[mrganondorf]

We have other predictive threads, but it might be nice to refocus since we now know that we are getting The Great Ordeal first and The Unholy Consult after.  At the moment, I am particularly interested in what the new map might hint at:

https://rsbakker.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_8913.jpg

A few impressions:

- Bakker's selection spans from Swaranul on the right to Golgotterath on the left.  That makes me wonder if The Great Ordeal will cover the journey to, and end at Dagliash.  Previously, I had mostly assumed that Dagliash would be a sort of midbook climax for The Great Ordeal with all of the Golgotterath action happening in The Unholy Consult.

- I'm even more convinced that Zeumi will be sending warships.  Dagliash seems to sit right on top of the conjunction of The Misty Sea and the Sursa river.  So when the Great Ordeal is in dire need at Dagliash, there is a handy-dandy water way to dump reinforcements nearby.  I also note that The Misty Sea possesses an island (Kirhenge) near Dagliash.  Perhaps there are no sranc or a small population that can easily by wiped out on the island.  That would make Kirhenge an ideal respite for Zeumi ships, away from the sranc-infested mainland.

- Seeing the area around Golgotterath in greater detail made me ponder the circumstances of the Ark's fall.  Could it be that there was so much heat in the crash landing that the Great Ordeal will be traveling over a great deal of glass?

- The Great Ordeal will be traveling over at least 2 more big rivers, so we'll see how the Great Ordeal and the sranc horde adapt from the last river crossing, the disaster at Ursulor.  I bet Kellhus will reap mountains of corpses while crossing the Hinsursa.

Any other new predictions?  Dealing with the map or anything else about The Great Ordeal?

[Simas Polchias]

Oh. There is a whole sea in the north. This is the first time I've spotted it.

[themerchant]

We have other predictive threads, but it might be nice to refocus since we now know that we are getting The Great Ordeal first and The Unholy Consult after.  At the moment, I am particularly interested in what the new map might hint at:

https://rsbakker.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_8913.jpg

A few impressions:

- Bakker's selection spans from Swaranul on the right to Golgotterath on the left.  That makes me wonder if The Great Ordeal will cover the journey to, and end at Dagliash.  Previously, I had mostly assumed that Dagliash would be a sort of midbook climax for The Great Ordeal with all of the Golgotterath action happening in The Unholy Consult.

- I'm even more convinced that Zeumi will be sending warships.  Dagliash seems to sit right on top of the conjunction of The Misty Sea and the Sursa river.  So when the Great Ordeal is in dire need at Dagliash, there is a handy-dandy water way to dump reinforcements nearby.  I also note that The Misty Sea possesses an island (Kirhenge) near Dagliash.  Perhaps there are no sranc or a small population that can easily by wiped out on the island.  That would make Kirhenge an ideal respite for Zeumi ships, away from the sranc-infested mainland.

- Seeing the area around Golgotterath in greater detail made me ponder the circumstances of the Ark's fall.  Could it be that there was so much heat in the crash landing that the Great Ordeal will be traveling over a great deal of glass?

- The Great Ordeal will be traveling over at least 2 more big rivers, so we'll see how the Great Ordeal and the sranc horde adapt from the last river crossing, the disaster at Ursulor.  I bet Kellhus will reap mountains of corpses while crossing the Hinsursa.

Any other new predictions?  Dealing with the map or anything else about The Great Ordeal?

Kellhus has sent thousands of people on ships to that area to contact the nonmen. So maybe they had other instructions too.

[mrganondorf]

We have other predictive threads, but it might be nice to refocus since we now know that we are getting The Great Ordeal first and The Unholy Consult after.  At the moment, I am particularly interested in what the new map might hint at:

https://rsbakker.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/img_8913.jpg

A few impressions:

- Bakker's selection spans from Swaranul on the right to Golgotterath on the left.  That makes me wonder if The Great Ordeal will cover the journey to, and end at Dagliash.  Previously, I had mostly assumed that Dagliash would be a sort of midbook climax for The Great Ordeal with all of the Golgotterath action happening in The Unholy Consult.

- I'm even more convinced that Zeumi will be sending warships.  Dagliash seems to sit right on top of the conjunction of The Misty Sea and the Sursa river.  So when the Great Ordeal is in dire need at Dagliash, there is a handy-dandy water way to dump reinforcements nearby.  I also note that The Misty Sea possesses an island (Kirhenge) near Dagliash.  Perhaps there are no sranc or a small population that can easily by wiped out on the island.  That would make Kirhenge an ideal respite for Zeumi ships, away from the sranc-infested mainland.

- Seeing the area around Golgotterath in greater detail made me ponder the circumstances of the Ark's fall.  Could it be that there was so much heat in the crash landing that the Great Ordeal will be traveling over a great deal of glass?

- The Great Ordeal will be traveling over at least 2 more big rivers, so we'll see how the Great Ordeal and the sranc horde adapt from the last river crossing, the disaster at Ursulor.  I bet Kellhus will reap mountains of corpses while crossing the Hinsursa.

Any other new predictions?  Dealing with the map or anything else about The Great Ordeal?

Kellhus has sent thousands of people on ships to that area to contact the nonmen. So maybe they had other instructions too.

