Annotated 37-6
A lot to unpack here. Fr’Nj has so often been “along for the ride” with the Peacemakers, it’s sometimes easy to forget she has her own internal narratives about the jobs they do and the enemies they fight. The Cultists-Naror’Nj link is interesting, too.
Some would say “Some would say” to mean “I would say,” especially if they’re reticent about their own beliefs, as Scipio often is. But I don’t think that’s what he’s doing here. He knows how Gravedust’s powers work, and what that implies about the world beyond. I think that rather, he’s pointing out that other people–those without faith or supernatural experience–have had to deal with the concept of their loved ones being gone on every level, just as he and Fr’Nj now have to do with Rachel.
“I wanted to counsel E-Merl” leaves it a bit ambiguous for now about whether E-Merl’s been updated on the casualty lists. Realistically, in my opinion, the only way he could not have found out was if he’d totally missed the group’s return. But when we next see him, he and Bandit will be physically isolated from the others, enough so that it looks like he might not have been told yet.
Scipio telling Fr’Nj she’s entitled to grieve is a good boyfriend moment for him, just like offering to talk was. Often, all we need from our partners is permission to feel our deepest feelings without feeling any shame about the display. But that’s not enough for this situation, not this time. Fr’Nj also needs Scipio to do what’s hard for him: feel his own deepest feelings about Rachel.
Worst humans? Say what you will about the Cultists they are equal opportunity nihilists. I think they’ve got someone from every race in their group.
But seemingly all male, strangely.
(Ahem) “LIKE the worst humans.”
Kinda wondered if it was that. But then I got to thinking that the tree elves really didn’t have any horror stories of other races? Just that humans with their axes were the absolute scum of the world? Would imagine gnomes needing more firewood for one.
It’s mostly exposure. Gnomes got into a symbiotic relationship with humans but avoided direct conflict with wood elves for most of their history. The Rebel races had little contact with wood elves until recently.
Is there confirmed evidence of a wood elf or gnome cultist somewhere? I haven’t been paying super close attention but I feel like I’d have noticed a wood elf. That would be some particularly self-hating/fuck-society nihilism there.
There’s a Wood Elf cultist in chapter 32, Brother Markus.
I’m not really seeing how it would be more so than for other races. “I want to die and take the whole world with me” is as extreme a statement as it is, whether the speaker is a human, a wood elf, a troll or a gnome.
Not sure … It still contrasts a lot more with Wood elf culture which reveres life above all, than most other cultures we know in Arkerra.
However, I’d say that
, say,
Apart from the fact that there are of course no dark elves in Arkerra, I’d suspect that the number of individuals who get serious enough about it to actually become cultists would probably not be lower among Wood Elves than in cultures.
Not sure who the polar opposite would be in this regard, but let’s just imagine some Dark Elves who are so metal that half their songs are about death cults. To them it’s a thought or a feeling everyone has at some point, talks about and eventually deals with. For Wood elves it’s a very dark, very dirty secret which must never be mentioned. And ‘ere you know it, you’ve joined a cult which shares your leanings…
Aaargh, clicked “post” before being done with editing … what a mess :(
Apologies — hope it’s somewhat decipherable.
I can’t stop staring at that tree…