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teresSCSF: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to BattleAxe! Last time, Axis had a lot of things explained to him that we already knew and we learned just a little bit more. For the reader post:
Due to Chessy, I have realised that “the Seneschal” is a quite bad name for the Religious Brotherhood. She was tripped up by the singular, which is indeed an issue… but I mainly wonder who this “seneschal” is supposed to be. It might work if the Brother-Leader was instead called the Seneschal, because he has been appointed to supervise Achar in Artor’s stead. As it is… this does not work at all.
A Better Commando Name: 43
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 82
Connected to this, Chessy rightly notes that Ogden can hardly know that “the Seneschal is opposed to everything Axis is”. As I realised myself, Yr has only stayed in Carlon, and the Brothers there are hardly representative of those in the whole of the country (not to mention that Ogden and Veremund went out of their way to avoid them). Further, Jayme has fostered him, though he might well have suspected who Axis’s father is, so this rather comes across like Ogden trying to manipulate Axis.
Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 110
She then leaves us another fic about Belial’s relation with Axis.
Let me go on with the next chapter, then!
Chapter Thirty-Six: The GhostTree Camp
Azhure and the others are more bearable than Axis, at the least. We are told that it is “two days” before Barsarbe deems Raum has progressed enough to let him leave the tent. That means that happens on the 4th of November. Grindle and his family are eager to hear of Raum’s adventures, but Barsarbe is adamant that he needs “sufficient rest” before he can explain it. …Could we know what Raum himself thinks of it? I think that might help decide this, after all. (I also think I will come back to this soon.)
GoldFeather is unsettled and keeps going back to her conversation with Axis, “analysing each expression that had crossed his face”, since there is just something about his face that she seems to remember. Then she finally realises it with a “sickening jolt”: Axis’s face looks like Priam’s in some ways. She immediately gets the stomach-turning thought that Borneheld might be the BattleAxe! My, who might GoldFeather be?
This Is What the Mystery: 27
She thinks he would be about the right age, and “Stars alone [know]” that he could have inherited “his devotion to Artor and his military prowess from Searlas” (because that is totally inheritable). Given this… I do not think it is much of a surprise that GoldFeather was once Rivkah, though I will still call her “GoldFeather”, since that is what she is called in her perspective. I doubt that Douglass meant to make it this obvious, though.
This Is What the Mystery: 28
So GoldFeather tells herself that it is unlikely a noble as “high as the Duke of Ichtar” would become BattleAxe, and she remembers Azhure saying the man was named Axis (which I suppose she did in the meantime?). She is quite relieved that it is not Borneheld, and that she did not “meet [him] again after so many years”, since there is “too much guilt associated with [him] for her to want to meet him again”. I will keep that in mind, then…
She further says that he did not resemble Searlas at all, but the encounter does nag at her. She thinks there is something about Axis’s face and eyes, before she stops herself. After all, she has made “a clean break with the past”, so she should not worry about it now. Axis is probably just a “distant cousin to the royal family of Achar”; after all, some of the past kings have spread their bastards far and wide. In this way, she convinces herself. I do like the way she does so, since it sounds quite plausible.
So, while Barsarbe keeps Raum in the tent, and only allows him to be talked to about “the most trivial queries about food or comfort”, GoldFeather spends her time walking in the forest, trying to forget about the BattleAxe by thinking about her “husband and daughter”, who are waiting in the Icescarp Alps for her return. As she spends quite some time helping the Avar out, that means she is separated from them for months, and each years she wonders if she “[is] drifting too far from them”. You can never drift too far from your husband, GoldFeather; trust me. Still, since the Skraelings are “intensifying their raids on the Avar”, she knows she still has work to do. The Avar need her help and that of the Icarii more than at any point in “the previous twenty years”, after all.
So… the Skraelings have been raiding the Avar? They do not like trees, so is Gorgrael pushing them to go to the Avarinheim already? Or do they only attack at the fringes, in which case they might be doing it on their own, possibly to prepare for an invasion? This is something we need to know a bit more about than we get here.
Well, over to Azhure we go, who spends most of the time “wandering about feeling absolutely useless”. It is still not certain whether she can remain and she spends most of her time with Fleat and Pease. Fleat “[takes] pity” on her, and explains what all the people who went along Smyrton have been doing. So, on the evening of November 4th (I presume), Fleat and Pease are grinding malfari for flour “between flat quern stones before the fire”. I see nothing about that in the glossary, so I have little idea what these stone are. That is one way to worldbuild, I suppose.
