Dag's new abilities - "ghost hand" and ground-ripping

[Kiri]

Before his relationship with Fawn Dag never had these abilities; is it something about her energy and youthful enthusiasm and fire (and perhaps also the loss of the use of his good hand) that forces him to discover these abilities?

[[deleted user]]

I think Fawn has renewed Dag's interest in life in many ways. Her enthusiasm and innocence seem to renew him. I also think that being unable to use his other hand made a big difference. Another important factor in this developing ghost hand, I think, is that Dag seems to have more time on his hands. He isn't out chasing Malices and on Patrol. He buried himself in Patroller work for many years after his wife died....

[vorbore, Ma Kosti's Apprentice]

I did not read the last two books (I ordered them though, and will get them in some six weeks time yay!) but to me it sounded like something triggered by the uncanny priming of the sharing knife made of Kuaneo's bone. I have no worked-out theory about why and how though...

[[deleted user]]

Interesting idea :-)

I know that Dag had no idea that a knife could be primed in such a way. Perhaps even just the idea that different things could happen than he knew about or understood allowed him to be more open?

[Kiri]

Wow, interesting thought, Vorbore. I had never considered that.

Maybe it is just part of his way of life being jumbled up and switched around... Once he and Fawn realize how committed to each other they are he's gotta know that everything is going to change.

[vorthys]

Ground projections appear to be relatively common skill, at least among makers. I'm not sure how related that skill is to ground ripping. Perhaps, a ground projection is necessary to do ground ripping at a distance.

But other groundsense skills that operate at a distance, such as mosquito bumping, do not appear to need a ground projection, so maybe the two are completely unrelated, and it is only Dag's inexperience that causes him to link them.

[vorbore, Ma Kosti's Apprentice]

As Dag's ability did work up everybody greatly, maybe he has much stronger groundsense than it was known to him and others before while he concentrated only on patrolling and the range of it, for he had no interest and/or patience to explore any other aspects of it. Dag may have inherited the strength and rendering of groundsense that was normal to mages - his ability seams to be regarded as forbidden, or is it just my feeling?

[Kiri]

When Hoharie's apprentice attempts to give Dag's broken arm a ground reinforcement, the process doesn't quite work as normal; it seems like Dag ends up "grabbing" a large ground reinforcement from him - essentially a friendly ground-ripping? And then later in the book - spoiler! - he attempts to ground-rip the malice...

Is this affinity for ground-ripping somehow a side-effect of his ghost-hand? Or are both of these abilities a result of him pushing his boundaries?

[vorbore, Ma Kosti's Apprentice]

I think he was accidentally walking on forgotten (and forbidden) paths of the old mages. That is why it is considered Malice magic - that Malice in the "Legacy" managed also to bind the grounds of the makers - such as did the old mages in their time to perform great magic. I hope this is not a spoiler - by now I assume everyone here read the both books. I apologize if I assumed wrongly though.

[Kiri]

Yeah, good point, Vorbore. It's the kind of ability that could easily be turned to bad uses. As he ponders himself in the next book... That just suddenly makes me wish that Bujold decides to write another series set a couple of generations later, so we can really see what Dag and Fawn's legacy ends up being!

[[deleted user]]

The fear of this new ability of Dags seems similar to fear of change among the lakewalkers to me. This group has never encountered such a phenomenon so it is somehow wrong and dangerous. The focus is on the possible negative aspects as opposed to the possible benefits.....

[[deleted user]]

What do you think of Dag's defeat of the malice in this (the second) book? The whole scene really...

[Kiri]

It's an important moment because of Dag's distracting the malice by ground-ripping it, and I do appreciate what a team effort the whole thing is.