Callow's army is back up to forty thousand soldiers. Well, uh, I say 'back' up to forty thousand, but unless I'm really remembering something, it never had that many, and last I'd heard it was on the verge of collapse from being reduced below ten thousand. I know that Cat's been gone for way too long--she herself used the word months--but holy shit, are the Callowan robot factories working overtime or something? How did they go from utterly wrecked to what seems to be an army three times larger than they had before in at most half a year? Is there anyone left to work in the fields anymore, because last I heard mass-starvation was imminent.

Anyway, logistical confusion aside, as mentioned last chapter, Nauk is holed up with a quarter of that army and about to be wiped out because splitting one's army into much smaller pieces while a minimum of three hostile forces were on the move might not have been the best idea. Due to the specific situation--gates unreliable and/or likely to give away her position*, travel times lining up so that they'd have to arrive mid-day if they wanted to at all--things have conspired so that the drow will arrive to fight the army attacking Nauk's group during the day. I'm more or less fine with that specific array of coincidences, in the vein of making one's weaknesses matter.

What I do have to wonder, however, is why Cat's aware of all those things and still going through with the attack? Like, tactically and strategically, it really doesn't seem like there's any reason to do this; if she's being driven solely by her friendship with Nauk or her loyalty to her soldiers, then biting the bullet to gate over to them is one thing, but she's apparently risking six thousand drow in a situation she knows heavily disadvantages them to save ten thousand normal soldiers, as if normal soldiers matter? By nightfall, Cat can wipe out any army she pleases, by all accounts, so it would seem to be in her best interests to wait until nightfall whenever possible and the minor advantage to be gained by having Nauk around doesn't really change that.

Again, Cat mentions that she doesn't want to give away her position to the Saint or the Pilgrim--which makes no sense to me, since Cat's experiences with both of them amounts to making fools of them repeatedly--but really, she has three choices here. Draw that attention at night when she would have the equivalent of several dozen to several hundred powerful Named and two goddesses behind her, fight a force of twenty to forty thousand trained soldiers with the equivalent of six thousand unwashed savages, or write the whole thing off. In no real way does the second of those options make sense here. Again, if she wants to save Nauk and her soldiers, that's fine and makes perfect sense, but the way she's going about doing it seems to make the absolute minimum amount of sense here?

Or are we still pretending the drow aren't an army of demigods here?

*Though why Cat treats this like it would matter now after making an utter mockery of the Saint and Pilgrim twice before, I have no idea. Once again, the story wants me to just accept the dire threat that the heroes pose, but it remains hard to do so because every time they do so, they're getting the shit beaten out of them. Also, on the gate thing--just a few chapters ago, Cat used her gates on a bunch of scouts without issue, so the reluctance now seems a bit forced.

 

Another question I have would loses even matter to the drow? Let's say out of the 6000 Drow 5500 die. If the surviving harvest all the night of the fallen is their fighting power increased or dimished? As far as I remember the night carried all the fighting experience with it, so would it even matter if she lost mighty, since she should be able to replace them as long as there are some drow around.

Or did consuming winter change that? Also was it mentioned somewhere what happened zo zombie the third?

 

Couldn't they just take a few human casualties during the day and then use their super mega drown murder machines to wipe out all life that opposed them in a single night.

I THINK THERE MIGHT BE TENSION ISSUES, JUST SAYING

 

Remember, Cat told Diabolist to gather all the Mighty and have them make her a Well. That would presumably take them out of the fight - leaving the still powerful, but less OP, sub-Mighty to fight.

 

I presume EE will use some handwavium to change that rule, like maybe if they die during the day the Night hey have gets burned off or something like that. Otherwise as you said casualties don't matter.

 

Pretty fun interlude all things considered, and I think it was good at setting the stage--despite this being a brand new location, I didn't have any problems following along or visualizing what was happening. I think the setup and conflict here is cool, too.

