Mortis

[Scribe]

 

 

 

Erda is irrelevant as of the current story progress. French actually made Oll matter, so that's nice.

Are you trying to say the Emperor cares about the Primarchs??

Yeah. Well, we know he cares about humanity, as John French explains that in the afterword of The Solar War. And we won't know what he thinks of his children until the last book, but people need to understand context. Even his talk with Guilliman is after suffering Lovecraftian agony for 11,000 years.

I'd have to look at what French said in the afterword, but no, we have no reason to suspect the Emperor cares about individuals, at all.

I don't care what he said to Rob in some present day interaction while he sits on the edge of life, death, and godhood.

I'm talking about Heresy era.

I was talking about humanity as a species. John French said the Emperor views triumphing over the age old darkness that stalks humanity as ULTIMATE victory and that he is cornered with the fact he did not save humanity, but doomed us.

 

 

Yes, saving 'Humanity' even if it meant killing 90% of the species, was his ultimate goal, and the tragedy of the setting is that his own hubris, and actions, instead damned everyone.

[Valkyrion]

I don't know if this is worthy of spoiler tags so just in case...Iron Warriors re Mortis.

 

was it always canon that the Iron Warriors evacuated or is this new? I thought they were there until the end, along with the World Eaters, Death Guard and Sons of Horus as a sort of counter balance to Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, White Scars and Custodes.

 

 

[Scribe]

I dont believe it was canon that they bailed out prior to the walls going down.

[mc warhammer]

four chapters in and this is shaping up to be my favourite french book.

 

that is all.

[DarkChaplain]

I should probably finish this one sometime, considering Warhawk is on the horizon. Just getting terribly bored whenever Titans enter the page, so I end up switching to another book entirely with little progress.

[mc warhammer]

honestly, i usually feel the same with titans but so far their presence has been minimal

[Ubiquitous1984]

I should probably finish this one sometime, considering Warhawk is on the horizon. Just getting terribly bored whenever Titans enter the page, so I end up switching to another book entirely with little progress.

I am towards the end of listening to the audiobook (after reading it at release).

 

I agree that the Titan scenes are boring (Knights even more so).  But in the second half of the book the don't feature quite so much, and when they do it is more enjoyable than the first half.

 

Keep at it, you just need to power through the titan bits and it's obviously important to finish the book asap if you want to start on Warhawk soon.

[mc warhammer]

The trick I'm finding is to only read one mini chapter a day. French isn't a page turner, but if I allow myself time to absorb what he's putting out...I really enjoy it. At least this time round

[SkimaskMohawk]

I was pretty bummed out on Mortis not having the best reception; I loved Solar War and reread it multiple times, and I really wanted French's second book in the series to be as good as the first. So I didn't buy it on release, only just got it on the weekend because I needed to be up to date for Warhawk, and wrapped it up this morning.

 

I can understand why a lot of people found this book hard-going. It features a lot of Titan action, proto-inquisition, and perpetuals; Shiban shows up to go on a spirit journey so he can be in the next book. None of those things are usually the main focus of a book and have been used as the B plots throughout the series.

 

I quite liked Mortis. I'm invested enough in Titanicus that I found the Ignatum and Solaria parts really engaging and enjoyable. I liked the psititan and how it affected both traitors and loyalists. I even liked the Warmaster wave at the end and the decision to rush them because the shield coverage was so strong. I thought it was appropriate that we didn't see any POV from Mortis or the other threats; Mortis was the first corrupted legio, and the fluff in AT2018 drives it further with how set in the rot really was. 

 

The whole warp corruption being the main threat is kind of central to the book actually. All the foes are extremely in thrall to the warp at this point; mortis, dark mechanicum, daemons, noise marines, paradise. All of our non-antagonist characters oppose the warp and the corruption that's being spread by the siege (in various ways), even to the extent of Perturabo and Actae. The entire point of Saturnine was to show how the civil war was completely off the rails and slipping into something uncontrollable, with Perturabo and Argonis quick to pick up on it as well in this book. So when we don't get Legio Mortis POVs its because Legio Mortis doesn't exist any more; they're daemonic tools of the warp. So maybe the title is less about the legio as the encroaching threat to the wall, and more about the full death of the Crusade-era Imperium and it's transition to daemons, the inquisition, faith and all that stuff. 

 

As an aside, I think that Actae/Cyrene is almost definitely Morianna. I just get that vibe.

 

EDIT: Ya french basically says it in his afterward; the death of hope and rational/corporeal warfare. Also references Morianna.....   

