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BattleAxe First Read: Chapter Thirty-Six: The GhostTree Camp (Part I)
SCSF: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to BattleAxe! Last time, Axis had a lot of things explained to him that we already knew and we learned just a little bit more. For the reader post:
Due to Chessy, I have realised that “the Seneschal” is a quite bad name for the Religious Brotherhood. She was tripped up by the singular, which is indeed an issue… but I mainly wonder who this “seneschal” is supposed to be. It might work if the Brother-Leader was instead called the Seneschal, because he has been appointed to supervise Achar in Artor’s stead. As it is… this does not work at all.
A Better Commando Name: 43
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 82
Connected to this, Chessy rightly notes that Ogden can hardly know that “the Seneschal is opposed to everything Axis is”. As I realised myself, Yr has only stayed in Carlon, and the Brothers there are hardly representative of those in the whole of the country (not to mention that Ogden and Veremund went out of their way to avoid them). Further, Jayme has fostered him, though he might well have suspected who Axis’s father is, so this rather comes across like Ogden trying to manipulate Axis.
Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 110
She then leaves us another fic about Belial’s relation with Axis.
Let me go on with the next chapter, then!
Chapter Thirty-Six: The GhostTree Camp
Azhure and the others are more bearable than Axis, at the least. We are told that it is “two days” before Barsarbe deems Raum has progressed enough to let him leave the tent. That means that happens on the 4th of November. Grindle and his family are eager to hear of Raum’s adventures, but Barsarbe is adamant that he needs “sufficient rest” before he can explain it. …Could we know what Raum himself thinks of it? I think that might help decide this, after all. (I also think I will come back to this soon.)
GoldFeather is unsettled and keeps going back to her conversation with Axis, “analysing each expression that had crossed his face”, since there is just something about his face that she seems to remember. Then she finally realises it with a “sickening jolt”: Axis’s face looks like Priam’s in some ways. She immediately gets the stomach-turning thought that Borneheld might be the BattleAxe! My, who might GoldFeather be?
This Is What the Mystery: 27
She thinks he would be about the right age, and “Stars alone [know]” that he could have inherited “his devotion to Artor and his military prowess from Searlas” (because that is totally inheritable). Given this… I do not think it is much of a surprise that GoldFeather was once Rivkah, though I will still call her “GoldFeather”, since that is what she is called in her perspective. I doubt that Douglass meant to make it this obvious, though.
This Is What the Mystery: 28
So GoldFeather tells herself that it is unlikely a noble as “high as the Duke of Ichtar” would become BattleAxe, and she remembers Azhure saying the man was named Axis (which I suppose she did in the meantime?). She is quite relieved that it is not Borneheld, and that she did not “meet [him] again after so many years”, since there is “too much guilt associated with [him] for her to want to meet him again”. I will keep that in mind, then…
She further says that he did not resemble Searlas at all, but the encounter does nag at her. She thinks there is something about Axis’s face and eyes, before she stops herself. After all, she has made “a clean break with the past”, so she should not worry about it now. Axis is probably just a “distant cousin to the royal family of Achar”; after all, some of the past kings have spread their bastards far and wide. In this way, she convinces herself. I do like the way she does so, since it sounds quite plausible.
So, while Barsarbe keeps Raum in the tent, and only allows him to be talked to about “the most trivial queries about food or comfort”, GoldFeather spends her time walking in the forest, trying to forget about the BattleAxe by thinking about her “husband and daughter”, who are waiting in the Icescarp Alps for her return. As she spends quite some time helping the Avar out, that means she is separated from them for months, and each years she wonders if she “[is] drifting too far from them”. You can never drift too far from your husband, GoldFeather; trust me. Still, since the Skraelings are “intensifying their raids on the Avar”, she knows she still has work to do. The Avar need her help and that of the Icarii more than at any point in “the previous twenty years”, after all.
So… the Skraelings have been raiding the Avar? They do not like trees, so is Gorgrael pushing them to go to the Avarinheim already? Or do they only attack at the fringes, in which case they might be doing it on their own, possibly to prepare for an invasion? This is something we need to know a bit more about than we get here.
Well, over to Azhure we go, who spends most of the time “wandering about feeling absolutely useless”. It is still not certain whether she can remain and she spends most of her time with Fleat and Pease. Fleat “[takes] pity” on her, and explains what all the people who went along Smyrton have been doing. So, on the evening of November 4th (I presume), Fleat and Pease are grinding malfari for flour “between flat quern stones before the fire”. I see nothing about that in the glossary, so I have little idea what these stone are. That is one way to worldbuild, I suppose.
