Oct-19-2010, 02:36 AM (UTC)
(This post was last modified: Oct-19-2010, 02:37 AM (UTC) by Farseer.)
Okay, knowing this can tack on to any number of Skill-related discussions we've all had, I'm plonking it here so I'll know where to find it next time! I'll also apologise that I’m going to be jumping all over the place with my RotE posts in the next little while (when is that ever NOT true 
?!) but I’ve been thinking on a number of subjects for the wiki and have related points to add to the forum as I come up with them. I LOVE talking about the RotE books!
I can’t remember exactly (I don’t have the LST or RWC with me to find the related text) but I’m certain that it’s Tintaglia who mentions seeing stars at the bottom of the well that she and Fitz both came across in Kelsingra...remembering that it was from this well that the liquid Skill was raised up with the windlass and then consumed by the dragons. Though Fitz speaks of stars from the sky being reflected in the black water that flowed through the rift in the earth, the well was full with the liquid Skill when he saw it and so he was unable to see the stars within the well, as Tintaglia did.
While we’ve talked about the Skill River and liquid Skill etc quite a bit on this site, I want to call attention to the stars for a moment, as a special point of interest. Each time I have read the books, it has struck me as exceedingly odd that there were ‘stars’ or 'star-like points of light' within a dark well. What do they signify?
To help us find the answer, another significant place where stars are mentioned is the place where Fitz was ‘caught’ within the Skill-pillars on his way home to Buckkeep from Aslevjal (he was there for a month). He says of his experience with the other presence/being there with him, “I saw eternal blackness and a scattering of lights of varying brightnesses. It was like lying on my back on a tower top and staring up into a summer night. Not that I thought of it that way at the time. At the time, I drifted through stars...A brighter star was there, and I was drawn to it. I could not tell if I got closer to it, or if it approached me...When finally the star was close, I attempted to fasten myself to it...”
I am also finding myself constantly thinking of Time’s Labyrinth, a room that is somewhere within Cassarick, I think, and maybe even waiting to be unearthed by Reyn and company. I can’t remember where this is mentioned but imagine it would either be in the RWC books (most likely as I have not read them as thoroughly) or the LST. I know that it screamed "IMPORTANT!" to me at the time of reading and I am fairly certain that when Time’s Labyrinth was mentioned, it talked about it having a ceiling of stars...and it’s this mention of stars that jumps out at me, as much as the mention of time, seeing as Fool and Fitz have discussed the possibility of a future outside of time. It is also interesting because people experience an existance outside of time when they go through, or are within, the Skill-pillars eg that lovers would flee from parents and be gone a year or a decade etc and return as though only a day had passed for them, but not those they left behind (like what Fitz also experienced). Hmm...there’s definitely a connection here.
Back to the stars though (so easy to get sidetracked!)...
I have lots to chat about with this but the other MAIN point I wanted to jot down for now is that, while the Wit is said to be a bestial magic, the Skill is said to be a celestial magic....and this ‘heavenly’, ‘godly’ or ‘of the sky’ aspect (depending on how one interprets ‘celestial’) possibly adds a firm link between the Skill and stars, and these other points of reference I've made as well?
?!) but I’ve been thinking on a number of subjects for the wiki and have related points to add to the forum as I come up with them. I LOVE talking about the RotE books!I can’t remember exactly (I don’t have the LST or RWC with me to find the related text) but I’m certain that it’s Tintaglia who mentions seeing stars at the bottom of the well that she and Fitz both came across in Kelsingra...remembering that it was from this well that the liquid Skill was raised up with the windlass and then consumed by the dragons. Though Fitz speaks of stars from the sky being reflected in the black water that flowed through the rift in the earth, the well was full with the liquid Skill when he saw it and so he was unable to see the stars within the well, as Tintaglia did.
While we’ve talked about the Skill River and liquid Skill etc quite a bit on this site, I want to call attention to the stars for a moment, as a special point of interest. Each time I have read the books, it has struck me as exceedingly odd that there were ‘stars’ or 'star-like points of light' within a dark well. What do they signify?
To help us find the answer, another significant place where stars are mentioned is the place where Fitz was ‘caught’ within the Skill-pillars on his way home to Buckkeep from Aslevjal (he was there for a month). He says of his experience with the other presence/being there with him, “I saw eternal blackness and a scattering of lights of varying brightnesses. It was like lying on my back on a tower top and staring up into a summer night. Not that I thought of it that way at the time. At the time, I drifted through stars...A brighter star was there, and I was drawn to it. I could not tell if I got closer to it, or if it approached me...When finally the star was close, I attempted to fasten myself to it...”
I am also finding myself constantly thinking of Time’s Labyrinth, a room that is somewhere within Cassarick, I think, and maybe even waiting to be unearthed by Reyn and company. I can’t remember where this is mentioned but imagine it would either be in the RWC books (most likely as I have not read them as thoroughly) or the LST. I know that it screamed "IMPORTANT!" to me at the time of reading and I am fairly certain that when Time’s Labyrinth was mentioned, it talked about it having a ceiling of stars...and it’s this mention of stars that jumps out at me, as much as the mention of time, seeing as Fool and Fitz have discussed the possibility of a future outside of time. It is also interesting because people experience an existance outside of time when they go through, or are within, the Skill-pillars eg that lovers would flee from parents and be gone a year or a decade etc and return as though only a day had passed for them, but not those they left behind (like what Fitz also experienced). Hmm...there’s definitely a connection here.
Back to the stars though (so easy to get sidetracked!)...
I have lots to chat about with this but the other MAIN point I wanted to jot down for now is that, while the Wit is said to be a bestial magic, the Skill is said to be a celestial magic....and this ‘heavenly’, ‘godly’ or ‘of the sky’ aspect (depending on how one interprets ‘celestial’) possibly adds a firm link between the Skill and stars, and these other points of reference I've made as well?
"I am the Catalyst, and I came to change all things. Prophets become warriors, dragons hunt as wolves."
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