Shadow Walker Chapter 5 (Spoilers*)

[SYED]

we are forgetting something, the loremasters are after the device to create a breach and the arcans, what if they is something hidden in riyan, a libary. they need the mountaiins for that device. also now the world knows of the crystal shortage but it will also be leaked that shaman can create crystals, the britons might be willing to trADE, and others because crystals are needed. also who says arcans created yoris crystal, the loremasters may have a prototype device that did so. also shadow fox is a trickster, the rebellion will be a diversion, the loremasters will expect them to ecape through the mountains, but not expect an army to march out of them so caught in the middle

[expedient]

Getting hold of the documents revealing the locations of the arcan conversion machine and crystal making/Breach device in order to get there first seems like a sensible plan. I just don’t think it will be that easy. The protection on that information will be the very best the Loremasters can manage. I would guess either a) behind a magic null device like the one in the Loremaster’s tower, b) known only in the minds of a couple of very high ranking Loremasters, or c) kept in the Loremaster’s Headquarters and only the general direction known, the rest to be communicated via alchemy when the expedition forces are close.

The Loremasters have been under siege from shaman attacks, surely they must be doing their best to counter that threat to this, their most important mission. No, if Kyven and co. are to stop the Loremasters they need to either destroy or harry their army and counter any alternatives the Loremasters come up with, e.g. smaller forces trying to sneak by or fly over the arcans.

I think that all the evidence points to the Loremasters not currently having the capability to create crystals, else why need the Breach device?

Any arcan uprising east of the mountains will surely result in all their deaths. They may choose to die in the manner of their own choosing but they would just be untrained slaves against armed local militias or trained soldiers, it’d be a slaughter.

Trading crystals with the Noraam nations and Eusicans has been suggested before and could be good way to forment alliances with the arcan nation against the Loremasters, as long as they treat arcans as equals and not slave animals.

[SYED]

the loremasters originally were quietly going to seize the mines and free territories, then head through deep vallley to beyond the mountain, the now have to deal with securing their head quatres, stop other counries invading, stop flaur from seeding, this will divide numbers, so when arcan army arrives it numbers will be smaller, and not loremasters arcan at riyan to be deployed

[ANTIcarrot]

Any arcan uprising east of the mountains will surely result in all their deaths. They may choose to die in the manner of their own choosing but they would just be untrained slaves against armed local militias or trained soldiers, it’d be a slaughter.

But if it was a slow enough slaughter, spread out over as many months as possible, and pinning down as much manpower a possible, it might actually achieve something. And on the other hand, imagine a 1000 strong angry collarless arcans descending upon a town at night without any warning and with shaman fire-support. Yes, indeed, it would be a slaughter.

What got the Japanese in the end was the idea that a single bomb could wipe out an entire city; that the Americans could kill them effortlessly. The implication that a single arcan (shaman) can turn any plantation into a 'weapon of mass destruction' and wipe out an entire city, might have a similar effect on the human population and leadership.

In the end I think this will need to happen. And in the end I can think of at least one city this should happen to.

[boballab]

The plantation Kyven saw in his Vision was of a tobacco plantation, but think of what else Arcans tend to do on Plantations: Grow and tend to Food. While the primary purpose of Kyven going there is that the Arcans there need him, probably to restore some hope to them, you know the Shadowfox doesn't have a single purpose in every action she does. Think of Kyven going from Plantation to Plantation organizing resistance cells. Corn gets ruined in it's bin, instead of picking and removing bugs that destroy crops they release them into fields. There is all kinds of little things that would have low risk but big gain with those type of tactics. If the Loreguard Army can't get food shipped in during the winter in Deep River and the Haven Arcans don't let them hunt/fish/gather local food, that is an Army headed for disaster. Also remember that in Deep River Arcans are treated much differently then elsewhere in Noraam so it ain't going to be a hotbed of Loreguard sympathizers. That Army will be stuck wintering in a hostile town, harrased by the Haven Arcans outside town, the Masked within town and if Kyven disrupts the food shipments they will be screwed. Then there is the pyschological side imagine one farmer that mistreats the Arcans and his farm is ruined while next door a farmer, like the one Kyven had the ferrets sent to, that treats Arcans well prospers. One field at night has Kyven go through it using the cold spell ruining the crop while next door the fileds are fine, strange how acts of God work.

[ohtochooseaname]

Fel,

I just got current on the Spirit series, which I've really enjoyed reading so far. After reading straight through to chapter 8 in Shadow Walker book, I noticed that there seems to be a bit of an inconsistency in chapter 5: when Kyven is interrogated, it doesn't seem like he should immediately toy with the guards and aggravate them. He almost never boasts about his abilities to his enemies, and the torture scene before the drugs is exactly that: he intentionally reveals the only advantage he has. This makes sense given the hopeless situation, but I think it would play out better if he first attempts to actually use that guile and deceit for something: he should immediately start complaining about how that damn fox spirit tricked him, turned him into an Arcan Shaman (as opposed to a human shaman), and told him she'd eventually turn him back, but only if he pleased her. Now that he's of no use to her, she turned him back like she promised. He's say he wanted to get back to being human and not be treated like an Arcan anymore. This seems like a better beginning to the torture scene to me. After that, things can go differently, or much the same: he doesn't reveal anything more under torture, but then reveals it all with the drugs, or he figures out that the fox wants him to tell them some things, and he does, then they try to torture him, and it goes as planned.

What do you think?

[SYED]

Until the loremasters learn of the haven army, it will try t o gather arcans for a work force, there is already a shortage, theirs are gone, and with all this unrest, they will have to act quickly, so keep on track, so they need many arcans in numbers, so all territory they have a clear lead in will lose arcan while other countries are left alone so not to rouse suspisouns.also the loremasters will try to cover news of arcan forces so not to look bad. this should give the arcans time.