The problem is, I still don't understand why we're doing this. Like, I said it before, but several drow Mighty--powerless during the day--die in this chapter alone, and I'm 100% certain that every single one of those Mighty is worth more than the entire Third Army at night. I like Abigail, I'm glad to see her, and I'm willing to swallow the silly excuse that says Cat can't use her portals now even though she used them to make mockery of the Pilgrim and Saint previously just because portal shenanigans were kneecapping most of the conflict in this story--but from just a logical, strategic standpoint, if Cat's not willing to risk portals here and the losses associated with it, why is she risking the losses associated with this plan? Even her current plan is just 'Wait until nighttime and have the drow clean shop.' As such, there's a much easier way of doing that then risking the drow...just wait until tonight and save everyone who's still alive. Either that or, again, risk her portals.

Portals would be the emotionally logical decision. Waiting would be the strategically logical decision. Going now and risking her drow is just the dumb decision, near as I can tell.

 

I think the story wants dzulu to be on the same level as the Watch and the true Mighty to be lower tier heroes, with a few like Rumena being stronger, which is considerably more reasonable. Still powerful, but not moronic singlehanded army-wrecking powerful, or at least that's what Cat is acting like. Of course, portrayal hasn't been consistent with that, which breaks things. I'd be inclined to forgive Urulan as a one-off mistake, but there was still a lot of bullshit thrown about in Strycht. This story has a major problem with "Humans are the Worst Fantasy Race". It's a good thing the Elves, Giants, Dwarves, and formerly Drow are isolationist, as otherwise they'd overrun the continent.

Strategically, she should still be preserving the lives of her heaviest hitters, but emotionally Cat values drow less than humans, orcs, and goblins, and will act accordingly. Holding out and waiting isn't an option as far as what we're told, as Abigail doubts they can do that and, again, Cat values the lives of her soldiers too much to let that happen. Portal bullshit or something is still an effective option, but "I don't want to because if Saint cuts off one of my limbs again it won't grow back and I'm not ready for her yet" is an excuse I'll take.

That said...

When did this happen? First time she fought Saint, Laurence beat the shit out of her even with Cat drawing deep into Winter. She even shrugged off Cat's domain. Second time Cat straight up ran. Sure, Cat was fighting like an idiot and got in a swordfight with the Saint of Swords, but that doesn't make the Saint ineffective. Hell, the one time Cat did use portals against those two is when she dropped the lake, and that backfired on her because of Pilgrim. Cat made a mockery of the other ten heroes in that battle as they were dwarfed by her power level, but Saint and Pilgrim were damn effective when fighting Cat and Masego.

Sure, there's the Kaleidoscope battle, but what made that unconvincing is how the story didn't do enough to neutralize the ten other super soldiers. Archer pinned down Saint, Pilgrim was effective at what he did, and there was no Cat or portals involved. Those two weren't the problem.

 

It does very much feel like we're trying to course-correct after the whole drow arc, but so far it's unconvincing, yeah, because it wasn't just one or two drow that manhandled the Winter Queen, and Cat herself repeatedly noted their ridiculous power in the drow arc.

Actually, Cat used portals to escape in her first fight with the Saint of Sword and used it to completely escape all ten heroes in Kalediscope...I want to say twice, but once for sure. When I said 'Make a mockery,' I was talking about how in Contingent, after Cat woke up in the middle of a battle completely surrounded by heroes, she casually escaped, and yet for some reason, the Pilgrim said:

Which, uh, since when, according to who, based on what? Because all throughout the Battle of the Camps, the heroes proved completely and utterly unable to effectively pursue Cat if she felt like leaving. She in fact escaped being surrounded by heroes not once, not twice, but thrice, so the excuse that she's afraid they'll pin her down now kind of falters beneath the weight of their complete and utter inability to pin her down on any occasion. Again, Cat woke up from a coma in the middle of a bunch of heroes and got away.

Also, saying that the Pilgrim was effective is exaggerating. While he did indeed take Cat out--completely off-screen--rather notably, he literally couldn't hit Cat a single time in either of their on-screen fights, even when he had his literally ideal story going the first time. Seriously, go check--he doesn't land a single hit either time.

Meanwhile, the idea of Archer even momentarily inconveniencing either the Saint or the Pilgrim remains laughable.

