Blood of Dragons discussion thread - SPOILERS, obvs

[Farseer]

mmmmmmm, I realised I hadn't properly addressed your query about the removal of the skill silver from Fitz meaning that his task was possibly ended:

No. Fitz was Changer prior to Fool's touch and he remained so after the removal of the fingerprints. If anything, as per Fool's own words, he was possibly even more so capable of the role after he had been made 'whole' once more...change was swirling all around him.

[astagg]

Didn't the silver on Fitz merely fade in colour more than went away? Am I forgetting something later in the books where it completely went?

Am also thinking the way Mercor brought up the silver and Tintaglia not (not in our view anyway) is more down to his more inquisitive nature, he seems to think everything through more than any other dragon. Tintaglia went crazy and destroyed the well when she couldn't get any silver rather than think I could go get Ryan/Malta/Seldon to get me some. Saying that at the time she hadn't taken them on as Elderlings yet and wouldn't deem it dragon worthy to carry one all that way but still highlights her more immediate nature.


Also finished the book in the week but didn't have a chance to come back here.

Joost I feel exactly the same about Rapskal, I was praying he would be the sole casualty from the one day war. Talking about Rapskal I think it will be interesting to see how the leadership develops within the elderlings, I think given their heritage a council of some sort will be likely (will the humans be allowed in it). More interesting will be Rapskal vs King/Queen Ryan/Malta.


Lastly anyone else think in the penultimate chapter with Tamymara and Tats walking around in the hills they were gonna come across the stone dragons, that would have been interesting. Would they have awoken any....


Oh one more thing (sorry had too much building up in my brain) I know I have seen a few discussion about the magics in the northern people (six duchies and out islands) and their origin. I think it must be clear they are some sort of descendent of the old elderlings. I guess the main questions are why are they not marked/changed.

There are two things I am thinking, one is that some of the last elderlings and dragons managed to change their children to be unmarked knowing that this would be the only way to continue their race/families without dragons in the world. The other could be kinda the opposite to what happens in the Trehaug. In Trehaug the humans manage to kinda survive with the unmanaged changes due to luck in numbers more than anything (lots of failed births some survive). Could the opposite have happened with the surviving elderlings, a couple of surviving births without the dragons. These would have be unmarked/unchanged or progressively over the generations also mixing in with normal humans.

Its also worth mentioning the magics have clearly been split (can't remember all the magics in the realm but there was the note on the circle of magics in one book). These must all have come from the elderlings but not all descendents kept all their magics, this seems to have developed to those that have kept a magic being stronger in that magic (at least to how we see our current elderlings developing/memories of old).


Sorry its a few different discussions all in one post, if anyone knows of more relevant threads to continue individual topics I would be pleased to continue there (although probably once more people have the new book to avoid spoilers)

[Farseer]

Didn't the silver on Fitz merely fade in colour more than went away? Am I forgetting something later in the books where it completely went?

I believe that while the silver colour did fade over time (through the years covered from the end of AQ until the end of FF), Fool took back the fingerprints, leaving bare skin, just prior to Fitz being caught in the Skill-pillars on his way to Buckkeep from Aslevjal.

EDIT: Just went and had a quick look...you'll find it in Fool's Fate, in Chapter Thirty-Four 'Commitments'. Will come back and quote it fully when I can, in case you don't have the book with you. END EDIT

Sorry its a few different discussions all in one post, if anyone knows of more relevant threads to continue individual topics I would be pleased to continue there (although probably once more people have the new book to avoid spoilers)

There are a few other threads, astagg, but, as ever, we always eventually speak about everything in every thread so, as you say, it doesn't hurt to dump it all in one while waiting for others to finish reading BoD. I know that I have bumped a couple of threads today but that's mainly to get people thinking about things prior to reading it or after just having read it eg your War with Chalced thread.

Lots of other things to chat about in response to your post when I can get back...and lots of other posts besides!

[Wolfang]

Finished reading BoD just now, still kinda in the numb post-reading phase and have nothing to add right now

[theurgh]

I always wanted to know what happened to serpent Shreever. Did I miss something?

