He doesn't call her Interloper, he calls her Intercessor--an important difference, given the context. An interloper is what you described;
'a person who becomes involved in a place or situation where they are not wanted or are considered not to belong.' An Intercessor is 'a person who intervenes on behalf of another.'

A very important distinction to make here.

 

Intercessor also has a religious connotation as "a person who intervenes on behalf of another, often through prayer," which jives nicely with the Bard acting as an agent of the Gods.

 

Loads of interesting stuff in this chapter regarding Bard. Notable bits and implications:

Bard more or less confirmed to be even older than Dead King, to the point where she's history to him too. Throws her timeline back.

Bard's skills in manipulating narrative are experience based - she clearly can and has failed before. The first comment also implies that she has been servant to Gods Below before, if Dead King considered her coming in the name of Those Above merely an option and not a certainty. Also supported by 'fortune and misfortune' in the previous quote.

She's also likely the reason the Titanomachy closed it's borders and decided to kill almost anything near - and notably, them closing their borders was a victory in some way against her.

Support for the idea that the Bard is trying to solve the eponymous riddle called Fate, possibly even for her own interest, rather than directly the Gods. The 'they' in question is likely the Gods Below, though it's not certain.

Wham. Bard, if not taking diction directly from the Gods, at the very least understands them better than anyone else.

This isn't Bard stuff, but it's a lot to parse.

The Splendid, if I had to guess, are the Fae - the Garden being affected by the seasons, etc. More evidence on top of the idea that Arcadia and the Fae are the alpha version of Creation.

The bolded part is the chilling part - the Dead King thinks the Gods made Named potentially stronger than the Fae, and that the Gods can possibly be overthrown.

It sounds like being a villain comes with a Worm-esque drive to conflict, which fits what we know from Praesi history.

It also gives a motivation for the Dead King to have severed himself so utterly from the normal workings of Creation to this day - effectively, he's been dodging the debuff that villains get in exchange for their immortality.

The last part I bolded just to say I think 'chariot to a falling star' is just the Dead King's poetic way of saying all he did was become a villain.

The rest of the paragraph is the most important part, however. The Dead King is claiming that all he did was become a villain embroiled in the struggles surrounding his country. Now, who exactly does that remind us of?

For the Dead King to have parallels with Cat of all people is a very pointed thing, both narratively speaking in-universe and in terms of the overall plot of Guide.

Bard's responses are suspect in this exchange - she's never been one to offer her true purpose willingly, and it's not like she'd yell 'ding!' if the Dead King hit the nail right on the head.

However, the Dead King's questions alone tell us a lot. He's not sure whether Bard is fulfilling her purpose and trying to fulfill the riddle of Fate willingly or not, and in fact suspects she is going to try and betray her purpose. How and why are impossible to guess.

Woof. This was a chapter with a lot of underneath. More interested than ever for Cat to meet the Biggest Bad.

 

It's not so hard to imagine why Bard might want to give the finger to the Gods.

As an immortal being, how many tragedies has she witnessed? How many atrocities was she complicit in to balance out the scales? How many people did she get attached to, only to see them die? It's really a shitty job. Now whether these conflicts broke her or she's secretly playing the long game against the Gods is a different question, but the motivation to do it is plentiful.

The how is a bit more tricky but it's notable that the Hierarch - a Name she had a hand at creating - openly told both sides to go fuck themselves. If I had to guess, I would say she's trying to re-frame the narrative from Good vs Evil to Mortals vs Gods. We know that Angels have to obey the story just as much as people, so maybe the same is true for the Gods?

 

That was because of Procer's invasion, which is still quite a ways down the timeline--Procer doesn't even exist yet, in fact, as it's dated to the decades shortly after Triumphant fell, which is a minimum of hundreds of years after this.


Support for the idea that the Bard is trying to solve the eponymous riddle called Fate, possibly even for her own interest, rather than directly the Gods. The 'they' in question is likely the Gods Below, though it's not certain.

Overthrown in the long term, remember.

It seems more that the very nature of villains--of what you have to do to become on and be one. Like, remember, when it comes to potential villains, one of the standard requirements seems to be to kill all your competitors, the other claimants, which is a hell of a baseline. What's more, the power of a villain's Aspects rises and wanes depending on how closely villains adhere to them--Black is a very 'weak' Black Knight because he doesn't do much Leading, Destroying, or Conquering in a direct sense.

When you start off with bloodshed, have powers based on doing asshole things, and your Names are based on narrative villains, whether any further involvement is needed is up in the air. I mean, take the Dread Empress--whoever murders the Dread Empress becomes the Dread Empress, and this is an establish facet of their society. We've seen the results.

