Dominion discussion post

[alice_montrose]

We need one of these, so here it is! I for one am very excited about the novella *cough*understatement*cough*, and reading it has obviously led to my wanting to discuss it with people who have already read it and will have likely formed their own opinions.

Compulsory warning: SPOILERS AHEAD! Both under the cuts, and likely in the comments. :)


Dominion plot summary

• Gerald Tarrant, former Prophet of the Church of the One God, has become accustomed to spending his existence wandering about the continent in order not to draw attention to his, erm, eating habits. Apparently those pesky Church-fearing people hunt the type of creatures he has become, and isn't it just sad that one can't settle down and mind one's own experiments in peace? Although, to be fair, Gerald is proud of those God-fearing people keeping to the prescriptions of their faith. But wait! The Forbidden Forest calls to him, luring him eastward to the focal point of all that raw power. Ever the rational one, he has pondered the situation before deciding to go visit what promises to be an unusual vacation spot... to say the least! Not before making a snack of his unwilling hosts' daughter, however. Must keep all that fear at a satisfying level!


• The nature of what Gerald has become is reveled in the first part of the novella: he is an undead sorcerer feeding on blood and fear/terror. He is also one stubborn bastard and able to bend the planet's force to his will, but we'll get to that later...


• Meanwhile, a knight by the name of Faith (oh, don't think we don't know what you did here, Mrs. Friedman!) awakens to find herself wounded and stranded in the Forest. Looks like her buddies and her were out demon-hunting, but the demon got the better of them and now all that's left is one young woman to face the horrors of the Forbidden Forest! Luckily for her, Faith seems to have the dubious pleasure of holding "Earth's blessing", that does not allow the fae to react to her. At all. Apparently this is a gift from God, not a genetic mutation or humanity's adaptation to life on Erna. We (and Gerald, I suspect), of course, know better. Anyway, Faith decides to make her way out of the Forest or die fighting.


• Gerald has made his way to the edge of the Forest and is slowly discovering its dark seductive power. He realizes he needs to remain rational if he is to leave the place alive.


• Faith has found water at last, but is suddenly attacked by the Mutant Wolf Pack led by some deformed creature that might have been human once. In spite of her own wounds, she manages to injure the pack's alpha and somehow get away.


• Gerald is already planning ways in which a little landscaping here and there would improve the look of the Forest, even if he has just arrived. His train of thought is interrupted by the wolves, however, and he tracks down the smell of female terror. He comes across the pack and its alpha's wounded body. It seems that the wolf-man was once an Adept whose attempt in mastering the Forest has transformed him into the twisted creature he is now. Apparently, Gerald can't help himself and decides to transform the creature back into a human, with the condition that it serve him. It's not like small mercies can come back to bite him in the ass a few centuries later, right? So Amoril is transformed back into his albino human self. He is also badly in need of a bath, which Gerald is so kind to point out right before going to chase the female warrior, because hey, it's bound to be fun! (So much foreshadowing in this section! ♥)


• Gerald is on the hunt, but things don't go quite according to plan. One tiny mistake, and he gets slammed with the full force of the Forest. He valiantly resists, then accepts its essence, and then persuades it into submission. Yeah, he's still the coolest thing around, the Forest will have to be content to being his mistress domain. Not that it still won;t try its best to seduce him, mind you. But right now, Gerald Tarrant rules! And it's time to deal with that little holy warrior infestation...


• Faith is still struggling to keep moving and find water. She finally manages, only to find herself immobilized and at the mercy of an incredibly good-looking, yet startlingly cold man. And this awesome dark god is all in favour of feeding on her, so what does she do? She spits on him. Because apparently anyone in possession of a brain can see that his pristine appearance makes him vane and getting him dirty will break his control. Not a bad plan, overall, but it seems all the man wanted was to kiss her neck and send her back home with the message that the Forest has been claimed. Oh yeah, and feed on her terror, but she doesn't know about that. Faith starts walking out of the Forest, not knowing how lucky she is.


• Meanwhile, his lure for the Church to come visit in a couple of decades achieved, Gerald wastes no time in getting back to more pressing concerns: telling Amoril they will be building a copy of Merentha Castle right in the middle of the forest. Fun times ahead!

Quotes

• I must go to the Forest, he thought suddenly.
  
