Reflecting Upon RTH -- SPOILER THREAD

n7axw wrote:
I would find it highly unlikely that should the commandery find need to do so, that they couldn't change out the commander on the spot. There could well be political consequences, but my wager would be that the authority for doing that would be there.

Don

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Then we agree.

Nicholas

n7axw wrote:
(SNIP of discussion of removing Gurthak from his position)

I would find it highly unlikely that should the commandery find need to do so, that they couldn't change out the commander on the spot. There could well be political consequences, but my wager would be that the authority for doing that would be there.

Don

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Actually, it looks very simple to me. They need a vacancy somewhere, but they promote somebody to fill that vacancy, move or promote someone else to fill the new vacancy, and so forth until Gurthak is assigned to a more prestigious post. Nobody has valid grounds for complaint.

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

n7axw wrote:
(SNIP of discussion of removing Gurthak from his position)

I would find it highly unlikely that should the commandery find need to do so, that they couldn't change out the commander on the spot. There could well be political consequences, but my wager would be that the authority for doing that would be there.

Don

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Actually, it looks very simple to me. They need a vacancy somewhere, but they promote somebody to fill that vacancy, move or promote someone else to fill the new vacancy, and so forth until Gurthak is assigned to a more prestigious post. Nobody has valid grounds for complaint.

As long as it is done in such a manner as to prevent him from doing additional harm... maybe given a prestigious title to shuffle paper someplace unimportant...

Don

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A couple more political thoughts.

First, whether Zindel survives or not he is going to be unable to make the decisions required to rule Sharona for weeks. So someone else is going to have to do so. Shamir Taje can probably handle the work of continuing to form a Sharonan government. Zindel will have established general policies he can continue to apply in Zindel's name. There are going to be two issues though where new policy needs to be set. First, dealing with the consequences of the assassination attempt and whatever results the investigation produces. Second, setting policy toward Arcana, especially Arcanan prisoners, as more details about Arcanan atrocities emerge. Both jobs might also fall on Shamir Taje but my expectation is that they will fall on Andrin. Her bad experiences with trying to negotiate with Chava around the marriage may make her significantly less inclined toward moderation in both cases then Zindel would have been.

Second, if the AEF gets defeated as badly as it could be (meaning few are no members of it evade death or Sharonan POW camps to get back to Arcana) that will probably be enough bodies to bury all of mul Gurthak crimes. We heard how useless dead men are as prosecution witnesses in RTH. They are equally useless as defendants. Given the politics we saw in Portalis it seems likely to me that if Harshu gets home he becomes (in the public mind) a war criminal and a defeated general. If he doesn't he likely becomes (in the public mind) an honorable man who went down with his ship. The latter seems likely to increase popular support for the war on Arcana and thus make peace less likely.

Nicholas

I don't recall if this was discussed, but the headache Shaylar got before her interrogation on Arcana caused to muse that the Caliraith talent was accompanied by headaches. This may or may not be foreshadowing her development of that Talent. Later in the story it was inferred that the Caliraith talent could be "turned on". It was also stated that the Caliratih talent was the first of the Sharonan talents and that the Ternaithian Empire had so many talents because all the talents stemmed from that first Caliratih talent emerging within the Empire.

One question that comes to my mind is, does the Caliraith Talent underpin all Talents? That is anyone strongly enough Talented and experiencing the proper stimuli can have the Talent triggered.

Upon this re-reading of the Road To Hell, I grow increasingly convinced that this is so. Shaylar is about to either cause of whole lot of hurt on Arcana or show Arcana just what they will be up against in a prolonged war. Not sure which way it will break. Can't wait to find out.

PeterZ wrote:I don't recall if this was discussed, but the headache Shaylar got before her interrogation on Arcana caused to muse that the Caliraith talent was accompanied by headaches. This may or may not be foreshadowing her development of that Talent. Later in the story it was inferred that the Caliraith talent could be "turned on". It was also stated that the Caliratih talent was the first of the Sharonan talents and that the Ternaithian Empire had so many talents because all the talents stemmed from that first Caliratih talent emerging within the Empire.

One question that comes to my mind is, does the Caliraith Talent underpin all Talents? That is anyone strongly enough Talented and experiencing the proper stimuli can have the Talent triggered.

Upon this re-reading of the Road To Hell, I grow increasingly convinced that this is so. Shaylar is about to either cause of whole lot of hurt on Arcana or show Arcana just what they will be up against in a prolonged war. Not sure which way it will break. Can't wait to find out.

My thinking is that if she does develop the Caliraith Talent, Jathmar's mapping talent will revert back to full strength. And, I believe that Ullery the Fool (see chapter 19 of _Road to Hell_) has a Talent which will get a lot stronger.

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

PeterZ wrote:I don't recall if this was discussed, but the headache Shaylar got before her interrogation on Arcana caused to muse that the Caliraith talent was accompanied by headaches. This may or may not be foreshadowing her development of that Talent. Later in the story it was inferred that the Caliraith talent could be "turned on". It was also stated that the Caliratih talent was the first of the Sharonan talents and that the Ternaithian Empire had so many talents because all the talents stemmed from that first Caliratih talent emerging within the Empire.

One question that comes to my mind is, does the Caliraith Talent underpin all Talents? That is anyone strongly enough Talented and experiencing the proper stimuli can have the Talent triggered.

Upon this re-reading of the Road To Hell, I grow increasingly convinced that this is so. Shaylar is about to either cause of whole lot of hurt on Arcana or show Arcana just what they will be up against in a prolonged war. Not sure which way it will break. Can't wait to find out.

My thinking is that if she does develop the Caliraith Talent, Jathmar's mapping talent will revert back to full strength. And, I believe that Ullery the Fool (see chapter 19 of _Road to Hell_) has a Talent which will get a lot stronger.

Well, Jathmar is also experiencing headaches. Have to check out chapter 19 again.

Read it again and......sorry nothing jumps out at me. The only thing I can think of is that he is a Chekov's Gun for the eventual scene of Arcanans developing Talents. Of course this assumes the authors will develop Talents in Arcanans and Gifts in Sharonans.

PeterZ wrote: quote="Robert_A_Woodward" quote="PeterZ" I don't recall if this was discussed, but the headache Shaylar got before her interrogation on Arcana caused to muse that the Caliraith talent was accompanied by headaches. This may or may not be foreshadowing her development of that Talent. Later in the story it was inferred that the Caliraith talent could be "turned on". It was also stated that the Caliratih talent was the first of the Sharonan talents and that the Ternaithian Empire had so many talents because all the talents stemmed from that first Caliratih talent emerging within the Empire.

One question that comes to my mind is, does the Caliraith Talent underpin all Talents? That is anyone strongly enough Talented and experiencing the proper stimuli can have the Talent triggered.

Upon this re-reading of the Road To Hell, I grow increasingly convinced that this is so. Shaylar is about to either cause of whole lot of hurt on Arcana or show Arcana just what they will be up against in a prolonged war. Not sure which way it will break. Can't wait to find out. /quote

My thinking is that if she does develop the Caliraith Talent, Jathmar's mapping talent will revert back to full strength. And, I believe that Ullery the Fool (see chapter 19 of _Road to Hell_) has a Talent which will get a lot stronger. /quote

Well, Jathmar is also experiencing headaches. Have to check out chapter 19 again.

Read it again and......sorry nothing jumps out at me. The only thing I can think of is that he is a Chekov's Gun for the eventual scene of Arcanans developing Talents. Of course this assumes the authors will develop Talents in Arcanans and Gifts in Sharonans.

My thought was that it accompanies the loss of the talent.