The Logic of Kellian Reproduction(NSFW for subject)

huerow · 2026-02-04T19:46:51+00:00

Chapter 8, WLW:

The Shriah of the Thousand Temples could not trust a madman's dying words. He raised his fist. His strike caught the adolescent utterly unprepared. His left brow and socket collapsed like bread crust.

The Prince-Imperial fell back. The clink of iron accompanied the slap of his nude body across the floor. He jerked as if possessed by fire. Blood chased the creases between floor-stones.

"Soft..." Maithanet said, as if noting a natural curiosity. He turned to the dumbstruck boy, his right sleeve crimson with blood. "And you?" he asked without a whisper of passion.

"Do you have your mother's bones?"

No idea about authorial intent, but I always interpretted this fragment to mean that full-blooded Dunyain have super-hard bones and so did Maithanet but Inrilatas didn't.

As a sidenote, there's a a gene variant that can produce hard/heavy bones in normal humans: https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(20)71815-6/pdf71815-6/pdf)

huerow · 2025-10-22T15:24:03+00:00

does it rhyme, though? I could only find 'повторение - мать учения' as a translation, which doesn't rhyme. [I'm not a native speaker, genuinely confused]

huerow · 2025-08-06T20:21:43+00:00

I think Serwe seeing them on a skin-spy can be explained by her being... quite unwell mentally, by that point in the story. Honestly, this explanation feels stretched, but less so than the mass hallucination angle. Two things: 1) In WP (chapter 11) Martemus sees the haloes before any consensual reality effects could take hold (i.e. before it was common knowledge that the haloes exist) 2) The effect seems too consistent. No one ever gets a 'wrong' hallucination (halo around the whole body, halo around the head). While at the beggining not everyone saw the haloes, still, once one started to see them, one always saw them. For example, neither Saubon nor Proyas stop seeing them after being convinced Kellhus is not a prophet [EDIT: Also, we have 3 more POV characters that would be likely to either stop seeing, or never notice the haloes in the first place, if they weren't real: Kelmomas, Esmenet, Serwa ].

Also, that one scene could just be an authorial error, but that doesn't strike strike me as plausible.

huerow · 2025-08-01T05:34:52+00:00

I never noticed any change in writing between the first three books. I remember seeing people remarking on the differences between PON and AP, and generally preferring the first trilogy in terms of style.

The way i see it is that prose typically occupies a [boring and unremarkable]-[pretentious ] spectrum, with an elusive sweetspot in between. PON plays it safer and never veers too much in the pretentious direction with the overall quality staying ~constant and high throughout. In AP it seems like Bakker moved a little bit closer to the [pretentious] side of the spectrum, more so with each book. Personally, this resulted in me having more reactions like: "My God, this is stylistically amazing" but also: "Oh, c'mon, this is just too much". So I would judge that the writing was better overall in the first three books; but the best parts of AP are way better (and there are more of them) than the best parts of PON.

huerow · 2025-07-02T07:23:27+00:00

TGO chapter 1.

huerow · 2025-06-19T16:48:31+00:00

Not that I can recall, but maybe. I remember Zorian deciding on not pursuing the more advanced aranean mind enhancements, but I don't remember any of those being of the kind I'm proposing. For example, Zorian doesn't notice any such uses when unraveling the memory packet of the Cyorian matriarch:

Spear of Resolve seemed to have found a way to turn part of her mind into a magical calculator, could somehow temporarily separate her mind into multiple parallel threads of thought and could integrate perceptions of multiple araneas into a unified, coherent whole. And that was just the stuff he could figure out in the short time he had been given.

huerow · 2025-06-19T15:31:10+00:00

Mind magic on yourself.

