Spirit Walker - Spoilers - Chapters 1 through part of 14

[Fel]

Not an assassin, but the fox is teaching him when, why, and how to kill, because violence is just one aspect of life, and he's learning the wisdom of living.

There will be other, much more pleasant lessons ahead, but for every lesson he enjoys, there will be a lesson like this, where the learning comes with pain.

Kyven reflects on that a little bit at the beginning of the next chapter, how he learned his first lesson literally by putting the cat Arcan's blood on his hands. It taught him to be much more prudent and careful about his opinions in the future.

The lessons will explore every facet of humanity, and Arcans, both their most noble traits and their darkest motivations.

[lapland]

About making crystals.......

No one can make white crystals is the common knowledge of the spirit walkers, or is it? Remember who said it. The man himself was not a spirit walker. Besides Fel has this nasty tendancy to give us absolute rules and then breaks them into billions of tiny pieces.

In Terrins little universe you were NOT allowed to use more then one type of magic. Never could someone use more then one. Over and over everyone knew the basic rule of nature of magic. The Goddess had to prove to Terrin that he was one of the exceptions. It almost cost her and him a lot, but the leason was learned. Don't believe any rule Fel makes as an absolute. Especially if he emphasises it....

No one can make white crystals?........Yeah right.

[TLGG]

That is true, and it'd be a cool ability later on, but Kyven has totem, that means though though spells of deception are stronger, he doesn't have access to part of the magic a shaman usually has, something that probably would be necessary when making white crystals. I'd be willing to wager that in future he could probably make something that resembles a white crystal (deception!) or, since he's probably going to be the spirit's champion for some yet unknown task or quest, some other spirit may take him as champion and somehow gain that ability. Or he'll just be able to bypass that restriction somehow, either creating them himself or summoning/locating white crystals directly.

[lapland]

Yes, he has a totum, but does that explain the other spirit animals he has seen. I understand that if you don't have a totum you can see them all, but he has seen many before he took on the spirit quest. Can he in fact have more then one totum? Or can he have others that care for him like Terren had many Goddesses calling him their own? In Terrens case he gained the power of one, but had the added benefit of others. All combined make up the white, just as all colors of light make up white, while all colors of paint make up black. Is that an analogy that he is going to have to come to grips with. He could be both white and the black and be the balance between the two worlds and the two species.

Fel is evil and twisted and loves to show us that the misconceptions of the known world are false, even if he's the one to tell us about the conceptions in the first place . Never say never, especially were Fel is concerned. He's too good an author for that.

[dellstart]

The way I read it was, that really at one time,you have only one Totem.That's your spiritual connection as it were.your pipeline to tap into the spiritual.Even the wolf agreed, that when he was being trained by various spirits , it was really only one at a time.Once one had finished , the next one took over.(so one per customer).The fact , he can see more than one , is due to the fact hes attuned to the spiritual,that however doesn't necessarily entail A ability to channel other powers.
Still, its only chapter three and our mad twisted author has plenty time to turn that on its head , if he so desires.

[Mizriath]

I agree that it is still too early in the stories to be bound by rules which are always meant to be broken.

I am definitely interested to know in the spirit world where the shadow fox status is, the standing. What else is there in the who's who of the spirit world....

Stalker will already have spread the news of the human shaman. But they will not think much of Kyven.

I am sure the story will develop with him meeting Clover, and the rest of the shamans... the big pow wow meeting one day... who also intends to denounce him. And then seeing their totems bowing to Kyven's mastery of shamanic powers...etc etc.... breaking the beliefs of the shamans.... that their power is supreme ... the leader of the shamans.... that is one story that will comes out. Hmmm how the story develops....

But for sure I still wants to know the rest of the creatures of the spirit world... shadow fox.... shadow dragons... all the shadows are full of guile and deceit.

[dellstart]

I agree that it is still too early in the stories to be bound by rules which are always meant to be broken.

I am definitely interested to know in the spirit world where the shadow fox status is, the standing. What else is there in the who's who of the spirit world....

Stalker will already have spread the news of the human shaman. But they will not think much of Kyven.

I am sure the story will develop with him meeting Clover, and the rest of the shamans... the big pow wow meeting one day... who also intends to denounce him. And then seeing their totems bowing to Kyven's mastery of shamanic powers...etc etc.... breaking the beliefs of the shamans.... that their power is supreme ... the leader of the shamans.... that is one story that will comes out. Hmmm how the story develops....

But for sure I still wants to know the rest of the creatures of the spirit world... shadow fox.... shadow dragons... all the shadows are full of guile and deceit.

These are really good points.Guess time will tell.

No doubt about it, being the only Human Shaman amongst the Arcans is going to almost as much fun as being the only human noble amongst the Faey!

[Quindo Ma]

The only known human shaman. There may be many others who just have not been trained and still believe they are hallucinating.
As to those white crystals, it was merely stated that of those three arcan shamans that Virren knows about, none can do them. It was never stated that it would be impossible for any of them to do so.
Besides, this is Fel we're talking about. He probably has the solution to half of the questions we can come up with already. And can pull the other half out of his ass if questioned

[Barack]

Concerning white crystals, since there are no other Human Shamans I don't think any have tried to make a white crystal.
The only real magic he will be denied is the ability to kill directly with magic. however he can use the effects of magic to kill. An example has already been given. He can call forth fire. it is the fire that kills ,The fact that he created it doesn't matter.
and as far as illusions go he could make someone break thier neck by falling down steps that a person thought was a solid floor. I think this character will shape up to be a strong character and several books long. This kind of writing is Fels KUNG FU and it is strong.

