Where do we go from here?

I just googled my own LJ photo-stream and discovered that I've been unknowingly downloading to it.  Eek.  Not that there's anything embarrasing there.  It seems to be a mix of art projects and cat photos.  Still, how did that happen?

Meanwhile, I'm up to a point in the new novel where Ishtier demands that his god pass judgment on him/her/itself.  Basically, Ishtier blames the Three-faced God for everything that has happened to him including his current ruin.  "You failed me.  It's all your fault."  He gets the God-Voice, first the Arrin-ken Immalai and then, cutting in, the Dark Judge.  I have to figure out what these two demigods have to say about their absent deity and to each other.  This, in turn, reflects back on the ultimate reality of said god.

Someone directed me to the TV Tropes website. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath I didn't know there were so many obscure cliches (family of hats?  Substitute goldfish?), but that led me to another Tropes link:  WMG (huh?) where I found some interesting theories.  Damien, this may be your balliwick.  I've already introduced  your Builder's hoax as a theory.  The other one that struck me as feasible was "The Three-Faced God Never Existed." which I quote below with comments.

Throughout this novel I've been circling around similar questions.  My basic position is that things can't come to a crisis until powers become individuals.  The Four, the Three, and the One, i.e the Rathillien Elementals, the Tyr-ridan, and Perimal Darkling via the Master.   That at least narrows the final conflict to manageable dimensions.  Still, what happens here should also shape that final battle.

What would the Arrin-ken say about this here?

From WMG Chronicles of the Kencyrath >TV Tropes
The Three-Faced God never existed
We know from Seeker's Mask that the occasions in God Stalk when the God seemed to take control of Ishtier and speech through him was faked by the Arrin-Ken. What if that was true all along?

[Hmm.  I think I made clear later that the God Voice first spoke when the Kencyrath came to Rathillien and the priests tried to take control.  Since then, the voice has only spoken through Ishtier.  Granted, in GS he's pretty blaise about it, as if it happened all the time, but it doesn't.  My bad.]

Way back on the first world in the Chain, the Arrin-Ken discovered that Perimal Darkling was about to eat their world. They knew it would take something with the power of a god to stop it, but they didn't have one on hand. So they recruited the Highborn, Kendar, and Builders, created the Kencyrath, and told them "We're on a mission from God", and faked miracles to convince them. The Arrin-Ken knew that they'd have to retreat through multiple worlds until they found an ally powerful enough to defeat Perimal Darkling.

[I don’t know about faking miracles.  The AK don’t strike me as fakers.  Given this assumption, presumably the AK expected to come up with the Tyr-ridan or a powerful world sooner rather than later.]

Eventually the Kencyrath got sufficiently fed up with the long retreat that some of them were ready to rebel; enter Gerridon and Jamethiel I. But here the Arrin-Ken got lucky: the next world they escaped to was the one they were looking for all the time. The four native gods of Rathillien, coupled with the power of the Arrin-Ken and the hypothetical Tyr-Ridan, might be powerful enough to end the war.

[Okay, but the problem here is that the Tyr-Ridan are manifestations of real power.  That power presumably existed before them, if not with personalities attached.  The AK had prior knowledge that said powers had to manifest in individuals?  They were dealing with universal but inchoate forces? (Parallel to the Four becoming flesh, if not mortal?)]

When the Arrin-ken supposedly got fed up with the Highborn squabbling among themselves and left in a snit, that wasn't the real reason; they just took advantage of it as a convenient excuse to leave. The real reason they hid themselves away was to make sure the rest of the Kencyrath were stranded on Rathillien and couldn't leave for another world if things started going pear-shaped. (They may have arranged for the Builders to be wiped out for the same reason.)

[I agree that the AK’s departure isn’t adequately explained.  They are apparently waiting for the Three, the Four, and the One to manifest.  So far, they have the Tyr-Ridan (more or less) and the Rathillien elementals {sort of}.  What they don’t have is the One – Gerridon becoming PD’s voice and therefore making both himself and it vulnerable.  The Builders (most of them) died because of their own arrogance, a mirror to that of the Highborn.  I don't think there was any AK plot here.]

In the meantime, the Arrin-Ken are waiting for the Tyr-Ridan to show up and start kicking Darkling arse. Things were delayed more than they expected when the Dark Judge lost his marbles and started killing potential Tyr-Ridans before they could fully develop their powers. But now, finally, a suitable set of candidates are all alive at the same time: Jamethiel II, Torisen, and Kindrie.

[Yes, the Dark Judge is partly to blame, but more so the Highborn for turning against the Shanir after the Fall. 

The purpose of the Tyr-Ridan isn't to serve their God.

It's to create Him.

•    Or, perhaps, to be him?
[I think the AK were trying to run a breeding program but the Highborn opted out too soon.  The idea was  either to create or recreate their God.  I like the idea that the Kencyrath’s faith is partly responsible for creating this reality.]