King of Swords 1-6
UN-Medam is the chief of the gods of law. He has a staff so heavy no man or god can lift it, except for Medam himself. Medam does not lift the staff, even though he could. It is a terrible thing, banded with iron and hewn from a twig of the Flaying Tree, a thousand miles long and weighing four hundred million tons. The mere presence of the staff is enough to make the most hardened demon quake. If Medam must call order in the court he merely lifts it a millimeter off the floor and lets it drop, letting forth a mighty shockwave that crumbles mountains, flattens buildings, and causes gods and their servants to topple off their feet for twenty miles around.
If one is to understand the law of the gods, you must understand this: Medam does not need to lift his staff.
– The Song of Maybe
The gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Solomon calling Zaid “boy” reminds me of White Chain calling Alison “girl” in Book 1. I wonder what other parallels we’ll see as White Chain starts training her (and presumably as Solomon starts training or grooming Zaid).
Okay, so did some of Mammon’s family survive? That looks like a baby Kindly Folk to me in the market. I thought he genocided the race, save himself?
No, he didn’t commit genocide. Just fratricide. Mammon killed his *immediate* family. His species is alive and well, and to be seen everywhere in this comic. They haven’t been hiding.
No, just his family.
“Mammon, who bought his key. Who had all o’ his kin murdered, to protect his hoard”. I think by kin they mean immediate family.
No, he only killed his direct relatives. The rest of his race is still around.
Only his family.
IIRC, he genocided his “clan”, not the whole race. Atleast, that’s what I remember.
Just his living relatives.
No, he only killed his immediate family, or maybe whatever group he was part of, his ‘brothers’ as he called them. We’ve seen members of his race throughout the comic.
strange.
why does this world look primitive. and i don’t mean from a “different culture does things differently” type perspective. i mean from a rational perspective. this looks like a culture that value logic and reason and efficiency, so why then do they use such inefficient primitive technology?
i have a theory, they are cursed with magic. human nature is such that we will take the laziest rout to achieve our ends. thus when magic exists and presents such an easy means, it is always the option of choice. our world, a mere single world, is comparable and arguably surpassed this world in development, yet they “saddle countless worlds” and this is their magnificence? A city that if place on out world, would be beautiful make no mistake, but would not be abnormal.
A civilization denied magic is forced to unravel the physics of their world. to achieve laziness humanity must first conquer the physical properties of the universe. with magic, this motivation is lost, without it, progress is the only choice.
Efficiency is a benefit when in competition. If a world is prosperous and leisurely, then a pleasurable experience is more important than efficiency. Sails and pack animals are more elegant and less noisy than than supertankers and SUVs.
It looks that way because it looks cool.
Or perhaps an over-reliance on technology leads to a poorer quality of life, and thus they have wilfully eschewed it? From what we have seen of multiversal society, it does not seem as if they are lacking in understanding of the basis of reality. More than that, the physical and metaphysical logic of each universe differs; who is to say that technology as we understand it is even possible in this world?
Moreover, technology is but a tool for living well, and efficiency is not necessarily (or even usually) the main consideration in achieving that end. It is a kind of chauvinism on your part to assume the superiority of your way of life. Though you say you are judging them primitive from a ‘rational’ perspective, it seems to me that you have simply taken your preconceived notions of what is primitive and what is civilised, and what is good and of utility, and via post hoc rationalisation, cast those notions as being reasoned from first principles, and universally applicable to all societies. A fallacy if I’ve ever seen one.
Mosghos is observant.
I dunno. We saw that smoking island a few comics ago; I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where all their heavy industry was located, to keep the area around the palace nice and clean and pretty.
Technology lessens our reliance on gods. Reliance on a god is the entire point of the exercise.
And yet, are we not cursed with technology? Perhaps Solomon-David has the foresight to see how the widespread use of technology could harm people. In addition, magic *is* the physics of their world.
Exactly! I have been having this conversation for a few years lately.
Fortunately, the answer is found! Have the magic oppose its own existence. Then the gods are satisfied, because it takes effort to understand. That said, you need some lawkeepers to keep the magic controlled.
Magic is truly lazy in so many ways. But sometimes it is the only way to do a thing. In many universes, trying to technologically resurrect someone is rather unlikely (read fucking impossible without help); doing it magically not that hard, simply costly in energy and recovery time.
I view it as a hindering brought on by excess splendor. They is no strife on this world so their is no need for advancement.
Also I feel like SD likes his people content, happy and meek
I hope Zaid doesn’t end up as an Anakin/Kylo Ren kind of character, ie. troubled, immature young man goes bad for logically questionable reasons.
So far the character development in this series has always rung true and well though.
Yep, I was thinking that an obvious trajectory is an Alli/Zaid boss death match, which as you say would be a bit too obvious. But given how well things have unfolded so far, I think we can trust that something better and less expected will be coming.
A 400 million metric tonne weight dropped 1 mm in Earth’s gravity releases the energy equivalent of around a tonne of TNT.
Love the double shadows.
“Dude, I just told you that I – I personally – put two – two, not one – two suns in the sky and you’re surprised I don’t have guards? Who do you think could guard me better than myself? Who do you think I need to guard against?”
I don’t see his commonwealth lasting another 100 pages.
“This commonwealth will last ten thousand years more.”
M’kaaay. So, I give it a week. Tops.
The person in the wide-brimmed hat with the red ribbon, are they following them?
So, a demiurge who is apparently ruling well. Where’s the fly in the ointment? Or is the real problem that only his power and force of personality are holding it together? His councilors especially seem like they would tear each others’ throats out to get more power.
Weary like Alexander.
This guy now confirmed to be positively full of himself.
I must say, though, I love the piece about UN-Medam’s staff.
Stop whining, Zaid, and learn something.
i wanna peep Zaid’s adventures since his abduction, i’m curious as a billion felines.
These eyes of mine spot fear in his servant’s eyes, the one of the white lines. Methinks it isn’t accustomed as a town but instead bred to nervous submission. Punishment is free here, yes?
medam is a cream puff
in lukewarm water
half his staff
falling a millimeter
merely gives birth
to 1 ton of TNT’s power
Thanks for taking the time to discuss that, I feel strongly about this and so really like getting to know more on this kind of field. Do you mind updating your blog post with additional insight? It should be really useful for all of us.
What would you give for a hot bowl of noodles right now?
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