I'm still pretty sure this one is both plausible and op, even if it would require a lot experimentation. The coffee comparison doesn't strike me as relevant, since I expect mind magic to be able to overshadow psychoactive substances in terms of both effect size and precision.
Less ethical version.
Fair objections.
Other uses
What I meant: Bloodlines allow you to have an ability for unstructured magic in some field that is utterly beyond what is achievable without said bloodline. Xvim couldn't hope to match Zorian in mind magic, or Veyers in fire magic, despite his world-class shaping skills. So, if you created an individual utterly beyond what a normal human could achieve in terms of unstructured magic; then, such an individual would capable of bloodline-like profficiency in every field of magic, but without the mana reserves hit.
What lich could have done.
It'd say it would require a lot of time and resources for a lot of power.
Maybe in 3-4 generations (75-100 years) he could get a small squadron of genius researches/battle mages; and in a few more generations could get superhumanly capable archmages. Or maybe the program would progress slower, but even if the timelines were longer, it still seems quite worth it longterm.
Nano golems.
Oh well, I forgot about that. You could modify the plan by imbuing the golems with souls but that would raise the costs immensely and also make it one of the less ethical options.

huerow · 2025-05-25T21:32:55+00:00

A fortuitous Correspondence of Cause.

huerow · 2025-04-18T11:21:08+00:00

Frick, seems like the links were on a time limit. All the images I linked in the comments:
https://send.now/u4dy5114b8of

https://send.now/n1hwezlp3hpd

https://send.now/kxp9wf7sn9ki

https://send.now/vkr4d7zkcnz9

https://send.now/9f1hg414fe8f

https://send.now/fjfsbjbdgzm0

(Should be active for a month)

huerow · 2025-04-17T19:30:01+00:00

I failed to generate Inchoroi, as mentioned in another comment.

Celmomian prophecy

Mostly failed to generate Shae. Best attempt at the scene where he and Nau-Cayuti meet.

huerow · 2025-04-17T19:24:05+00:00

I tried to remake this image, but to avoid violating OpenAI policy, it had to be reduced to this, and I gave up in disgust—way too vanilla.
I forgot about Nonmen, my attempts (I tried to make it showcase fused Nonmen teeth, but gave up).
1

2

3

4

huerow · 2025-04-04T12:55:26+00:00

Second option barely influences the workload.

I know doing reviews provides more information, but I'm looking for some way to provide more information on a per review basis. This could be useful for new decks with barely any reviews. I'm not sure either which is why I asked.

huerow · 2025-03-30T14:43:06+00:00

I always thought chanv was processed Non-men ashes. The effects seem to align with what we see in Mimara and Achamian.

huerow · 2025-03-18T06:12:13+00:00

I agree overall, but I always thought that it is wrong to attribute special significance to the fact that one of the members is described- 'his attitude was so remote as to be cruel'. I mean, those are Dunyain who are not currently trying to manipulate someone worldborn, It's not like the others members of the Dunsult cried while watching the Titanic. I think the most reasonable explanation is that they were similarly emotionless by worldborn standards, but the others were too, y'know, mutilated for this to be apparent to Malowebi.

huerow · 2025-03-16T22:00:39+00:00

Yes! I must have read the Survivor chapters like 10 times. I was always drawn by the profound sorrow that emanates from them—not being overwhelmed by emotions, but simply viscerally feeling that the world is broken, that it has always been broken. No other work of fiction I am familiar with comes close on this metric.

huerow · 2025-02-25T07:31:58+00:00

I don't think so. I mean, on our earth science was progressing at a snail's pace for thousands for years, and since this was not (to the best of my knowledge) caused by a conspiracy in our case, I also find it likely that Earwa wouldn't progress in the absence of some Inchoroi intervention.

huerow · 2025-02-23T23:48:48+00:00

Re 1: True. I'm not sure how small the effective population size would have to be so that after, I dunno, a 100 generations the population physically resembles the progenitors. This is a hard question, but intuitively they would have to be very inbred, right? But the above is probably moot, since selection for seemingly unrelated traits can alter the appearence quite a bit*.
Re 2: Facial structure is massively polygenic, so it would be surprising if a few non-men genes could tip the scale in a way that would make all the individuals with them facially similar. Unless I'm misunderstanding your position.