[So it turns out (thanks to Chessy) that a quern stone is a device to grind things with! I really should have known better than to just assume this was word Douglass made up without further thought. (Then again, this is a first read...)]
Fleat mostly repeats what Raum told us, though we do learn the Avar specifically revere the Mother as “the giver of life”, and that the Banes are capable of “us[ing] the rhythms of life that surround [them] to heal and help grow”. I suppose that is part of why Barsarbe is a healer? It would also be nice to see this happen on-screen… I am quite sure Faraday will use such power, but what would be the trouble in letting Barsarbe or Raum show it?
We get some more on the preparation of whatever they are making: Pease adds “dried berries, seasoning herbs and lard” to the flour. They are kneading the flour into “small round loaves” which Pease then puts in “the large waxy leaves of the odinfor bush” (no glossary entry either). Then she puts this in the coals of the fire to bake. The book has all of this as a single sentence.
PPP: 361
Further… lard comes from pigs, and a look tells me that the Avar do not have pigs, so where is this coming from?
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 83
Also… I note that we see some more fantasy-like names here, and that makes me wonder where these words are coming from, since the Acharites, Avar, and Icarii are clearly speaking the same language. The Avar would have their own terms for the concepts of the Avarinheim, sure, but if they sound so radically different from the main language that is spoken, I cannot help but think that they must have a language of their own, despite what Douglass says.
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 84
Well, Pease recaps that the GhostTree Clan now has Raum and Shra as Banes, and we learn that Shra has barely left Pease’s side in the meantime. My, she is allowed to have a natural reaction! Azhure asks if Barsarbe is also of their clan, apparently “still a little confused” by the relationships in the Clan. Fleat says that Barsarbe is of the “FlatRock Clan”, but followed them to the edge of the Avarinheim to wait for Raum’s return. She thanks the Mother that she died, as without her healing skills, “Raum would likely have died”.
Then we cut to Azhure helping Fleat and Pease “gut some fat-bellied trout caught from the Nordra”. I thought the Avar did not like to use violence? Or is killing for food not included in that? It would be nice to have some explicit statement on that, rather than us having to piece it together based on the Avar being “forest people”.
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 85
Well, the older children spend much of their time helping Fleat and Pease with gathering food, and generally only find “time for play in the early evening”. As far as Azhure sees, the Avar do not “bother to plant or crop at all, preferring to live off only what the Avarinheim provide[s] for them”. Azhure then asks if all the Avar live in clans, which Fleat confirms. (We also get a small interlude about Azhure cutting herself with a “bone-filleting knife” and Fleat passing her an odinfor leaf as a bandage. Naturally, Azhure does not get any bad memories from this.) Fleat further explains that the Avar “must live” from what the Avarinheim gives them, and so they cannot survive in “large villages”. They spend most of the year as nomads. This current spot is too close to the edge for their liking, and they are only here because they were waiting on Raum.
That is not bad… though I cannot help but wonder at the lack of diversity this implies. I would think there are groups of Avar who do settle down because they have a different view of their relation with the Avarinheim. I suppose writing those would undermine the message Douglass tries to send with them.
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 86
Pease says excitedly that they will soon be going to the “Yuletide Meet”. Azhure is of course unfamiliar with that, so GoldFeather, who now joins them, goes to explain. Each year, the Icarii and the Avar meet “for two important festivals”. Though the Avar are “close to the earth” and the Icarii “closer to the heavens”, they do share the “Yuletide and Beltide festivals” and each year they meet at the northern edge of the Avarinheim to celebrate them. Yuletide is the more important of them; it is held at “the winter solstice, only a few weeks away now”, and both Banes and Enchanters are needed to make sure the sun “rises from its death and is reborn”. Beltide is “more joyous”, and is held in “early spring” to celebrate the “reawakening of the earth after the death of winter”.
This may not be particularly inspired, but it is solid, and that does satisfy me. One problem I have is that we Yuletide is held on the 21st of December (as a later chapter will clearly indicate), and now it is the 4th of November. A month and a half is not “a few weeks”.
PPP: 362
I do also wonder to what extent GoldFeather believes what the festivals are supposed to do. She does have an Icarii name and she says she made a “clean break” with the past, so I could see it, but I am not quite sure to what extent she has abandoned her childhood beliefs.
