[SmilerLoki]

@Cû'jara-Cinmoi

Thank you for your answers to my questions and those of others! It's all very helpful and exciting.

[Hoary]

If we don't start paying for books we'll soon start getting books with LITERAL pop up ads... And there goes the last huff of breath of the literary world.

A few questions:

1. How does Serwa know about the 100 stones? Did she commune in some way with the absolute?

2. If Kelmomas was always the No-God, and yet to BECOME the No-God he needed to be the No-God to begin with, otherwise he would have died on the way (or Kellhus would, as he wouldn't be able to stop the WLW). So is this not a paradox? Or is this some kind of loop outside regular time?

3. Why is Ajokli hunted by the other gods? I think it was said that he sees things they do not, but what is it that makes them want to destroy him so badly?

Thanks again for answering questions, this really helps and increases my appreciation.

[Cüréthañ]

1. How does Serwa know about the 100 stones? Did she commune in some way with the absolute?

Ooh, that was such a nice leitmotif. Koringhus had one hundred revelations, the last one delivered him to Oblivion. He also had one hundred stones, the last one saved his son. Serwa faces one hundred chorae, the last one punishes her. One hundred Gods, the last one betrays them all.

[Hoary]

1. How does Serwa know about the 100 stones? Did she commune in some way with the absolute?

Ooh, that was such a nice leitmotif. Koringhus had one hundred revelations, the last one delivered him to Oblivion. He also had one hundred stones, the last one saved his son. Serwa faces one hundred chorae, the last one punishes her. One hundred Gods, the last one betrays them all.

Haha, that's true.

[H]

Scott - I bought a nice, crisp hardback this week and have mowed through it.  I have a quick comment which is that, in the past year, I've reread The Great Ordeal a few times and am more impressed with it each time.  At the moment it might be my favorite book of yours.

I am sure I will continue to reread The Unholy Consult and will have questions stemming from that, but the one that I want to ask right now, while it stems from this book, reaches back to the very beginning of the story, and it is this:  when Kellhus first encounters a Nonman in the woods said Nonman (Mek, presumably) says something to the effect of "I have fought for and against the No-God in the wars that authored this wilderness (big paraphrase)."  That suggested to me that it could have been the No-God that fought on two opposite sides rather than the speaking Nonman erratic.  This seems more plausible now that we know that Nau-Cayuti was the first iteration of the No-God.  Was this a deliberate clue all along about the identity of the first No-God? 

ETA:  I'm not even certain that I didn't try to ask this in another thread at some point, erratic as I myself have become. 

Considering this is probably my favorite line in the series, I do recall that Scott said previously that this was mostly just a sort of typo, it should really have said Consult where it says No-God.  But we can also just chock that up to Mek being crazy and misspeaking too, if we really want to.

[Cû'jara-Cinmoi]

Will Zeum feature prominently in The No-God?

It has no choice.

[Cû'jara-Cinmoi]

If your not just being funny about what Maithenet was trying to say to Esme, "Kill Kelmommas", then it begs the question why didnt Kellhus? He surely knew the same and even says as much in Chapter 1. It cannot be because of his love for Esme, i cannot buy that! (Me. The guy for 2 years who has said emotions are what has guided Kellhus and the TTT.)

He had to know Kelmommas was the No-God, had to. He seemed to goad Esme into releasing him. You dont have to say im right, but did i pick up on some breadcrumbs at least?

Why see Kellhus' abilities as cosmic rather than relative to the worldborn? He is 'much seeing,' not all seeing, and what lies closest is very often the most difficult to see. (You could say I've hung a whole theory of consciousness about that fact!)

[Cû'jara-Cinmoi]

Here's a crackpot question:

Are the Mutilated Shauriatus?  They all talk one-by-one and Shae's original Wretches apparently only function because they're 'shorn of passion' and what better way to describe Dunyain?  So, Shauriatus alone resisted and Shauriatus won.  The scene is a pantomime on Shae's part, flattering Kellhus' Dunyain vanity (of course the Dunyain took over the Consult).   And, we the readers held the same conceits as Kellhus... we didn't see it either.

Edit:

l and the Truth spoke with but one soul.

Bakker, R. Scott. The Unholy Consult: Book Four of the Aspect-Emperor series (Aspect Emperor 4) (Kindle Location 7184). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.

So... this quote is a pun... isn't it. -_-.

RAFO

[Walter]

I'm aware that a question about 'The No-God' is obviously treading on the ground of spoilers...but I gotta ask.

Will the readers make the acquaintance of the notorious fool...Likaro?

[Madness]

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I haven't been following the thread so I'm not sure where this has gone off the rails as I'm not doing more than a cursory follow. I won't tolerate a derail of this type though, especially not in this thread.