Edited October 1, 2021 by SkimaskMohawk

[Bobss]

As an aside, I think that Actae/Cyrene is almost definitely Morianna. I just get that vibe.

 

EDIT: Ya french basically says it in his afterward; the death of hope and rational/corporeal warfare. Also references Morianna.....   

 

I wrote a giant post about this the other day and couldn't be bothered to post it in the end, but oh lawdy you've took the words right out of my mouth. I really, really don't like it because it smells of both burnt sugar and Armageddon=Ullanor, but at the same time she's clearly being set up to be the foil to Sindermann, who I have always believed was created and written to be one of the biggest players of the early Inquisition, even as early as Horus Rising (''we are not right because we are mighty, we are mighty because we are right'' - yeah okay mate!). I wished Abnett had played with Malcador grooming Sindermann into a Mini-Me a little bit more in Saturnine, but oh well. Personally, I thought Cyrene's resurrection scene in Betrayer was really rubbish, and I say that as someone who believes ADB, at his best, can only be topped by Abnett, at his best. I mean this is the first time she has ever seen Argel Tal, and quite literally nothing is made of it. Trust me, go back and reread it. It was weird in 2013 and it's still weird today

 

Anyway, I've really changed my opinion on Mortis. I strongly contest people putting this over The Solar War, but that book is to me what Devastation of Baal is to Guy Haley fans. I just love it so much. No book ever released by Black Library can compare to the scale of warfare accurately described in that book. I actually see Mortis as The Lost and the Damned 2.0 but written in a decidedly different way. The Lost and the Damned is sandwiched between the apocalyptic Solar War and is about getting the Traitors from orbit to assaulting the palace, but before big events start happening with the capture of both starports in The First Wall and Saturnine. Mortis is also an A-to-B novel but instead of giving little snippets of things to come like Sanguinius Vs. Angron or the Khan fighting Death Guard like Guy Haley chose to, it heavily zooms into a few ongoing things like Oll, Shiban, Titans etc. The finale is also suitably epic and segues very nicely into Warhawk from what I've read

 

Of course, the best bits of Mortis are the Traitor perspective stuff. Scenes like the Legio Mortis' deployment or any snippet of Horus either physically or metaphysically are worth their weight in gold. As much as I loved the Night Lords trilogy, it kickstarted this trend of Chaos Space Marines not being all that bad when sometimes I just want them to dip their chainaxes into buckets of serf blood. Thankfully John French is trying to rectify this across his works

[DarkChaplain]

The problem I have with that theory (and I'd call it a likely bet, too, at this point) is that Moriana has appeared on-page and even in audio previously on many occasions.

 

I just cannot see a natural progression from the blind girl of Monarchia to the personal advisor to Abaddon, and oracle of the Traitor Legions over the course of ten millennia, with a mid-stop as part of the founding members of the Inquisition proper, just to then also go all Horusian and get kicked out because using the warp / chaos to resurrect the Emperor is a bad thing.

 

We're talking about a girl that first firmly believed in the Emperor's divinity, learned about the Chaos Pantheon, was appalled by what had become of Argel Tal, died, got Perpetual'd somehow, got spirited away by a dickish Perpetual snarkboy, didn't show up again for almost 30 books, and when she presumably did, she's using a different name and being deep into warp magic with her own bloody cult, being totally in the know about where Fulgrim would be located, goes on a merry stroll into the Eye to fetch him, and shows up on Terra to help Perpetual Olly and his band of friends, while John recognizes her as steeped in Chaos.

And this is before she'd need to be recruited by Malcador, who would then have to properly instate the Inquisition proper, presenting her to the Emperor.

Frankly, Actaea appears far too powerful and knowledgable to fly as a founding Inquisitor. She doesn't play by the same rules as the rest.

 

Then there's also this awfully convenient fact that Moriana in M41 has no eyes (the girl used to be blind, got her sight back, and is then getting her eyes removed at some point in the future? Talk about bad luck). It just seems so utterly inelegant. Not least of all because Actaea is more of a macguffin, a deus ex machina for the plot in John French's books seems to require to play out, rather than a true character on her own merits.

 

Either way, I wish Cyrene had never been resurrected in the first place. Another new Perpetual was the last thing we needed back then.

[SkimaskMohawk]

I kind of agree that Cyrene coming back to life was both clunky and irrelevant in the narrative so far.

 

As to the natural progression, maybe it's because I just rebinged Dark, but I can see it...just not the normal one. Cyrene presumably only survives by getting tossed into the warp and it's time distorting properties. What if it doesnt go Cyrene>Actae>Morianna, but Cyrene>Morianna>Actae. She's there to ensure the future comes to pass a certain way and it would explain her vast knowledge and cult status. It's far out, but Dark kind of nailed it and French loves his time travel and paradoxes....