Pease grins at the mention of Beltide, and says that “[m]any marriages are contracted” there, and she became Grindle’s wife then. During Beltide, “[o]ther unions and ambitions” are also consummated, she says, and it is the one night of the year when Icarii and Avar “indulge in temptations denied them the rest of the year” and it is a “night when dreams and desires become reality”. So it is a night of revelry and sex, to state clearly what Pease says and what we already knew from the prologue. I do wonder… why would the Icarii and Avar only “indulge in temptations” on Beltide? I suppose it might be because of the supposed danger of Icarii/Avar babies?
Thinking this over… that does make some sense. The Prophecy says that Gorgrael will be born from an Avar and an Icarii parent, after all, so that explains where the insistence that hybrid children will be “abominations” comes from. Still, there ought to be variation in these attitudes (not to mention that not using contraceptives still makes no sense).
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 87
Pease then asks Azhure of what and who she dreams, which makes Azhure blush, while the others laugh. Given that she has just left Smyrton and barely knows anyone, I think the answer to that question would be “no one yet”.
Barsarbe then breaks in to say that Azhure will have “no opportunity for Beltide excesses” if she does not stay with the clan. She stands at the entrance of the tent and “look[s] coolly at Azhure”. At this, the Avar women stop laughing and look away, though GoldFeather gives Azhure a reassuring smile. Barsarbe asks Fleat to help her, since Raum “refuse[s] to lie abed any longer”, and insists on joining them for dinner. She thinks it is time to hear what he has to say. So, while Barsarbe gives in to Raum’s wishes, she does not seem to care especially much for him, and now she breaks up the fun and gives Azhure a cool look. Knowing what I know… I am reasonably sure Barsarbe will become a Scary Sue to Azhure (and possibly Faraday).
Petty Ain’t the Word for You: 52 (for her general characterisation)
So Fleat and Barsarbe get Raum, who is still ashen, out of the tent. His leg is “tightly bound and splinted”, and he finds it “awkward to swing” as he hobbles to the fire. Let me see…
-If he is still “ashen”, I cannot quite fault Barsarbe for wanting to have him rest longer. At the least, he is not so fully healed as he is supposed to be.
-I do like that his leg needs to heal quite a bit further… though I wonder why he has trouble “swinging” it; if he really did that, he would have trouble walking even without being injured.
PPP: 363
-I also see there is no mention of the cut on his neck; either Barsarbe put all her attention to that or Douglass forgot about it, too.
So Raum sits down by the fire. Though he is obviously still in pain, he manages to smile to the people gathering excitedly around him. Grindle comes in and asks if Raum is well. Raum says he is, thanks to the care of Barsarbe, Fleat and Pease, and we are told his appearance belies that, but he does have some humour. Grindle is relieved and sits down, saying “mildly” that he would never have let an Axe-Wielder catch him. I suppose you would have been able to evade Douglass’s interventions, then? I mean, he would have, since he is less central of a character, but it is hardly something Raum could have known, so this does come across poorly.
Azhure breaks in to say that Raum stayed behind to let her and Shra escape, “stung that Grindle should even jest about Raum’s inability to flee the BattleAxe”. It is presumptuous of Azhure to break in when she barely knows their relation; for all she knows, this is how they usually interact with each other. That said… it does seem in poor taste to me when Raum could not do anything about it and when he nearly died. Well, Grindle and Barsarbe get “annoyed that she [has] spoken”, and Azhure subsides, “regretting her interruption”. I thought that would happen.
Even the “three older children” (that is Helm, Skali, and Hogni) copy Grindle and “stare[] at her with a total lack of tolerance”. After all, if Azhure gets disapproval, it needs to be as much as possible.
Godmode Engaged: 9
GoldFeather gives her a sympathetic pat, since she knows what it feels to be an outsider “among a people who had no understanding of the culture that had shaped her”. Her first years among the Icarii were hard for her. I can certainly see that, all the more since only StarDrifter would have been familiar to her… at least she has now found some belonging. Well, Fleat gives Raum some “herbed tea the Avar brew[] and [drink] at every opportunity” (where was he during the scene we just had, actually?), which Raum drinks gratefully. After a bit of delaying, he begins his story.