[So it turns out (thanks to Chessy) that a quern stone is a device to grind things with! I really should have known better than to just assume this was word Douglass made up without further thought. (Then again, this is a first read...)]
Fleat mostly repeats what Raum told us, though we do learn the Avar specifically revere the Mother as “the giver of life”, and that the Banes are capable of “us[ing] the rhythms of life that surround [them] to heal and help grow”. I suppose that is part of why Barsarbe is a healer? It would also be nice to see this happen on-screen… I am quite sure Faraday will use such power, but what would be the trouble in letting Barsarbe or Raum show it?
We get some more on the preparation of whatever they are making: Pease adds “dried berries, seasoning herbs and lard” to the flour. They are kneading the flour into “small round loaves” which Pease then puts in “the large waxy leaves of the odinfor bush” (no glossary entry either). Then she puts this in the coals of the fire to bake. The book has all of this as a single sentence.
PPP: 361
Further… lard comes from pigs, and a look tells me that the Avar do not have pigs, so where is this coming from?
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 83
Also… I note that we see some more fantasy-like names here, and that makes me wonder where these words are coming from, since the Acharites, Avar, and Icarii are clearly speaking the same language. The Avar would have their own terms for the concepts of the Avarinheim, sure, but if they sound so radically different from the main language that is spoken, I cannot help but think that they must have a language of their own, despite what Douglass says.
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 84
Well, Pease recaps that the GhostTree Clan now has Raum and Shra as Banes, and we learn that Shra has barely left Pease’s side in the meantime. My, she is allowed to have a natural reaction! Azhure asks if Barsarbe is also of their clan, apparently “still a little confused” by the relationships in the Clan. Fleat says that Barsarbe is of the “FlatRock Clan”, but followed them to the edge of the Avarinheim to wait for Raum’s return. She thanks the Mother that she died, as without her healing skills, “Raum would likely have died”.
Then we cut to Azhure helping Fleat and Pease “gut some fat-bellied trout caught from the Nordra”. I thought the Avar did not like to use violence? Or is killing for food not included in that? It would be nice to have some explicit statement on that, rather than us having to piece it together based on the Avar being “forest people”.
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 85
Well, the older children spend much of their time helping Fleat and Pease with gathering food, and generally only find “time for play in the early evening”. As far as Azhure sees, the Avar do not “bother to plant or crop at all, preferring to live off only what the Avarinheim provide[s] for them”. Azhure then asks if all the Avar live in clans, which Fleat confirms. (We also get a small interlude about Azhure cutting herself with a “bone-filleting knife” and Fleat passing her an odinfor leaf as a bandage. Naturally, Azhure does not get any bad memories from this.) Fleat further explains that the Avar “must live” from what the Avarinheim gives them, and so they cannot survive in “large villages”. They spend most of the year as nomads. This current spot is too close to the edge for their liking, and they are only here because they were waiting on Raum.
That is not bad… though I cannot help but wonder at the lack of diversity this implies. I would think there are groups of Avar who do settle down because they have a different view of their relation with the Avarinheim. I suppose writing those would undermine the message Douglass tries to send with them.
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 86
Pease says excitedly that they will soon be going to the “Yuletide Meet”. Azhure is of course unfamiliar with that, so GoldFeather, who now joins them, goes to explain. Each year, the Icarii and the Avar meet “for two important festivals”. Though the Avar are “close to the earth” and the Icarii “closer to the heavens”, they do share the “Yuletide and Beltide festivals” and each year they meet at the northern edge of the Avarinheim to celebrate them. Yuletide is the more important of them; it is held at “the winter solstice, only a few weeks away now”, and both Banes and Enchanters are needed to make sure the sun “rises from its death and is reborn”. Beltide is “more joyous”, and is held in “early spring” to celebrate the “reawakening of the earth after the death of winter”.
This may not be particularly inspired, but it is solid, and that does satisfy me. One problem I have is that we Yuletide is held on the 21st of December (as a later chapter will clearly indicate), and now it is the 4th of November. A month and a half is not “a few weeks”.
PPP: 362
I do also wonder to what extent GoldFeather believes what the festivals are supposed to do. She does have an Icarii name and she says she made a “clean break” with the past, so I could see it, but I am not quite sure to what extent she has abandoned her childhood beliefs.
Pease grins at the mention of Beltide, and says that “[m]any marriages are contracted” there, and she became Grindle’s wife then. During Beltide, “[o]ther unions and ambitions” are also consummated, she says, and it is the one night of the year when Icarii and Avar “indulge in temptations denied them the rest of the year” and it is a “night when dreams and desires become reality”. So it is a night of revelry and sex, to state clearly what Pease says and what we already knew from the prologue. I do wonder… why would the Icarii and Avar only “indulge in temptations” on Beltide? I suppose it might be because of the supposed danger of Icarii/Avar babies?
