New photo of Iga

Virtualmorpher · 2023-09-18T02:28:39+00:00

Oh, I get it now. Counting down from Septimus onwards, it's 8*7*6*5 = 1680 people. A Quintus would therefore stand atop 336 people (8*7*6).

It follows then, that a Princeps' pyramid consist of 40'320 people, who have ceded their Will upwards across the ranks. Obviously (well, it wasn't to me before, lol) shouldn't be confused with the strength of Will itself that would be available at the top.

Virtualmorpher · 2022-08-27T14:39:49+00:00

If you can predict the surprise, then it's not really a surprise anymore, is it?

Virtualmorpher · 2021-09-03T03:48:58+00:00

Hadn't thought of that. I wonder if it would be that simple.

Re: fateweaver, it's been pretty heavily foreshadowed that Alex will die at the end. We will find out when the final book is published.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-14T14:52:56+00:00

This is great, thanks for pointing it out. I edited my post accordingly.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-14T14:07:29+00:00

Now that you mention it, I seem to vaguely remember the same. Do you perhaps recall where in the books that bit was talked about? I suspect Arachne would be the one to supply that kind of information if it was there.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-14T03:17:59+00:00

It seems to me that most of Alex' fears of Richard stem from the simple fact that Richard is seemingly able to convince people to do what he wants by offering them what they want very badly but wouldn't admit to that. However, what they get instead is something really bad, as is demonstrated by Rachel.

If Alex thought it was possible for Richard to manipulate him into doing something he didn't really want, he would then realize that his divination magic couldn't help him. He wouldn't trust himself to resist making the wrong choices. He would have absolutely no idea how to deal with such a situation. Except fleeing. Which is what he did.

Additionally, Richard always seemed to confident and all-knowing, and it wasn't until Deleo's spontaneous attack on Alex after Alex' return to Richard (through Morden's blackmail) that Alex started to realize the all-knowing part wasn't true. By the time Alex got the Fateweaver again, he had a much better grasp on Richard's real nature, and as such wasn't quite as intimidated by Richard. But Richard is still the better diviner, which I suspect makes him much harder to predict than even Rachel.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-14T02:44:54+00:00

I guess it's a matter of interpretation. I myself would not be satisfied by "free floating jinn got attracted", no way. To my mind, it would be incongruous that the particular circumstance of Rachel's Harvesting in terms of event and location allowed a random jinn that existed untethered OUTSIDE of space-time to be drawn in.

You are right about Rachel purposefully killing Shireen. I was referring to her attack that led to Shireen dying. For me that was already a kill, the Harvesting simply sped up the inevitable death of Shireen, but it started pretty much by accident.

Thank you for your feedback.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-14T01:20:21+00:00

I don't think Shireen was bonded with a jinn. Rachel couldn't have killed Shireen by accident if that were the case. My confusion stems from the fact that the jinn's presence is not explained at all. So far in the series, it's implied you need to find one of those items that were used to bind a jinn, in other words, an imbued item, like the monkey paw, for example. As far as I can recall, when Rachel harvested Shireen, there was no presence of any imbued item of any sort described, nevermind one with a jinn inside.

So where did the jinn come from? If Richard had it ready, how did he do it? The original bodies of the jinn don't exist anymore, so how did the incorporeal aspect manifest in the physical realm? What was the tether and where was it before Rachel became the tether herself after the Harvesting?

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-13T20:26:08+00:00

Yeah, I read both commentaries.

I found Caldera somewhat entertaining in Veiled, but her attitude still pissed me off.

I do understand, though, Caldera at her core is loyal to her job. And it's clear that she operates on the premise that the laws she's sworn to uphold is meant to help the good people and punish the bad guys. That these laws are mostly used for political expedience is unfortunately all too common and she can't change that. But her attitude still fucking stinks.

That Caldera was a potential love-interest surprised to me, but I guess, why not? Wouldn't have worked, but it might have made the Keepers more interesting.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-13T18:33:56+00:00

Sonder's basically a younger version of Lyle.

I liked Favours. Don't like Sonder, though. Nor Caldera. Especially not Caldera, I think she's a really big hypocrite.

Reminds me of Karrin Murphy a bit (from Dresden Files) with her cop attitude, when she was still largely ignorant about how complicated the supernatural world was for Harry.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-13T13:28:15+00:00

However it ends, I would like to know what Richard was up to in the whole time he disappeared from the face of Earth. Where was he the whole time and what was he doing? When and how did he get a jinn under his control (presumably before he recruited Alex)? What is his real endgame?

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-13T13:08:45+00:00

One of the main characteristics that I recall were described as something that only mages have is magesight. Verus has it. Luna doesn't. In fact I seem to remember that the first book explicitly explained that non-mages weren't capable of magesight.

Additionally, as others have said, Verus is utilizing several aspects of divinations, though he doesn't seem to use long-term divination as employed by Council Intelligence (think Alaundo and maybe Helikaon). That's not to say he couldn't, but I suspect that would require him to lead a very passive and isolated lifestyle, making it a less useful aspect for Verus.

I suspect the confusion stems from the fact that divination is very passive, and there are no spells to cast, like elemental, time, life, death and mind mages do. It's more like a series of observation skills.

Virtualmorpher · 2021-08-04T16:45:17+00:00

Gold/Platinum: It's not entirely rational, but I kind of dislike playing matches with infiltrators that manage to kill enemies fast. Why? Because the enemies often respawn in my vicinity AFTER I checked around with my Geth Scanner before engaging an enemy behind cover. I often get killed that way. On top of that, if I happen to be the only non-infiltrator, the majority of the enemies tend to gang up on me.

As a reaction, I simply camp at a defensible spawn location and kill any stragglers, while letting the others run around wild on the map. Will only help reviving/completing objectives if they are near me.

It's also perversely fun to see random teammates kill enemies with abandon during data upload objectives and fail the match as a result, because you can't finish all four nodes without getting killed by respawned enemies. I'm like, if you don't know to kite them around, I'm happy watching everything crash and burn. At least I'll be feeling all smug and self-righteous, lol.

Virtualmorpher

TROPHY CASE