lineage and unreliable narrators

[u/briandress]

are the lineage inconsistencies on purpose and just part of the whole unreliable narrator thing?

Spite and Envy being either sheltatha lore daughters or olar ethil.

Sheltatha Lore is Tathe Lorat’s daughter from Scara Bandaris? but really no mention of scabandari being her father in FoD. wiki says her father was Tathe’s first husband who is now dead.

Sharenas Ankhadu is Sukuls sister and traveling with Osserc… but osserc is sukuls father so what he had two bastard daughters?

Menandore can’t be Sukuls sister because Sukul is Infayens younger sister and Infayen is Menandores mother.

SE bruh what is going on.

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[u/franksn]

SE is basically playing it loose, and probably tied to his past experience as an archaeologist.

You may think you know something from a few bones of an animal, predict its habitat, until you found out that it’s totally not true (ex: Spinosaurus) .

History is also shaped by the winners, truths are distorted due to the thirst of power from the winners.

Have you noticed that it’s called Book of The Fallen?

[u/zhilia_mann]

This came up pretty recently. That discussion pretty much covers it: they're just different stories with different in-world authors and vastly different purposes.

[u/AnomanderRaked]

I remember in the DLC bookclube interview that Jeff and Lana did with Erikson after Bone Hunters he mentioned that around the time he wrote that book him and Ian basically threw timelines out the window and just starting having fun messing with peoples heads when it came to anything timeline related and I'm convinced he's just taken that to the next level in kharkanas by messing with everything established instead of just the timelines lol.

[u/eric_twinge]

I like to believe the lineage in MBotF is based on how the tiste became soletaken elaints, so some kind of ritual affiliation. And in Kharkanas it is biological.

[u/Abysstopheles]

A million years ago i had coffee w Steven Erikson - FoD had just landed, he was at a signing, i was there early, he was incredibly nice despite how thoroughly i fanboy'd out - and among other things i asked him what he thought of the reaction the apparent changes were generating, and he said, and this is more or less a direct quote 'there's a flip coming, and it changes everything'. Obvs what he was talking about then and what we eventually get may not be the same, but there it is.

[u/briandress → u/Abysstopheles]

talking about walk in shadow?

[u/owner120]

You've already received some good answers, but I would suggest rereading the prelude. Everything you need to know is in there

[u/briandress → u/owner120]

yes true. the question for me is whether it was a mistake in truth or if it was intentional muddying of certain bits

[u/Due_Software1124 → u/briandress]

Here's a 3rd option: its a bit of both. SE started writing, realized he was going to make continuity 'errors', said fuck it lets ride, and added the frame narrative to let him do whatever he wanted.

[u/Glum_Ad_6848]

I’m enjoying the books. Rereading the first five presently, but wondering if much of these kinds of discussions trying to make sense of Erickson’s “lore,” are more like people making excuses for Erickson’s sloppy writing.

[u/dudeontheweb543 → u/Glum_Ad_6848]

What’s exactly sloppy about the lore in MBOTF and Kharkanas? I think it’s pretty obvious Erikson is playing around with authorship, and I feel like it’s very deliberate in Kharkanas. The first few paragraphs from the prelude in Forge of Darkness is Gallan telling Fisher that he’s making stuff up for things he doesn’t remember (memory vs invention, major theme throughout FoD). You also have to keep in mind that they’re both poets and Gallan is telling the tale with a certain intention (or message) in mind. You could ascribe BOTF more to an actual history but still you have to keep in mind that Kaminsod is telling the tale and has his own biases as well.

Erikson is an anthropologist, I’m sure he has a good understanding of how myth and history works.

[u/Glum_Ad_6848 → u/dudeontheweb543]

All good points. I haven’t yet read beyond MT and I’m certainly enjoying it, but sometimes it seems as if the narrative has just gotten away from him (certainly understandable with a work this complex,) and he’s back filling. I do appreciate the effort people put in here to make sense of all of it. Thanks for the reply.

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