Thinking this over… that does make some sense. The Prophecy says that Gorgrael will be born from an Avar and an Icarii parent, after all, so that explains where the insistence that hybrid children will be “abominations” comes from. Still, there ought to be variation in these attitudes (not to mention that not using contraceptives still makes no sense).
Gold-Star Worldbuilding: 87
Pease then asks Azhure of what and who she dreams, which makes Azhure blush, while the others laugh. Given that she has just left Smyrton and barely knows anyone, I think the answer to that question would be “no one yet”.
Barsarbe then breaks in to say that Azhure will have “no opportunity for Beltide excesses” if she does not stay with the clan. She stands at the entrance of the tent and “look[s] coolly at Azhure”. At this, the Avar women stop laughing and look away, though GoldFeather gives Azhure a reassuring smile. Barsarbe asks Fleat to help her, since Raum “refuse[s] to lie abed any longer”, and insists on joining them for dinner. She thinks it is time to hear what he has to say. So, while Barsarbe gives in to Raum’s wishes, she does not seem to care especially much for him, and now she breaks up the fun and gives Azhure a cool look. Knowing what I know… I am reasonably sure Barsarbe will become a Scary Sue to Azhure (and possibly Faraday).
Petty Ain’t the Word for You: 52 (for her general characterisation)
So Fleat and Barsarbe get Raum, who is still ashen, out of the tent. His leg is “tightly bound and splinted”, and he finds it “awkward to swing” as he hobbles to the fire. Let me see…
-If he is still “ashen”, I cannot quite fault Barsarbe for wanting to have him rest longer. At the least, he is not so fully healed as he is supposed to be.
-I do like that his leg needs to heal quite a bit further… though I wonder why he has trouble “swinging” it; if he really did that, he would have trouble walking even without being injured.
PPP: 363
-I also see there is no mention of the cut on his neck; either Barsarbe put all her attention to that or Douglass forgot about it, too.
So Raum sits down by the fire. Though he is obviously still in pain, he manages to smile to the people gathering excitedly around him. Grindle comes in and asks if Raum is well. Raum says he is, thanks to the care of Barsarbe, Fleat and Pease, and we are told his appearance belies that, but he does have some humour. Grindle is relieved and sits down, saying “mildly” that he would never have let an Axe-Wielder catch him. I suppose you would have been able to evade Douglass’s interventions, then? I mean, he would have, since he is less central of a character, but it is hardly something Raum could have known, so this does come across poorly.
Azhure breaks in to say that Raum stayed behind to let her and Shra escape, “stung that Grindle should even jest about Raum’s inability to flee the BattleAxe”. It is presumptuous of Azhure to break in when she barely knows their relation; for all she knows, this is how they usually interact with each other. That said… it does seem in poor taste to me when Raum could not do anything about it and when he nearly died. Well, Grindle and Barsarbe get “annoyed that she [has] spoken”, and Azhure subsides, “regretting her interruption”. I thought that would happen.
Even the “three older children” (that is Helm, Skali, and Hogni) copy Grindle and “stare[] at her with a total lack of tolerance”. After all, if Azhure gets disapproval, it needs to be as much as possible.
Godmode Engaged: 9
GoldFeather gives her a sympathetic pat, since she knows what it feels to be an outsider “among a people who had no understanding of the culture that had shaped her”. Her first years among the Icarii were hard for her. I can certainly see that, all the more since only StarDrifter would have been familiar to her… at least she has now found some belonging. Well, Fleat gives Raum some “herbed tea the Avar brew[] and [drink] at every opportunity” (where was he during the scene we just had, actually?), which Raum drinks gratefully. After a bit of delaying, he begins his story.
He opens with some preamble about how he has much to say, and much is bad and the rest puzzling. It is as feared: the Prophecy is “awake and walking”, Gorgrael has been born, and even now he is preparing to “push his forces south and destroy all before him”. Everyone except for Azhure gasps. We are told all the Avar know about the Prophecy, and the talk at last “Beltide Meet” was mostly concerned with whether the Prophecy was active.
Barsarbe asks how Raum can be sure, so he explains that the Sentinels are abroad and he and Shra met two of them at the Mother. Everyone is even more shocked, so Raum describes his meeting with Jack and Yr, and how they told him that the Prophecy had awakened and that the StarMan “was even now beginning to stir to meet Gorgrael”. Barsarbe wants to know where he is, to which Raum says he does not know. The Sentinels were “reticent” about his identity; he did get the sense that he was not yet ready to face Gorgrael, so perhaps he still needs to break out of the lies that bind him.
