Difference between revisions of "Talk:Ikulu's Lament"

Revision as of 03:58, 8 September 2005

I know how she feels.

Regarding a discussion tcm and I had not too many days ago: Hedamu does not equal Habogad. We do know who Hedamu is, however, or at least his descendant. JC knows.

Tcm also mentioned that there was some evidence that Gunther's spear was *the* spear that must be used to transfix the enemy. What is it?

Perhaps one note of optimism: however the enemy was defeated previously, it was without Ikulu's aid. There are others who would oppose the Octopuses, or have done so in the past. Ikulu's List, plus the names of power, plus the Book of Moons -- that's one way to do it. It might not be the only way. Or even the expedient way.

Poor Ikulu. She may have wasted her prodigious life barking up the wrong tree. -- Noah 23:03, 5 Sep 2005 (EDT)

We should probably keep in mind that Ikulu differentiates between the enemy (Tailed People), their gods and their gods' gods. My theory on the enemy of the enemy is that they are either "beyond" the Ganges (which Alexander the Great was not able to conquer) or, maybe even better, the Sarasvasti River, a river of mythical importance which dried up around 2000 BC. A dried up river makes a really good candidate for a river of stones. --ET 23:26, 5 Sep 2005 (EDT)

tcm: yeah, Hedamu does not equal Habogad. is this descendant the stylite? if it is, Jean-Claude has told us about him.

re: the spear as *the* spear: if you remember, a fragment from one of the Black Cube Poems was given to Ivan by the Duchess Anna Ivanovna as his gift while everyone else was getting super-awesome crazy magic things. the spear became much more important when the rest of this poem was found on a cube in a dungeon that Igwolf had built. Ikulu's Lament mentions that the spear needs to be dipped in lava in order to unlock its full potential (while also burning the dipper's hand very severely). again, we're not certain yet, but the eight ball says it's very likely.

Hedamu is not human. If JC has forgotten the specifics, reading Ido's note again may refresh his memory. -- Noah 10:22, 6 Sep 2005 (EDT)

tcm: oh! you mean the dragon on Mt. Ararat. yeah, JC's mentioned that too, and in fact that does make sense. if Noah is Deucalion (which he is), then Hedamu would be near his boat on Mt. Ararat (which is where Noah is believed to have landed).

Kerry speaks: Here is the whole thing so we can annotate it. Annotations will be indented.

People of the future! For it appears I will fail; there is some clue I am

 missing. I have searched and scryed Asia, Africa, and Europa, the three 
 parts of the earth, and yet the minions of the enemy are nowhere to be 
 found. I never found the names of power, either. Who held the seal knew 
 them, I know, but I do not know who held the seal. 

• Seal = Seal of Solomon? Time and place seem right, as these names are all from Sumerian
• mythology.

A direct confrontation

 without the names of power would be suicide, even if the enemy could be 
 located, and so we must slumber. No, she will slumber, and I will seek on. 
 And she will slumber, long after my death.
 
 There were two sisters and one died.
 
 There were two sisters and one died.
 
 She can be found on her. Only with the body can she be found. The body leads 
 to the body. The live sister on the live sister. I have never been there, 
 and her trip will be one-way, at least until the tomb is opened. Perhaps the 
 vantage point will give her a new perspective. I wish I could hear her 
 describe it. I miss her already. At night all slumber, and I lie awake and 
 look up at the moon.

• So she is on the moon, but which one? The one that is lost or the one we see now?

 I failed to find the enemy; I failed to find the name of their enemy; I 
 failed to find the spear that slew them, doubtless because it too slumbers. 
 It can be wakened only by a plunge into the liquid heart of the volcano, the 
 hand that wields it shriveling and blackening. T

• Looks like a job for Ido, should she ever deign to adventure with us again.

The invaders from the south

 knew it in their legends, that only in the extreme self-abnegation of the 
 three crippled gods can power come. Tiwaz had but one hand; it is their 
 oldest legend. One blackened hand to wield the spear that no longer slumbers.
 
 In the New City, nothing sleeps, but nothing is truly awake. It is for this 
 reason that I named it after Nawobod, the City of Dreams, whence the roguish 
 boy king brought me back this marvelous gift. 

• Gift = Tarot deck? It makes sense, as it came from India, which is where Nawobod is.

Nothing sleeps, but staggers

 on in a dream that never ends. I could have simply buried her beneath the 
 ground here, where she would linger through the ages, if I thought through 
 the ages she would remain safe.  She is in the safest place, and the last 
 place they would look, where she can tug at them and they can strain but 
 never reach her.
 
