May-09-2010, 01:06 PM (UTC)
Still more points in favour of Fitz and Tintaglia’s city being Kelsingra, though sorry for flogging this thread!
In Dragon Keeper, Mercor says, "I'd like to drink deeply of the silvery wells of Kelsingra."
Mercor mentions no other city with these wells...not Cassarick, Fengong or any of the other Elderling cities within the realm. This tells me that Kelsingra was the ONLY city to have a well of silver substance, as does this passage when Sintara went on to dream about Kelsingra:
“There was a well there, a well deeper than the river that bordered the city. A bucket dropped into its depths sank past ordinary water to a deeper river of a most extraordinary substance. Even a tiny amount of it was dangerously intoxicating for an Elderling and possibly fatal for a human. But dragons could drink from it.”
Obviously the Rain River had, at one time, run clear, as this would have been the source of drinking water for the Elderlings and humans who had lived in/near Kelsingra (as well as Fengong and Cassarick etc). They certainly couldn’t have ingested the silver substance or the murky Rain River water if it had existed in its present form. It is also interesting that the silver substance was dangerously intoxicating for an Elderling, in the same way that “the Skill” itself is dangerously intoxicating eg Fitz and Verity proved this true.
In this, I believe that it IS the silver liquid of the Skill that has turned the river water murky/white. In turn this has caused the water to become dangerous for consumption and/or touch, particularly for humans (though the dragons, too, felt the effects of its toxicity at times). That this would also then mean that those who had somehow come in contact with the water would take on elements of Skill seems to have actually been proven true in that those “strongly touched by the Rain Wilds” often had a heightened sensitivity to the liveships or the dragons themselves (and hence the Skill, Wit or whatever). At the very least, these ones were more susceptible to an increase in their own sensitivity eg Reyn, Leftrin, all keepers who were more "touched" than most etc. Most who journey to the Cursed Shores experience an increase in ‘dreams’ and this may be from coming into contact with the Skill via the Skill-imbued river water eg Fitz is Skilled and therefore able to Skill dream normally but even Fitz himself noted the danger of the increased dreams he experienced while in the region with Nighteyes (when he seriously contemplated suicide).
Another thought is the lack of life along the Skill Road and around other Skill-wrought objects...this reflects the lack of life in the entire region of the shoreline that comes in contact with the Rain River etc that Fitz retold to Fool from his journey to the Cursed Shores. We were told in AQ, by Kettle I think, that Skill-imbued hands should not touch anything that is living as it would mean death. This is also true of those touched by the Rain Wilds (or the Rain River water which runs with liquid from the Skill Rover) as they live short lives in comparison to those not so exposed. They die young, unless given Elderling status...
Sintara continues: “An Elderling woman, gowned in green and gold, turned the crank on the windlass of a well, and brought up a bucket full of gleaming silver drink.”
This is the same windlass that Fitz saw in AQ (Fitz actually ‘saw’ it in operation) and that Tintaglia then destroyed in SOD due to her frustration in not being able to drink the silver liquid as she had remembered (at one point she thought she saw silver at the bottom). Worthy to also note were the colours worn by the Elderling woman...green and gold...wasn’t She Who Remembers a green/gold colour? Yet another little connection or yet another coincidence?!
Returning to Sintara - as she dreams of drinking the silver substance, she says it was “filling her heart with song and her mind with poetry”. This sounds very minstrel-like and also like Thick’s Skill-talent which manifested itself in song...possibly the enjoyment experienced from this type of poetic/melodious state via the Skill River was why dragons also enjoyed the poetry and music of minstrels, who were subsequently rewarded with a place within the Rooster Crown?
Sintara also recalled that “A fine road of smooth black stone bordered one side of the river, with tributary paths and by-ways wandering out to the more rural districts.”
I understand this to mean the Skill Road that Fitz and co travelled along, and that Tintaglia also noted as she flew above Kelsingra.
Three cheers to Chrischa for her previous post which touched on some of these same points of interest – it was BRILLIANT, Chrischa, and reflected many of my own questions and thoughts!
