LordJuss

I'm slightly confused about the status of Nilto and was hoping someone could shed some light on it. In the graphic novel Nilto is introduced to Khriss as one of the Taishin and given the title Lord Beggar. However, the Lady Judge clearly talks about there being seven professions in addition to the Sand Masters and later on we see Khriss visit each of them. They are: The Lady Judge The Lord General The Lord Admiral The Lord Merchant The Lord Farmer The Lord Artisan The Lord Mason The Lord Mastrell None of these are the Lord Beggar. So how does Nilto fit in? Is the Lord Beggar title ironic? Is he part of the Taishin but not one of the eight leaders? Am I being dim? Thoughts appreciated. Thanks, LJ.

While the reference to 'Devotion' is interesting, I don't think it's conclusive. Later on one of the Ire refers to 'merciful Domi'. Domi is the God of Shu-Korath and its strongly implied in Elantris that the Korathi religion post-dates the splintering by some margin; Jesker is described as one of the most ancient religions in the world and it includes the Dor, which was created by the splintering. I think it more likely that the Ire discovered the existence of Devotion after the splintering and worship her despite her death (similar to Honor on Roshar). We don't know much about the pre-Reod Elantrian religion but it seemed to be centered on Devotion's shardpool.

So there seem to be a lot of posts in this forum that are based on the assumption that Harmony arranged Lessie's death. Unless I missed something major, I'm not yet convinced that this is true. We are told that Harmony never took control of Lessie directly, but he did press her very hard to do something she didn't want to do. We are also told that Lessie was sent as a bodyguard and that her becoming a lover was not part of the plan. As far as I can tell we are never told that Harmony arranged Lessie's death. We know he wanted Wax to return to the city and that Lessie felt this would be bad for Wax. But it's a long jump to Harmony therefore arranging her death. Besides, how would he do it? Lessie wouldn't do it to herself and we know he didn't take control of her. Was he controlling Bloody Tan? Certainly not directly as Tan wasn't a hemalurgic construct. Communicating through a spike? Possibly, but it's not Harmony's style to help a mass murderer and Tan seemed to have the whole thing set up from the start. I suspect someone was helping him, but not Harmony. In addition, Wax doesn't think Harmony arranged the death. He explicitly says that he's furious at Harmony for sending a kandra to seduce him. He's also angry that was not told who Paalm was, but he does not even consider that Harmony murdered Lessie in the first place. Anyway if so, it was a rubbish plan. Lessie's death nearly drove Wax away from being a lawman. Yes it got him to Elendel but at the price of being unable/unwilling to fight. It was only the threat of immediate death for him and everyone around him that finally woke him up. I suspect we're being deliberately misled. Lessie refused to help get Wax to the city, at which point someone else (Trell maybe?) arranged her death. She believed Harmony had done it (or at least had allowed it to happen) when in fact he had no part in it. Thoughts? LJ.

Maybe it's just me, but I think this is reasonably clear. All the way through it is stated that Paalm has only one spike and Harmony can take control when a second spike is introduced. This is exactly what we see happen - new spike: Harmony starts to take over. The confusion over whether the Trellium spike is an extra seems to arise from Marasi's line in the epilogue "That's one of the spikes she was using." This seems to imply that there was more than one spike. However, we also have this from Marasi slightly later: "It certainly wasn't one of the spikes she started with. That means she removed both, and stuck one like this in instead." So that's one spike total, not one plus a Trellium one. Marasi continues: "Where did she get them? Who gave them to her?" (emphasis mine) Clearly, according to Marasi, there is more than one Trellium spike. Otherwise she would say "where did she get it?" MeLaan explains in more detail later on: "She used these strange spikes to steal attributes, instead of the ones we're familiar with. Maybe that's why she could use stolen Allomancy and Feruchemy." So there were multiple Trellium spikes, which she used to take powers and used one at a time. Surely if she could have used more than one at once, she would have done so. As Marasi says, she removed both Blessings and replaced them with a single Trellium spike. She then powered up several Trellium spikes and switched them in and out as Harmony described, not using more than one at once. At least that's my understanding of it. Cheers, LJ.

Thanks. That sounds plausible. Maybe age then, rather than burning. And as Zea mays points out, most Rosharan branches are covered in crem, which will make the whole thing even more difficult. Given the reference to 'arms like knotted tree branches' I think it's still viable. LJ.

Excellent, a real archaeologist. I was hoping one might be around. Some of the sites I looked on seemed to suggest there could be some confusion but I have no direct experience in the matter. Do you know if there are any processes that might have that effect? I know that ivory goes brown with age but I don't know if bone does the same. Cheers, LJ.

Hi, I note a conversation from way back discussing the contents of Mraize's cabinet of curiosities. The discussion settled on reasonable answers for most items but couldn't identify the "branch of a tree with writing on" though there was a general feeling it should probably come from Sel (as all the other worlds were represented). I've been back over Elantris and I think there's a hint there. Here's a description of one of the monks of Dakhor: "arms like knotted tree branches, skin pulled tight over strange ridges and unspoken symbols." Later on Raoden kills one of these monks, leaving "a scattering of smoking bones" and something similar then happens to the entire Dakhor army. Finally, towards the end, Raoden examines one of the bones: "The bone, retrieved from the body of a Dakhor monk, was deformed and twisted [...] It was like a carved piece of ivory, or a bundle of engraved wooden rods all twisted together. Most disturbingly Raoden swore he could make out slightly familiar symbols in the carving [...] - ancient Fjordell characters." Looking at some archaeology sites, it's clear that telling charred bone from wood is actually quite tricky and that's before magical deformities are involved. Given that Shallan was only observing for a moment she could easily have mistaken such a bone for a tree branch. So I reckon it's the charred bone of a Dakhor monk. Any thoughts? LJ.