The Malazan Fallen discussion
Group Read - Midnight Tides
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MT - Chapter Twenty Two - No Spoilers
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Lee, High Priest of Shadow
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Jul 21, 2013 03:24PM
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I'm in the right place, not gonna screw up! Starlings! :)
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Yes - and they are circling closer to the Dead Azath - now Hold of Death
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We get a glimpse into how these creatures think – Peace and order by overwhelming and superior force
‘Discord?’ Rhulad asked.
‘I desire peace once more.’
Fear spoke. ‘If it is peace you seek, Serenity, then you need only turn and walk away. Leave.’
‘To leave here is to arrive elsewhere. I cannot retreat from disorder, for it shall surely follow. Peace must be asserted where one finds oneself. Only when discord is resolved will there be peace.’
The Forkrull Assail easily fends off the Sengar brothers and kills Rhulad...again. It takes the two newly recruited demons to drive it off. I love the banter between those two demons –
The demons approached.
‘Leave it to us,’ the first one said, whipping blood from the tulwar.
‘Yes,’ nodded the other. ‘We’ve never before heard of these Forkrul Assail, but we’ve decided.’
‘We don’t like them,’ the first demon said.
‘Not in the least.’
‘We will hunt it down and tell it so.’
Back in Letheras the city is in full scale riot as refugees come swarming in. In all the chaos and with the Edur on the doorstep, king Ezgara seats himself in the new domed chamber of the Domicile, proclaim the arrival of the Seventh closure and himself as Emperor.
‘This day,’ Nifadas intoned, ‘Lether becomes an empire.’
The guards executed the salute reserved for the royal line and held it, motionless as statues.
Ezgara Diskanar stepped up onto the dais and slowly turned round.
The First Eunuch moved to stand before him and raised the pillow.
The king took the crown and fitted it onto his head.
‘This day,’ Nifadas said, stepped back, ‘Lether is ruled by an emperor.’ He turned. ‘Emperor Ezgara Diskanar.’
A bit like the musicians playing while the titanic is sinking I think
And Gerun Ebberict lets loose his soldiers on the citizenry - Killing rioters and loyalists alike. And in all this confusion lies Gerun’s opportunity to kill Tehol. Brys takes steps to intervene
‘Deliver a missive to my brother, Tehol, at his home.’
‘He will be on his roof?’
‘I expect so, and that is the message – he is to stay there. Now, an additional message, to the Shavankrat brother guarding Tehol. A name. Gerun Eberict. That is all.’
It’s all starting to hit the fan now.
And this chapter we get a big revelation. The First Consort is actually the Errant
Leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, near the old palace, the First Consort, Turudal Brizad, the god known as the Errant, looked skyward at the cloud of starlings as the bells sounded, low and tremulous.
I'm noticing the demons this time round. They live in comparable worlds.as ours. What world tho, is it a warren? It hasn't been named as such, but someone of magic can draw them forth.Ahhh the Errant enters the game and I assume will become a major player, he IS an elder and has huge power. Hes been stuck in the holds but they are changing and he wants in. So who is Bugg? He and the Errant seem to go way back.
I'm thinking the starlings carry dead souls.
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From MOI
‘We’ll need a different warren for this,’ the wizard finally said. ‘The choice is this: Hood’s own, or Aral Gamelon—’
‘Aral what? I’ve never heard—’
‘Demonic. Most conjurors who summon demons are opening a path to Gamelon – though they probably don’t know it, not by its true name, anyway. Granted, one can find demons in other warrens – the Aptorians of Shadow, for example. But the Korvalahrai and the Galayn, the Empire’s favoured, are both of Gamelon.
I was wondering who Turudal was and now we know!I keep thinking back to Brys and him getting a download of all those names of forgotten gods and if it is going to have an impact on the coming battle!
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What I liked about this fight scene, was that although the FA seem almost unbeatable, fast and supple, Serenity ended up running away. It did require a couple fo 10 ft demons to do it though.
David Sven wrote: "The First Consort is actually the Errant"It seems like we have to trust that because it really does sound like the omniscient narrator, or if not at least Turudal's own POV. But it creates a problem. Bugg already said the Errant was a collective personification of the Assail. So it seems like either Bugg was wrong, or he was lying, or Turudal is Forkrul Assail, none of which sounds terribly believable to me.