In Dragon Keeper, Mercor says, "I'd like to drink deeply of the silvery wells of Kelsingra."
Mercor mentions no other city with these wells...not Cassarick, Fengong or any of the other Elderling cities within the realm. This tells me that Kelsingra was the ONLY city to have a well of silver substance, as does this passage when Sintara went on to dream about Kelsingra:
“There was a well there, a well deeper than the river that bordered the city. A bucket dropped into its depths sank past ordinary water to a deeper river of a most extraordinary substance. Even a tiny amount of it was dangerously intoxicating for an Elderling and possibly fatal for a human. But dragons could drink from it.”
Obviously the Rain River had, at one time, run clear, as this would have been the source of drinking water for the Elderlings and humans who had lived in/near Kelsingra (as well as Fengong and Cassarick etc). They certainly couldn’t have ingested the silver substance or the murky Rain River water if it had existed in its present form. It is also interesting that the silver substance was dangerously intoxicating for an Elderling, in the same way that “the Skill” itself is dangerously intoxicating eg Fitz and Verity proved this true.
In this, I believe that it IS the silver liquid of the Skill that has turned the river water murky/white. In turn this has caused the water to become dangerous for consumption and/or touch, particularly for humans (though the dragons, too, felt the effects of its toxicity at times). That this would also then mean that those who had somehow come in contact with the water would take on elements of Skill seems to have actually been proven true in that those “strongly touched by the Rain Wilds” often had a heightened sensitivity to the liveships or the dragons themselves (and hence the Skill, Wit or whatever). At the very least, these ones were more susceptible to an increase in their own sensitivity eg Reyn, Leftrin, all keepers who were more "touched" than most etc. Most who journey to the Cursed Shores experience an increase in ‘dreams’ and this may be from coming into contact with the Skill via the Skill-imbued river water eg Fitz is Skilled and therefore able to Skill dream normally but even Fitz himself noted the danger of the increased dreams he experienced while in the region with Nighteyes (when he seriously contemplated suicide).
Another thought is the lack of life along the Skill Road and around other Skill-wrought objects...this reflects the lack of life in the entire region of the shoreline that comes in contact with the Rain River etc that Fitz retold to Fool from his journey to the Cursed Shores. We were told in AQ, by Kettle I think, that Skill-imbued hands should not touch anything that is living as it would mean death. This is also true of those touched by the Rain Wilds (or the Rain River water which runs with liquid from the Skill Rover) as they live short lives in comparison to those not so exposed. They die young, unless given Elderling status...
Sintara continues: “An Elderling woman, gowned in green and gold, turned the crank on the windlass of a well, and brought up a bucket full of gleaming silver drink.”
This is the same windlass that Fitz saw in AQ (Fitz actually ‘saw’ it in operation) and that Tintaglia then destroyed in SOD due to her frustration in not being able to drink the silver liquid as she had remembered (at one point she thought she saw silver at the bottom). Worthy to also note were the colours worn by the Elderling woman...green and gold...wasn’t She Who Remembers a green/gold colour? Yet another little connection or yet another coincidence?!
Returning to Sintara - as she dreams of drinking the silver substance, she says it was “filling her heart with song and her mind with poetry”. This sounds very minstrel-like and also like Thick’s Skill-talent which manifested itself in song...possibly the enjoyment experienced from this type of poetic/melodious state via the Skill River was why dragons also enjoyed the poetry and music of minstrels, who were subsequently rewarded with a place within the Rooster Crown?
Sintara also recalled that “A fine road of smooth black stone bordered one side of the river, with tributary paths and by-ways wandering out to the more rural districts.”
I understand this to mean the Skill Road that Fitz and co travelled along, and that Tintaglia also noted as she flew above Kelsingra.
Three cheers to Chrischa for her previous post which touched on some of these same points of interest – it was BRILLIANT, Chrischa, and reflected many of my own questions and thoughts!
"I am the Catalyst, and I came to change all things. Prophets become warriors, dragons hunt as wolves."
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