He opens with some preamble about how he has much to say, and much is bad and the rest puzzling. It is as feared: the Prophecy is “awake and walking”, Gorgrael has been born, and even now he is preparing to “push his forces south and destroy all before him”. Everyone except for Azhure gasps. We are told all the Avar know about the Prophecy, and the talk at last “Beltide Meet” was mostly concerned with whether the Prophecy was active.
Barsarbe asks how Raum can be sure, so he explains that the Sentinels are abroad and he and Shra met two of them at the Mother. Everyone is even more shocked, so Raum describes his meeting with Jack and Yr, and how they told him that the Prophecy had awakened and that the StarMan “was even now beginning to stir to meet Gorgrael”. Barsarbe wants to know where he is, to which Raum says he does not know. The Sentinels were “reticent” about his identity; he did get the sense that he was not yet ready to face Gorgrael, so perhaps he still needs to break out of the lies that bind him.
I suppose that the Sentinels were so reticent because they knew Raum would not like it if he turned out to be the BattleAxe… but this is not helping anyone, either. Further, though I like this better than what we had the previous chapter, this is still a recap of things we already know and have seen. Yes, we do have people reacting to it, but we barely know them and that makes it hard to connect.
Grindle asks what else the Sentinels had to say. Raum says they talked about two of their companions travelling with the BattleAxe and of “many other things”. The important part, though, it not what they had to say, but who accompanied them. It turned out that they had Faraday, a young Plains Dweller, with them… to present to the Mother. Barsarbe calls it “[s]acrilege”. Raum motions for her to be silent and says that was how he reacted, too. The Sentinels invited him to put Faraday to the test, though, and he did.
Pease is unbelieving. Raum nods and says Faraday was “exceptionally strong” (more like she was actually prepared for it), and the Sentinels believe, and he does too now, that she is Tree Friend. After all, the forest sang for her, which has never happened before.
Oh, that will be sure to make an impact, especially when more Avar hear of it! That will have to wait for next time, though, since I am about halfway through this chapter now. Until then!
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For now...
I really hate how she treats her readers like idiots. Then again you'd have to be one to actually enjoy this crap.
"Guilt" which completely vanishes after this. She does not give two short shits about her eldest son and did not even bother trying to contact him at any point before or after this, even to let him know that she's alive and loves him. It's so cruel
Jesus Christ, he's got a broken ankle! He's not dying of cancer!
What "prowess"? We've already established that Axis is a useless incompetent. Also note that the eeeevil Duke died when Bornheld was fourteen, so I doubt he had much time to train him either, especially given that it's stated in the text that he basically ignored the poor kid.
It literally never comes up again. The Avar are attacked by the Skraelings exactly once and that's the end of it.
That would be because you are useless, even after you get all those stupid Sueperpowers out of nowhere.
All this detailed world-building for a race that ultimately doesn't even need to be in the story because they do NOTHING. You can so easily tell the author just got bored with them.
Because that's all anybody dreams about or desires. Sex. How incredibly juvenile!
Oh no she might avoid being repeatedly raped, how awful.
Correct. Basarbe has just signed her own death warrant by - GASP! - not loving and worshipping Azhure! The nerve!
aka Nonentities Numbers #1-#3, like most of the Avar characters. Only three Avar will ever actually "matter" and even then that's not saying much.
For no reason!
Ah, the old favourite, "You Are Not Yet Ready". When in fact he doesn't need any of the stupid power-ups he gets to kill Gorge. All he needs is a random magical artefact he didn't earn, and a big heaping pile of Sue Ex Machina. It's really no different from Eragon getting all those power-ups and accessories, only to Sue Ex Machina Galby to death anyway. The magic sword, the belt, the ring, the freaking dragon... none of it mattered a damn.
FUCKING TEA
This is one of those books where the author only knows how to create "mystery" and "suspense" by making all the characters dishonest assholes. I hate it.
Again, Douglass is treating her readers like morons.
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"Guilt" which completely vanishes after this. She does not give two short shits about her eldest son and did not even bother trying to contact him at any point before or after this, even to let him know that she's alive and loves him. It's so cruel
SCSF: I can certainly understand that she did not contact him before now, but afterward... there is no good reason not to. Of course, the reason is probably "Borneheld is just so evil that no one wants to reconnect with him", which I still do not exactly believe.
Jesus Christ, he's got a broken ankle! He's not dying of cancer!
Given that he still looks "ashen", I do have the idea that he is more injured than he is supposed to be... though Barsarbe should maybe be doing more healing and less keeping him in the tent.