 The one born from stone is a metaphor, of course, but many things are 
 metaphors. Only the highest of his priests will guard the truth, the two 
 secret locations, Psoikanthe and the Tomb of the Shepherd—where are hidden 
 my two great creations, the Book of Moons and her. 

• His priests = priests of Mithra. Have we found the highest? I doubt it.

Only in the heart of the

 enemy can the formula be prepared. The enemy’s gods’ gods will be there to 
 oppose us, the hag and hungry goblin that into rags would rend you. Follow 
 the instructions to a T. I gathered everything together and then had nothing 
 to do with it; I made the quicklime but had nowhere to spread it. We were 
 building a dam, for when the waters rise, but the roguish boy-king could not 
 quite make it. We will not stand united. I had dreamed that all the peoples 
 of the Earth might fight together, but, like a schoolboy behind the Academy 
 with his fists up and his righteous fury, we have nothing to fight. And then 
 something went wrong, so many miles away, and the boy died, just as the girl 
 died, and there was no point even continuing. The dream died with him, and 
 all my dreams died with her.
 
 They came from the sea, terrorized Egypt (which can never be vanquished for 
 long, clever Egypt! that flows like the waters of the Nile), toppled the 
 Hittites, and then melted away. Where did they melt to? What becomes of a 
 dream in the morning, as it fades away like the stars?
 
 There are at least two secrets I have been unable to plumb. Who defeated 
 them last time? Where did they go? 

• I bet old man Morkoth knows where they went. We'll check when we swing back around to Constantinople.

Some have said the answer to the first

 question is: Zeus, but Zeus only fought them in metaphor, when he fought the 
 hundred-handed ones. Zeus is not the name of power. Some say the answer to 
 the second question is: elsewhere. But if they have truly gone elsewhere, 
 and if there is no one to call them back, then are we not safe? And yet I 
 could find no one left to call them back. 

• Right, no one left. That's because she is missing a continent in her list of the world. I *bet those tailed folks are trying mighty hard to call them back. They might be in the *Pacific, in fact.

And yet I never learned the name

 of the enemy of our enemy, the one whose name brings them fear and haunts 
 their nightmares. I asked Hedamu, who lies near the ship of Deucalion, but 
 even he no longer knows. Egypt is the most ancient country, but even there 
 they have forgotten. The answer, they say, lies beyond the river of stones, 
 but this was the one river the boy could not cross.
 

• The river of stones is from Mandeville.
  • For in his country is the sea that men clepe the Gravelly Sea, that is all gravel and **sand, without any drop of water and it ebbeth and floweth in great waves as other seas do **and it is never still ne in peace, in no manner season. And no man may pass that sea by **navy, ne by no manner of craft, and therefore may no man know what land is beyond that **sea. And albeit that it have no water, yet men find therein and on the banks full good **fish of other manner of kind and shape, than men find in any other sea and they be of **right good taste and delicious to man's meat.

 I scarcely even know the enemy. Am I repeating myself? She birthed the worm, 
 the dragon, the female monster, the great lion, the mad dog, the man 
 scorpion, the howling storm, Kulili, Kusariku. There was no pity in their 
 weapons, and they did not flinch from battle, for her law was binding, 
 irrevocable. The octopuses bear her on their many shoulders. But what is her 
 true form? Could she be formless? I am so tired now. Was it all so far in 
 the past, this great combat in the skies, that its participants are now 
 forgotten to the world? I am so old and so tired.
 
 This is the dream I dreamed: Long ago, the earth was chaos, a void, without 
 form, as water. Some god fought the spirit of the water, and pierced her 
 with a spear, and made land, and all the things upon it. This is the story 
 of Vili and Ve, who fight the Ymir, the ice, and makes the land from him; 
 this is the story of Zeus, who fought the chthonic Titans and the chthonic 
 Giants and above all Typhon and Echidna; this is the story of dear 
 Vainimoinen, whose family comes from the sky and drives the water back. They 
 sought to build an axis, from ground to sky, following the path of the shaft 
 of the spear, and therefore pin forever the spirit of the waters. The spirit 
 of the waters fought back, destroyed the tower that was to stand as an axis, 
 and perhaps even managed to drown humanity once—but the man known as 
 Deucalion survived, and humanity survived. But the spirit of the water, who 
 is as formless as the boneless octopus, has not left the earth easily, and 
 will return again, perhaps this time to triumph. All histories of the word 
 but this one are lies. All facts but these are unimportant.
 
 Is the tower a metaphor? Is the spear a metaphor? Is the axis a metaphor? 
 How many thousands and thousands of years have passed? Will humankind live 
 another 1300 years? And what then, when the rains come? Who will rescue us 
 this time, when their night ends, and they wake, and ours begins?