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The Four Revelations of Cinial'jin[/u]A tale concerning the memories and death of a Nonman Erratic.Low Spoiler Rating for the Second Apocalypse
Right the concept that Nonmen never cease growing, and somehow their growth being tied with heroic deeds (see Ciogli). But then Cleric, while large, should be absolutely vast? Or does it depend on the type of deed? Not sure I like this concept.
Somebody had a theory that under extreme stress, Nonmen release growth hormone in addition to adrenaline and whatnot. It wouldn't be much, and you'd have to be constantly stressed to see any serious growth (i.e. constantly in battle) but perhaps that would give those who had been fighting for a couple hundred years an extra couple inches or so? Ciogli could further be a defective Nonman who has far more growth hormone released per amount of stress, hence why he's the enormous nonguy he is.
I'm guessing there's simply an uncommon but stable population of a benign gigantism allele in the original Cunuroi population. Either that or they had physical castes like social insects. Which would be weird.The trait being assigned specifically to Cunuroi heroes seems to me to just be the resolt of a huge guy being simultaneously tougher to kill and more noticeable in a melee, producing a number of very distinct veterans to write ballads of.
Swense's interpretation actually made some sense to me. Though this whole "Nonmen heroes never stop growing thing" has bothered me since its inception.
At least it so far plays no role in the story beyond making Ciogli badass.
Maybe they shrink when they do non-heroic stuff. Like betraying someone. Or just taking a walk in the sun, or brushing their teeth. So in the end it balances out, except for a select few with poor dental hygiene.
I dunno, they all have that 'perfectly clean' thing most fantasy elves have going on. They DO consider bathing holy, which puts them far above their human slaves already. And back on the story itself, I think I prized this one for Conphas's eerie questioning, the dangling of the knife, etc. I'd long wondered since reading the books what'd it have been like for him to meet a Nonman. And Bakker delivered! Horrifically (in the best way).
The stress thing makes sense the more you think about it. Consider elite bodybuilders or Olympic Weightlifters. Once you reach a certain point, the response curve of the human musculoskeletal system more or less flattens and makes it INCREDIBLY difficult to 'grow' to increase a maximum number (this is why everyone resorted to steroids when chemistry let us enhance the human body). A nonman may not have those limitations and would be able to continue growing in proportion to the physical stress. A lot of muscle (male) and fat (female) growth in adolescence is primarily controlled by hormone release, whether it's developing muscles or filling out thighs/breasts, hormones primarily dictate what will happen to a growing body. it's easy to see a small difference between our species and another species--in the chemical system--that would result in radically different outcomes. Male humans respond to musculoskeletal stress by 'growing' more muscle and becoming stronger (to grossly oversimplify). Is it so huge a leap to think that Cunoroi might undergo musculoskeletal stress by literally growing more proportionally, rather than just growing muscle?
Actually their maximum size is determined by the relative size of their existential balls. Obviously you need balls like watermelons to break a dragon's neck wit yo bare hands.
I took it as simply a storytelling mechanism, a metaphorical way for a storyteller to highlight the hero by making them larger than there compatriots phyically and in deed. Not that they never stopped growing.
Quote from: MadnessSwense's interpretation actually made some sense to me. Though this whole "Nonmen heroes never stop growing thing" has bothered me since its inception.I didnt read through everything, and I only had a faint grasp on this work as it is, but still, could it be possible that the Heroes keep growing could just be a simple literally idea that stories past down the ages, generation after generation, and good deeds become great, bad becomes evil, large becomes gigantic? Seems that a race of people losing their memories could simply forget how the real story went, but they recall that the hero was great, so he must have been 2x the size of a normal nonman, 3x as strong and much faster. Thats just how things go isnt it?Though like I said I dont remember the actual context of the quote so I could be way off.EDIT:Looks like I should have read all the comments before posting. I basically said exactly what was said directly above my post. Oops
I never got the impression that Nonman memory loss involved the insertion of new, entirely false information.
Maybe they can deny their growth - think themselves unworthy of it, like a timelord can deny thier regeneration?*ooh, did I cross genres there...*
Psalms to Oblivion -- gorgeous, gorgeous, so so sooooo beautiful.Heartbreak melancholy. Fuck it's mindblowing. As you can tell I'm just speechless with amazement.