Oh yeah!  I wonder if Kellhus will manufacture a show down with the hoard/Consult to the east of Dagliash to draw off attention while naval forces attack the fortress.  The Great Ordeal will go through a hellish battle, dreading actually storming Dagliash and then Kellhus will float above them, smile, and proclaim that Dagliash is already taken.

Hell, the primary purpose of the Great Ordeal may be to attract every last sranc in the north so that a fleet can dump a smaller, but uncontested force to march directly on Golgotterath.  If (big if) the nonmen do in fact honor the Niom, then Golgotterath may be attacked by the Quya/Ishroi + Lesser Ordeal under General Serwa ... and also Dunyain gnostic sorcerers and the whole crew of the Muppets + Gryffindor's quidditch team.

[themerchant]

nah, they're going to be abandoned by Kellhus at Helm..eh Dagliash, Akka is going to ride in on flying chariots after something about Mimara and him give the Nonmen a new zest for life. This will probably be the last scene of TGO. We'll not know where Kellhus went or what is the final outcome of the battle.

[profgrape]

False Sun spoilers...

(click to show/hide)

Nogaral is described as standing "upon the westernmost summit, Iros, a mountain that was a mass grave".   And "The hunchbacked Urokkas", included on the new map, are to the north and east.  The footnote mentions that the Nonmen called them the Vir’holotoi, the “Wards-of-Viri.”

While Iros isn't specifically called out on the new map, it makes me wonder if Dagliash was built on the ruins of Nogaral, which in turn is built upon the ruins of Viri, the "mass grave" noted above.  It might also explain why retaking Dagliash is so important to the Nonmen of Isteribinth. 

Also, in one of Shae's flashbacks, he notes that he can see "...the second Horn, vast and golden, its phallic curve canted over the mountainous ruin of the Occlusion."  Guessing that the Occlusion is an archaic name for the Ring Mountains...

[Francis Buck]

So the Field Appalling sounds like a nice place. Probably just some tranquil tundra, dotted with softly-colored flowers and verdant hills.

Yeah, that's definitely what it'll be like.

ETA:

- Seeing the area around Golgotterath in greater detail made me ponder the circumstances of the Ark's fall.  Could it be that there was so much heat in the crash landing that the Great Ordeal will be traveling over a great deal of glass?

This could actually be an aspect of the Field Appalling come to think of it. We have at least one first hand description of the area near Golgotterath, from the perspective of Sarcellus-- after his face is burnt, he recalls with fondness the "cool chill of the wind on his body as he raced across the snowy fields of...?"

Not a verbatim quote, but he does mention an actual place name. It may just be referenced generally as Agongorea (it definitely wasn't the Appalling Fields), but the Plains of Shigogli rings a bell too...

Even so, if the area beyond the Occlusion was in-fact glassed from the crash (it almost certainly would have to be given the Ark's size, but that doesn't necessarily mean Bakker included it), that was, what, like ten thousand years before the story or something? It would have long been covered by elements, at the very least snow and ice, or so I would assume.

[H]

So the Field Appalling sounds like a nice place. Probably just some tranquil tundra, dotted with softly-colored flowers and verdant hills.

Yeah, that's definitely what it'll be like.

ETA:

- Seeing the area around Golgotterath in greater detail made me ponder the circumstances of the Ark's fall.  Could it be that there was so much heat in the crash landing that the Great Ordeal will be traveling over a great deal of glass?

This could actually be an aspect of the Field Appalling come to think of it. We have at least one first hand description of the area near Golgotterath, from the perspective of Sarcellus-- after his face is burnt, he recalls with fondness the "cool chill of the wind on his body as he raced across the snowy fields of...?"

Not a verbatim quote, but he does mention an actual place name. It may just be referenced generally as Agongorea (it definitely wasn't the Appalling Fields), but the Plains of Shigogli rings a bell too...

Now, kicking through a clutch of blackened human skulls, it thought of the snow that whistled across the Plains of Agongorea, of white expanses bruised black by pitch.

My guess in the Fields Appalling is something like a big topoi, probably pertaining to this:

In 2142, General Sag-Marmau inflicted yet another crushing defeat on Aurang and his Consult legions, and by the fall of that year he had hounded the remnant of their horde to the Gates of Golgotterath itself.
But the Second Great Investiture proved far shorter than the first. As Seswatha had feared, the Consult had been merely playing for time, nothing more. In the spring of 2143 the No-God, summoned by means unknown, first drew breath. Across the world, Sranc, Bashrag, and Wracu—all the obscene progeny of the Inchoroi—hearkened to his call. Sag-Marmau and the greater glory of Kûniüri were annihilated.

The mention of human skulls points to a place of a battle during the Apocalypse.  Also, it might be something like an allusion to The Dead Marshes from LOTR.

On the "glassy" effect of the Ark's landing, recall that "The Black Furnace Plain," "Inniür-Shigogli," is what the Nonmen called what lay on that side of the Ring Mountains.  No doubt that was at least somewhat references the effect the Ark had in landing...

[Wilshire]

If it did turn to glass in the heat of The Fall, it would have been shattered by the shockwave afterward. Think, desert sand, but glass... Which is about the same thing, just a phase shift of Silicone .