[Madness]

First post of ARC thread (you can click the quote tag to get to the past thread):

The Great Ordeal has reconvened following the disaster at Irsulor and The Aspect-Emperor gives the dread command to consume their foe...

[H]

Posting this on Facebook, but I'll post it here too, on the Tekne-Nuke:

Considering how it was buried, or seemingly buried under the ruins of Dagliash, but it must have been above the ruins of Nogaral, lest it have fallen down The Well. Perhaps it was a plan to take out Dagliash that never had to be executed? I can't imagine that a bunch of nukes is a good idea, even if they had multiple, they still need to live on Earwa after they close it. I doubt they want to live in a radioactive wasteland...

Hmm, in rereading The False Sun, I noticed something interesting:

Together they pulled down Nogaral, the High Round, raised it into a heap over the mouth of the Well.

[...]

At last they paused to regard their labour, the Inchoroi alighting upon the same spectral floor that bore Shaeönanra. Crimson sunlight bathed the southern ramps, inking the numberless crevices across the wrack and ruin. And they rejoiced, Man and Inchoroi…

They had no inkling of the greater violence their sorcery had unleashed.

The sky cracked. Iros shuddered. The impossible sun tipped and stumbled. Plumes of ejecta exploded from points along the mountain’s perimeter, scarcely visible for the Diurnal’s encompassing glare. The mound that had been Nogaral shrugged then slumped into its contradiction. It was as if a dome of cloth had been pressed into a dimple. Summit became basin. Illumination became shadow. The mountain had been rotten with Viri, its innumerable ways fractured by the cataclysmic impact of the Ark thousands of years before. The underworld mansion imploded, collapsed inward and downward, tier upon tier, hall upon hall, undone by this final indignity. This last outrage.

It seems that something exploded in The Well?

But that seems at odds with the line "They had no inkling of the greater violence their sorcery had unleashed."  Huh?  If it was another bomb, surely Aurang would have known of it?  Unless it was Aurax's idea that never came to fruition?  Because if it was simply Titirga unleashing some powerful sorcery, surely they had an inkling of that?

Probably drawing lines from nowhere though.

[Madness]

Lol - sorry, H, I ain't got no thoughts on that there conjecture.

But I'm actually fairly surprised this thread isn't getting more traffic. What say you, SA Hive-Meld? What is the fate of the Ordeal as they march on Golgotterath?

[JRControl]

Souls for the Coffin God. What else are you going to do with a bunch of PTSD crazed semi-cannibals that experienced Apocalypse Now and Judgement Day at the same time?

[Madness]

I'm not sure. All depends on the type of soul you need or something, no?

While I like the appellation, I've never liked this whole Line O' Souls to the Coffin-God concept in order to raise the No-God - I'm still holding out that it is an entity unto itself.

[JRControl]

It still can be, but I feel like NG's presence is unique to Earwa and its sorcery. Soul sorcery produces the weirdest toys from what we've seen so it would fit in my mind.

[Madness]

It still can be, but I feel like NG's presence is unique to Earwa and its sorcery. Soul sorcery produces the weirdest toys from what we've seen so it would fit in my mind.

Weapons of Animata as distinguished from Sorcerous Artifacts.

We didn't get very far in either thread as I remember.

I think you're right about the Earwa and its sorcery being important, I just can't guess how. There are also the Chorae embedded in the Carapace, which must factor in somehow, as well as the Inchoroi unable to achieve "summoning, resurrecting, harnessing, birthing, whatever" the No-God without the later addition of Mekeritrig and Shauriatas to the Consult.

EDIT: Just want to say I very much enjoy your avatar. MG's a hoot.

[H]

I think you're right about the Earwa and its sorcery being important, I just can't guess how. There are also the Chorae embedded in the Carapace, which must factor in somehow, as well as the Inchoroi unable to achieve "summoning, resurrecting, harnessing, birthing, whatever" the No-God without the later addition of Mekeritrig and Shauriatas to the Consult.

Oh, to me, there is little doubt that the No-God is near entirely Shae's idea.  His experiments in soul-trapping, his way of avoid death and damnation, all speak, to me at least, of what he must have put together of the both the Tekne and the arcane arts to arrive at the No-God.

There is no mention of them having done such a thing elsewhere.  If they had, that would have been the first thing to do on Earwa.  It wasn't though.  Scott also, in aswering my question on the Womb-Plauge, alluded that the chance discovery of causing death to the Nonmen women was part of what was put fully in place only with the advent of the No-God.

Shae is clever and no doubt put it all together where A&A (and company) had never had.  I'm still betting on the No-God being some kind of soul that holds souls, or something recursive like that.  Even though I stand fully behind my self-proclaimed user title.

[JRControl]

Kind of like a cup shaped cup-holder, or in this case a soul cup. Maybe even a Soul Train since they ferried him around like a Christian procession.

[MSJ]

I'm not sure. All depends on the type of soul you need or something, no?

While I like the appellation, I've never liked this whole Line O' Souls to the Coffin-God concept in order to raise the No-God - I'm still holding out that it is an entity unto itself.

I'm with ya Madness. I've heard people say that's the reason for the GO, souls needed to raise the No-God. If souls were all that was needed then I can't see any reason why the No-God wouldn't have risen already. No, there is something other than that. What? I have no effing clue.

H, I believe what was described in The False Sun was a nuke. Remember that it was said to have spoilers. I think the nuke was part of the trap of Titirga. Great catch.

[JRControl]

My guess is that they need a significant quantity of souls and consummated in relatively rapid succession. Maybe 144k, maybe less, maybe more. Considering all they have to work with realistically is some small quantity of tribes people and the attrition present due to Sranc and the long march to Golgoterrath, the GO strikes me as the perfect solution. The Consult's C2 structure and technological prowess, despite it's skin-spies is obviously not what it once was. They can't escape decay of their tools even if they are immortal biologically.

[Triskele]

But why would Moenghus have believed that the Consult was close to reviving the No-God even 20 years before the Great Ordeal?

[JRControl]

The bane of all rational agents, imperfect access to information. Which basically applies to all of our speculations as well :3

[MSJ]

@Triskele, that wouldn't make it seem like it was souls they were waiting on, would it? I just don't buy it. A certain soul? Yes. What if it's Mimara that's placed in the Carapice? And like @H's idea, Mimara starts answering all of the No-Gods questions? And, it awakens the No-God into a real God - or even, The God? The God Awakens, is TSTSNBN. That's CRACK-POTTERY right there.

[JRControl]

See, but then why wouldn't they find anyone across 2000 years with the Judging Eye? I mean there have been others, otherwise Akka wouldn't know of it. Who went into the original carapace (OC) in the first place? Nayu's wife? Now that I might be able to get behind. Maybe.