I suppose that the Sentinels were so reticent because they knew Raum would not like it if he turned out to be the BattleAxe… but this is not helping anyone, either. Further, though I like this better than what we had the previous chapter, this is still a recap of things we already know and have seen. Yes, we do have people reacting to it, but we barely know them and that makes it hard to connect.
Grindle asks what else the Sentinels had to say. Raum says they talked about two of their companions travelling with the BattleAxe and of “many other things”. The important part, though, it not what they had to say, but who accompanied them. It turned out that they had Faraday, a young Plains Dweller, with them… to present to the Mother. Barsarbe calls it “[s]acrilege”. Raum motions for her to be silent and says that was how he reacted, too. The Sentinels invited him to put Faraday to the test, though, and he did.
Pease is unbelieving. Raum nods and says Faraday was “exceptionally strong” (more like she was actually prepared for it), and the Sentinels believe, and he does too now, that she is Tree Friend. After all, the forest sang for her, which has never happened before.
Oh, that will be sure to make an impact, especially when more Avar hear of it! That will have to wait for next time, though, since I am about halfway through this chapter now. Until then!
(no subject)
Wednesday, 5 February 2025 18:44 (UTC)GoldFeather, may I suggest you take your daughter on one of these trips and 'suffer' a 'tragic accident'? You'll be better off for it.
Indeed she will... True, she and her daughter do get (relatively) happy endings, but they can hardly know that at the moment. Given the stuff going on with the Prophecy, trying to cross the northern tundra or the Widowmaker Sea might as well be better.
'Quern' or 'quernstones' is just the type of handmill they're using. 'Flat' suggests that they're rubbing the top and bottom stones back-and-forth instead of round-and-round. So if you know what a quern is it's descriptive enough.
That is if you know, which I did not at all! Thank you for teaching me and I will correct that immediately. And done!
Looks at what I just wrote They don't need to settle down to farm, and I'd expect the ones which did farm would outnumber the others. (You do need to farm to settle down though, since otherwise they'd run out of food.)
Exactly... At the least there should be a sizeable group that does, simply because cultures do have variation. I can certainly understand why some Avar would not want to farm (presumably in part to distinguish themselves from "Plains Dwellers"), but it is just so ridiculous that all the Avar are supposed to do so!
(And, of course, the Avar should be quite effective at farming, given their "growing skills". With a lot of Banes devoting themselves to that and some more sensible Bane-making practices, villages should be absolutely possible.)
So, where's the commemoration of the dying of the Earth? Or is that too much of a harvest festival?
I suppose that would be too Avari; they really do get little to do compared with the Icarii.
It's because celebrating Beltane (which Beltide is clearly based on) with sex was very, very common.
That is perfectly fine, of course, but it does bug me that Avar/Icarii sex is apparently not allowed, or at least strongly frowned upon outside of Beltide. If it is because of Gorgrael, which is the most reasonable explanation, I hardly see how a night of revelry is much good for that, even if it is followed with abortions. (Come to think of it, this could be circumvented quite easily if there were a social norm about not engaging in (possibly) reproductive sex during Beltide.)
Hang on, Pease just asked about Azhure's erotic dreams. That's incredibly personal! She shouldn't ask about that!
Yes, it really is quite invasive... and I will note that next part. It actually feels to me like Douglass put that in so Azhure could be put in an embarrassing situation, for the Drama.
The Sentinels are as bad as the Riders when it comes to information control.
Oh, there is no doubt about that. I cannot even say for sure that the Riders are worse in the end... since the Sentinels's refusal to think about anything but the Prophecy has worse consequences eventually.
(no subject)
Thursday, 6 February 2025 03:28 (UTC)Ah, but if it was banned completely Douglass wouldn't have a plot!
It actually feels to me like Douglass put that in so Azhure could be put in an embarrassing situation, for the Drama.
More like 'tee-hee, young maiden from repressive culture is flustered by sex~' if you ask me.
(no subject)
Thursday, 6 February 2025 05:46 (UTC)More like 'tee-hee, young maiden from repressive culture is flustered by sex~' if you ask me.
SCSF: That is of course what is mainly going on, though given the rest of the chapter, I do think there is some "putting Azhure in a bad spot" here.
(no subject)
Thursday, 6 February 2025 06:10 (UTC)(no subject)
Thursday, 6 February 2025 06:20 (UTC)SCSF: I think so, too. The next part will be quite bad about it.