Others' Island (spoilers all books incl RWC)

['thul]

Most of those are questions that as of yet do not have answers beyond maybe's.

They are most likely able to leave the island, yet they choose not to. As for whether they can breed independently, that is unknown, though probable.

[Farseer]

That leaves the fingernails and we've been racking our brains for some connection between the Others prophecy, the outcome that we know and the fingernails, but couldn't find anything.

We've talked about fingernails to exhaustion but one thing I didn't think about until now is the old wives' tale that recommends the cutting of fingernails to free oneself of having been pecksie-nibbled (see Distribution).

Not sure if that means anything or not BUT a fingernail connection directly from the realm nonetheless !

I just came from reading that part in the wiki:

As the pecksie is thought to not be able to abide garlic, the setting free from a pecksie, or the presumed cure for being pecksie-nibbled, is to place the sufferer on a diet of mint tea and meat cooked in garlic. The daily consumption of this cure, as well as the cutting of the sufferer’s fingernails once long enough, is thought to cause the pecksie to ‘let go’.

:and thought I'd stumbled on to something major...only to discover I've already stumbled onto it all before! ^

EDIT: Not that there is any mention of poison but maybe it has something to do with Pecksies and the poisonous nature of the Skill to humans? All of which I think I discussed here very early on in the piece... END EDIT

Thymara's wings and that use of the fingernail analogy, to describe the bones/tips etc, though. I'm having thoughts that I've come across a few things even from City of Dragons recently so will have to have a re-look there with all of this in mind.

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There's not a lot out there on fingernails in mythology or fantasy but I did just find this from penddraig.co.uk. It is interesting because of the vampire connection of successful garlic consumption to the "pecksie-nibbled", as well as the cutting of fingernails:

In European and Slavic history, fingernails were thought to be one of the tell-tale signs that a corpse was a vampire. Vampires were thought to lose their old nails and grow new ones upon their entry to the vampiric world. An exhumed body that lacked nails or had grown new ones was summarily staked, and very often burned or reburied with garlic to seal the corpse within the ground.

Maybe we've covered this before also. I will have to gove this thread a thorough re-read!!

[Farseer]

It's been a while since I've visited this thread and am not sure why, given it's one of my favourites!

Others' Island appears to have remained totally unaffected by the cataclysm which has displaced and changed so much within the realm. It appears to be unaffected in all ways, not just the geographical aspects. While I have spoken about the memory stone sand, glamour and magic etc of the island, and the role of the Others, in the past, I'm not sure if I've ever posed this question here...

What say you regarding the magic of the Others that the island is shrouded in? Is the magic to protect the Elderling culture/artifacts etc, to protect the Others and the artifacts to ensure continuance of the serpent/dragon/Elderling cycle or to protect the Others who may have had a role in the realm's downfall, or something else? What is the shroud of magic for and who placed it there? Looking forward to your theories!

['thul]

it could be on a separate tectonic plate, or far enough in on another one not to be affected. It could also be "protected" through alternate means like magic, though that is currently impossible to say. it would not appear that it really changed all that much in the plate positions during the RotE cataclysm, the main difference is that one plate (the cursed shore) was submerged, forcing the seas inwards. It could also be that on the far side of the same plate there is a giant glacier, for while much water is locked up in such, several hundred cubic kilometers of ice weigh quite enough to lower a tectonic plate, causing an sum rise in the sea level. The glaciers in the out islands are growing, so as such it would support ice age theory. It is after all only in the years leading up to and to the middle of an ice age that glaciers grow.

The cursed shore & duchies plate could very well stretch thousands of kilometers away from those two regions, leaving plenty of space for glacier(s) large enough to modify sea level. Considering that it takes many generations for wild species to loose a reflex (that to look up before entering a clearing), enough time could have passed to validate the establishment of an ice age.

[Farseer]

. It could also be "protected" through alternate means like magic, though that is currently impossible to say.

I'd have thought 'possible' given that that island is "enshrouded" by the magic of the Others? Though, of course, the magic could be present for another reason, other than protection...eg attraction? I'm going with protection though eg protection of culture/artifacts/memories etc because I want to believe that the Others are going to be good guys...I think...but, if I do that, I have to consider the identity of "the bad guys", though the priests of Sa are my pick for the moment...

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well, its rather natural that malta is considered a queen by "her" dragon... dragons are after all very egoistical... naturally Tintaglia will consider her elderling to be the queen... but how will she react when she encounters sintara's winged elderling?

What is most magnificent? A crested elderling, like has been seen before, or an winged elderling, unlike any elderling before it?

Another thing I don't think I've pointed out here is the woman with butterfly wings that Gankis spoke of when he and Kennit visited Others' Island together at the beginning of SoM - a friend of his dad's had picked her upas his Treasure Beach find. Obviously it is a figurine of an Elderling with wings...

['thul]

not necessarily. butterfly wings are quite different from wings on birds/reptiles/mammals. dragons are warmth-requiring reptiles. while their wings are scaly, the scales are reminiscent of feathers. Insects like butterflies have membrance-based wings.

it could just as easily be of some sort of "fairie" or somesuch (RotE style)

[Farseer]

Yes, yes, you're right...it *could* be.

['thul]

While elderlings are lovely creatures, they aren't behind everything fair in RotE. People believe in all sorts of things not draconic...

[Farseer]

Yup. The quote at the beginning of the Mythical Creatures thread is most definitely evidence of such...

['thul]

Indeed it is.