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Since (if I’m reading comments with correct understanding) some of you have a copy in hand or may soon, it’s time for a Spoiler Space.
No one who does not want spoilers should read under this title. It’s only for those who a) have read the book and b) want to talk about it, or those who don’t mind spoilers before they read. Safest is to just email one another, but this space is a semi-safe space as long as the spoiler-averse can keep from looking behind the curtain, even when it billows and they hear intriguing sounds.
Remember that if you click on the comments, you will open up all the comments full of spoilers.
Comment by Daniel Glover — October 5, 2013 @ 5:23 pm
Ginny,
Exactly. Now that the gnomes have been alerted. I doubt whatever Alured brings across will arrive with much force. The gnomes will bring whatever their extensive “magices” are that we’ve seen in both Surrender None and now Limits to bear. It’s something that Alured isn’t going to be planning on. It’s the fleet coming up to Lyonya that will be the issue that Kieri and Paks are needing to deal with and need the magelords’ help. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Comment by Richard — October 6, 2013 @ 10:42 am
If we can place any credence at all in the stories Dorrin heard in childhood, the blood portrait of the Verrakai ancestor was twice as old (“these thousand years”) as their custodianship of the regalia. And the Duke Marrakai whom Gird spoke with refused to say anything about the Verrakai (or let his son talk about them) because there was nothing good he could say.
Comment by GinnyW — October 9, 2013 @ 7:07 am
Richard, The chronology is one thing. The other is the binding of magic with blood magery. Has Dorrin somehow freed the entire Verrakai clan from a curse? Does the ancestor in the portrait have something to do with the passenger in Alured’s life? The names are not the same. Was the ancestor in the portrait the same as the person who created the portrait, or was it a means of dominance over an unwilling victim? Does this have a connection to Falk’s story? I have many hints, but no clear picture of what happened.
Daniel, The main fleet will come up the river. The elvenhome (and Amrothlin’s leadership?), the Halverics, and the elfane taig, however, would be the frontline of attack from Dwarfwatch. Somehow, I do not think they will all sit this out peacefully.
Comment by Daniel Glover — October 9, 2013 @ 7:48 pm
Ginny,
I’ve thought about Dwarfwatch. We really haven’t seen much from the dwarves. So I don’t know how much “new” material can be developed in the closing volume. I think it will be Valdare and gnomes off to the wast rather than Halveric steading where the assault will come from the south.
Comment by Richard — October 10, 2013 @ 3:42 am
I hadn’t thought of it before, but the portrait could have been the Verrakaien equivalent of Kieri’s ossuary. I don’t think it was the only thing keeping the family bad, but it does show they have been bad for a very long time. Grahlin may or may not have known their reputation, but if he did, I don’t think he would have approved his widow’s choosing them as custodians for the regalia.
They weren’t the only ones. The kings of Finaarenis (Fintha) had been Liartians for about ten years before Gird ended their rule (we have that from Dorhaniya) along with many of the kingdom’s nobles (like Count Kelaive). The reference Daniel mentioned (#184) to that person from over the mountains could mean only that Liart-worship had spread from Aarenis, brought by someone Dorhaniya utterly despised. Her conversation was littered with words our author emphasised with italics.
If blood-magic and Liart-worship everywhere – northern magelords, Siniava’s cities, Sekkady and presumably others in the east – have common roots, I think we may have to go back a very long way to find them. Amrothlin’s half-brother gone bad need not be connected at all, except by his own choice; the evil influence that survived him, and Paks had to remove after killing him, could have been his own creation.
Comment by GinnyW — October 11, 2013 @ 7:34 am
Daniel,
Estil Halveric and the story of the elfane taig have been developing intermittently as a side story throughout the series. I don’t think all of it was simply leading to the Lady’s death, although that was a consequence of her choices there. Even if there is no major assault there, a minor incursion would force Kieri to decide where to locate the Halveric forces (on the river or guarding the Lyonyan end of Dwarfwatch). We already have a hint in that direction at the end of Limits. It would also force Arcolin and the Southern allies to split their forces at Valdaire to guard the Western route, maybe prevent alliances in the West. And the mercenary companies are not as united as they were for Siniava’s War – at least not yet.
Richard – The roots of the evil we see are very ancient, and I don’t think we will get all the answers. But Liart and the Unsinger are related somehow, and working together in some sense. Maybe it would be better to say toward the same goal. I don’t mean they cooperate as dieties. Just as the Singer and Alyanya are related, (and probably do cooperate).
I should think that the Sier of Grahlin must have known, or suspected something of the evil among the Verrakai (although he was a long way off). We don’t know enough about his widow to guess whether he would have confided in her – I tend to suspect not. The magelords seem to have been a bit sexist, and more so when becoming Liartians. There are remnants of that attitude in the Tsaian nobility even yet.
I wonder if the Verrakai of Gird’s time supported themselves by trade with the South? It might explain alot. They are too far removed to have much role in Gird’s story.
Comment by Daniel Glover — October 11, 2013 @ 2:40 pm
Ginny,
Yes, but there are dwarves near Dwarfwatch, that was mentioned in more than one instance in the original series. So unless only brings a few humans across there and none of his other entities that were being loaded on to the ships the dwarves will feel compelled to get involved since they already are on the alert with the notification that Luap’s Stronghold must be evacuated.
I see it as possible we may see more of the dwarves in this final chapter in the arc–but not much of their linkage to the rest that’s gone on–rather less than Gird and the gnomes marching his little band through Blackbone Hill.
Alured has really stirred up more than a few mercenary companies this time and I’m not sure he realizes what he’s up against. If the being he’s hosting is really just out for destruction then it may not care that it’s futile, just that it is stirring up more enmity all around. I’m looking forward to find out more about this being. Every time I reread something regarding it adds another question rather than settling them.