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Here’s a space for those of you who enjoy speculating about Paksworld and the future possibilities of the storyline. It’s here so that those who don’t want to read speculations that may turn out to be spoilers can avoid it. (So–if you hate spoilers, do not read this thread. OK?)
Keep in mind that this is for YOUR speculations. We need to keep a kind of wall between your speculations and my planning, for various legal reasons, so I won’t be reading this thread myself. If anyone has complaints about behavior on this thread, contact me offlist through the website, but be sure to use a subject line referencing this space, and in the body remind me who you are, and then what the problem is. If trolls show up, or someone’s being rude or abusive–let me know. Otherwise, this is your sandbox.
Comment by Paul — June 30, 2012 @ 3:08 pm
I have been curious about something. What ever happened to Paks elven sword and armor? I know that the Marshal-General says that Paks still has armor in Fin Panir (no mention of the sword however), but was Paks wearing her elven armor when she went to Kolobia? Or was she given a regular suit of armor for the trip? I know that they found her sword when they discovered that she was abducted by the Iynisin (and so presumably her sword is still in Fin Panir whether or not she took the elven one) but there was never any mention of her armor being recovered in Kolobia (whether it was elven or otherwise). Any thoughts?
Comment by elizabeth — June 30, 2012 @ 7:34 pm
As she was required to dress and be armed like other students, I suspect her elven mail is still in Fin Panir and the sword as well.
Comment by Jenn — July 1, 2012 @ 7:33 am
Tidbit of gossip heard over a cup a sib in the extra characters break room. (they drink a lot of sib in the extras break room). Here it is:
One of the housemaids chanced to overhear (she was NOT eavesdropping it takes a long time to dust door lintels) Duke Verrakai and her kirgan going over accounts. Apparently Kirgan Verrakai has ordered a large herd of sheep for a nearby village he was explaining to Duke Verrakai how he thought it would bring in a nice income and improvement for the villagers. The Duke applauded his efforts but questioned his motives. It seems she had recently been informed by the armorer that the Kirgan had requested a pouch be added to his mail shirt for his knitting.
This Story is verified as that housemaid was best-friends to my former fiance’s brother’s latin professor’s dog walker. It also was mentioned that this particular scene would not make the Book IV cut. Too Bad
Comment by elizabeth — July 1, 2012 @ 8:09 am
Could not ignore this when it showed up in email…what nobody knows except maybe one of the stable hands, who doesn’t talk to the housemaids (yet, anyway) is that Kirgan Verrakai’s new interest in knitting has caused Squire Marrakai to–secretly–take it up herself. She, as some will recall, was never fond of needlework back home, and glad to escape to a life of squire duties as long as they were “interesting.” Weapons and horses were interesting. Politics was interesting. Even teaching other peoples’ children about weapons, horses, and politics could be interesting. Not, however, needlework. You do it sitting down (boring) in one place (BORing) and it’s doing the same thing over and over (BORING) and besides…it’s what ladies do (ICK!!!)
But if Beclan’s going to start showing off his prowess with sticks and strings, Gwenno’s competitive nature requires her to do as well or better. Preferably better. Her mother had sent her off with some balls of yarn, in the hopes she’d do better darning her socks there than at home, and Gwenno has been hiding out in the feed room trying to re-learn how to knit in the round. She’s not about to let Beclan teach her. No, she will work it out on her own, though truth be told, her “knitting” at this point resembles something a drunken sparrow might produce while trying to weave yarn into its nest….though the last two “rows” (if you can call the rest of it rows) do actually look like knitting.
Comment by elizabeth — July 1, 2012 @ 8:15 am
Oh–must mention that squire Serrostin finds them both hilarious but has sense enough to keep that to himself. Beclan has quit heckling him about his size and age, and if he wants to keep knitting…fine. Gwenno…he knows she hates needlework, and knows she’s knitting only because Beclan is, and knows her knitting is lousy (Daryan is not above spying out her knitting place, and going in later to find the knitting itself, shaking his head over it, and snickering to himself.) Duke Verrakai knows about Beclan’s knitting, but not Gwenno’s, and thinks Gwenno’s spending time in the feed room (something a groom has reported) hunting mice and rats as a way of improving her point control. As this world has, for reasons unknown to its writer, so far failed to produce a breed of terriers good at such work–or at least there aren’t any right there–anyone who kills vermin in the feed room is considered to be doing good work. Gwenno did stake an overbold mouse with one of her knitting needles, but she can’t brag about it without revealing her true purpose.
Comment by Richard — July 1, 2012 @ 5:23 pm
@Iphinome
There is a song wanting to be written. I tried hard not to write it but today it insisted. Made me play my Ruddigore record again too. It came in reverse order (the last verse uses Barra’s words from Vérella). Only 8/9ths of it though.