Well, I mean, Cat did a bit more than that--she willingly and knowingly started a rebellion by branding Will's Name, after all, just to start with. Though we don't know the extent of the King's actions yet, beyond the fact that they're subtle enough that no one even remembers him.

 

I hope this means that Cat has realized that making a deal with the Dead King is a bad idea.

 

Just a thought but if the wandering Bard isn't the balance to the dead king, then who is? Is there another nth level hero in seclusion we don't know about yet?

 

The question is, is the Dead King's power actually from the Gods Below? He's pretty disdaining of their blessings, and his goal for immortality is outside what they grant. It would also mean there is no balance to the Dead King, because he isn't a villain.

 

There being a 'balance' between the actions of the Gods Above and Below is just a theory of Black and the Calamities, not a certainty.

Furthermore, the conversations in this chapter seem to suggest that the relationship between Above and Below is more collaborative than antagonistic - they're trying to settle a wager, not destroy each other. As long as whatever is happening (Good winning, Evil winning) is furthering the ends of that, this entire series has shown that the Gods strenuously do not give a fuck about the body count. For all we know, the Gods are all the same, and 'Above or Below' is just a ideological position for them, not something ingrained into their nature.

Alternatively, Bard seems to hop in and help on both sides - she is effectively the 'balancer' as the Intercessor. By her own (suspect) admission, it wasn't that she couldn't try to interfere with the Dead King's rise - he simply was too skilled for her to beat (back then, before she was as experienced) without years of prep time in advance. Balance means that the other side gets a chance, not that said chance will automatically succeed.

Saint and Pilgrim were called 'the two most famous living heroes on Calernia' by Black. In another universe besides Guide, that might just be hype, but there is a certain degree in this universe in which fame translates directly to power, given the power of having 'the attention of the narrative'. For villains, that attention is rather lethal over time, but for heroes?

We're in Book 4, with only Book 5 left. If there were other uber-heroes running around, they most likely would have been mentioned simply by the way heroes work. Bard is likely the only 'unknown hero of great power' running around. Unless some legend pulls a resurrection (which isn't out of the question) or the Dead King has some ancient superhero on ice (not only possible, but incredibly likely), I think we probably already know the big Names we're going to need to until the story is over.

 

He’s a villain, just a sacrilegious one. Not exactly a disqualifier.

Edit:

Confirmed villain. Not like the Gods Above were gonna be anointing him anyway, and unlike the name of Hierarch he can’t bypass the Gods’ favor to get the Name.

None. There is no balance. When Black theorized it, the Bard is who demanded one, as the Bard would have needed divine intervention to exist. He thought the Bard was the work of Above, so something on Calernia must be divine intervention from Below. He never thought before this that the Dead King was the product of divine intervention, he just considered him the only plausible candidate.

And since he was wrong, and Bard looks like the product of both sides of the Gods (with a preference for Above), there’s no balance needed.

 

I think I worded my post badly, sorry.

Ignoring Bard and the balance, I was wondering whether his becoming the Dead King was outside of the Gods power since he thought they couldn't grant the immortality he was seeking. As in he was definitely a villain before he became the Dead King, but either deliberately lost their Blessing or used an alternative power on the side to become the Dead King. Something like going further along the path of godship that Masego is trying to go, which would be an interesting way to show a different aspect of the cosmology of the world.

Of course that could be completely off the mark and he did use the gods below power before hiding in a hell to avoid the interesting life curse imbued in the gods below's blessing.

 

I wonder if this debt, is the same thing as Black's balance. Or, this might have more to do with how the Bard herself came to be. For now it does seem though like there is no explict counterpart to her. I'm currently speculating whether she might have originally been a Hero/Villan, who then made a deal with the opposing Gods.

All in all, I think this will be one of those chapters that I will come back to at the end of this book/story.There are probably a bunch of hints here towards the goals and motivations of both the Bard and the DK. Especially, those last few lines of dialog seem to be filled with loaded questions and evasive answers.

 

So...no one's ever going to have the 'Don't taunt the people you're planning to kill' conversation with Thief, huh? Because, like, one of the things that's straining my suspension of disbelief hardest lately is the sheer number of narrative pitfalls Thief is just casually waltzing into lately. I mean, it's a miracle Cat's rule hasn't spontaneously combusted under the sheer weight of them yet. Like, here with Akua, over in the Extra chapters, in the background, etc. She's monologued her plans to people she's killing/ruining the lives on, murdered her own people after setting them up and betraying them, used Akua as the villain's monster and repeatedly taunted and tormented her, mocked people she's sure have no way to possibly turn things around on her, etc.