I'm all for asking Bakker if he wants to participate in threads on topic but I'd prefer if neither of you, author or fan, hijack this thread. I don't mind the heat, and in fact prefer fierce conversation, but I'm sure both parties can work to mediate the personal slights in their responses.

I doubt there's more than a handful of pirates on this website, if some innocents do give pirates traffic citing passages from the books online. Statistics from the music industry also suggest that the majority of pirates are people who wouldn't or can't buy the product in the first place. The implication that anyone can straight convert the numbers involved in piracy directly into sales is false.

Keep it classy, Second Apocalypse.

[H]

Keep it classy, Second Apocalypse.

I second this.  I think everyone's position is pretty well laid out and no one is particularly interested in changing views.

Let's move on.

[profgrape]

Scott, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!  The Unholy Consult was one of the most emotionally impactful works of fiction I've ever encountered; there were several parts where I was so drained that I had to put the book down for the day (clearly no Dunyain blood here).

A couple of questions on the Erratics serving Golgotterath:

1. Does the IF help to "ground" Erratics?  While there are a couple of moments where Mek's attention drifts away during his confrontation with Kellhus, he seemed fairly with it compared to Nin'Ciljaris.

2. Is Nin'Sariccas, the Nonmen Emissary to the Great Ordeal, going to turn up at some point?  I was surprised that he didn't appear in TGO or TUC.

[Likaro]

Hopefully we are done with the piracy debate. Verily,

"I say unto you my brothers, he that pillages of the works both sacred and profane shall be judged in the Outside...and his soul shall rot- eternally."

Fifth Gospel of Inri Sejenus, attributed

I bought three copies to do my part for the cause. Scott, I do wish however you could stomach just a middling level of promotion. Your website doesn't even announce you have a new book out. Those of us that have eaten of the Sranc cannot get enough and are rabid for the books, but the unwashed hordes of the Orthodox may not even be aware of the new book or why they should read the series in the first place. We are spreading the UnHoly Gospel with fire and sword but it takes time... and ever are men keen to cling to their shitty fantasy novels.

Couple more questions Scott

1. Was Kellhus rocking Malowebi on his hip for an important reason at the end there? Or was it just a nice way of us having a narrative view of the events?

2. Was Kellhus' true intent to let Ajokli free and turn the world into a living hell?

3. Can the God or the aspects of the God die or be killed?

4. Will Eanna or other continents become involved in the next series?

5. Will we find out more about Seswatha in the next series? Is he in Hell in the current time? (Please continue with the dreams as they are some of your best scenes)

6. In regards to Sorweel, I thought you were setting things up with the Amiolas and all that that he had converted to the Kellhus cause. Then he seems to do a 180 back to Yatwer assassin and we know what happens then. What pushed him back the other way so quickly? I felt kind of confused by that transition. I was hoping he and Serwa would be the power couple in the next series. Alas.

7. What happened to the little kid at the end of Thousand Fold Thought?

8. Why was Emilidis trying to get into Golgotterath when the Dragon got him?

9. Was Aurang using Aporetic wards when Kellhus took him down?

Thanks!

[jurble]

9. Was Aurang using Aporetic wards when Kellhus took him down?

This was something I was wondering as well (he says he practices other Arcana in TWP and Saccarees spells dissipate against his wards), but I was planning on saving it for the AMA tomorrow to help bolster the comment count :O.

[Wilshire]

Yeah we all wish that Likario, but we have our own agency as well. We built this TSA forum on our own, someone else built the PoN wikia, and others the reddit page, facebook page, wikipedia, wikiquote, etc. There's a thread encouraging people to review the book(s), we make podcasts, people are attempting to create boardgames and RPG rulesets, there's a TUC trailer someone on facebook made...

Heck, one year we even printed a few hundred "Who are the Dunyain" bookmarks and slipped them into every fantasy publication we could find. (Years later, at least one forum member found this place through those, imo that's a win).

I've asked a few times if anyone planned on updating the official website. I even put together half a demo on Wix before I got bored, its not hard, but the keys to that door are held by Scott's  'website guy' that "maintains" the official site - another dead place .

So there's plenty we can do, though gestures from Bakker like being here (Thanks again!), doing AMA, etc. do help tremendously.

"We've" been of the opinion for years now that if Scott won't do it, we'll do our damnedest, even should we have to drag him along kicking and screaming . Zaudunyanicon was planned and paid for before we ever got a commitment from Scott - who graciously isn't charging us for his time .

Maybe we should set up a swag shop - not sure what we'd do with the proceeds as we've never made (or asked for) a single dime. Though some of these things to cost a few bucks to run, its not like we've actually done or created anything (my opinion at least) - its all derivative from TSA obviously. Though then I'd have to pay income taxes on any profits... might be worth figuring out though if it'd help the cause.

There is a donate button on the official rscottbakker website should you feel compelled.