This Is The May 2016 Open Thread For Merlinscribe

[merlinscribe]

Have random questions? Post them here.

Comments

Questions and Stuff

[(Anonymous)]

Firstly I would like to say that I really love the prologue to Crown of Vengeance, it is incredibly well written and just "feels" right. As good as it is on its own if you have never heard it read in the Audiobook by narrator Christopher Lane, you seriously should because it is made even better. That being said I have a questions about some things from the prologue.

1. I have assumed that the Obsidian room and blade are the same here and in the first trilogy, is this in fact the case? And if so has everything else in the World Without Sun remained similarly unchanged in that period of time?

2. Where exactly does the World Without Sun exist? I was given the feeling that it is either far underground or some kind of overlapping hell dimension type deal. If it is the former is it possible to accidently stumble upon it?

3. When Light creates the different types of life, three types are mentioned; Green life, red life, and silver life. I took green life to mean plants and red life to be beasts such as wolves, squirrels, fish, and that sort of creature. I took silver life to mean elves and unicorns for certain, but are there other kinds of silver life? What about creatures that exist later but have comparable intelligence to elves and unicorns like humans, centaurs, and sprites? What about the beastlings and dragons are they all considered silver life too? Or do all those exist instead as red life?

Re: Questions and Stuff

[(Anonymous)]

Well since I posted these a couple days ago I ended up finding the answers to my third question. Whether I had simply somehow missed the information in my previous readings or had forgotten the knowledge since my last one I do not know.
I would also like to clarify my second question, I know that the Obsidian Mountain exists physically in the Bright World, but from the vastness that is described in the books it seems to me that the World Without Sun could not be contained in just Obsidian Mountain.
As for my third question about silver life, in Interlude Two it is mentioned that centaurs, bearwargs and a few other species were at least partially silver life, and that unicorns are the embodiment of the Light itself rather than silver life.

Re: Questions and Stuff

[merlinscribe]

There's quite a lot of "down" in the World Without Sun, and it's hard to say just how large it is. There's certainly a dimensional portal somewhere within it, at least until He Who Is gets banished from this dimension.

Essentially, all sentient life--aside from the Endarkened and their creations--is Silver Life. Unicorns were directly created by the Light, and Dragons, who are creatures made entirely of magic, were created when the Light created the world.

Hope this helps!

Re: Questions and Stuff

[merlinscribe]

1. Yes, the Obsidian Room in the World Without Sun is the same one here and in Kellen’s time. *Most* of the World Without Sun is the same from Vieliessar’s time to Kellen’s: it expands a bit as the numbers of the Endarkened increase, but that’s about it.

2. In Ugolthma, where the World of Darkness lay, nothing lived and nothing grew, and so the Cold Nursery had been placed far enough to the south that the sun rose and set each day, plants grew upon the ground, and Brightworld beasts existed in sufficiency to feed Virulan’s newest children. —BLADE OF EMPIRE

Ugolthma is a mountain peak very very far to the north, essentially on a line with Celephradulias-Tildorangelor, and exists in the same world as the Elves and everyone else. So it is theoretically possible to go there, but it’s highly unlikely that anyone who tried would survive the journey. The World Without Sun is built far beneath Ugolthma, but the mountain itself contains the entrances and exits the Endarkened use.

3. You are correct! Green life is plants, and red life is animals (not sure where insects fall in all of this). Silver life is specifically magic-capable and magic-aware life, so it includes Elves, Otherfolk, Dragons, Unicorns, Brightfolk, and humans. Even though Centaurs cannot use magic, they are aware of it, and thus are included in the category of “silver life”.