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But I personally don't have a problem seeing the Errant as a coin(or tile) with two faces. That is - there is only one Errant proper - a god - but the TILE of the Fulcra may have multiple meanings or representations - maybe.
How is Bugg's claim any harder to swallow than the idea that K'rul is a merchant, and that the warrens are his arteries. the gods may have different forms and aspects, depending on the circumstances.
Have faith in Bugg! I think gods are aspected to races so the Errant himself may not be FA but his role as a god serves their purpose. So he's powerful and can sway things according to his nature which if the same as the FA then I don't trust him or like him. No morality.
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Did he say that to Tehol? if so, wasn't he just explaining what the Letharii thought what The Errant was. It doesn't necessarily mean that is Bugg's opinion. I am still not convinced that The Errant has anything to do with the FA, I believe it is a historical chinese whispers thing.
Haha! I plan to watch closely, I hope to remember what to watch for! I admit that shocked me.
But the Letheri don't even know about the FA so what Bugg says doesn't fit in with their view on the Errant, that's why I'm willing to go with this for now.
(view spoiler)
Lee wrote: "Bugg already said the Errant was a collective personification of the Assail. Did he say that to Tehol? if so, wasn't he just explaining what the Letharii thought what The Errant was. It doesn't n..."
Bugg said this to Shurq and Harlest in chapter 12, explaining the Assail inscriptions on the tombs under Letheras. Letherii scholars knew the glyphs were aspected to the Errant, but apparently nothing about the Forkrul Assail. It's hard to guess what agenda Bugg might have, but it's a big long speech and everything in it that we can verify against something else seems to be true.
I guess it is true that the Assail and Turudal could both happen to be aspected to the same tile, or that Turudal could be human but in league with the Assail. But I read "collectively personified by" as stronger than "aspected to."
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But this doesn't detract the meaning of individual cards in certain games or in popular culture. For example the Ace of Spades is often referred to as the "death" card.
Point being I think the Errant tile's meaning can depend on the context it is used or read.
I do hope we get some clarication that I just don't remember. The clues could be there that none us realized at the time. Because I missed this connection completely the first time and, as MPauli would say, I needed a brain sweep after catching it this time.
I'm definately going to look out for those things.^^And I did a quick math and came to the conclusion that with my reading time on the reread and your reading time, I would most likely start book 10, when you are finished with it.
So, I could either plow through the series without noting much (not going to happen) or quit on the reread (also kind of nope) or just skip 4 books, trust my brain and start book 6 with you ("the plan").
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And I did a quick math and came to the conclusion that with my reading time on the reread and your reading time, I would most likely start book..."
Is that math before or after we added another 6 weeks to the read?
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Or do I have that wrong?
Rob wrote: "So Errant is the FK god, but the Lethari also believe in/worship him too? I know they seem to use his name for both swearing and blessings.Or do I have that wrong?"
What does FK stand for?
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Good question. I have no idea. I meant the Forkrull Assail, not sure where FK came from.
Fuck? We don't know if he is their god. We only know that in some way he is aspected with them. Whatever that means, it's frustrating!
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I also did not take Errant as the FA god.In this book i did have some trouble keeping my fantasy series straight. After meeting Kettle, i was so convinced we had seen her in a previous book as an adult already. But then I realized it's a different Kettle, one that Robin Hobb created.
Additionnally, David Eddings has a character called Errand, (view spoiler) (spoiler for those who never read the Edding series and still want to). Complete coincidence? Or somehow a small nod to other fantasy authors?
I don't think its either a complete coincidence or necessarily a nod to other fantasy authors. There's a stong tradition of knight errantry in the middle ages. Errant means wandering. It has come to mean going off the straight path.Errand has taken on a slightly different meaning. An errand is a task or mission. The two obviously come from the same root, but they mean different things. An runner of errands is on a particular path. An errant strays from the path.
It's not surprising that a fantasy author would use either word as the name for a character. Kettle is just a common object, and again, its not hard to see several authors coming up with the same name.
Thinking about errant, I think its interesting that the Errant we see is so un-knightly. I think Erikson is using a more modern meaning, and bringing in the hint of misbahavior that now comes with the word.