[darkhand]

Here's the real question,

what kind of love interest will the loregaurd captain make, or is she just going to be one of those thorns in the side. Oh the possibilities. The love interest that is on the enemies side, the love interest that helps the hero from the inside, Like Jyslin from sub love interest leaves the evil to be with lover, oh the possibilities.

and on the white crystals, if you will take note in the second chapter that the crystal that kyv found was in an area that was basically completely picked over prior to him showing up, My guess is that the shadow fox made the crystal prior to bringing kyv their, so technically if he summoned the fox he could make a white crystal. of course this is only my opinion

[michaelsuave]

and on the white crystals, if you will take note in the second chapter that the crystal that kyv found was in an area that was basically completely picked over prior to him showing up, My guess is that the shadow fox made the crystal prior to bringing kyv their, so technically if he summoned the fox he could make a white crystal. of course this is only my opinion

I think you might have something there. Remember, white crystals are the only crystals that can be recharged, and the "shadow Fox's" that were created by THE Shadow Fox spirit have an ability to recharge their spirit powers directly from the spirit world. The other "monsters" need to eat crystals, which are manifestations of trapped spirit power in the real world, in order to fuel their powers, so far, the only monsters we know that can recharge are associated with the Shadow Fox, and are called shadow foxes. Also foreshadowed is that with The Shadow Fox as his totem, he can't use black spirit energy, and usually we associate black (the lack of color) as the opposite of white (the nature of all color's combined). Add to this that the shadow fox led him to a white crystal the first time and I believe he's going to be able to make white crystals.

However, on the other side, the shadow fox did lead him to a blue crystal the second time. But I don't get the same association, beyond that the shadow fox's other main color connection is with guile and deceit which is blue if my memory suits me. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that color of deceit/illusion, not going to go back and check it out*). So perhaps the shadow fox lead him to crystals that are most associated with her totemic nature (is "totemic" a word? don't know, it is now )

If he is able to make white crystals, there are some major pro's and cons to this. Pros: He will be rich and powerful as a supplier/cutter of white crystals. He could gain a lot of influence in the world of men if he was able to "find" a good supply of white crystals. Good for the masked for funds and devices. Con: how does one go about selling off large quantities of white crystals without everybody trying to rob you, steal from you, or kill you to get it. Also draws a lot of attention to the first human shaman, well, first human shaman we know about or that the arcan shaman know about. Draws attention from the loremasters/loreguard.

Just some thoughts.

~Michael

[dellstart]

chapter five.
Hard times demand hard choices.That seems to be the theme running throughout this chapter, from everything from killing to the sailors on the docks to tricking those last few holed up, in the captains quarters.Even though , it does bother me, that he went back on his word to spare their lives, in reality, he didn't really have much of a choice. Leaving a pocket of desperate sailors behind , would eventually have ended up in tradegy anyways.


As for the love interests, guess we will have to wait and see.

[Fel]

chapter five.
Hard times demand hard choices.That seems to be the theme running throughout this chapter, from everything from killing to the sailors on the docks to tricking those last few holed up, in the captains quarters.Even though , it does bother me, that he went back on his word to spare their lives, in reality, he didn't really have much of a choice. Leaving a pocket of desperate sailors behind , would eventually have ended up in tradegy anyways.


As for the love interests, guess we will have to wait and see.

It shouldn't surprise you if you think about it.

His totem is a spirit of guile and deceit. To lie to them to make them drop their guard would be an eminently practical way to kill them with a minimal risk to himself. It is the perfect example of both guile and deceit in action.

That is how the shadow fox thinks, and if you didn't notice, HER way of thinking is beginning to come to dominate HIS way of thinking.

Just be careful not to equate the shadow fox to other, more benign "guiding spirits" from other stories, like the Goddess or Cybi. She will lie to him and deceive him when it suits her own purposes, and she is more than willing to be quite brutal to him when she feels it's necessary.

[alkiera]

Heh, I was gonna say that, but it has more weight coming from the author.

IMO, Kyv's 'word' is approximately worthless at this point. He'll do what he has to do, and use who he has to, to do it. "I'm doing it for your own good" doesn't help all that much when someone is a technicality shy of raping you.

Maybe when he gets back to Atan where there are humans he trusts, he will revert a bit to his normal personality. At the moment, he seems almost like feral-Tarrin.

[Fel]

Nah, he's not nearly that bad. He's still quite sociable and can be very glib, and would very much prefer to talk his way out of situations than just kill everyone, as he talked his way past the Loreguard in Riyan.

That too is an aspect of guile and deceit.

The reason the fox has put him in situations where he has to kill is because she's showing him that there are times when talking does not work, and killing is necessary to get the job done. Getting on the ship is the perfect example of it. The captain would not board him as a passenger nor hire him as a sailor, no matter how glib and charming he was. He determined this from talking to the sailors and hearing about his personality from the men who worked under him. And so he resorted to a much more brutal method.

Which was the correct answer. It would have been the only way to get on the ship.

He naturally seeks to avoid violence and confrontation as a matter of personality, which is a trait the fox favors. She's just been training him in how and when to know that talking won't work, and violence is mandated, which is, in a way, a lesson in wisdom.

True wisdom isn't pacifistic like Buddhism. The truly wise man knows that violence is sometimes necessary, so the wise man must understand violence, be capable of it when necessary, and know when and how to apply it. This approach may sound cold-blooded, and it actually is. This is an aspect of life that Kyven had no experience with in Atan, and so he's getting a crash course in the judicious use of violence at the outset of his Walk. Not all his lessons will be about violence, but the fox wanted to lay the groundwork immediately, so he understands that violence may be necessary and be capable of resorting to it.

He's passed that test.