At 06:45 PM 21/06/06, Mark MacKinnon wrote:
Hild and Illianka believe pretty much the same thing, actually;
that this world alone remains of all that once were. Remember,
Illianka gave her life in breaking the remaining hyperlinks, an act
that she believed would protect this world from the disaster that was
destroying all the others. Hild believes that Illianka succeeded, as,
in fact, she did. What none of the survivors of that ancient battle
seem to realise is that all the worlds outside were NOT destroyed.
The question that remains is: why weren't they, if Illianka and all
these gods were so sure they were already lost?
One thing I'm not clear on here, is this Illianka's belief when she was
alive, or her
ghost's (assuming that's the right word) current belief? Recalling her
conversation
with the door after Ami left, and before Dragon took it, Illianka seemed to
understand
what the door was made to do. I may have misunderstood, but isn't the purpose
of a door to allow the dimensional cops or whatever they are to travel between
Spheres? I'd assume that they have some ability to act as transport inside
a Sphere,
but if the core of the things is a copy of the key, isn't the main point
inter-Sphere travel?
Or is her ghost stuck in the moment of her death and not able to learn new
things?
I may also be reading way too much into Illianka's statements.
She wasn't kidding.
Not much of a kidder. Hell of a rhymer, though. As to your
speculation on the reason for breaking the links, that will become
clearer in the next chapter (when many questions will finally be
answered!). But if the cause of the disaster was here, then she didn't
so much lock the monster out as lock it in. That could get ugly.
This is sort of what I had been assuming. That Hild and others had been
co-opted
by what ever Illianka had been fighting (hence Desindiner's destruction and
Hild's
appellation of Ship Breaker), that that opponent, the Voice talking to
Wynneth, the
thing that talked to Rei in her vision way back at the start, taunted her
about the Eye
being blind, were all the same thing. That it was using Wynneth's attempt at
apotheosis to escape some kind of prison.
Baseless speculation that I've come up with while typing this:
Did whatever Illianka was fighting get stuck, not quite in the Sphere, not
quite outside
it when she broke the links? That could be why it/they would want the key,
to free itself.
Are the Underlords the Voice, trying to use Wynneth and the Key to regain
what they
lost, and/or get revenge on the gods?
If Wynneth manipulated Hild into manipulating Dasma and Alieva into
fighting, that throws my theory about the identity of the Voice into a
cocked hat. It isn't yet clear that Wynneth needed Shadow Realm
inviolate from mortal incursion for any reason, although it's certainly
clear in this chapter that the loss of Shadow Magic in general use
served Wynneth's purposes big time. So why would Wynneth want no
mortals to enter Shadow? I don't think we know of a persuasive reason
yet; just making succubi and incubi excessively hungry doesn't seem enough.
The exiling of the succubi and incubi doesn't have to be part of the
Voice's plot. It may
just be something that happened. If everything was part of the Voice's
plot, it wouldn't
need to be going through all this trouble would it?
While making Wynneth one of the the most knowledgeable shadow mages around is
obviously an advantage I'd been thinking the point of the fight between
Dasma and Alieva
was to create a priest(ess)hood desperate to get their goddess back.
Hild didn't seem to have been certain which of the two would loose when she
set up
the fight, and given what we've seen of them, Aleiva's people, hunted by
the Sisters would
have been pretty desperate and open to corruption. Either goddess's fall
leads the
way to the ceremony to 'revive' the goddess and Wynneth's
'apotheosis'. Whatever is
really going to happen then, the Voice wants it.
This is also why I think Wynneth was chosen for her role by the Voice, she
wants more
power, she'll believe the apotheosis thing, which lets the Voice get a hook
or two into
her. Hild seems to believe she's as powerful as she can be, more or less,
and doesn't
have the lust for more that Wynneth does.
One thing does seem obvious, Hild's not quite as free as she thinks she
is. She doesn't
appear to be actively being possessed as Wynneth is, but her strings are
being pulled.