  The words rose unbidden from the depths of his soul, displacing all other thoughts. That didn't surprise him. For some days now he had been experiencing strange impulses, almost as if some outside power was placing thoughts in his head. Cross the Serpent Straits, a sourceless voice would whisper. Go east. A lesser man might perhaps have believed that such thoughts were his own, and responded without question. But he, who was more than a man, knew better.
  
  The Forest was calling to him.


• She had dedicated her life to cleansing this one of the fae's corrupt influence. And the One God had blessed her with a special gift to make that mission possible. It was not like the gift that sorcerers enjoyed, which allowed them to mold the fae with their minds. Nor was it like the gift of the adepts, to whom all the shadowy powers of this world were clearly visible. No, her gift was rarer than both those things, and in a world where Workings were a part of everyday life, it was a talent few men would envy. Most would call it a curse. But it had allowed her to become a deadly hunter in the One God's holy cause, and now it might—just might—save her life.
  
  The fae did not respond to her. Ever. That same dread force which brought men's secret desires to life and could transform one's fears into demons never manifested her emotions. It did not bring her luck or misfortune, health or sickness, or any of the myriad other types of gifts and curses that it provided for other men. Oh, what a precious and terrible blessing that was, and how the others knights of the Church envied her! Earth's blessing, they called it. A sign from God that she had been destined to serve Him.


• In the distance the Forest's arboreal front loomed high and black, the mountain peaks of its northern border rising up like jagged islands from its thick canopy. Wisps of earth-power played about the treetops like rippling veils, reminding him of the sky-born auroras he had once seen in the far north. It was a strangely beautiful display, despite all its ominous overtones. He wondered what the place would look when true night fell, when neither moon nor stars would be present to provide illumination. The volatile dark fae would be able to rise above the treetops then, to add its eerie purple substance to the glowing display. What a glorious sight that must be!


• The currents of power that surged about his feet might be chaotic in their manifestation, but they had the potential to become something else—something greater—and he wondered what kind of effort it would take to tame them, to force them to adopt a more ordered course. The creatures that hissed and howled in the darkness surrounding him might be warped constructs, but a strong enough sorcerer could redesign the faeborn ones, and the fleshborn ones could be urged toward a more reasonable evolution. Even the trees overhead, with their warped and tangled branches, could be forced to serve an ordered purpose. Twist the branches even more, divide them many times over to create a fine webwork of filaments, and the canopy would trap autumn's leaves as they fell, creating a shield of vegetative detritus thick enough to cast the Forest into perpetual twilight. Would the constructs of the dark fae mature more quickly if they were freed from the threat of sunlight entirely? Or would that only increase the power's volatility, making its creations even less stable, less likely to survive? To Tarrant they were all fascinating questions.
  
  Deep within his soul he could feel an ancient hunger stirring, human ambition surfacing in the black pool of his soul like a drowning man gasping for breath. He had been a scientist back in his mortal life, and his experiments in forced evolution had produced many of the Terran simulacra species that this world now took for granted. But his current lifestyle as an itinerant predator did not allow for the luxury of a laboratory—or a scholar's library, or any kind of permanent place in which to store the specimens that scientific experimentation required. He'd had to relinquish that whole part of his existence when he left Merentha, and since then his intellectual inquiries had been confined to a strictly internal landscape. It was one of the most frustrating facets of his transformation.
  
  But this place could become his laboratory now. He could mold new species to his will here and test their adaptation, using the volatile currents to accomplish in a few generations what might take centuries elsewhere. His soul hungered for that kind of intellectual stimulation as powerfully as his altered body now hungered for human blood.


• The power of the Forest engulfs him, chokes him, drowns him. It crashes into his soul like a tidal wave and sweeps it clean of all human thought. It invades his flesh and begins to reshape it, molding his body into a form that reflects the Forest's twisted essence. He howls in agony, but it is a beast's agony, not a man's. And he understands, in his final human moments, the full measure of his failure...


• Shapeshifting was one of the most dangerous Workings in a sorcerer's repertoire, and more than one student had died while attempting it. In order to adopt the form of another creature one must surrender oneself body and soul to the fae, allowing it complete dominion over one's flesh. It was a terrifying process, and a dangerous one. Failure to submit completely might result in one being trapped between forms, and such a state was a rarely viable. Few were the sorcerers who dared attempt such a Working, and fewer still the ones who succeeded.
  
