Given the recent dearth of good new sci-fi/fantasy after Amazon told me not to scrape their new book list for filtering, I've been re-reading Astlan books one and two.

I very much enjoy reading multiple unreliable narrator accounts instead those of an omniscient third party. It greatly adds to the texture of the world.

What if all those unreliable assumptions about Rupert's origins in book 1 are wrong, even his own?

He wasn't present at his conception. His mother didn't really understand who his father was. One of their neighbours might have seen a dark-skinned man visit, a black cat in the alley the next day, and the rumours would have taken care of the rest.

The rumours would have shaped Rupert's self-image, which is why he started sprouting horns in the early teens. In a different environment, with different neighbours, he could just as well have started manifesting a halo and chicken wings.

The rules about demonic children so many of the players are so certain of, would not apply to demigods, who would have gotten a strong injection of the animus and mana their parent farmed/leeched off their gullible populace.

Someone else brought this up recently.

Not sure if it was here, or on Amazon. But I think here.

I think my suggestions was that Tom and Rupert are the same person.

Or maybe, at some point in time, Rupert will use the world gate to go back in time and travel to Earth, marry Tom's mother and she gives birth to Tom.

Sure, T-A-G says that Rupert's origin does not depend on time travel; but as you've noted, there are unreliable narrators. And if you ask me, based on my personal experience and what has really been happening and what T-A-G actually reports...I KNOW T-A-G is an unreliable narrator!

I mean, what possess him to spread rumors about me being a drug dealer? That is flat out libel! If I could find a court with jurisdiction in both your world and the Abyss, I would sue him.

Wish he lived in the UK; you can sue just about anyone there for libel...hey wait...these books are sold in the UK via amazon.uk!

I bet that counts as being published here. I can sue him there for slanderous libel that has compromised my good name!

In the Navy, yes, you can put your mind at ease!

<jiggle>

You know, Mikey, I was re-reading ITA, and even though anecdotal evidence suggests Rupert and Tom are related, there's nothing that directly CONTRADICTS your theory, either.

When Rupert is talking to Tom about his childhood, he talks about how he had always been told he's a demon-child, so the thought was in his head. Then he started changing at puberty, but he never let himself completely change. He didn't know exactly how he looked as a demon. His mother gave a description of his father, but on her deathbed, well after he'd started changing, but before he'd completely changed. So yes, according to your theory, he could have influenced his own demon form! Nothing so far (that I know of) directly opposes this. That would be interesting. Rupert not actually being related to Tom at all.

So what happens when someone inevitably tries to bind Rupert? Surely he's been bright enough to give the school an alias?

Let's say he's a demigod, will a binding automatically be the other way, letting Rupert channel mana from the binder?

One of the few non-credible plot points of book 2 is that Tom doesn't spend that much time worrying about Lenamare appropriating his new demon army through their link, which he had already seen and affected once, unlike other demons around him, he clearly believed. Even after he himself worked quite a bit through links.

Sure, if "someone" is mentally controlling him, then it's credible. Otherwise, not so much.

Then again, Lenamare stated that he did have some unnamed first, second and third reich demons. Perhaps one of them might be "named" Tisdale, and that link might not be quite as one-directional as Lenamare believes it to be?

Edited by user Thursday, December 31, 2015 5:36:30 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I can't remember the text of book 2 conveying quite as self-assured a picture of Tom at that point, but I'll get back to this when I'm re-reading that part.

Where does Tommus keep his Rod? In his pants?

I am not sure he was so self assured as too busy being freaked out by everything else.

You recall he was curling into a ball frequently.

So, he personally, was probably too overwhelmed by the whole 'Heir of Orcus' and a bunch of D'Orcs wanting him to be their leader and return them to glory to even worry about Lenamare.

I think the big thing was that he had taken Lenamare's measure by the end of book 1. Remember the dinner party, and felt more confident about him than the whole Mount Doom thing.

I am told a person can only worry about so many things at once; and only the most urgent gets their attention.

I wouldn't know as that's what my pipe is for.

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

I am thinking he would cause a lot of heart burn. And a lot of gas! Considering how full of hot air he is.

Do you gelatinous cubes ever get indigestion? Given that you guys sort of act like the cleaning crew of the dungeon, sucking up the organic byproducts of various battles (corpses) you probably have a pretty high tolerance, but maybe somethings upset your digestion?

Well that would be hard to do as their bodies disappear from the Planes of Orc (or Man) upon death. Thus they would be empty calories at best.

I could see lawyers causing digestion. As you know, my D'Orc friends do not like lawyers (or diplomats). While I have never met one myself, I've heard that they can be hard to take...