Random questions about Liveships (spoilers Farseer, LST and TM)

[Farseer]

Some of these questions are incredibly stupid, I know.

From reading your three posts thus far, Omie, I doubt anything you contributed could be labeled ‘stupid’! Thought-provoking, yes...stupid, no.

But I'm the kind of person who fixates on daft things.

I, too, could be accused of this…

Also, I think these questions are fairly unanswerable to all but the Word of Hobb so I'm only asking for idle fan speculation.

Oh, let me assure you, we HAVE all the answers…it's only the accuracy that could be called into question!

- What would happen if a Liveship that identified most strongly as one sex was given a figurehead carved in the likeness of the other? I'm picturing a beautiful busty creation in wizardwood talking in a deep grufty voice.

Possibly the wood 'tells' or 'suggests' the carver what gender it is to be?

The person who carves it could also be a factor. It is hard to say, not knowing the background of all those who are able to carve wizardwood. As it seems likely that those who carve charms of wizardwood must also be hedge-witches (to key each charm to its user), possibly such magic also allows the carver to call forward whatever gender form the wood should naturally take. At times, it was said of Amber and Fool that the objects they carved could not have been anything else eg a certain piece of wood could not have been anything other than a dolphin, and that was the case just with ‘normal’ wood. How more so would it be with wizardwood? Of course, this would then mean that the carver would most likely choose to carve the figurehead into a dragon form rather than that of a human! Hmm... !!

Still, even if the carver were not a hedge-witch, the wood could still, by virtue of its dragon memories, hint or somehow kind of 'Skill-suggest' to the carver what gender it would have been if it were to have emerged as a dragon as it was meant to? My, there's lots to think about...and I have nothing better to offer at the moment! EDIT: What was I saying about having the answers??

Could two Liveships fall in love? Aww.

As they are fully capable of experiencing the entire spectrum of emotions, I don’t see why not. Love, or even feelings of physical attraction, could stem from either the dragon or the human anmas within the wizardwood. Given that Vivacia and Kennit, and also Bolt and Kennit, were able to share a courtship-like relationship (despite Kennit being more deceitful than loving, due to his hidden agenda!), it is highly likely that liveships could experience feelings of love for each other also.

An underlying theme of the books is that love transcends gender, species, form, time, geography etc so this could also apply to liveships. If they can feel love for beings other than liveships, they could certainly experience the same for one of their own?

Regarding wizardwood: could the contraceptive piercings introduced in the Liveship Traders series 'talk'?

I had the same question and there is a bit of a discussion on this in the Elderling Creations Theory thread.

How would a Liveship feel to one with the Wit sense? It might have said this somewhere in the books but I can't remember.

the old blood is not mentioned anywhere near live ships. I doubt it becuase the ships arnt technically alive.

Actually, Old Blood has ventured into the vicinity of a liveship. Fitz himself, in company with Nighteyes, saw a liveship within Bingtown Harbour during their journey south after the Red Ships War. All that we hear of the experience is that he and Nighteyes considered it a grim magic and it was not one Fitz would ever be comfortable around.

As for liveships not being alive, the simulacra dragons in the Stone Garden were also not technically alive, and yet Fitz and Nighteyes sensed life within them via the Wit?

Although Amber never poured herself into the Paragon the way the Fool did to Girl-On-A-Dragon, she must have left him with quite an imprint. Would the Paragon have felt his old friend slip away when the Fool died?

Hmm…that, too, is an interesting question! I have a niggly doubt that it could be so but it is a possibility, given that Amber had touched Paragon with her ungloved, Skill-imbued fingers (in the same way that she had touched Malta, and Fool had previously touched Fitz – see the Malta thread for more thoughts).

Touching Paragon with her fingers certainly heightened their shared awareness and bond, as did their close relationship as it progressed, but... ...I look forward to my re-read of LST all the more, with yet another thing to keep a look out for! Any Skill-link between Amber and Paragon would most likely be far greater than one possibly shared with Malta but less than the one shared with Fitz? Despite Amber being in close physical proximity to Paragon, particularly when she went ungloved during the lengthy re-carving of Paragon's face phase, Paragon took great care to separate them both to allow Amber to keep her privacy and also so he could keep his/Kennit's secrets safe.

While Fitz did not experience the ‘bubble popping’ sensation of Fool’s death, it would most likely be due to having lost his Skill after eating the elfbark-laden cake. If his Skill had been ‘intact’ or functioning properly at the time, no doubt Fitz would have been fully aware of not only Fool’s death but also the torture that preceded it (in the same way that Fitz became aware of Amber’s difficulty when she fainted aboard Paragon). In a way, Fitz losing his Skill at that time proved to be somewhat of a blessing and it's hard to think that poor Paragon would had to have been witness to all that!

EDIT: I have added a spoiler tag to the thread title.