Also note that the eeeevil Duke died when Bornheld was fourteen, so I doubt he had much time to train him either, especially given that it's stated in the text that he basically ignored the poor kid.
Ah yes, that is in chapter eleven. The way Douglass phrases this does sound like Borneheld genetically inherited these things from Searlas (and given next book I would not be surprised if that was due to some curse on the Dukes of Ichtar).
It literally never comes up again. The Avar are attacked by the Skraelings exactly once and that's the end of it.
Ichtar and whatever else of Achar they can conquer is considerably more valuable and easy to invade than the Avarinheim, so that does make sense.
All this detailed world-building for a race that ultimately doesn't even need to be in the story because they do NOTHING. You can so easily tell the author just got bored with them.
I am already getting the feeling that she is only filling them out because we have not yet reached the Icarii.
Because that's all anybody dreams about or desires. Sex. How incredibly juvenile!
Quite.
Correct. Basarbe has just signed her own death warrant by - GASP! - not loving and worshipping Azhure! The nerve!
I think she actually signs it by not doing so to both Azhure and Faraday. Disrespecting two of the main characters is a grave sin, after all.
Ah, the old favourite, "You Are Not Yet Ready". When in fact he doesn't need any of the stupid power-ups he gets to kill Gorge. All he needs is a random magical artefact he didn't earn, and a big heaping pile of Sue Ex Machina. It's really no different from Eragon getting all those power-ups and accessories, only to Sue Ex Machina Galby to death anyway. The magic sword, the belt, the ring, the freaking dragon... none of it mattered a damn.
He could have defeated Galbatorix as soon as he learned about wordless magic, really. Here, I think Gorgrael might be "defeated" by having someone befriend him and help him realise just how much WolfStar has deceived him.
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Yeah, it's complete bullshit. Bornheld even points out to her that her abandonment of him was why he turned "evil" or whatever but does THAT get any sympathy from her selfish arse? Of course not. No parent in this thing ever accepts that their bad parenting or even outright abuse could have caused their kid to behave badly.
Real parents feel GUILTY about it when their kid becomes a criminal or somesuch. It's all through the Netflix "Dahmer" series, for one thing. His parents find out what he did and go through hell trying to deny if it could have been their fault before eventually accepting that some blame at least does lie with them. And when he dies they both grieve for him.
Family in general is really poorly portrayed in this trilogy, and especially parenthood.
In which case it should have been made clear that he's suffering from an infection or severe blood loss or something like that.
Ah yes, the "criminal Dukes of Ichtar" who were just so Evil because one of them had a lake drained. The horror.
aka the perfect idealised race with all their incestuous free love bullshit, who are therefore more deserving of attention. Because Douglass cannot keep her disgusting fetishes to herself.
Because asexuals don't exist. As usual. We're all just in denial or haven't met the right person yet or something.
Better still, she's JEALOUS that Faraday "loves" Azhure. Psychotically so. The lesbian overtones are insane.
Like a lot of bad fantasy authors, Paolini included, Douglass just does not believe in the idea of redemption. Ironic given that this thing is called the Wayfarer Redemption, because nobody gets redeemed. They just fucking die! Because that's just easier to write and fits in with this lame black and white view of the world the author seems to have, which is incredibly childish, not to mention massively unhelpful. Just look at what the "us vs them, who are not deserving to be called human" mentality has done so many times in the real world. Or don't, because you will become very depressed.
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SCSF: I indeed think she liked the idea of forgiveness better than actually writing it. (That is something she came around to with her later books, I have to say.)
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Yeah, it's complete bullshit. Bornheld even points out to her that her abandonment of him was why he turned "evil" or whatever but does THAT get any sympathy from her selfish arse? Of course not. No parent in this thing ever accepts that their bad parenting or even outright abuse could have caused their kid to behave badly.
SCSF: ...He was a year old when she left. He would not even be able to remember that. Sure, I could see it if being exposed to Searlas made him "evil", however silly that may be, but this is just nonsense.
And of course, they would rather blame the child in question than take responsibility.
Family in general is really poorly portrayed in this trilogy, and especially parenthood.
Indeed... Come to think of it, parenthood is mostly in this series. I cannot exactly think of parents being around in later books, except for the SunSoars, which is clearly a horrible mess. For the rest, the parents are already dead if the children are older (with the exception of Druse from Threshold). If the children are young, we generally only see them when they are quite young (Ysgrave from Threshold), or they might as well be adults (Leagh's Child and StarDancer from The Infinity Gate).
