Others' Island (spoilers all books incl RWC)

[Farseer]

@ 'thul: I know, yes, and it's the reason why I mostly try to disregard the theory , but it still niggles at me some. I know we talked about this very thing before and someone else said the very same thing to me as you beings have just done!

Though the PW was highly likely not 'the one' who made the decision to imprison SWR, it is possible that she could somehow later connected with those who did, or the one/group who did back in historical times? Maybe she's not. I have to point out that though the Abominations existed long before the Pale Woman did, this does not mean that they have *never* been in her employ or used at some point by her to some advantage. As I said, I doubt it more and more, but it is possible. Actually, darned near anything is possible in this realm!

Forge, as an ironworks, just jumps out at me as the most obvious source for the iron for the bars. While she may not have sourced the iron for the bars herself, there may be some other, possibly related reason why Forge was chosen as her first strike...something other than its random location? Erk! Pale Woman or no, I'm sticking with a connection between iron bars and Forge!

We are talking about it in another thread or, at least, I intend to chat about it following a recent conversation , but the age of the Pale Woman is an interesting topic. She, too, has existed for an 'age' or generations. She went to Aslevjal and, as Prilkop thought her to be the new White Prophet he had been waiting in hope for, he showed her Icefyr'es location. It was then that she took over the Elderling dwelling and Prilkop fled elsewhere on the island. By this stage though, she had already had her 'Catalyst' in tow. How long she had been in operation prior to her appearance in Aslevjal it is hard to say, especially as Fool had been doing things in his WP role long, long before he and Fiz ever crossed paths.

One thing I did not mention here is the priests of Sa. As per my other post, Others' Island is not far from the monastery and, if the priests are Skilled as I believe them to be, they could maybe have even used the Skill Pillars to commute there and fashion the bars? Side note: I think I once may have wondered if the Others themselves could have fashioned them with the Skill? End side note. Or maybe not. They (the priests) may not require the forseeing but they could possibly have employed the Others themselves, to ensure that SWR was not able to lead the serpents to and up the Rain River? I don't expect so though. Just tilling the soil/turning things over for discussion...

Just had a thought...possibly SWR was trapped by the Others to prevent the serpents from heading up the Rain River to their deaths, rather than preventing them going up the Rain River to flourish? I don't think I can believe this either but you never know! As they were charged to look after the eggs laid by dragons, maybe the Others took this on board as well given that dragons were gone from the skies and no eggs were likely to be laid in the near furture. If they were not looking after eggs, maybe they turned their attention to looking after the serpents who remained? If the rest of the realm was changed due to the Cataclysm, maybe the Others were keeping her there until Elderlings had returned to the world and thus then able to fix things for a successful serpent migration? Remembering the serpent and bones etc that greeted Tintaglia as she flew the river, no serpent was ever going to make it if they followed the path of their ancestoral memories, as they'd had to have done without the help of a One Who Remembers? If SWR had been free, she'd likely have led all of the serpents to their deaths. By being imprisoned, the serpents grew restless and hungry and tired and older but still they survived and many were finally able to make it to the cocooning grounds later.

Hmm...of course, the Others could just as easily have explained all of this to SWR who could have then gone on to warn the serpents rather than wrongly lead them upriver. Ah, well, it sounded slightly feasible (?) for a while there...

Though able to use glamour etc, maybe the Others could not experience ancestoral memories as they could have in dragon form and so simply made those memories of SWR their own? Maybe they missed their dragon kin?

In a tangle, as always...

EDIT: I'm in favour of the Others being heroes.