The Malazan Fallen discussion
Group Read - Midnight Tides
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Can Anyone Explain the Cedance?
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Matthew
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Oct 11, 2013 01:41PM
This is something that I have been wondering for quite a while. If Lether is devoid of magic, where exactly does Ceda and the rest of his mage cadre get their magic from? I just noticed in chapter 19 him mention that he draws upon the cedance. This is the first I have heard of this.
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As I understand it, the Holds are a source of magic that is an ancient precursor to the Warrens. The magic available via the Holds is rougher and more primitive than the much more sophisticated version available through the Warrens that the Malazan mages use.
There are no warrens in Lether - the continent was frozen and isolated after the Andii were betrayed. So no real evolution could happen. But the warrens are a newer magic, before them were the Holds, which existed in Lether and they are still active. That's the magic the Cedance can use. Just like the Deck relates to the warrens, the Tiles relate to the Holds and are used for divination purposes.
Mod
Steve and Lori have it.
Gothos' ritual effectively froze the magic system in time and quarantined it from the rest of the world. So there is still magic based on the Holds but it didn't evolve in Lether along with the rest of the world into the warren system of magic. The Cedance is basically like the Lether religion or belief system or priesthood depending on the context the word is used - I think.
Ahh ok. I wasn't quite sure that the holds provided magic, since with the warrens it seems that each mage calls upon a specific warren. I have not seen any discussion really as to how the mages call upon the holds for their magic. Feather Witch for example obviously can divine through the holds, but doesn't appear to actually be able to wield magic.
Back in Gardens of the Moon I think I remember Tattersail discussing how someone becomes a mage, but opening a warren and then basically surviving the encounter.
Steve, not really! Looks like we posted at the same time, too!
Mod
Cedance: the dominant set of Tiles (see the Holds)
So like their version of the Deck of Dragons. Letherii Sorcery isn't explained in detail as it is with the warren system but whenever we see the Ceda wield sorcery he seems to access his power through the tiles - using the tiles as a kind of conduit.
Hmm. So we have at least two Hold equivalents to the Deck of Dragons: the portable tiles you can throw like Feather Witch's and the big ones set in place like the Cedance. I wonder if the distinction has any significance.
It seems to me that the big difference between the holds and the warrens is that the holds seem to require rituals to do magic and warrens is more quick access magic.
Mod
That's a good way of looking at it.
I wouldn't have thought of that idea, but now you mention it all the examples I can think of seem to agree with it or at least not contradict it clearly. I'll try to pay more attention to how you access magic now.
Mod
I think they are just a bigger set with the special property that the Cedance tiles change faces
The Holds. The Cedance. Kuru Qan’s chamber of divination. Throughout Letheras there were casters of the tiles, readers of the Holds. Of course, their representations were small, like flattened dice. Only the King’s Sorceror possessed tiles such as these. With ever-shifting faces.
Paul wrote: "It seems to me that the big difference between the holds and the warrens is that the holds seem to require rituals to do magic and warrens is more quick access magic."Is that true though? When the Lether mages threw their wall of fire over the mountain at the Edur I don't recall and rituals for them to perform, just some spoken words.
Mod
Though we don't get the specifics of the rituals they are actually referred to as rituals. I think a lot of the Letherii rituals in the war were prepared in advance and then activated by incantation - I think
Huh yeah I'm remembering that alot of the mages were feverishly busy beforehand.
