiskeyjack.'
'But something's happened.'
'Aye. The High Priest has, by design or chance, come into contact with the Warren of Chaos—an object, perhaps, forged within that warren. The protective seal around his severed hands was obliterated by that vast, uncontrolled surge of power. And, finding Fener, those hands… pushed.'
'But something's happened.'
'Aye. The High Priest has, by design or chance, come into contact with the Warren of Chaos—an object, perhaps, forged within that warren. The protective seal around his severed hands was obliterated by that vast, uncontrolled surge of power. And, finding Fener, those hands… pushed.'
and from DHG, Felisin:
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Have you come from the Abyss, Fener? It's said your sacred warren borders Chaos itself. Fener? Are you among us now?
Certainly gives them an inlet...
So the jade statues are an object linked to or forged within the Warren of Chaos... by the CG? From HoC, Heboric sees them sailing through space, through the rent the CG was brought from. At the least, I think they come from the same place.
This leads me to believe that the rent might be a tear into the (or a) Warren of Chaos, a true gate. Only a few other characters have had anything to do with Chaos -- Togg, Hairlock, Bauchelain, maybe the tenescowri? -- and of them, only Togg seems to be left sane (well as sane as a dog can be) so maybe the reason it's relatively unmentioned is because there are almost no practitioners. Without practitioners, maybe it's harder to be a god. Er, that is, maybe a God of Chaos would soon end up w/no believers and so pass away naturally. I don't know, rambling now.
There are all those comments about the alien-ness/foreign nature of the CG that makes it seem like he shouldn't have just come from a common warren like this... but the theory seems to have at least some weight. There's some kind of connection there, anyway.
Anyway, this was all brought up because I thought the scene with Rath'Fener might be leading in to a better understanding of the CG, or at least beings from ... wherever he came from:
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Rath'Fener's body jerked, a throat-tearing scream erupting from him, his arms snapping as if yanked by invisible, unhuman hands. Dark tattoos appeared on the man's skin, but not those belonging to Fener—for the god had not been the one to claim Rath'Fener's severed hands. Writhing, alien script swarmed his flesh as the unknown claimant made its mark, claimed possession of the man's mortal soul. Words that darkened like burns.
Blisters rose, then broke, spurting thick, yellow liquid.
Screams of unbearable, unimaginable pain filled the plaza, the body on the flagstones spasming as muscle and fat dissolved beneath the skin, then boiled, breaking through.
(skip)
I have you now, Rath'Fener. You are found, and so I… answer.
Suddenly, beyond the pain, a mutual awareness—an alien presence. Immense power. Not malign, yet profoundly… different. From that presence: storm-tossed confusion, anguish. Seeking to make of the unexpected gift of a mortal's two hands… something of beauty. Yet that man's flesh could not contain that gift.
Horror within the storm. Horror… and grief.
Ah, even gods weep. Commend yourself, then, to my spirit. I will have your pain as well, sir.
The alien presence recoiled, but it was too late. Itkovian's embrace offered its immeasurable gift—
—and was engulfed. He felt his soul dissolving, tearing apart—too vast!
There was, beneath the cold faces of gods, warmth. Yet it was sorrow in darkness, for it was not the gods themselves who were unfathomable. It was mortals. As for the gods—they simply paid.
We—we are the rack upon which they are stretched.
Then the sensation was gone, fleeing him as the alien god succeeded in extracting itself, leaving Itkovian with but fading echoes of a distant world's grief—a world with its own atrocities, layer upon layer through a long, tortured history. Fading… then gone.
Leaving him with heart-rending knowledge.
Blisters rose, then broke, spurting thick, yellow liquid.
Screams of unbearable, unimaginable pain filled the plaza, the body on the flagstones spasming as muscle and fat dissolved beneath the skin, then boiled, breaking through.
(skip)
I have you now, Rath'Fener. You are found, and so I… answer.
Suddenly, beyond the pain, a mutual awareness—an alien presence. Immense power. Not malign, yet profoundly… different. From that presence: storm-tossed confusion, anguish. Seeking to make of the unexpected gift of a mortal's two hands… something of beauty. Yet that man's flesh could not contain that gift.
Horror within the storm. Horror… and grief.
Ah, even gods weep. Commend yourself, then, to my spirit. I will have your pain as well, sir.
The alien presence recoiled, but it was too late. Itkovian's embrace offered its immeasurable gift—
—and was engulfed. He felt his soul dissolving, tearing apart—too vast!
There was, beneath the cold faces of gods, warmth. Yet it was sorrow in darkness, for it was not the gods themselves who were unfathomable. It was mortals. As for the gods—they simply paid.
We—we are the rack upon which they are stretched.
Then the sensation was gone, fleeing him as the alien god succeeded in extracting itself, leaving Itkovian with but fading echoes of a distant world's grief—a world with its own atrocities, layer upon layer through a long, tortured history. Fading… then gone.
Leaving him with heart-rending knowledge.
Esp with the word "alien" used so much to describe the CG and the "presence", and Kulp (from DHG) about Heboric: "A battle of warrens - Fener's own, linked by one ghostly hand, the other ensnared by Otataral, yet waxing nonetheless - a warren I can't recognize, a force alien to every sense I possess" -- I can't believe the use of the word "alien" is unintentional.