Wynneth's musings in this chapter certainly seem to push her age back
quite a ways. The senshi seemed to think a vampire who'd "seen the fall
of the Genrous with its own eyes", perhaps 2000 years ago, was ancient
and scarily powerful. Wynneth seems to be several times that old at a
minimum; indeed, you seem to be hinting that she saw the Silver
Millenium with her own eyes. If it was Wynneth herself, and not the
Voice, who gave Dasma the ability to put the rose on the Black Rose's
breast, then the Voice, significantly more powerful yet, must also be
much older than I've been allowing for. Hmm... someone sneakier (and
older?) than any of the gods or demons, perhaps with a grudge against
all of them... who could it be?
Wynneth's characterization is interesting, she seems to be very much the
megalomaniac vampire, who wouldn't survive very long because of her arrogance.
Witness her actions at the club she took over, and her responses to being
blinded
by the key's light and having the grave dug up. I'm guessing the Voice has been
at this a very long time, keeping Wynneth from doing anything too
stupid. Which
raises some questions, for instance why did the fight between Dasma and Alieva
happen when it did?
It seems that a lot of what the Voice has been doing is getting ready for when
someone found the key. Dasma's imprisonment happened before Ranma arrived
and from the evidence that we've got, it wouldn't be possible to predict
when he
would arrive as you can't reach beyond this Sphere.
It could just be a case of the opportunity arising, but Ranma's arrival,
Gritainnia's
(I think that's the right spelling) betrayal of the Sisters, and Sass'
ascension, not to
mention her mother's murder all seem suspiciously timed. Of course all these
things are probably moving at the speed of plot, but we're well into fan
speculation
here, and we don't care about out of story reasoning.
Were the gods somehow threatened by the mere existence of the
Underlords? Hmmmm ...
Another question, Illianka's last battle was in or around this Sphere, so
how were
the Underlords involved, if at all? Also was the Eye something of this
Sphere or
was it with the Ships and their crews.
Also, the term "gods" gets tossed around quite a bit, but we've
already seen that it is far from a useful term here.
Very true, even if (especially if) you are the author :p Neither Dragon
nor Hild appear
to be terribly impressed with the Nikhien gods. Are they the gods that
were on the
ships or are they the descendents of those gods?
And the Underlords? They were beings of power, although
they ultimately lost to the new gods and were cast out.
Does that mean cast out of the Sphere? I'd been thinking more along the
lines of the
Nameless in the Earthsea books. Imprisoned, dead or dispersed, their names
lost so
they can't be recalled, but not thrown out of the Sphere.
>There are forces and entities in this world who
>are not named as gods but still possess great power, great enough
>perhaps to match that of a god.
*cough* Dragon *cough*
I rather liked Ranma loosing it the way he did. With all that the bad guys
have
been getting away with in this story, and general nasty things that are
happening
to innocent people I have a strong desire myself to introduce Wynneth or maybe
the Sultana to the business end of a Bolo.
One thing that Usagi seems to be overlooking along with the rest of the Senshi,
except possibly Rei or Minako, is what's going to happen to Sass'.
If the Senshi stop the ceremony without proving what was really happening the
Sisterhood is not going to be happy with Sass', she failed the goddess
after all.
If the Senshi prove what has really been happening, things are even
worse. Gritainnia
may have been a traitor, but Sass' will have been a dupe. Which is a better
Nightmistress, a clever traitor who can manipulate even the sisters, or an
easy mark?
The only thing that could save her would be for the Senshi to free Dasma, and
arrange for it to look like the ceremony was what did it. And they don't
have any
idea where the ceremony is going to take place, what it will entail, or how
to free
Dasma. They've also got to deal with Wynneth first, and unknown to them the
Voice. All with only a day or less to do it too.
The kindest possible thing they could probably do is kill Sass' in the
fighting. Ah
well, at least no has mentioned to Jupiter that Usagi promised to save the
sisterhood, not any specific sisters. Usagi probably interprets it that
way, but
Jupiter could probably sell Banri on the idea of cleaning house.
I'm really looking forward to the next chapter, along with Hotaru
eventually finding out
who Gar is (for his sake I hope he isn't in glaive reach when she
does). I'd also like
to see Pluto's face if she were to learn Dragon was responsible for the
Time Gate.
Which leads me to one last bit of speculation: Who was Gar's mother?
(About the only thing I'm confident we will see is Sass's reunion with her dear
mother. I almost feel sorry for her.)
Brian
--
It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.