[SkimaskMohawk]

Ya I did a search and the phrase of tasting sugar and something else came up 12 times lol.

 

On the other stuff, I feel like it goes back to the main focus; a lot of people just don't care about titans or legios or princeps. Theres always been a massive titan fight during the siege, as iirc the first iteration of a titan game made the heresy, so a titan focussed book was an inevitability. But because a lot of people don't care, they only have the B plots left.

 

But to answer your questions, Shiban is being followed to show how he actually returns to the line and to continue his arc of growing into the title 'Restorer'; the oll dreams were more like flashbacks to being in the labyrinth and destroying the tower of Babel; Paradise was real and so were all the people trying to get to it, it's basically one of the things the EC were doing instead of fighting and it contributed to a lot of the disruption and the formation of the Imperial institutions.

[Bobss]

The problem I have with that theory (and I'd call it a likely bet, too, at this point) is that Moriana has appeared on-page and even in audio previously on many occasions.

 

I just cannot see a natural progression from the blind girl of Monarchia to the personal advisor to Abaddon, and oracle of the Traitor Legions over the course of ten millennia, with a mid-stop as part of the founding members of the Inquisition proper, just to then also go all Horusian and get kicked out because using the warp / chaos to resurrect the Emperor is a bad thing.

 

We're talking about a girl that first firmly believed in the Emperor's divinity, learned about the Chaos Pantheon, was appalled by what had become of Argel Tal, died, got Perpetual'd somehow, got spirited away by a dickish Perpetual snarkboy, didn't show up again for almost 30 books, and when she presumably did, she's using a different name and being deep into warp magic with her own bloody cult, being totally in the know about where Fulgrim would be located, goes on a merry stroll into the Eye to fetch him, and shows up on Terra to help Perpetual Olly and his band of friends, while John recognizes her as steeped in Chaos.

And this is before she'd need to be recruited by Malcador, who would then have to properly instate the Inquisition proper, presenting her to the Emperor.

Frankly, Actaea appears far too powerful and knowledgable to fly as a founding Inquisitor. She doesn't play by the same rules as the rest.

 

Then there's also this awfully convenient fact that Moriana in M41 has no eyes (the girl used to be blind, got her sight back, and is then getting her eyes removed at some point in the future? Talk about bad luck). It just seems so utterly inelegant. Not least of all because Actaea is more of a macguffin, a deus ex machina for the plot in John French's books seems to require to play out, rather than a true character on her own merits.

 

Either way, I wish Cyrene had never been resurrected in the first place. Another new Perpetual was the last thing we needed back then.

 

As much as I agree... there's the whole debacle with Falkus Kibre. You can't tell me that ADB didn't tell Abnett during their many Siege meetings that he's a big player in the Black Legion. First of the Ezekarion too I believe. From what I can see, the Siege series seems to operate as the most premium of canons (yes I know 'canon' in Warhams is a misnomer don't @ me) and can realistically get away with whatever it wants to. Just look at Perturabo withdrawing from the Siege, which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering his overall character arc during the Heresy, but in the wider scope of 30k/Legion Wars/40k, it's just a bizarre thing to introduce...

[Scribe]

 

As much as I agree... there's the whole debacle with Falkus Kibre. You can't tell me that ADB didn't tell Abnett during their many Siege meetings that he's a big player in the Black Legion. First of the Ezekarion too I believe. From what I can see, the Siege series seems to operate as the most premium of canons (yes I know 'canon' in Warhams is a misnomer don't @ me) and can realistically get away with whatever it wants to. Just look at Perturabo withdrawing from the Siege, which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering his overall character arc during the Heresy, but in the wider scope of 30k/Legion Wars/40k, it's just a bizarre thing to introduce...

 

 

Its stuff like this which just gets to dismiss vast parts of the wider series as non-existent or irrelevant.

 

One cannot convince me that this sub-series was managed as they claimed it would be, it just didnt happen.

 

I actively just want it to conclude at this point so we can sort out the mess ourselves after the fact.

[Petitioner's City]

 

 

As much as I agree... there's the whole debacle with Falkus Kibre. You can't tell me that ADB didn't tell Abnett during their many Siege meetings that he's a big player in the Black Legion. First of the Ezekarion too I believe. From what I can see, the Siege series seems to operate as the most premium of canons (yes I know 'canon' in Warhams is a misnomer don't @ me) and can realistically get away with whatever it wants to. Just look at Perturabo withdrawing from the Siege, which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering his overall character arc during the Heresy, but in the wider scope of 30k/Legion Wars/40k, it's just a bizarre thing to introduce...