  As for working such a transformation on another human being, as Tarrant was about to do... that would require the same kind of absolute submission, but not only to the fae. This human-turned-wolf must be willing to place very his soul in Tarrant's hands, without hesitation or resistance. Tarrant remembered the sorcerer he had seen in his vision: proud, vain, arrogant. Could someone like that manage the requisite humility? If the man's years in the Forest had broken his spirit— Tarrant suspected—perhaps. If not, then Tarrant would have to conjure the information he sought from the man's ashes. Difficult but not impossible.


• And the Forest's hunger poured into him. It was not a human hunger, nor anything a sane man would recognize, but something far more primal: a driving environmental need that arose from the land itself. This was the soul of the Forest, this mad, insatiable emptiness that was driven to absorb every human soul within its borders, hungry to drink in every source of vital energy that came within its reach. And now Tarrant had invited it into his soul. Shards of dead men's memories flashed before his eyes as the storm ripped his soul to pieces, tearing loose bits of his past history so that they might be digested. A few shattered fragments of the woman's memories flashed by him as well—he had not had time to banish them—but the Forest did not care whose they were. Its hunger was mindless and indiscriminating. [...]
  
  But he was not Amoril.
  
  In the small part of Tarrant's brain that could still think clearly, he knew what he had to do. And he also knew just how dangerous it would be, and what would happen to him if he failed. Amoril's mutation was but a pale shadow by comparison.
  
  But he had not given over his soul to darkness four centuries ago and destroyed all that he once held dear only to become a mindless beast now.
  
  Opening his soul wide—dismantling all the defenses that would normally protect him—he embraced the fae.


• He was tall and thin, with delicate features and skin so pale that in the moonlight he seemed to be carved from alabaster. His shoulder-length hair would probably have glowed a warm golden-brown beneath the sun, but in Domina's cold light it was an eerie, ashen hue, and the halo of moonlight that crowned it lent to his entire face an unnatural luminescence. And he was clean. Unnaturally clean. His midnight blue surcote did not have so much as a speck of dirt on it. Even his boots looked spotless, though the ground beneath his feet was a muddy mess, and the hilt of his sword gleamed brightly in the moonlight. Suddenly she felt acutely aware of her own degraded state, mud-splattered and sweat-stained and probably reeking from all the vile slime she had been crawling through. It made his fastidiousness seem doubly unnatural.


• Finally he lowered his face to her throat, and she braced herself to have it torn open, or sliced through, or whatever other form death might take. But death did not come. She could feel his cold breath just above the edge of her gorget, and then—unexpectedly—the touch of his lips upon her skin. Disarmingly gentle, perversely intimate. She felt more violated by that kiss than she had by all the rest of what had happened to her, and she shivered as his cold breath raised goosebumps along her neck.
  
  "Tell your masters that the Forest is spoken for." He whispered the words softly into her ear, a lover's intimacy. "Tell them that trespassers will not be received well."


• No, Tarrant thought. My warning will do exactly what it was intended to do.
  
  The Church would have no choice but to come here. Not immediately—perhaps not even for a generation or two—but sooner or later it must. A religion that was dedicated to bringing the fae under control could not simply sit back and watch while a human sorcerer claimed dominion over the Forest. They would come. They would come in force. It was as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning.
  
  "It will be a test of their faith," he said quietly.


• He looked to the north, where stark black mountains were crowned in Domina's moonlight, poised above a sea of shimmering power. Exquisite. To the south he could sense the woman slowly making her way to freedom, and though she manifested no fear-wraiths in her wake, as a normal women might have, he could taste her fear on the wind. Also exquisite.
  Nothing in the Forest would impede her progress. Not unless he commanded it.
  
  So much beauty. So much power.
  
  "Come," he said quietly. "We have a castle to build."

Discussion points

• It seems that, at this point, Gerald has become comfortable with his predatory nature, and knows exactly what it is that gives him strength. Still, he is unhappy with the nomadic life he is forced to lead. Also, he already seems to treat the Forest's lure as some sort of love/hate relationship.


• Also, it is made clear to all Gerald likes to be clean and tidy all the time!


• At first, Faith seemed like the average female character. We suspected bad things would happen to her, because she is a woman alone in the Forest, and Gerald is about to go there as well. I don't know about you, but Woman + Forest + Gerald = Fear Fest in my book. Still, she was a handy plot device, and I found myself drawn to her POV more than I had been when reading the excerpt posted on Facebook. It's all about the context, apparently.