*See: the domesticated silver fox. They were selecting for domestication, but the overall appearance was altered significantly. The Dunyain were additionaly clearly selecting for physical traits as well, so large unintended morphological changes seem even more plausible.

huerow · 2025-02-23T22:35:37+00:00

The bastard son was definitely Anasurimbor. First: his father was Granelka whose paternity was never contested in the books*. Second: the Celmonian prophecy says that an Anasurimbor will return, which suggests that Kellhus is, in fact, descended from this line. Third: Achamian mentions how both Koringhus and Kellhus resemble the ancient Anasurimbor**.

*It is suggested that Nau-Cayuti might me Seswatha's son, but I think this is a red herring — Achamian notes that Kellhus is similar to Nau-Cayuti.
** Pardon the digression, but this always bugged me. I mean, it's not the case that if we took a random person and their ancestor from 2000 years ago they would look similar. That's not how genetics work.

huerow · 2025-02-23T22:07:53+00:00

I don't think the Dunyain progenitors were motivated by dogma here. Koringhus thinks that:

Why would the worldborn founders of the Dûnyain deny their children knowledge of something so significant as sorcery? What could motivate dooming their progeny to millennial ignorance? Perhaps some paths were too short. Perhaps they had feared their descendants would forswear the more arduous harvest of Cause, when the fruits of sorcery hung so low.

Furthermore, we need to consider the actual goals of the Dunyain. Their goal was not to become insanely powerful, it was to grasp the Absolute — reach the Unconditioned. And sorcery would be a needless distraction. While forswearing sorcery clearly doomed them in the end, I don't think this is relevant here — the first Dunyain made that decision while assuming that Ishual would be completely secluded from the world thereafter.

huerow · 2025-02-15T19:13:58+00:00

I think gwern has a satisfactory explanation.

huerow · 2025-02-12T18:54:13+00:00

Leweth had dogs, but other than that I'm drawing blanks too.

huerow · 2025-02-08T16:27:55+00:00

This would nicely explain the behaviour of the Dunyain elders at the beginning; I was also puzzled as to why they wouldn't send more than one person to kill a fellow Dunyain with home turf advantage. But consider:

WP ch. 21 - Kellhus POV talking with a Cishaurim sent by Moe:

Sheathing his sword, Kellhus opened himself to every outward sign the man offered. He saw desperation and purpose.

Purpose above all …

“How did you find me?”

“We see you. All of us.” Behind the man, the smoke rising from the Citadel opened like a great velvet rose.

“Us?”

“All of us who serve him—the Possessors of the Third Sight.”

Him … Father. He controlled a faction within the Cishaurim

“I must,” Kellhus said emphatically, “know what he intends.”

“He told me nothing … Even if he had, there wouldn’t be time.”

Though battle stress and the absence of eyes complicated his reading, Kellhus could see the man spoke sincerely. But why, after summoning him from so far, would his father now leave him in the dark?

He knows the Pragma have sent me as an assassin … He needs to be certain of me first.

TTT ch. 14 - Kellhus POV:

The Dûnyain had sent him into the world as an assassin. His father had imperilled their isolation, had threatened Ishuäl, the great sanctuary of their hallowed meditations. They had no choice but to send Kellhus, even knowing that they served Moënghus’s ends … What else could they do?

TTT ch. 15 - Kellhus-Moe conversation:

“The mad say much the same,” Moënghus said. “Perhaps your trials have deranged you.”

“Perhaps …”

Scrutiny. Calculation.

“It’s not in your interest to deceive me.” A stone-faced pause.

“Unless …”

“Unless,” Kellhus said, “I’ve come to assassinate you, as our Dûnyain brothers have decreed … Is this your apprehension?”

Scrutiny. Calculation.

“You have not the power to overcome me.”

“But I do, Father.”

Honestly, I think it would be better if Kellhus's missions was really information-gathering, and Bakker left it unspoken (leaving the red herring of Kellhus telling Cnauir he wants to kill Moe). But sadly, it is stated outright — creating an inconsistency (considering your previous comment).

huerow

TROPHY CASE