 

New chapter is out. I think this chapter provides a lot of evidence for my theory that the Liesse Accords will, among other things, ban Named in national leadership roles.

This bit is key

The Dominion won't want to give up their Leadership named, so Cat needs the Pilgrim to force them.

 

Eh, story's been pretty transparent that no Names in charge would be a plank in the Liesse Accords, and that it's largely about placing restrictions on Named. You're not breaking ground by saying so. This just made the connection between that rule and it being rather antithetical to Levantine political structure (and their general culture). This is the first time Cat's been worried about Good accepting the terms, as up until now it's just been about getting them to the table. The point isn't to further suggest that this is a tenant, but to set up objections on the side of Good, rather than just from Malicia.

 

Errata, from the comments section of the latest chapter.

 

Hello people, can someone give me a hand in finding the chapter I was reading when I stopped the last time? I think it was around the time when the protagonist and her entourage got their new nickname like 'the calamities', which I sadly forgot as well, and some fight with elves? Might need to reread the entire book anyway, but help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

In the third book, Chapter 32: Close, is where they are first called the Woe. Elves, though? Do you mean the fae?

 

I actually and honestly have been enjoying the mortal perspectives from both Levant and Procer, and this continues that--but it also continues to be mitigated by the intrinsic fact that none of it matters. All this loyalty, duty, tradition, strategy, desperation, and mentions of badass seeming characters is, unfortunately, completely superfluous in the face of the reality that the moment night falls, Cat has an army of twenty thousand soldiers that has individual members capable of wiping out the Proceran and Levantine forces. And that's sad, because it just undermines a bunch of good stuff, but you get moments of this fairly cool Levantine guy talking about how the drow are seemingly just normal soldiers and you know how this is inevitably going to end, which just emphasizes that this whole conflict is pointless, because Cat's battling for the fates of Callowan soldiers, who also don't matter.

And I wish that wasn't so, because look at this shit?

How is there not just a Choir of Angels floating above northern Procer and acting like they're goddamn Oprah? You get a Name and you get a Name and you get a Name? This is a damn travesty; how the hell is 'Procer has few and weak Named' an established facet of the setting when every Proceran that goes North develops, out of necessity, the ability to hide bowling balls in their pants? If cause and effect worked in Procer the way it supposedly worked everywhere else in the setting, them being able to hold back the ratlings and Dead King might even make actual sense. Prince Motherfucking Manfred of Bremen got hit by a poisoned arrow leading an assault to take back a fortress claimed by undead and demonic forces and immediately passed his crown onto his eldest daughter, told her to continue the charge unflinching, and then fucking doused himself in oil and charged at the forces of Evil himself, carrying a goddamn torch so that he could light himself on fire and drag a few to Hell with him.

Why is this not what the story's about right now? And why do these guys not matter at all? The story has gotten so skewed in where things stand that it's bizarre now. Don't get me wrong, I'm more interested in the politics, fears, loyalties, culture, and drive of these soldiers we've barely seen before now than I was with pretty much anything in the drow arc, but this back and forth of Procer strategizing, the Legions countering, and the Alliance calling their bluff while their reinforcements are being cut off and harried by Kairos' machinations would be a lot more interesting if it was liable to have any effect at all whatsoever on the outcome of anything that actually matters. As is, everyone here could die but Cat and her army and it probably wouldn't change anything. These armies are chaff to the drow, much like they're chaff to the Dead King; they evaporate the moment anyone who matters actually decides to give a damn.

 

Ah yes, some winter fae, right? Thanks for the help, I might need to reread book three anyway.

 

No that was the summer fae. You should probably reread if you're that confused on the details. Let us know how the drow arc plays as a whole when you're done!

 

Ryuugi hasn't ranted in weeks. Is he on vacation?

 

I was expecting to see a rant given that the most recent chapter vindicates the complaints about power disparity, maybe he's building to an explosion...

 

Not to mention that once again "stories" only seem to matter when we are told they matter.

 

All we need is the Augur not doing anything and we've got a perfect storm.