SPOILERS FARSEER/TAWNY MAN BOOKS - Moonseye

[Farseer]

Just bumping this thread as I know fool-ish is in the midst of an AQ re-read and so may have stumbled across something of import to the discussion here.

No pressure to contribute though, fool-ish, especially as you seem to have already made your way beyond Moonseye and are now trudging your way along the Skill Road! EDIT: Oops. Just re-read your post in another thread and have realised you've finished altogether!

[fool-ish]

This thread is fascinating and frustrating me all at the same time! You folks are finding things that have passed me by, even on a re-read, though some of it is probably in TM which is just about to get it's second outing. However, it doesn't alter the fact that I'm not paying attention as I should and that this failing needs to be rectified asap! Pfft! I'm living up to my username methinks

I'll contribute something useful one of these days...

[Farseer]

At the very beginning of AA, when Fitz is first taken to Moonseye, he notes the doors of the fortified building that is the base for the Buck guards. He says,

"The doors were tall, not just to a six-year-old boy, but tall enough to admit giants, to dwarf even the rangy old man who towered over me. And they looked strange to me, although I cannot summon up what type of door or dwelling would have looked familiar."

Given that Fitz has talked about giants as being part of Six Duchies folklore (I have noted this passage down in the Mythical Creatures/Folks thread), and knowing that Moonseye is at the foot of Mountain Kingdom land (possibly north of which is where I think we will soon discover resides, or once did reside, giants of some kind), would it be too much of a stretch to wonder if these doors were made to accomodate literal giants (as could be hinted at in this passage)? I doubt that they would accommodate dragons, as they don't sound anywhere near as immense as the doors that Fitz saw in Kelsingra?

Giants will be somewhere in the future plot (I know it!), and possibly even had a role in the cataclysm, so I am looking for 'giant' clues!!

I can sympathise with Fitz from the times he played the Stone Game and looked at specifics rather than the 'whole picture'...it seems that I get so hung up on certain things here on thePlenty that I forget to look at the whole board. Yes, Farseer, you do!

As much as I would really like for these doors to be large enough to admit giants, possibly they are larger than normal so as to admit Elderlings who are generally a tall or giant-like folk when compared with humans (?), but who would possibly have often worked hand-in-hand with humankind in a location such as Moonseye?

[joost]

I doubt Moonseye is old enough to be built before the demise of the elderlings. Perhaps the doors were just built to be impressive.

[Farseer]

Of course!! Now there's a tiny detail I hadn't thought to pick up on at all, even with my 'giant' theories!

In the face of such a thought, I'd like to cease this 'obsessing about doors thing' that I have going on BUT it itches and I therefore have to scratch.

Hmm. Mooneye's age. I think Moonseye was used as an important military outpost prior to the treaty and opening of trade relations but, other than that, I can't recall that we were given too much of its history to suggest that it could have been around in the time of the Elderlings (other than my pulling at straws with the doors business!). I'd suspect that, at the very least, the building that Fitz entered with the large doors would have been there as part of the old outpost. Some other buildings may have also been there but possibly the majority of other homes/buildings etc could have been built later, in line with population growths due to the increased trade over time?

As for the possibility of the building having stood back in the time of the Elderlings and prior to the Cataclysm... *thinking, thinking* Okay, what about *Dragon Haven spoiler*

Spoiler

the shepherd's hut that Alise and Leftrin moved into? It is situated on the opposite side of the river from Kelsingra. It is still intact, and sounds quite humbly made as possibly befits a working human of those times, living beside the grand city that accommodates Elderlings and dragons, as well as humans? The hut sits near/within the site of a town that still shows a hundred/or hundreds (?) of foundations as well as some buildings that still stand erect. I think the other keepers also slept in some of these old dwellings.

I would expect that all of these still-standing buildings have stood the test of time since prior to the Cataclysm, and not been built since? It's difficult to say what standard the others were in but I remember Leftrin and Alise's hut was in quite good condition, despite the wooden door no longer being there?

If these buildings still stand after so long, could Moonseye also have been built in those days and still be standing/functional, particularly as Moonseye is relatively out of the way and therefore unlikely to have sustained too much of the damage that was caused by the Cataclysm? It would also have been lived in and maintained over the years by the soldiers etc who have been posted there.

[Farseer]

Here goes Farseer, harping on about Moonseye again. What can I say? It captures my imagination!

Its significance niggles at me. It is more important than what it appears, I am *certain* of it. Even its name screams "I'm important" to me:

Moons = celestial body/bodies with the Skill being a celestial magic
Eye = organ used for 'seeing' and thus a possible other connection to the Skill

There is more to Blue Lake as well but I am still to get back here long enough to explain all of that...!

[Norma J.]

Here goes Farseer, harping on about Moonseye again. What can I say? It captures my imagination!
Moons = celestial body/bodies with the Skill being a celestial magic
Eye = organ used for 'seeing' and thus a possible other connection to the Skill

How about the 'moon's eye' pendant in Blood of Dragons? It was related to the skill reservoir/well.

[joost]

To moon is to show your bottom. So moon's eye is....

[mmmmmmm]

To moon is to show your bottom. So moon's eye is....