(crosspost)

[pilfered_words]

(Responding to the Attolian Archives episode about the Thief, Chapter 9)

 

(The problem with listening to this in the car on my way from work is that I can’t respond right away. Let’s see if I can collect my thoughts enough.)

 

The most hilarious part of this chapter on rereads is “I said, “Gen.” He wasn’t interested in the rest.” 

 

Other highlights:

 

“ The magus shook his head. “You don’t pretend well.” I opened my mouth to say something I shouldn’t have“ - as in, something that would piss off the magus, or something that would hint at just how good he is at pretending?

 

“My uncle used to keep that much under his bed and count it every night.“ - this is probably not literally true. Probably. I definitely did not just spend a while imagining the late king of Eddis counting a sack of gold coins. (Does Gen have other uncles, come to think of it? I think so, there’s definitely a lot of cousins and uncles might have been mentioned? Maybe?)

 

The age thing: I think of Gen as ~16, yeah. (I’m 26, for reference.) QoA narrows it down a whole lot, of course, you know he’s young enough to be growing and old enough to count as a man, not a boy, whatever Attolia may say on the subject. 

 

The religion thing: I think all three countries, Sounis, Attolia, and even Eddis, don’t engage particularly deeply with their religions. They pray in the temples, give offerings occasionally, and mostly live their lives without thinking of the gods at all. There are some true believers, and I think Gen starts out on the cynical end even so, but in general, they all want the gods to stay safely inside their temples. Remember that part of CoK? Even to Helen and Sophos, who have seen the gods, they are not quite real, “a memory of a dream you can’t quite remember”, eventually. For everyone else? They might say they believe, but it’s mostly empty words.