Comment by Richard — July 1, 2012 @ 5:32 pm
Elizabeth,
Have none of the kittens saved from the dungeons grown into good mouse-hunters? (OK, the rats might be too much for them)
Comment by Jenn — July 1, 2012 @ 7:57 pm
Gwenno probably just learned that mouse guts do not the best knitting needle lubricant make.
Apologies to the squeamish
Comment by Iphinome — July 1, 2012 @ 9:28 pm
@Richard, very well I shall delete my work in progress.
Comment by Richard — July 2, 2012 @ 4:51 am
@Iphinome
Barra’s new song is finished – time indeed to put the old one out of its misery. (What I had before was 7/9ths not 8 – I had to follow my own advice and reject the bit that was getting in the way of what wanted to come next). The new one has structure. It wants to be posted though you hate me for it but not here (because it spoils nothing) nor in the thread remembering Jim.
Comment by Iphinome — July 2, 2012 @ 4:59 am
Do as you will. I have no claim on Barranyi, she belongs to the Lady. I have no claim on the source song, it belongs to the public domain. Duels to the death are forbidden, I will not be the one to break the Lady’s peace.
You and I are through.
Comment by Richard — July 4, 2012 @ 12:50 am
@Iphinome
When gods’ knight is not engaged in her employment … a paladin’s lot is such a happy one.
Tell us about it some day. You’ll know when you have it right. Just don’t tempt me with anything half finished.
Comment by Iphinome — July 5, 2012 @ 4:21 pm
Natzlin’s turn to sing karaoke. I’m guessing her song will be Tainted love.
Comment by Richard — July 6, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
#151: Paul, let me have a go at this one.
When Arianya learnt (Marshal Kerrin at the new Grange should have written) that Paks had left on quest with one elf-sword (Tammarrion’s) from Phelan, then the other one waiting for her at Fin Panir ought to have been released to the paladins’ armory for any of them to use.
The elf-sword would give paladins no more protection against evil spells than they already have, but I guess it is still lighter, sharper and more resilient than the best human-made weapons, such as the one Paks took from the Vérella knights’ Grange-hall.
Paks herself has been named King’s Friend by Kieri (very end of the DEED), which I guess means she can help herself to anything from the Lyonyan royal armory any time she wants.
The only way I can see that the elf-mail wasn’t the set taken by the iynisin is if Paks had kept as a spare, and Amberion had made her wear on the expedition, the mail she’d bought in Aarenis as a caravan guard. She wouldn’t have been sent to Kolobia with only a student’s banda, and when they met the horse nomads she did have “her own armor and sword” (and horse, Socks). Yes she did leave armor at Fin Panir when she quit (it’s not just Arianya who said so, Paks herself told Master Oakhallow it frightened her), but that could be the set from Aarenis or whatever replacement they’d found for her in Kolobia. Which again ought to have been returned to the general armory by now.
The elf-mail would be less of an advantage now she can start self-healing even during a fight.
Comment by GinnyW — July 21, 2012 @ 11:16 am
I like to think that Paks’ elf sword was the one that was returned to her family (opening and closing frames of the Deed of Paksenarrion). But there may be good reason to think not. If not it must still be at Fin Panir. Probably, sort-of like the necklace? What about the stuff that Paks deposited in Brewersbridge? I know Paks turned everything over to the Fellowship when she became a paladin candidate, but I would think that most of it would have been returned when she left. Perhaps even more when she became a paladin outside the order. Of course the red tape involved could stretch on for years…
Comment by Jenn — July 22, 2012 @ 10:31 am
Don’t forget about Socks.
Comment by John Hicks — July 22, 2012 @ 10:41 pm
Going entirely by memory – Paks sent the gems and money deposited with the goldsmiths? in Brewersbridge to her father and paid what she had with her to the Fellowship as fees for her training when she was invited to be trained as a Paladin.(see DA)
When the Marshal-General visited Kerri at his Holding she reminded Paks she had horse and arms at Fin Panir.(OoG)
Comment by elizabeth — July 23, 2012 @ 7:53 am
Ginny: Paks could not take her horse or any weapons or other fighting gear with her when she left Fin Panir, as she was too frightened by them to use them. The Marshal-General gave her a large amount of money–in coins easy to use, rather than the mix of objects she’d come with, which she’d have had to find a buyer for–but she was afraid to use that, as well. She’s been back to Fin Panir (after leaving Kieri) on visits, but I don’t know what she’s taken. Not Socks, because she has her paladin horse.
Comment by elizabeth — July 23, 2012 @ 7:56 am
John: But then the paladin horse arrived…Paks didn’t need Socks, and turned the horse over to the Marshalte, where he’s become a valued “school horse” for knights in training. He bucks them off until they develop a really firm seat. She also, as a paladin, has a sort of automatic upgrade to whatever she’s carrying. She may have picked up her arms on one of her visits to Fin Panir, but I don’t know–it wasn’t plot-relevant and she wasn’t letting me see.