In which case it should have been made clear that he's suffering from an infection or severe blood loss or something like that.
I would think he suffers from blood loss given the cut he got on his throat, but that has apparently disappeared in a plot hole, so I do not know either.
Ah yes, the "criminal Dukes of Ichtar" who were just so Evil because one of them had a lake drained. The horror.
It was quite evil of that duke, since draining that lake would have meant killing all the life in it (not to mention the negative impact on its enviroment), it trapped Zeherah in the Ichtar ring and it means that Sigholt loses its natural moat, which makes it less effective. Still, as cartoonishly evil as he may have been (because apparently spiting the magical bridge was preferable to making a new one), his descendants are not responsible for it and are not evil for it.
I could fault them for not unplugging the spring, but by the present time, it has been two thousand years, and few would know that it has once been a lake. I do like the idea of Borneheld having the Lake of Life filled and then having a moat dug around Sigholt, by the way.
aka the perfect idealised race with all their incestuous free love bullshit, who are therefore more deserving of attention. Because Douglass cannot keep her disgusting fetishes to herself.
I also cannot help but wonder if the Icarii being white plays a role...
Because asexuals don't exist. As usual. We're all just in denial or haven't met the right person yet or something.
Or, to be a tad more precise, there are no people for who sex is not their deepest dream or desire. Yes, that is complete and utter nonsense.
Like a lot of bad fantasy authors, Paolini included, Douglass just does not believe in the idea of redemption. Ironic given that this thing is called the Wayfarer Redemption, because nobody gets redeemed. They just fucking die! Because that's just easier to write and fits in with this lame black and white view of the world the author seems to have, which is incredibly childish, not to mention massively unhelpful. Just look at what the "us vs them, who are not deserving to be called human" mentality has done so many times in the real world. Or don't, because you will become very depressed.
(Calling this "The Wayfarer Redemption", like I believe is the title in America, is a really bad fit. The second trilogy is called that, and the titles reflect it ("Sinner", "Pilgrim", "Crusader") because it is about Drago's "redemption". You cannot just apply that to this book, publishers!)
Yes, that is really the way it feels. Whoever is "good" stays that, and whoever is "bad" stays that way, too. And you say, it is very unhelpful and... not how anything works.
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It's an example of the theme we have of children being treated like adults, really. They're always fully to blame for anything bad they do, and it's totally okay to expose them to sexual stuff. It's disgusting and awful.
Sorry, but this is REALLY reaching. He did it because the stupid fucking bridge literally wouldn't let him enter his home. Like what the hell else was he supposed to do? And he wouldn't have known about Zeherah to begin with.
But as you say, even if this was the evillist thing ever, his descendants had nothing to do with it.
Plus the so-called "heroes" in this thing do every evil thing in the book (literally) yet draining a lake and killing someone you honestly believe is pure evil is painted as crossing the line? Are you fucking kidding?
Given how racist this series is, it's absolutely a factor. She won't stop pissing on about it, either.
Which is bullshit because Drago didn't do anything. He isn't DragonStar. DragonStar was wiped out of existence as a baby. And even then, what DragonStar did was full of what you'd call mitigating circumstances. He should NEVER have been expected to shoulder all the blame like that.
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Sorry, but this is REALLY reaching. He did it because the stupid fucking bridge literally wouldn't let him enter his home. Like what the hell else was he supposed to do? And he wouldn't have known about Zeherah to begin with.
SCSF: Point taken, though I would like it if you assumed more good faith on my part, and had asked what I meant. And yes, of course he would not have known about Zeherah; I did not mean to say he actually knew about her, only that it happened because of him.
For what else he is supposed to do... well, maybe build another bridge? I think that, rather than draining the water the bridge spans, is standard when a bridge is broken. I also think that would be faster than waiting for the whole lake to drain. If I am wrong with this, please explain, because I am not seeing it myself.
Which is bullshit because Drago didn't do anything. He isn't DragonStar. DragonStar was wiped out of existence as a baby. And even then, what DragonStar did was full of what you'd call mitigating circumstances. He should NEVER have been expected to shoulder all the blame like that.
Fully agreed. There would be any amount of characters who do need such a "redemption", but Drago is not one of them at all.
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Sorry. I need to stop answering comments first thing in the morning when I'm in a bad mood.