Like, Cat's been failing pretty hard at holding to Black's teaching's lately, but come on--explain Practical Evil 101 to your dudes, at the very least. Thief's a villain now; she needs to know that certain things just get you screwed over. Even fucking Akua knows better than that, at least in some ways:

 

Yeah, good point. Nobody taught Thief that the rules change now that she's hopped sides. Thus far she's yet to fuck up against anybody that matters, but Akua could be the one who swindles her. Grudges usually don't work out for Villains as well as they do for Heroes.

I do wonder what Akua's angle is here. She's not the Villain's Monster, not like Cat was. She lacks physical form, isn't used as an attack dog, etc. She could fit as the Villain's Prisoner, but her actions and growing role as the Sixth (see: that Chapter Name) nip that story in the bud. She's not an unwilling asset. The tension between her and Thief isn't healthy, but the story won't be the one used in Second Liesse. Her talk of redemption is odd, but obviously part of it. Redeemed as a hero isn't on the table, for the obvious reasons. Redemption to the middle? Or in Cat's eyes? Maybe. Thief saying she wants Cat to climb the Tower (with Akua earning herself the role of Chancellor and presumably a second life along with it) sounds plausible - if not the whole picture.

 

Hmm. I think the appearance change is some none to subtle foreshadowing for a potential Akua path to power. She's been woven into Winters mantle at this point. If she slowly gains influence to the point that she becomes the Mantle we'll start seeing a very different angle to the temptation it provides. She could even be angling for some kind of soul merge, Cat and her eternally sharpening each others iron into the 'perfect' Villian.

 

New chapter's out and the gang finally arrives in Keter. It's...still pretty much filler, honestly. A fair bit of it is about building up the Dead King's power, but we already knew he was the biggest dog in the yard, so there's not much to be said on that end, though him having what basically amounts to a retinue of enslaved princes that he punishes forever is...honestly, what we've come to expect from villains in this story, actually, never mind; I just remembered that there's a chessboard in Praes with screaming souls bound to the pieces for the laughs. The only other noteworthy thing is a matter of his methods--instead of raising his human farms in terror and fear, he indoctrinates them from birth. We didn't really know this, to be fair, but it's not really a shocking revelation given what we do know about him; he did this the Nicol Bolas way where he doesn't have to constantly put down rebellions.

It's pretty cool, but also...kind of disappointing, I guess? Like, the army of kneeling zombies at the foot of the Fortress of Doom with a bunch of indoctrinated slaves leading the way to a silent palace that the guests are carried to by a bunch of royal slaves is impressive, sure, but kind of ham-handed? Our first real look at the guy was when he was some nobody on a park-bench and I honestly thought he came off as way more intimidating then then he was now. Like, sure, the theatrics are cool and all, but he's the fucking Dead King; he doesn't need to impress anybody.

 

I saw his actions as less impressive and more intimidation. Sure he had all the pomp that you expect from a royal meeting but it was the details that really drove it home. This isolated nation that’s not supposed to be getting knows way more than they should. First by just having her standard and second with the dead princes. Plenty of princes have probably died at the walls to Keter. They’ve had four crusades break there. Choosing princes that represent her main opponents was a message. The revealation that he has agents out on the continent is the cherry on the pie. He knows far more than he should, which begs the question of how much does he know. Who is really playing who ere?

 

You're missing my point, I think--the issue I have is that...there's no need for him to try to be intimidating. He's the Dead King and everyone knows what that means, or they ought to. Again, a few chapters ago, we saw this guy discussing the destruction of a nation on a park bench and he sold it. Compared to that, this is...eh?

Granted, that might just be the fact that it kind of feels like out of the last seven or so chapters since we started on this trip, all but one was just filler.

 

Interesting opinions. Catherine read so much into it that I figured it didn't actually mean anything, he just thinks of this as the minimum courtesy to anyone he would bother inviting. Like it is the equivalent of the formal announcer for invitees' titles and accomplishments in a hosted event despite the fact that everyone there should already know all that.

 

Everyone thinks they know what it means, he's showing that they don't. This honestly isn't even all that impressive other than the subtle hints. Any visiting dignitary is treated to this type of pomp and show when visiting another nation for diplomatic talks. Like when the Knights of Callow did the Avenue of Blades or whatever the first time they met Cat. Having a bunch of his "subjects" there to kneal at the gate and carry a palanquin is normal. Showing that he knows more than they assumed is the intimidation.

I agree that alot of this has been filler. That's always how the guide has always been though. Some filler to sprinkle in background information and leave little clues while building up the next part. There will probably be an interlude on Monday then Wednesday and Friday will get into it again. Next Friday there will be some big revelation, like what the Dead King wants, to leave us on a cliff hanger for the weekend.