: Throughout this thread you have assumed that the dream of
: unlife makes Thrall creation possible. You've also
: assumed that it's the only thing that can do this. If
: you accept that instead, raising the dead is a power
: granted to the Fallen Lords in general by Balor, then
: much of your argument falls on stony ground.
Completely incorrect, my good man.
Thrall were in service and fighting LONG before Connacht was even alive, let alone him becoming Balor.
Case in point- Mazzarin was killed by seven waves of Thrall and the Watcher, and he was around during the Wind age, 431 to 1430 CE. Thrall, of course, being around prior to Mazzarin's death at the hands of the Watcher, and therefore long before Connacht was even born, proving, as Children of Bahl'al, that he had them in action centuries prior to TFL.
: Also, you're relying a bit too heavily on the Children of
: Bahl'al thing. It doesn't mean he's the only one who
: can raise thrall, it sounds more like he was just the
: first to do so. This may imply that his finding of the
: dream of unlife allowed him to do so but it certainly
: doesn't mean he alone could after that. Soulblighter
: can as he is able to pass on the secret behind the
: process to the Baron and other corrupt nobles in
: preparation of his return.
You're assuming too much, just like Forrest.
The text reads that wagons of dead were being carted into the Baron's keep, and nothing relating to Thrall. For all we know, he could be having morgue parties or some weird fetish like that.
There is nothing in the record to support the idea that the Baron is actively producing thrall.
As for the dream of unlife being in another's hands, there is nothing to support that at all, in any text; it's pure and simple unsupported speculation, not even worthy of argument (in the sense of the field of logic).
: Also, your speculation that Bahl'al is a separate entity
: still roaming the lands is just that, speculation. No
: better or worse than Forrest's, and I'll get round to
: adding it to the appropriate section one of these
: days.
No, again, you're missing the main point.
Forrest's entire assertion that the Watcher is Bahl'al was based on hollow and flimsy testimony from a European TFL pre-release site, second-party and therefore inadmissible, and it was backed up by two mentions of one city being under siege.
That we haven't seen hide nor hair of Bahl'al, yet we do see tons of Thrall, is (by my hypothesis of course, since he's the only one who can produce them), evidence that he's in hiding, still manufacturing them, like some plant foreman or contractor general.
If you want my full opinion, it is this:
Bahl'al went to Si'anwon, which is under the Gjol River near the source, found the dream, but never left. Instead, he has been summoning they who bring him corpses, and in return, his thrall armies are theirs for whatever purpose they wish. This would explain not only where Si'anwon is, (at the bottom of the source of the Gjol), but why it's poisoned (all those corpses wont leave the river smelling like flowers. Bacteria are dangerous things, and they live in dead bodies, after all).
It'd be simple- you dump a cartload of bodies into the river, wait on the banks for three to seven days, and out come a number of Thrall close to the number of bodies deposited, armed with implements made of ancient Trow iron, awaiting your orders. Perhaps they're even self-delivering, marching to your home under cover of darkness.
For what reason would Bahl'al be doing this? Who knows? Perhaps he's a necrophiliac and keeps only the finest specimens for himself, perhaps he feasts on the brains of dead geniuses, harboring their intellects. Perhaps he's a high priest of an ancient, long dead, voodoo-like sect that worshipped the dead- there's no way anyone can know except maybe Tuncer Deniz.
Maybe he must stay there because the dream, as a physical object (as dispersal dreams are), is so huge, it can't be moved- like some variety of shrine or massive stone, or chunk of stainless steel. Trow are rock creatures, after all...
