Elderling Creations Theory (Spoilers through all the books and Dragon Haven)

[Chrischa]

Very good thread! Having just finished Dragon Haven, I guess that the Skill can indeed be given to people at a later age, through dragon blood. How Chade would hate that! It occurred to me that we, as the reader, are now the utmost experts on the Skill because we have all the puzzle pieces, whereas the characters in the books only have the perspective of their own lives and experiences. Not even the Fool has all the knowledge we have been given.

The Skill must also, somehow, exist in liquid form, in the river in Kelsingra. This kind of Skill seems to live on the outside of the body, rather then become part of someone. It can't be the same stuff that gives the Rain Wild River it's acidity, otherwise humans would surely develop a thread of Skill after immersion in it? So where does it come from, and where does it flow to?

I wonder how much the Skill is going to change in the years to come. Already, when they are lost in the 'Skill river', Fitz has encountered a being there that wasn't there before. I first thought that this was Tintaglia but she seems waaaay too kind and caring to be that arrogant dragon. It's also very different from the way she talks to Fitz and Nettle when she stalks them in their Skill-dreams. But if it is Tintaglia, then I'm guessing that in further years the whole Skill-river will become populated with the minds of dragons.
Am I the only one who gripped the book very tightly when Fitz encountered the minds of the ancients ones and of Verity in the Skill-river? That must be where they reside when the stone dragons are asleep. I was very glad to read that, to think that Verity did not just sniff out of self-awareness when his dragon went to sleep.

Next to that I think the amount of people showing an aptitude for the Skill and developing it on their own is going to rise extensively now that dragons are back. Maybe within a few generations, not having any Skill will be the exception.

I think you are very correct in saying that the Elderlings used the Skill to shape the stone around them. I wonder then why Fitz seems to slowly unravel when he is near this stone, why does it affect everybody who has an aptitude for the Skill when they, for example, walk the Skill road? That road is described in that nursery rime; 'Wise Men Came to Jhaapme Town" as the test one must pass to show one is worthy of carving a dragon. The current Skilled ones must miss a vital element of the Skill that the Elderlings did posses.

And last (you can tell I've given this topic a lot of thought already, can't you? ), if the Others are misshapen dragons, one can only guess at the level of frustration, anger and arrogance that must live in them. The mind of a dragon in the body of an abomination. I can very well see how they would have captured She Who Remembers, in their anger and despair that they should have been dragons, they could very easily turn against their own kind, who after all created them and then cast them aside as shameful freaks. They must also have life-spans as long as those of dragons, for there to be any left long after the event that killed of the dragons.

Phew! Every time I think about all this, I'm struck with awe as to the complexity of the story that Robin Hobb has created. To not only create this story but to also puzzle in together in a way that it sits inside no less then nine books, and relies on the reader to put everything together... masterful work!