Comment by Jenn — July 23, 2012 @ 9:01 am
Elizabeth,
I guess you could always have some of the extras in the break room distract her whilst you nose around her saddle bags 🙂
Comment by elizabeth — July 23, 2012 @ 9:15 am
Due to the “special relationship” Paks and I have, she can’t be distracted enough for me to poke around and learn things about her she doesn’t want to share. She gave me full access for the years I wrote her story and apparently that was it. She knows all my tricks. Tough fooling a paladin.
Comment by Jenn — July 24, 2012 @ 8:57 am
There’s the beauty of Paks. She is done with her story and quite content to sit in the extra’s break room. No need to be the constant center of attention.
Comment by GinnyW — July 26, 2012 @ 10:05 pm
I hope that wherever she is, Paks has money enough for mushrooms.
Comment by elizabeth — July 26, 2012 @ 11:11 pm
Yes, she has mushrooms. Gird figures she’s earned them, putting up with her writer. Her predilection for mushrooms and mine for Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate or Homemade Vanilla ice cream is why she’s not fat and I am. (I like mushrooms too. But…I’m not out there adventuring and it’s summer, and Blue Bell is cold.)
Comment by John — July 29, 2012 @ 10:59 pm
So, I figured this was the best place to put my opinion. I really hope that Paks shows back up in the final books, even if it is just a cameo or as a secondary character or a mentor of some newer character.
I can’t help but feel odd that she is not involved in the truly major events that are occuring. It sort of feels unrealistic. Don’t get me wrong, the latest books are good, but it seems like the truest paladin of them all(chosen directly by the gods) would be involved in some way with the evil that is even more major than what she faced in her books.
At the very least, some rumors tossed splashed about in the book about where she was seen or what she was doing would be cool.
Comment by Jenn — July 30, 2012 @ 9:38 am
John,
I think it was in DA where it is stated that Paladins ride in start the ball rolling and then ride out leaving the Marshals to clean up the mess.
Comment by Richard — July 30, 2012 @ 11:29 am
I liked, and was satisfied by, the way characters in Echoes remarked (complained) about there not being a paladin around when they wanted one. Yes there are paladins in this world, but no they are not coming into this story.
I also liked reading that when Aliam (senior)got to Chaya, the Knight-Commander of Falk was with him. The detail of how the latter responded to the Pargunese invasion doesn’t matter: by that one appearance he was accounted for, and by extension the whole of Falk’s Hall with him.
Comment by elizabeth — July 30, 2012 @ 12:09 pm
John: I would say that Paks has been involved in several very significant events. She was instrumental in Dorrin’s recovery of her blocked magery (and one result of that was Dorrin’s ability to sense the invaded Verrakaien, cleanse that well, and save Mikeli’s life. She was instrumental in Dorrin’s decision about what to do with the regalia…which put Dorrin in a position to save Mikeli’s life. She was instrumental (in a quiet way) in the Marshal-General’s change of heart about magery, starting with Dorrin–it was Paks’s certainty that Dorrin and her use of magery was not evil, that began the M-G’s rethinking on that topic. And she “cemented” the change that Dorrin was trying to make with the Verrakai children.
I don’t think she’s “the truest paladin of them all”–she’s a little different, but they all have a direct connection to their patron. Gird cares for her, but Gird also cares for others with the same blunt and demanding care. There’s another thing. This weekend, I heard a master craftsman say something true and profound about being a master craftsman–that at this point in his life, yes, he had become a master in his craft–and it was time to train new master craftsmen/women in that craft. He had an apprentice who had stuck with it longer than others–and he thought had real potential to become a master and that, right now, was as much or more his task than making thing himself. Everyone who’s come in contact with Paks has been influenced by her; those who couldn’t absorb what she taught, like Barra and Venner and Korryn, got worse. Those who could…got better, but in their own way. So there are, as it were, potential paladins coming along because of having known Paks.
She does show up again at a crisis in Limits of Power, and again in Book V. What Paks won’t do is let me use her as POV character. She will be seen from outside whenever she shows up (and I do wish it were more often, but…the way I write, that’s not something I can force. I won’t fake her.)
Comment by John — July 30, 2012 @ 12:15 pm
Welp, I am amazed that I got a response. Im an avid fantasy reader and I post on the blogs of many authors. Yours was my first response. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to respond to me.
I enjoy all of your books. Keep up the good work.
Comment by Iphinome — July 30, 2012 @ 6:10 pm
@John When a new book comes out the thing I’m most eager to know is, what is Paks up to? So I understand your feelings completely. Isn’t loving Paks what brought so many of us here?
And welcome to the, er, Fellowship of Pakworld. Quite the friendly place with an understanding and, dare I say, forgiving patron.
Comment by Jenn — August 2, 2012 @ 8:08 am
I am in the middle of paladin’s train in DA and now I wonder if we will ever see other paladins in the last books or since dragon has appeared if we will see the knights of Camawyn?