Okay, I'm announcing Merimyn the winner as I've always felt the rough side must have greater meaning than the smooth in concerns to the idea that is is some kind of key. I also think it probably isn't going to be a key in the conventional sense.
(Okay, sorry I haven’t been around, here goes)
Maruman has been shown to have known Cassy, Hannah Senior and Junior, and Elspeth very closely. What is the significance of him being so close to these four very important characters, and how might this relationship affect the story later on?
As you think of the possibilities of how Maruman could know all of those characters, it is important to think back too when they mention the animals the put in stasis pods. I think it is possible that Maruman was somehow one of them. Also maybe that is somehow the cause of his fits. Because of this, his Meow can be part of the key because it was recorded originally when sentinel was built.
Just to throw it out there and I will go back and re-edit this when I have the quotes but my sister and I strongly believe that Miryum is actually in stasis in the city that is in the desert
I think the real significance of Maruman's relationship with these very important people, is that they are all people who Elspeth often has true dreams about. I think a significant example of when we know Maruman has travelled the dreamtrails with someone to help them gain information was when he travelled on the dreamtrails with Dragon to help her remember her past so that she could help Elspeth in her quest in the Sending. "Maruman will bring MonirDragon back when she remembers what must be remembered, even as the oldOnes bade". I think Maruman constantly does a similar thing with Elspeth, drawing on his connections with Cassy, Hannah Senior and Junior to help Elspeth discover important information about them which could help her quest. Also, as Elspeth say when explaining how she could communicate over the dreamtrails with Mathew "distance in no barrier to a spirit... however it is almost impossible for a spirit-form to go where it has not ever been, unless there is another spirit to whom it is linked". I believe Maruman is the 'linking' between these important people and Elspeth. I think true-dreaming is very similar in the sense that some misfits true-dreamed of the red land because Mathew was there, but they never dreamed of the land of the white faced lords because they didn't know anyone who lived there. So therefore, Maruman's connection with these people is important because he is the only being linking these people together and allowing Elspeth to true dream about them.
Okay, I’m going to say Lilac is the winner of this round, because it seems consistent and plausible with what we know so far.
11 years ago
Mon Jan 21 2013, 08:20pm
Sorry for the delay guys.
In the Sending, Ahmedri reveals that "the Kasanda did not die in Sador." Where did Cassy go after Sador? What is the significance of this in relation to Elspeth's quest? Tie in the fact that the "last key" was left in Sador, and that Elspeth believes this means it was the last key left by Cassy for her.
I hope this one hasn't been done before. :)
Lilac any chance that you know the page number for that ahmedri quote? I'd love to refresh that bit :)
Also this has got me a tad confused.... Because in The Sending, p.473 Aussie edition, Ana recounts a dream of Hannah snr and Cassy ......"Then she began to speak of the journey they would have to make to Reach the land where Obernewtyn stood. 'I will go no further' the older woman said to the younger. 'But you will travel beyond that Land to another and another still, before your work is done'.
To me this makes it seem as if Cassy goes from the Land to the land of the Gadfians and then finally to Sador where she stops. Which seems to contradict the Ahmedei quote :( Yikes! Any chance it's just a misunderstanding/typo mistake that got through editing...? Or does the land and Sador technically count together as one landmass (even though they may have been separate at the time Cassy was doing her thing?) It would be so cool if Cassy did make one final hurrah... Maybe to somewhere with stasis pods so Elf could wake her up? (Ok that is just wishful thinking! But would be awesome :)
I agree, I think there could be lots of surprises of this nature in The Red Queen!! Didn't Jacob have a very important key for Elf? Where was he headed last we heard of him??? I don't know how to do spoiler alerts so can't say more until I know how.
Sorry, the quote was from The Sending (Australian Edition) page 703.
'"she did not die in Sador,' Ahmedri said.
Now it was my turn to stare. 'What do you mean?'
'What I said.' He shrugged. 'The Kasanda did not die in Sador.