• It seems that Gerald will always have a secret passion for creating things. As a mortal, he created the Church. Now, he is pondering exciting new ways to change the Forest's ecosystem the moment he steps foot in the place. It's really strange, to see him so focused on creation, when his nature is supposed to be the antithesis of life. Also, I find it endearing how he saves Amoril.


• Gerald's coldfire sword is kick-ass! I love it, love it, love it!


• Gerald is still the coolest thing this side of Novatlantis. Watch him reduce that poor Forest to his serving wench! Not that the Forest doesn't put up a fight, and it will keep trying to seduce him... and we are back to that love/hate relationship I mentioned.


• Faith makes it out of the Forest alive. Wow! That was somewhat unexpected, I admit... yet it made so much sense.


• Gerald's ability to plot ahead for decades, even centuries, is pretty impressive, don't you think?


• Amoril apparently needs a hug. I'll leave that to trobadora! :)


• Gerald is also pleased with the progresses the Church has made, though this is not too apparent from the text. This is mostly obvious at the very end of the novella, when he exposes his plot to challenge his creation further. He has devised a test to truly test the faith of the followers of the One God, and that test is a confrontation with the Forest... and with the Fallen Prophet. Not that they'll know it, not until Black Sun Rising when Damien finds out who the Hunter used to be. Still, those holy crusades must have kept Gerald entertained in between his ecosystem experiments...

(It's also somewhat exciting to see the comm resurrected for a while, because things have been far too quiet. And suddenly, so many posts in one week!)

Comments

[trobadora]

*flails* Okay, first reaction: SO MUCH LOVE.

Seriously, this is everything I could have hoped for but didn't dare. It's fabulous Gerald backstory that fits excellently, great Gerald POV (of which the trilogy had way too little, and which is spot on here!) and really lovely descriptions of the fae. And HELL YES, can she ever still write Gerald! (The worst thing about being an itinerant vampire is not being able to maintain a library and a lab. Oh, Gerald. ♥ ♥ ♥ )

And the thing I was worried about after reading the initial excerpt? Totally not worth worrying about. Faith is no Mary Sue. Her "special power" really bothered me - and now it turns out that it's not actually there to make her special, it's just a plot device. Because without it she couldn't have survived long enough in the Forest to even meet Gerald. Heh. (I rather liked her by the end - in fact, I seem to like everyone here. I even rather wanted to pet Amoril, in need of a bath or no. Look what this story does to me!)

But you know what I love most of all? That bit where Gerald spares Faith - not because he doesn't want to kill her (that plainly was his initial plan), but because he wouldn't kill at someone else's bidding, and he certainly won't be compelled by a "patch of woodland". So he comes up with a use for her on the spot, and thereby an excuse to spare her. I repeat: oh Gerald!

(Will respond properly to your discussion points later, I need to stop BOUNCING first. *g*)

[alice_montrose]

Gerald = ♥♥♥

I am always in favour of more Gerald, and more Gerald POV, as you well know. I am happy she can still write him properly - especially evil Gerald, whose reasoning is so wonderfully dark. :)

Poor adept, deprived of his experiments... How did he live like that?! A good thing this Gerald/Forest symbiosis happened, now he has a place to play scientist in!

The way Gerald spares Faith's life is pretty awesome, yes. Looks like Church knights keep proving useful to him. ^_~

(Shall go to bed now, but will log in from work tomorrow to check and comment.)

[trobadora]

Evil Gerald is wonderful. I could do with a whole trilogy like that!

And yeah, I do wonder how he apparently managed to get through several centuries without a library. Poor boy. *hugs him*

Looks like Church knights keep proving useful to him. ^_~

Heh, yes, he's apparently got a type. *g*

[alice_montrose]

They probably have public libraries on Erna. He could have spent some time visiting them all...

I approve of his "type". :)

[trobadora]

*deep breaths* Okay, here we go:

It seems that, at this point, Gerald has become comfortable with his predatory nature, and knows exactly what it is that gives him strength. Still, he is unhappy with the nomadic life he is forced to lead.

He's got the routine down pat, apparently, but it's not all that fun having to bunk down in random cellars WITH NO LIBRARY. Poor Gerald! *g*

Also, he already seems to treat the Forest's lure as some sort of love/hate relationship.

I love that he's being lured, but that he made the conscious decision to let himself be lured there. Poor boy desperately needs a challenge, I'd say!