[joost]

My answer was removed due to a database restore, so here it is again (merged with an answer by Astagg):

The fate of very few serpents is known. The known ones are:
Sessurea - The hull became part of Tarman
Sisarqua - Sintara
Maulkin - Mercor (not officially confirmed, but there are many clues that this is the case)
Kelaro - Kalo

Unfortunately the Wiki is down atm due to maintenance work, but IIRC the serpent names are recorded in a wiki article named 'Dragons and their keepers'. A cached version (by Google) can be found here.

[theurgh]

One would assume that as one of main POV characters she would be at least mentioned and her fate explained. But there is nothing. I doubt she is dumb Heeby. So she probably perished in her case.

I don´t understand it at all..

Mercor is Maulkin for sure.

[Valarya]

I finished the book a week or more ago, but have been way too busy to stop by here for a decent 'chat' about it. I want to go ahead and reply to a few things from pages 1 and 2 since I already have a long list of quotes here and all the posts on page 3 are just incredibly long, hahah.

What Farseer feels about Molly, I feel about Rapskal. He's an utter arse.

See, I had translated the entire Blood of Dragons dutch discussion a long time back and saw you discussing how much of an ass you though Rapskal was. This is where I might ruin myself a bit with spoilers, because I kept waiting for him to be a major ass the whole book. But it never happened, for me at least.

I like what she did with his character, showing the ability that you could completely soak up another person's essence and memories just by experiencing SOME memories from their life. It isn't Rapskal's fault that he chose a prior-Warrior. And if you think about all the ways Tellator behaved, they were probably acceptable and normal for someone in his esteem and position to behave and speak back when the city was originally alive and Elderlings existed. It only seems so 'rude' now because it's out of the current time.

I find it interesting how the dragons kept mentioning that their contact with humans changed them.

Tintaglia's in for a surprise when some of her eggs hatch, methinks.

I don't think it would be a surprise for any of the dragons to see a mutant hatchling. That's what the Others are on Other's island. They're so deformed that the dragons are embarrassed of them and make them remain there as we learned much earlier.

What struck me was that Mercor could sense the silver touch on Malta. Should Tintaglia have sensed it on Fitz when she visted for Dutiful's wedding, presuming they came into some sort of contact?

If you recall, memory of the Silver was a hazy thing for these dragons. They knew there was SOME reason Kelsingra existed and something there they wanted/needed... but it took quite some time before they remembered Silver. I'm sure Tintaglia just hadn't remembered it.

It was Tintaglia who gifted Amber with the Elderling robe and tent which Lord Golden/Beloved used while on Aslevjal.

Are you sure? I just assumed he got the robe and tent (and other things) from the pirate-cache they all found in the Rain Wilds via Paragon's memory...

One thing is certain. Actually this is one of the things that I will be adding to the Malta thread (!), *but* where Fool's silver touch on Malta prompted her to change physically (it was from that point on her neck that Elderling scaling began on Malta), it did not for Fitz. For all of the years that he had carried those marks on his skin, never did they develop into scaling. Curious is it not? Nor did either Verity or Kettle scale at any point despite being lathed in silver from the Skill River itself. Why?

In addition to your theory of the 'higher calling' of being a Farseer, I think it mainly has to do with this one very obvious thing:
- Malta was born around the magic of the Rain Wilds from parents who were born around the magic of the RW... the thing that typically transforms humans there. Fitz did not come from that lineage and hasn't spent a large quantity of time there. In fact, he only visited Bingtown and didn't venture too far up the river.

['thul]

'thul finally decided to read it. took them about 8-10 hours. Good book. Much more content than CoD.

Sooner or later, there is always war with Chalced.

[Wolfang]

What struck me was that Mercor could sense the silver touch on Malta. Should Tintaglia have sensed it on Fitz when she visted for Dutiful's wedding, presuming they came into some sort of contact?

If you recall, memory of the Silver was a hazy thing for these dragons. They knew there was SOME reason Kelsingra existed and something there they wanted/needed... but it took quite some time before they remembered Silver. I'm sure Tintaglia just hadn't remembered it.

Yet was it not Tintaglia who destroyed the well after having discovered the silver in kelsingra was out of her reach? (My memory is hazy on this point)