Small, random questions about RotE that still bother you (spoilers all RotE books)

['thul]

The thing that 'thul wonders more about is where did Tintaglia & Icefyre take up residence after well hooking up?

They did not go to the rain wilds. That much is obvious. Nor did they go to another known southern location...

Did they go to the duchies? or the mountain kingdoms? or the out islands? or somewhere else?

[Farseer]

Born and raised in Chalced, Burrich became a Chalcedean soldier when his mother and grandmother died of the Blood Plague. When a campaign was lost, he was captured and spent almost a year in slavery until he was finally able to escape to the Shoaks in the Six Duchies (Chapter Two of AQ).

While he must have somehow maintained possession of his grandmother's freedom earring throughout his entire time in slavery, to still have it to later pass on to Chivalry, I find it interesting that he somehow escaped being marked with a slave tattoo...

[Farseer]

Why is Fitz so affected by Smoke?

[Farseer]

I know I promised it would be a while before I next posted BUT I can't help it...I LOVE these books, and this site !

Was there ever a reason given WHY the hulls of the Red-Ships were painted red, other than an obvious one, like, that the PW liked red?

I know the ships all looked exactly the same and this made it difficult for Fitz, Verity etc to determine how they were going with decreasing the size of the fleet: "We could not even put an accurate number to the Red-Ships that plagued us, for they were painted identically, and as like as peas in a pod."

[Rendezvous]

Was there ever a reason given WHY the hulls of the Red-Ships were painted red, other than an obvious one, like, that the PW liked red?

I assumed it was for the similarity, but also for imagery. To me it was like theyde rn there ships through people and coated them with blood, or has sailed through a sea of blood before they arrived at the Six Duchies. The imagery is good, so why not paint them red?

[redchild]

Yeah funny as you'd think that because the PW is white, all the ships would be painted white (like the one that held the memory stone.)

The fact that they are all identical to another is also rather mysterious. No designs or heraldry to mark them at all. Perhaps it is because the PW didn't want any recognizable symbols attached to her army. And the color red probably reflects their psychological mindset in how the Red-Ship soldiers are so single-minded in their pursuit to destroy with, as Rendezvous said, violence and bloodlust.

[Farseer]

With nothing else to go on, I have to agree that it must just be due to the imagery etc. Still, as you mentioned redchild, it's all rather mysterious!

We talked about colours in the Others Island thread, I think, but just on red...in Chapter Seven, "An Assignment", of AA, there is a reference to strange men with red and black teeth. Fitz is comparing Burrich to them after he (Burrich) shaved his head etc when grieving for Chivalry:

"..it made him look very strange, stranger even than the forest men who came to town with their hair stuck down with pitch and their teeth dyed red and black. Children stared at those wild men and whispered to one another behind their hands as they passed..."

Who were these men? Were they just "strange" citizens of Buck or did they have some significance, either for good or ill? If so, could they even have been helpers for the Pale Woman somehow? No doubt she had other people in the SD who assisted her besides ones like Henja, Regal etc? Hmm...I can't find any other reference to them in any of the books so they are a bit of an unknown!! Any ideas?

[Farseer]

I'm kind of thinking the "other one" that was broken was someone else they had tried to train as an assassin but who had failed the task(s).

I still believe this "other one" who was broken was Chivalry (link to post #4 , my discussion on page one of this thread). To add weight to my previous reasonings, in Chapter Seven of AA "An Assignment", Chade is talking to Fitz about Chiv after he has died. Fitz has asked Chade how he would know anything of Chivalry and Chade replies:

"I've known him all of his life. I've ... worked with him. Many times. Hand in glove as the saying goes."

Chade and Fitz then go on to discuss the relationship between diplomacy and assassinations, suggesting that Chade and Chivalry worked closely together, often in a similar manner in which Chade and Fitz did re the diplomacy road that Fitz chose when it came to Lady Grace, rather than deciding to remove her from the scene, was something that ended up being more than a little Chivalry-like. In fact, Chivalry himself had also previously spoken of the watchtowers as being his "best and dearest jewels" during a diplomatic visit to a lesser keep somewhere (see a discussion with Burrich in AA, Chapter Four, "Apprenticeship").

While it is very doubtful that Chivalry was ever Chade's true "apprentice" as such, particularly as he was the heir to the throne after all, it is highly likely that Chade taught Chivalry much of what was taught to Fitz and even later, Dutiful. Being a bastard, Fitz could be apprenticed by Chade but Chivalry and Dutiful could only ever have been officially "mentored"...but they amount to pretty much the same thing in my opinion? Chade would have had the same role in all of their lives, despite the difference in labelling?

[Mervi]

But how then was Chiv "broken"? I always assumed that word here meant things with this apprentice didn't go well, he or she couldn't handle the pressure of being tested by Shrewd and lost his/her mind or betrayed the king or something awful happened. I realise now the word could also mean "broken" like when you "break in" a wild horse, ie, teach the horse that it must obey humans.

Hmm.

[Rendezvous]

But how then was Chiv "broken"? I always assumed that word here meant things with this apprentice didn't go well, he or she couldn't handle the pressure of being tested by Shrewd and lost his/her mind or betrayed the king or something awful happened. I realise now the word could also mean "broken" like when you "break in" a wild horse, ie, teach the horse that it must obey humans.

Hmm.

I though of this in a very different sense. I assumed that Chivalry 'broke' or 'snapped' causing him to lash out and marry Patience instead of continuing to blindly do as he was told.