As it happens, right near me they've recently built a new bridge over a major body of water. They dammed up the river first because people have to go down and install the footings and such in the water's bed.
Well, here's the thing. You don't actually have to physically cross the magic bridge to be denied entry by it. In book three Gorge comes to kidnap the Sue Baby, but even though he's on a flying mount he cannot reach Sigholt itself until DragonStar fools the bridge into letting him pass. So even if you build a new bridge, the original presumably still has the power to keep you out.
It might actually have been a reference to WolfStar, since he went through the magic gate thingy and is much more of a "wayfarer" than Drago ever was, but WolfStar doesn't get redeemed either so.. I got nothin'.
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Sorry. I need to stop answering comments first thing in the morning when I'm in a bad mood.
SCSF: Well, no problem. I could stand to take my own advice better, too...
As it happens, right near me they've recently built a new bridge over a major body of water. They dammed up the river first because people have to go down and install the footings and such in the water's bed.
That makes sense, of course!
Well, here's the thing. You don't actually have to physically cross the magic bridge to be denied entry by it. In book three Gorge comes to kidnap the Sue Baby, but even though he's on a flying mount he cannot reach Sigholt itself until DragonStar fools the bridge into letting him pass. So even if you build a new bridge, the original presumably still has the power to keep you out.
Ah, that does explain it, and it would be a large security hole not to let that happen.
This does have me thinking... the power of the Lake of Life presumably comes from the spaceship beneath it rather than from the specific water flowing into it, does it not? It has to, since the Nordra's water has no special properties and yet Grail Lake is still magical. Since that is the case, any large amount of water in the bed of the Lake of Life should allow the bridge to form again (and, since it is a lake bed, the water would collect there).
Hmmm, looking at the relevant chapter, it seems that the warm spring does matter, since Jack tells Belial and Magariz to wait for Sigholt to warm up, which seems more than a little like nonsense to me. Either way, it seems the bridge is dependent on that, which does silence most of my complaints. I do wonder why no one took issue with the duke's doings; this was during the time of Icarii rule, after all, and I imagine some would not have liked this.
That is not even to mention that I am very curious as to how the Lake of Life was "drained" by blocking the spring. Even if it has an outflow, the water would eventually drop below that of the outflow, and then it would slowly evaporate. If it were to be "drained", I think the best way might be to set up something on the edge of the lake to pump out the water and then dump it somewhere on the surrounding land.
I frankly think that building a command post for the Duke of Ichtar just outside of Sigholt would have been much easier, but that would make sense, I guess.
Edit: Looking further, I see that the water of the Lake of Life is apparently "steaming", so there would not be all that much life in there, and building a bridge would be challenging, to say the least. Such a moat does make for a wonderful defence...
It might actually have been a reference to WolfStar, since he went through the magic gate thingy and is much more of a "wayfarer" than Drago ever was, but WolfStar doesn't get redeemed either so.. I got nothin'.
Well, "Pilgrim" and "Crusader" do fit with what Drago(nStar) does in those books, so I am quite certain it was meant to be him.
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Yeah, none of this makes any sense. You can't "drain a lake" just by blocking the inflow (and where has all that springwater been going? It's been blocked for what, centuries, so why didn't the water pressure build up and blow the blockage?). He should have had to fill in the lakebed as well, to stop it from refilling with rainwater.
Icarii even built this city! I don't know; the timeline here is a complete mess.
So yeah, confirmed - it's total bullshit.
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Yeah, none of this makes any sense. You can't "drain a lake" just by blocking the inflow (and where has all that springwater been going? It's been blocked for what, centuries, so why didn't the water pressure build up and blow the blockage?). He should have had to fill in the lakebed as well, to stop it from refilling with rainwater.
SCSF: Indeed, a short look around learns me that there is no good way to "block" a spring, only to divert it. In this case, the spring was apparently blocked by pouring rocks into it, in which case the water should be seeping out of the top of the rocks and the Lake of Life should have refilled in the meantime! Even if the spring was plugged sufficiently, the water would just come out on an unpredictable spot...
The smart thing to do would have been to dig a canal from the outflow gully, block the path to the Lake of Life, and then divert the water to a tributary of the Nordra. And yes, the lakebed should have been filled in... maybe with a gradient leading to a canal that joins the other one.
And yes, if Icarii built this, there should have been some outcry over that. None of this makes sense. Well, at least we now have a solid understanding of what is wrong here to use later!