Also, it is made clear to all Gerald likes to be clean and tidy all the time!

When someone's first indication that there's something wrong with him is his unnatural cleanliness, that really says something. *g*

I don't know about you, but Woman + Forest + Gerald = Fear Fest in my book.

Oh yeah. But it didn't go in the direction I expected at all. Nor the other direction I expected, or rather, completely not in the way I expected (Knight + Forest = Crusade) ... Good job, I didn't see that ending coming at all.

Oh, and I just love Faith for immediataly spotting Gerald's weak spot. Spitting on him, LOL - that was perfect. :D

It seems that Gerald will always have a secret passion for creating things. As a mortal, he created the Church. Now, he is pondering exciting new ways to change the Forest's ecosystem the moment he steps foot in the place.

It was a bit touching, seeing him recover that part of himself after a long time. Although it is a bit funny when the narrative goes on about "ancient hunger stirring" in him - and what it means is Gerald's desperate for a lab table and some test tubes. Metaphorically speaking. *g*

It's really strange, to see him so focused on creation, when his nature is supposed to be the antithesis of life.

Oh, that's a great point! That was always true, wasn't it? He was always so proud of his creations, whether it was the Church or the horses.

Also, I find it endearing how he saves Amoril.

Another case of him finding an excuse for something that might otherwise be called mercy. He can rationalise anything! (Which strengthens my conviction that the Unnamed gets to him at the end of WTNF not because of what he actually did, but because he can no longer find the proper justifications even in his own mind.)

Not that the Forest doesn't put up a fight, and it will keep trying to seduce him... and we are back to that love/hate relationship I mentioned.

I really loved the description of his relationship with the Forest. It's mutual seduction, as well as battle. Suits him.

Gerald's ability to plot ahead for decades, even centuries, is pretty impressive, don't you think?

Hell yes, especially since he apparently made that up on the spot.

Amoril apparently needs a hug. I'll leave that to trobadora! :)

I really did find him surprisingly sympathetic here.

Gerald is also pleased with the progresses the Church has made, though this is not too apparent from the text.

I thought it came across pretty clearly. And I love him going on about testing people's faith. He still believes so much in that project - you can see he's never going to abandon it.

[alice_montrose]

it's not all that fun having to bunk down in random cellars WITH NO LIBRARY. Poor Gerald! *g*

Just so! ^_~ Can you imagine what his memoires of those years would sound like? I dread to think it! But hey, at least he's developed a new cleaning spell that could make him a fair amount of money in a pinch!

I love that he's being lured, but that he made the conscious decision to let himself be lured there. Poor boy desperately needs a challenge, I'd say!

Oh yeah, nothing like a good challenge to make things fun again. And for someone used to planning at a large scale, this new challenge is bound to take him a couple of decades, at best.

Oh, and I just love Faith for immediataly spotting Gerald's weak spot. Spitting on him, LOL - that was perfect. :D

Hey, I'd have tried to kill her too, if she spit on me. *makes face* Some people, they need to be taught manners!

Although it is a bit funny when the narrative goes on about "ancient hunger stirring" in him - and what it means is Gerald's desperate for a lab table and some test tubes.

Ahahahahaha! Well, there are several types of hunger, and this is one type I am sure even Karril would approve of. Of course, now we have to persuade Mrs. Friedman to write us a story about Gerald in a scientist's white coat, studying the rats in his maze. And by maze I mean his Forest.

He can rationalise anything! (Which strengthens my conviction that the Unnamed gets to him at the end of WTNF not because of what he actually did, but because he can no longer find the proper justifications even in his own mind.)

Oh, you betcha! (And I suspect this is actually true. The moment he stops believing what he is doing is for the Greater Evil...)

I really loved the description of his relationship with the Forest. It's mutual seduction, as well as battle. Suits him.

Suits them both, really. And it's a nice balance, knowing he has to maintain the part of him that is rational in order not to give in to the temptation of the Forest, just as he also has to maintain it in order not to become a creature doing the bidding of the Unnamed. And I find it a nice contrast that Amoril gave in to temptation twice, and lost himself both times. I guess that, sometimes, one does not learn from one's mistakes.

I love him going on about testing people's faith. He still believes so much in that project - you can see he's never going to abandon it.

And now we know why he's also helping Damien. And why he gave those visions to Toshida. He's still a Follower of the One God at heart. (As well as a proud daddy. *ducks for cover*)

[trobadora]

But hey, at least he's developed a new cleaning spell that could make him a fair amount of money in a pinch!

