The Fool (spoilers for all RotE books, including LST)

[ArtanisG]

And does anyone here know if this news is true?
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/fbrbl...ovel-news/

It's true-ish. Robin Hobb may (or may not) be working on a book about Fitz and Fool, but what it is, when it'll appear on our bookshelves, or even if it'll appear is still unknown. We'll know when we know.

See also this thread.

Thank you for the link!
And yes, I do understand that the release itself is an uncertain fact. My major concern was if the quote was real since the link in the post is dead.

Some of us noticed. It may not be mentioned here in this particular thread but we have certainly chatted somewhere about the possibility that Pilkrop could be/have been the Oracle of the Outislanders.

Oh, I'm really glad of that! Sincerely. I'm not being sarcastic.
But isn't he Prilkop? which is spelled similar to a 'priklop' which is 'a connection' in Slovenian

And just to be sure we're speaking about the same abstract in the book - the name of the Oracle of the Outislanders is mentioned in The Goden Fool, in the description of the 3 Outislands places to visit, the second being the cave where the Oracle (who is either forever young or undeniably old, or both as an author of the manuscript speculates) lives and the third being Aslevjal (which is why I assume the cave is not on Aslevjal). And I was speaking of 'a seer or oracle who resided on Aslevjal Island' as described in Fool's Fate (though I must admit the Oracle and the raven-haired woman of Aslevjal sound alike in descriptions).

Just as we have discussed the similar, black-haired Oracle of Others' Island.

I understand now that I read the books too long ago since I don't recall the mentioning of the Oracle... Could you tell me which book is it she is in?

And thank you for the welcoming, Farseer! I'm too shy to take part in discussions here but I enjoy reading them.

Was there a god encompassing both masculine and feminine characteristics? Sa was Mother/feminine. The Outislands worshiped Eda (the goddess of earth) and El (a masculine god of the sea?).....the Motherhouse was a bi-product of Eda making women stronger so El would not be able to dominate them.

I'm afraid the idea of Sa being feminine is incorrect. I'll just quote Wintrow:
"For that matter, consider our religion. Sa, whom we men worship as Father of All, is still Sa when women call on her as Mother of All. Only in Union is there Continuity. It is only in the last few generation that we have begun to separate the halves of our whole, and divide the-"
...aaaand he was interrupted there.
And I always thought there is a connection between Sa and the first Elders El and Eda since the image of sailors calling Sa a 'he' and their wives calling Sa a 'she' is somehow similar to the image of Outislander men praising a masculine god and their women praising a goddess.
And to conclude the off-topic of gods, my guess is that Fitz was talking to Sa when he was almost lost in the Skill-pillar.

As far as I can recall, any mention of gender in White Prophets was that they would come as either male or female. I don't think references to duality were intended to suggest the ability to morph from one to the other or to be both at the same time. Hobb was explaining that White Prophets came in both genders and typically matched to a Catalyst of the opposite gender.

Well, but my point is that this duality is mentioned in comparison with Sa who is both a male and a female and that the duality was mentioned not in connection to a pair of a White Prophet and a Catalyst but to White Prophets only.

As I understand this, White Prophets begin white and darken when they make changes in the world. The Fool was pale (and sickly looking according to Fritz) when he was King Shrewd's fool. Hair and skin darkened to gold and would eventually become black like Prilkop given enough time and change. Even though they live much longer and consequently appear younger for longer periods the White Prophets would not likely be children with black hair.

But the woman of Aslevjal was not a child. Assuming she was Prilkop, there's no contradiction to the theory that the skin color of White Prophets changes with time - or even that it changes depending on the fact if they are fullfiling their destiny of prophets. Prilkop knew he had failed his. Why is it impossible that his/her skin, hair and eyes became darker by the time when Icefyre had been self-buried in ice for decades or centures even?

And one more detail to the color-changing topic:
"...with the old ones, I came here. We were the last ones and we knew it. <...> Then I saw him, not white, but gold. I wondered. Then you came after him. Him I knew, at first glance".
So, for some reason, Prilkop - even recognizing the Fool as the White Prophet - was surprised to see the color of his skin had changed.