Screening and Comment Threads

[merlinscribe]

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Comments

Re: Email response

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not James, but I've had some thoughts on some of your musings. I'm sharing them because, while I may not know what I'm talking about, these things are interesting to ponder.

RE: Pelashia's children. There was something I read in "Blade of Empire", a quote from Amrethion's prophecies, that made me think maybe the elves that became the first Endarkened were some of Pelashia's children. What may make that impossible is timing, meaning we know ages have passed since the first Endarkened appeared and since Pelashia lived, but at this point we don't know if these two things were concurrent. Or it may be that Pelashia was part of the same lineage as the elves that were changed into Endarkened and so in her time her progeny were feared as being cursed and dangerous, whether or not they actually were. Either way, the elves that became Endarkened had to be of the same bent as Ivrulion and likely their behavior caused them to be seen as cursed and dangerous when they were still living among the elves. Over time, though, the prophecies weren't studied except by some Lightborn scholars, and as the Lightborn evidenced only constructive use of their magic (until Ivrulion), the idea that the Lightborn were cursed and dangerous fell by the wayside.

RE: The elves ability to use the Flower Forests. I'm thinking ability to use the magic of the Flower Forests was forever lost to the elves as part of giving up the greater magic in Vieliessar's time. Kind of poetic justice and a way of restoring balance considering the use the elves made of the Flower Forests in "Crown of Vengeance" and "Blade of Empire", and I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons dragons became necessary is because in fighting the Endarkened the Flower Forests were being eviscerated.

RE: Savilla's father. I had the same thought as you.

RE: The elves in Harrier's and Tiercel's time. Same as you, but I also wondered if the time the elves spend in Tildorangelor, when "no lights were seen" (and likely not draining the forest's magic as flagrant use could be detected) was already setting them on the path of living like the Woodvose (just as Vielessar did when she was banished from the Sanctuary of the Star), that the Woodvose lived the elves' truest way of being, and that destroying the Endarkened elf-beings and going into seclusion freed the elves to become who they really are and were always meant to be.

Re: Email response

[(Anonymous)]

In Blade of Empire, it was made explicitly clear that the Elves last met the Endarkened before they had even built Celephrandulias-Tildorangelor, which is before Pelashia came to Amrethion. There are hints in Blade of Empire that Pelashia was one of the Otherfolk ... I'm guessing she is related to the unicorns somehow, given that the unicorns in Crown of Vengeance are kind of stated to be the ultimate source of Light magic that the elves used. So the concept of Endarkened Elf-beings doesn't really make sense, especially that He-Who-Is made the Endarkened as a mockery of the Elves, and the Created-and-Changed take great pride in the fact that it was He-Who-Is that initially created them, even if Virulian twisted them into female versions of themselves.

Which reminds me that I'm curious as to what happened to the other Created-and-Changed in the aftermath of the First Great War, besides Uralesse whom we know survived to the end of the Second Great War.

I'm actually just very very very interested in the history of the Elves before Vieliessar's time, including all the way back to before they crossed the Great Sea Ocean in the east.

It is unlikely that the elves in Tildorangelor lived like Woodvose, because Bisochim in the book "The Phoenix Transformed" mentions that the Elves were proud and powerful, even after they obtained the powers of the Dragonbond.

Re: Email response

[(Anonymous)]

It is stated in several of the books that the Endarkened can't create and can only taint. From this I got the idea that He-Who-Is can't actually create either. That coupled with the elf-like ears is why I've thought the Endarkened were originally elves, and tainting them would be a way of mocking the elves. The fact that the Endarkened view themselves as being created could just be a misuse of the word "create", as altering one thing to become another thing could be perceived as creating. It could even be that He-Who-Is told Virulion that he "created" them, and then that is what the Endarkened would believe, true or not. I, of course, could be wrong.

Thanks for mentioning that it's hinted Pelashia is one of the Other Folk -- I didn't pick up on that. Given the elves' view of the Other Folk in Vielessar's time and assuming the elves thought the same way in Pelashia's time, that could explain why the elves in Pelashia's time perceived her children as cursed.

Re: Email response

[merlinscribe]

He-Who-Is, being a Primal Force, can certainly create if He wants to. Of course, Creating is against everything He stands for, so there are times when I wonder how He rationalized it. It may well be that you, Dear Reader, are right (and I wrong) about HWI hijacking a part of the Light's creation. Not that you could tell from the testimony of the Endarkened, who are unreliable witnesses at best.

Re: Email response

[merlinscribe]

Let's hope the survivors of the original Thirteen were all nicely dead by the end by the end of the Second War, and all but Uralesse dead by the end of the First, or I will need to re-write the other six books, and they'll all consist of blank pages. It's tough to write a balanced narrative when the Bad Guys are so whoppingly overpowered.

Re: Email response

[merlinscribe]

I do like the way your mind works! And *someday* I will write the story of Mosirinde Peacemaker and Arilcarion War-Maker, who must surely be contemporaries of Amretheon Aradruiniel. (Someday.)

Meanwhile, you will learn a bit more about Pelashia in the next book. (Which is being written like the three skeins of a braid, and I only hope it may be braided together satisfactorily.)

As for the Elves and the Endarkened: the Endarkened took Elves to make the Shadowed Elves, since one of the Endarkeneds' great skills is to warp living things into twisted versions of themselves. But the thirteen first Endarkened were made by He Who Is, in response to the life which the Light had made.

Viz.--

The first life raised up by the Light was green: leaf and branch, bud and seed, flower and fruit to sweep over the face of the land. It changed the harsh stone, beautifying it with a thousand living shapes. It flourished for a time, until He Who Is conjured plague and blight and rot that swept across the land, devouring the green life down to bare rock, making the land stark and sterile once more. But plague and blight and rot were merely tools, and they did not slay all. The green life was reborn, and with it came red life: beasts of earth and air and water. Red life took on a thousand shapes and filled the land, until there was no corner of it that did not hold red life and green.

And once more He Who Is woke from the contemplation of his perfection and rose up out of the deep darkness. He kindled the forests to flame, slaughtered the schools and flocks and herds, set red life to feed upon itself just as it fed upon green life, set green life to poison red. Hunger fed upon hunger until green ocean and green earth were red, and all the work of the Light was undone.

But in the destruction of the red life, the Light realized He Who Is meant to take their world from them, the beautiful world of shape and form and time and boundary they had created. Light could not destroy the Darkness without destroying itself, but it could bring life to flourish again where destruction had walked.

And to this life, it would give weapons.

Once again, life was reborn from death. The new life was neither green nor red. It was as silver as the Light itself. Rot did not extinguish it, nor did death destroy it. It was as changeable as He Who Is was changeless. It grew and changed and spread to all the places red life and green life had been, and then it spread farther still. Light Itself coursed through the veins of silver life, and Light fell in love with silver life. Light left the high vault of heaven and scattered itself across the land, and silver life traveled to the places of the Light to rejoice in it.

But He Who Is vowed He would win in the end. This time, He did not strike at once. This time He bound His war into time, to let his tools learn from the enemy He would ultimately destroy. To all the things of the Light, He Who Is held up a dark mirror. For the Bright World, a World Without Sun. For life and love, death and pain. For trust, treachery. For kindness, power.

For skill… magic.

He Who Is created thirteen instruments as eternal and changeless as He Himself, instruments whose sole purpose was the destruction of the Light and all the Light had made. And when His Endarkened had completed their task, the world would once more be what it had been before the Light had come. Changeless. Eternal.

Perfect.
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Although now that I come to look at it, there's a lot of room for interpretation here.