LOL!

Of course, now we have to persuade Mrs. Friedman to write us a story about Gerald in a scientist's white coat, studying the rats in his maze. And by maze I mean his Forest.

YES PLEASE. In fact, we must persuade her to write MORE GERALD, period. Just, MORE. *flails*

The moment he stops believing what he is doing is for the Greater Evil...

Yes, that's what I always thought, and I feel this novella really supports that argument.

And I find it a nice contrast that Amoril gave in to temptation twice, and lost himself both times. I guess that, sometimes, one does not learn from one's mistakes.

Yeah, he really doesn't learn, does he? On the other hand, it makes his motivations a little more understandable, too - he wants to get back at the Forest and finally control it himself. It's a revenge fantasy. Makes sense that he'd fall to temptation there ...

And now we know why he's also helping Damien. And why he gave those visions to Toshida. He's still a Follower of the One God at heart. (As well as a proud daddy. *ducks for cover*)

Well, that was always clear, wasn't it? I certainly never doubted it ...

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

(As well as a proud daddy. *ducks for cover*)

He is a proud daddy! Watching his baby grow up all big and strong. <3

But boy, those tuition fees are hellish.

Ba-dump bump.

[alice_montrose]

The way I see it, he had two "babies": the Church and the Forest. The first one was his, the second one was adopted.

... so yeah, tuition in Gerald Tarrant terms must have been a bitch to pay! ^^;;;;;;

[trobadora]

Hee! :D :D :D

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated by the difference in Tarrant's voice in this story. The trilogy was always so loaded down with interpersonal tensions, power struggles, seductive undercurrents. But here it's mainly Tarrant out on his own, and all he is is cold, brilliant, and classy.

And the occasional asides to himself about the Church. He's been kicking around for 400 years as a creature of the night and still he apparently thinks at least once a week about how great it is.

I keep thinking about how Tarrant persists in defining himself according to the Church. His argument to Damien was always that the Church's beliefs had redefined how the world worked, leaving him stuck in that context (and possibly--I always wondered--with a certain amount of faeborn influence within those bounds in his role as the Prophet, or fallen Prophet).

But something about it always niggled at me, and reading him occasionally gloating absently to himself like a proud parent, now I know what it is. Sure, Gerald's a supremely pragmatic guy, but does he insist on clinging to that paradigm because he has to/because it works? Or does he do it because it's a way he can continue to participate in his creation? If that's the case, then is it a masturbatory Anne Rice-like obsession with his own creation, or is there something more selfless in it? Watching humanity grow up and into his creation, adapt it, expand it...

Or, another possibility, does he do it because he truly does have faith, not only in the fae, but in the divine? (My money would actually be on the former, but there's something so personally invested about his relationship to the Church that sometimes I wonder.)

Good lord, it just occurred to me what a god complex Tarrant has. What he's done, with creating the Church and then lurking around the edges for centuries to watch it develop, parallels one of the metaphors for God--as a grand architect or artist, laying down rules and guidelines to build a Creation that takes on its own life and unfolds in its own way. And obviously, if he's using the Church to create God... (You know, I always liked the implication of that. The Church is, in its way, a very ruthless and pragmatic organization.)

[alice_montrose]

But here it's mainly Tarrant out on his own, and all he is is cold, brilliant, and classy.

Oh yes. There are hardly any power struggles and mind games here. Just Gerald having fun being himself. And I love this side of him. Megalomaniac and all. :)

I keep thinking about how Tarrant persists in defining himself according to the Church.

But in a way, it is understandable, is it not? I still suspect he was born in a religious family and brought up within the faith. but even more, if as the Prophet he had a hand in redefining the very foundations of the Church, would this not have influenced him on a religious level. As the one truly major undertaking of his life, he is bound to cling to it, even subconsciously. I can understand why he would want to hold on to the Church over the centuries, watch it grow and evolve.

On the other hand, having confirmation that the One God actually exists must have been both a blessing and a curse to him...

Good lord, it just occurred to me what a god complex Tarrant has.

*LOL* I always thought that was a given, for this character. Along with the idea of supreme domination of the mind and will over baser emotions. And it always amuses me, the way he watches his creation progress and expand, and develops new challenges for it in order to test it, sometimes to its foundations.

