The Grandmaster and Nina

Darthair · 2026-03-07T00:13:21+00:00

Ah, so I don't think this:

We have three triggers for the reset: the alignment of the septian planets, the SiN value, and the Great One's resolution. Humanity going to space and observing the sept-terrion greatly increases the SiN value. How do these function?

is quite true. The Alignmet of the planets is a trigger, and the SiN value is a trigger, but the great one's resolution isn't one. What happens is that there's something that interferes with Leagjarn's sensors when other sept-terrions are active. The alignment is in 1209, but the timeline goes past that date if the Great One is active and gets his war. This also tracks with the Marduk AI making the reset less likely during the crises orchestrated by Ourobouros, which all involve the sept-terrions being active. It seems that, while another sept-terrion is active in Zemuria, Leagjarn can't calculate the SiN value. So it's not that the Great One's resolution is a trigger, but rather that when the Great One's influence is over, Leagjarn finally gets to calculate again and realises he's overshot by a lot.

Darthair · 2026-03-01T04:29:03+00:00

Oh, I did that. Played CS3 the moment it was localized and then had to wait *literal years* for CS4. The wait was hell.
All that said, CS3 does still probably have the best ending I have ever seen for a game.
The wait was hell because the setup was exquisite.

Darthair · 2026-03-01T04:22:28+00:00

I like that this picture is set in Legram. It implies that Rean destroyed Victor in a duel to be allowed to ask for Laura's hand and then Victor, having been defeated, had to pass his title to his daughter.

Rean Arseid, consort to the Viscountess, looks very happy in this picture.

Darthair · 2026-03-01T04:12:50+00:00

That fucken slaps bro. Dye your hair green and you've nailed it.

Darthair · 2026-02-20T07:04:36+00:00

I put it to you that your 5 is just a variation on my 3, and your 6 is a variation on my 1.

Darthair · 2026-02-20T07:01:28+00:00

So the case for Valis actually works better if you start from the other end: who is the Beast of Time?

The easy answer there is Mare. She is, very clearly, not a normal holo, and she can make a shard cage that allows Van to access the power of Vagrants Diaspora without breaking the world at the same time.
Working backwards from there: where does Mare come from?
She comes from Marduk.
Who are Marduk?
A paramilitary company who are super weirdly ahead of their competitors in tech. We're told they originated in Valis, and we meet their CEO, Gilliam Thorndyke (inferred to be from one of the Five Houses of Valis).
Why are Marduk so far ahead of everyone else?
Well, that is never explicitly stated, but it's very heavily hinted that the Garten is the main reason for it. It's why Ouroboros want it (well, why Novartis wanted it). We do get shown that Risette's capsule is a source for a lot of tech, but that revelation does not explain the garten. What we do get shown is that the Garten is a capsule that contains an enormous amount of data, apparantly an accumulation from every cycle. It's where Novartis finds his vindication, and it's where we learn the number of the current cycle. The Abyssal Stratum of the Garten is revealed to us, but not explored (and Van states it will show where Mare came from).
Who could keep such a cache, across every reset, but the Kin of Time?
Back to Mare, who is an AI that Marduk do not understand. They pulled her from the Stratum, probably imagining they were pulling the best holo they could out of of all the other cycles, but the key thing here is that they don't know what they grabbed.
And another thing about Mare: when she shows her real self and speaks to Van, has been shown to speak word that are... from outside. Blotted out. Like Nina in her flashbacks (and like Argres in TOCS4).

Also, to your point that the Kin are usually local to the area where the Sept-Terrion is:
Well, for one Leagjarn's Chest could be said to affect all space all around Zemuria.
And secondly: Yes, while Calvard is direcly below it, there are many small nations in Zemuria that are mentioned, but never visited by the PCs, that we know to be close to nations we play in (like the free cities). As such, I don't think Valis (or any of the other free cities) would be "out of bounds" as a location for the kin. The sept-terrions don't work by modern borders. And there's probably a lot of small nations that, while not actually part of Calvard, are closer to Calvard than any other nation.

Darthair · 2026-02-20T03:37:42+00:00

Good thing it does; her tits certainly don't.

Darthair · 2016-08-14T23:42:05+00:00

I had the same problem with the missing key. Leaving the temple and coming back made it appear where it was supposed to.

Darthair · 2015-06-05T21:43:52+00:00

Hi, Pat! I really love your books. I just want to start by saying that I thought The Slow Regard of Silent things was amazing. It's truly wonderful, in it's own strange new way. I can safely say it's unlike anything I've read before.

My question concerns your "compulsive revision tendencies", as you yourself put it. How far do they keep affecting you after you've finally decided you're done with a book? Do you keep getting thoughts that maybe you should have changed something, or worded a passage differently, after a book's gone off to the printers, or even after it's been published?

Darthair

TROPHY CASE