'That's right,' Dameon murmured. 'I remember being told when I was there. She vanished and no one knew what happened to her. Some say she gave herself to the sea'.
What did Cassy do after leaving Sador? Where did she go? What is the significance of this in relation to Elspeth's Quest?
11 years ago
Fri Feb 01 2013, 08:12pm
I believe that Cassy is either in stasis pods so that when she awakens she can actually live a little and meet Elspeth because in reality she has spent her whole life on her own quest. I realize there has never been any mention of stasis pods but in The Stone Key The Stone Key keeps mentioning that Ari-roth and Ari-moor are "pod sisters" which could mean that they were in stasis until the time that they were needed to help the Seeker.
And Later in The Sending It says several times how Miryum is laying on a table with bright lights which could be a stasis and lastly, the very last page of The Sending, Elspeth says how she is being held down but rises anyways. She very well could have been being put into stasis but because of her dark power, she could have fought it and rose anyways.
If Cassy did not go into stasis than I believe she went back to TRQL.
There is also an interesting mention in the second half of TSK that I think applies to this theory.
TSK pg.65 U.S. addition Random House. 'As if in a dream, I turned back toward the ruined buildings. Whatever message I found here must have been carved during Cassy's time in the Land, yet the clues on Obernewtyn's door panels had to have been carved after Cassy had journeyed to Sador, for how else could she have learned the gadi in which they had been scribed? But if she had made the panels after she went to Sador, how had they fallen into the hands of the gypsies Louis Larkin had seen bringing them to Obernewtyn? Was it possible that Cassy, now Kasanda of Sador, had sent them back to the gypsies who had remained in the Land, and if that were so, why hadn't Swallow mentioned that the revered Sadorian seer had once been D'rekta of the Twentyfamilies gypsies? Or had he known but not mentioned it to me?'
This suggests that she came back to the land and perhaps after that, to the Beforetime city where Elspeth ends up in The Sending.
This is how it is relevant to Elspeth's quest. She came back to the land to carve the Obernewtyn doors!
11 years ago
Thu Feb 21 2013, 04:53pm
I'm going to say that Meisje is the winner of this round because she has clearly thought about this the most, and has given a few possible answers. :)
Alright, as everybody knows the word 'key' can have many meanings. There is a paragraph in Obernewtyn that I found interesting and I was wondering if any of you could come up with some cool theories that might include this.
Obernewtyn, Chapter 10, Page 78, last paragraph, Random House.
'Ariel led us to the fourth wall, beyond which showed the tops of trees. There was no mortar between the bricks of its gateway's arch; rather, it was held up by perfect balance of positioning. Certainly someone had possessed an eye for beauty, I thought, noting its graceful design and remembering the carved doors at the entrance.'
One definition of a 'key' is a center-stone that holds up an arch way. In this case, it would literally be a stone key.
Question: Please come up with a reason why this particular scene was described so well when it could have so many meanings. Maybe Lukas Seraphim built it that way for a reason?
Bump! Come on people! I know you can come up with something =)
Okies, this theory challenge has been up for almost two months with no replies; do you want to try another one meisje?
Yes, I'll give it a go again. Give me one day and I'll post another.
All right. This is simple but also highly interesting. Where do you suppose the Twentyfamilies leaders' name came from? D'rekta.
It could be a mutation (for lack of a better word) of the title Director? To me it seems similar to the Beforetime scientist "Doktaruth" or Doctor Ruth. If Cassy led the gypsies to both the Red Land and the Land, she may have been seen as "Director" of the gypsies, and was one of the many words or phrases that changed over the years, whether that change occurred before or after the Great White.
10 years ago
Thu Oct 09 2014, 09:54amMin
Okies, Queen Dragon you're the winner of this round so you get 4 points (2 entry, 2 winning), and I'm closing off Theories challenges for the end of Pointage year tally. Since there's not really been much participation here lately, I doubt anyone will mind :P
Edit: okay, locking/closing down Theories Challanges, since it's been about a year since anyone's wanted to do one. If you want to revive Theories Challenges in the future, send us a PM.