[trobadora]

Yay, so cool to see you around again! \o/

But here it's mainly Tarrant out on his own, and all he is is cold, brilliant, and classy.

Yes, that's a great point! And I did notice how well it fits what's been happening in fanfic for years - writing evil!Tarrant was always the chance to write him being cold and brilliant without anyone else allowed to get in the way. *g*

He's been kicking around for 400 years as a creature of the night and still he apparently thinks at least once a week about how great it is.

I think it's clear from the trilogy that he never let go of it, that he kept defining himself in relation to the Church, as its creator and as someone massively invested in its project. Don't forget, the stated reason for his deal with the Unnamed was that he wanted to see how the Church would do, what would become of it.

His argument to Damien was always that the Church's beliefs had redefined how the world worked, leaving him stuck in that context

Really? I don't recall it quite that way from the books. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you; would you mind elaborating?

Sure, Gerald's a supremely pragmatic guy, but does he insist on clinging to that paradigm because he has to/because it works? Or does he do it because it's a way he can continue to participate in his creation?

I think the obsession with his creation is certainly part of it, but it's more that he is very, very deeply invested in the project itself, making Erna truly habitable for humans. I'm not sure how selfless that is and how much is intellectual pride for having come up with the idea, but there can be no doubt, I don't think, that he ultimately wants the Church to succeed.

Or, another possibility, does he do it because he truly does have faith, not only in the fae, but in the divine?

Now that's a more difficult question. We've discussed the strange balancing act of the Church before, on the one hand creating the Divine and on the other, that very creation depending on believing in it. I'm not entirely sure how Tarrant resolves it in his own mind, but he probably falls more on the side of "creating". When he does come (almost) face to face with the reality of the Divine in WTNF, he's completely shaken. How much of that is because he, the prophet, the creator of the very concept of the Church, has by his own compact put himself in a place where he can't even look upon the very thing he's invested so much in, and how much is simply its existence as a force outside the human mind? I think it must be a bit of both.

Good lord, it just occurred to me what a god complex Tarrant has.

Hee! I always thought that was obvious. One reason we love him so. *g*

[devohoneybee.livejournal.com]

I love the idea that the greatest betrayal of his God comes because of his great love. Much like some tales of Lucifer, the angel who shined the brightest, and who loved God the most...

I also like how this story explains why he would ever have chosen a creepazoid like Amoril for his servant -- opportunity, it seems, and his insatiable desire for knowledge.

I thought Faith figuring out the one thing that could throw Gerald off his game was HILARIOUS. Now I'd like more Faith fic, srsly. How would she be changed by this encounter? Would his statement about serving God trouble her?

[alice_montrose]

I love the idea that the greatest betrayal of his God comes because of his great love.

I don't see it as a betrayal of God, actually. If you read carefully, he turns his back on the Church, but never on God. I clearly remember the passage in black Sun Rising with Amoril taking Damien and Senzei into the Keep's chapel and telling them that his master is a deeply religious man. And Gerald's reaction when he finds out the one God actually exists now.

But the parallel with Lucifer is clearly there. "Greatest evil", fallen Prophet and all that. :)

I also like how this story explains why he would ever have chosen a creepazoid like Amoril for his servant

*LOL* Gerald has always been pragmatic and in search of knowledge. Maybe that is why he tells Karril he respects the neutrality of loremasters and is willing to give his word not to hurt Ciani? And we can never deny he is very, very curious. About many things.

Not sure how I feel about Faith. She seemed a pretty "old school" knight type to me. Maybe she even led the first crusade against the Forest? There is a lot of potential there...

[trobadora]

I don't see it as a betrayal of God, actually. If you read carefully, he turns his back on the Church, but never on God.

He says so explicitly in the novella, doesn't he? And I think it's true, too - to the same degree he turns his back on the Church. Which is to say, only in some respects, while remaining completely faithful in other ways. *g*

[trobadora]

I love the idea that the greatest betrayal of his God comes because of his great love.

Yes, me too! And it parallels and mirrors what he did sacrificing Almea. Fascinating. Of course he's always been an obvious Lucifer figure, but some things are more explicit than others.

Now I'd like more Faith fic, srsly. How would she be changed by this encounter? Would his statement about serving God trouble her?

Really excellent questions! I'd like to know too. It could go either way for Faith - she could become a fanatic crusader as easily as start to question everything she thought she knew. Lots of potential!