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Bakker XIV: Star Trek into Darkness that Comes Before


Happy Ent

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But don't people get "grazed" by Chorae as well? I thought part of Akka's face was salted a bit during the fight in Cli-Aujas. Did it just get close to him?

That's what I'm talking about. The Chorae doesn't need to hit you, just get close enough.

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I assume that the logic is that a direct hit is going to kill you anyway. It doesn't matter if the Chorae knocks against armor or robes; it's inconsequential at that point. But robes would more protection when grazed because they keep some distance between the chorae and the witch. But they'd have to have some strength to them, which would make them...well, not robes.

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would you rather have kevlar or full plate? Kevlar is basically cloth and does a damn good job of stopping projectiles. I'd think that enormous layers of billowing robes, while creating a larger target, would foul arrows far more effectively than armor would.

Though do the sranc have arrows? I would think they'd at least have atlatl, but maybe they don't have to worry about sranc arrows?

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would you rather have kevlar or full plate? Kevlar is basically cloth and does a damn good job of stopping projectiles. I'd think that enormous layers of billowing robes, while creating a larger target, would foul arrows far more effectively than armor would.

Though do the sranc have arrows? I would think they'd at least have atlatl, but maybe they don't have to worry about sranc arrows?

Well, they are quite effective at slinging poo and other bodily excretions... perhaps they could adapt that into chorea throwing as well.

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It's probably a lot of what Shryke says now that he mentions it.

So multi-layer protection - the Billows keep any Chorae out of the "danger zone" by being, well, big. They use cloth because metal is too heavy for that purpose. It's probably also stiffened for that reason. And then as Shryke says the larger target is a challenge for bowmen who don't know exactly where to aim.

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This is offensive.

There are no textual references to the flinging of poo, and your attempt to conflate such vile creatures as sranc with the chimpanzee population is inappropriate at best and deeply disturbing at worst.

My apologies my simian friend. Certainly I'm sure that their flinging tendencies are limited to the excretions of their pendulous phalli.

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I thought the billows were sorcerous i.e. the sorceror casts a spell that creates gusts of wind that swirl around his body and physically deflect arrows that may be Chorae-tipped.

I think it's how you describe it. They are summoning personal walls of wind.

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I went through and tried to get some more info from WLW (they aren't mentioned in TJE):

The "Nuns," men called them. With their yellow billows--the immense silken gowns they wore as protection against Chorae--wrapped and bound around them, wrapped and bound about them, the Swayali indeed resembled Jokian nuns.

WLW, nook p. 198

Free of the ground, they unbound their billows, spake the small Cant that animated them. The fabric dropped, unfurled in arcs that twined in the glow of the Nuns' arcane voices. One by one the Swayali bloomed, opened like flowers of golden silk, and the men of Ordeal were dumbstruck.

WLW, nook p. 198

With their billows, he explained, the odds were good that any one Chorae strike could be survived, so long as someone uninjured could carry the one struck away from the Horde.

WLW, nook p. 314

The Vokalati never ceased walking the low skies to the immediate north, their lavish billows winding like nested snakes, their mouths and eyes aglow. Kites, the Men of the Circumfix began to call them.

WLW, nook p. 401

The great columns of infantrymen watched with wonder as the sorcerers filed across the flashing sun, their crimson-silk billows hanging like windless flags.

WLW, nook p. 405

That's all the relevant descriptions (there are other mentions). So when not deployed they are wrapped tightly around the body, they are born aloft by some Cant (a Cant used by both Gnostic and Anagogic sorcerers), and they are strong enough only to withstand perhaps a single hit from a Chorae.

It seems the deployed form is basically huge loops of cloth that obscure the sorcerer and block projectiles, but theoretically I guess an arrow could thread between the loops.

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It sounds like the billows keep the chorae from getting close enough to the sorceress to kill her, but she's still be injured or something.

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Does anyone else have a bad feeling that we're not going to get TUC for a long time?

You have to give Bakker credit on how quickly the books have been released, but now I'm fearing a Martinesque delay. He's clearly got other priorities that may be quite understandable, but I am not even that hopeful for 2014 anymore.

Yeah, I started to get that feeling after reading is last blog post concerning TUC. When he stated that the book is writing itself and how because of sells he has to complete his PhD, I knew that we might be in for a wait. Also,, to touch on something from the previous thread. Akka is powerful sorcerer in his own right, in tDtCB he stated how he was a War Cant Master or something along those lines and I believe we are lead to believe that his position within the Mandate would be much higher if it were not for politics.
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[…] I believe we are lead to believe that his position within the Mandate would be much higher if it were not for politics.

I was looking for that passage myself, but didn’t find it. I think it is said that he would be a member of the Quorum.

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I think it is Akka who thinks that, a very flattering portrayal of himself, 'the only reason I have not risen to great heights is the incomprehensible and vulgar political machinations of others, which I am naturally 'above.''

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Yeah, I started to get that feeling after reading is last blog post concerning TUC. When he stated that the book is writing itself and how because of sells he has to complete his PhD, I knew that we might be in for a wait. Also,, to touch on something from the previous thread. Akka is powerful sorcerer in his own right, in tDtCB he stated how he was a War Cant Master or something along those lines and I believe we are lead to believe that his position within the Mandate would be much higher if it were not for politics.

Not so sure about this. The only time we see him fight against a gnostician (as opposed to anagogists) is against Nil'Giccas, where I think it is fair to say he was getting his butt kicked until he got lucky. Agreed that it is unfair to compare a human to an Ishroi, but it's the only one we have. We just don't see much of the gnosis in action except when Achamanian is wielding it (Kelly and Serwe don't really count, being Dunyain).

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Does anyone else have a bad feeling that we're not going to get TUC for a long time?

After Wheel of Time, ASoIaF, Gentlemen Bastards, and uncounted other series I've read with a sizable delay; sadly, I almost expect large gaps to be the norm. :(

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