 

 

Its stuff like this which just gets to dismiss vast parts of the wider series as non-existent or irrelevant.

 

One cannot convince me that this sub-series was managed as they claimed it would be, it just didnt happen.

 

I actively just want it to conclude at this point so we can sort out the mess ourselves after the fact.

 

 

Scribe, do you ever think you invest too much energy into your complaints about the heresy series? It's like a fetish - I understand you don't like it, but must you keep returning to that well, keep detailing it in such detail and in such a black-and-white way? Wouldn't it be better for blood pressure/mental health/mindfulness to instead focus on something that doesn't make you so angry?

 

I don't know, but with the heresy, it feels like you have too much of an attachment to it, which doesn't feel good to see from the outside. To reiterate, it just feels like a negativity trap. Honestly all the issues we talk about and complain about aren't big issues, and in the grand scheme of things they don't matter - certainly not something to have an animus about.

 

Otherwise, why not try and create a Sump space which is expressly for negativity?

Edited October 3, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[Petitioner's City]

If he doesn’t like the series, he’s free to articulate that as much as he wants mate. The old cliche of ‘just don’t read his posts if they bother you’ applies here.

Hard to do when negativity takes over threads! That's pretty frustrating. More so, it's just not a good mental space - not just for me, but certainly the poster themselves!

 

We honestly don't need to be this negative - we can just be more temperate and less absolutist. It just isn't a nice environment, and it can have negative impacts on us as readers. See here and even this from 2011. Sorry to say this, but it is good health to be a bit less invested/negative :)

 

Edit: I'm happy not to mention it more, but I do think it's important to be open about how negativity is difficult - with real health impacts - and can make a space (online or real) harder to engage with, harder to feel comfortable in, and much more burdomesome and harmful. I think sometimes as fans we are too negative - often about very subjective things where own highly conditional responses to a given subject we take to be an absolute truth - and this can make online spaces difficult to be just happy in, or find it harder to share joy in a common love. There is also a performativity to negativity which is another issue - but for the me the key thing is that by being constantly negative about a given topic one has too much attachment to, one can impact their own health - and that of others. I am not saying don't say what you don't like or when something strikes you wrong, but no need to keep saying it - for your own benefit as much as my own, and if you just want to vent, can there be a space for that on thesite, like yaktribe's Sump, which is a good safe space for it, running over 260 pages.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[DukeLeto69]

I quite liked Mortis! Wasn’t as good as The Solar War or Saturnine but was on a par with The Lost and The Damned and The First Wall.

 

I would say that ALL the SoT books are suffering from bloat and a need to cram too much in and tie up too many loose ends. IMO (probably unpopular) but I think it would have been better to finish the HH in much the same manner it had (wrongly in my opinion) evolved into and have a few anthologies, more novellas and some audios alongside some tighter novels. Keep the side plots, ya know, to the side.

[Scribe]

 

 

 

As much as I agree... there's the whole debacle with Falkus Kibre. You can't tell me that ADB didn't tell Abnett during their many Siege meetings that he's a big player in the Black Legion. First of the Ezekarion too I believe. From what I can see, the Siege series seems to operate as the most premium of canons (yes I know 'canon' in Warhams is a misnomer don't @ me) and can realistically get away with whatever it wants to. Just look at Perturabo withdrawing from the Siege, which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering his overall character arc during the Heresy, but in the wider scope of 30k/Legion Wars/40k, it's just a bizarre thing to introduce...

Its stuff like this which just gets to dismiss vast parts of the wider series as non-existent or irrelevant.

 

One cannot convince me that this sub-series was managed as they claimed it would be, it just didnt happen.

 

I actively just want it to conclude at this point so we can sort out the mess ourselves after the fact.

Scribe, do you ever think you invest too much energy into your complaints about the heresy series? It's like a fetish - I understand you don't like it, but must you keep returning to that well, keep detailing it in such detail and in such a black-and-white way? Wouldn't it be better for blood pressure/mental health/mindfulness to instead focus on something that doesn't make you so angry?

 

I don't know, but with the heresy, it feels like you have too much of an attachment to it, which doesn't feel good to see from the outside. To reiterate, it just feels like a negativity trap. Honestly all the issues we talk about and complain about aren't big issues, and in the grand scheme of things they don't matter - certainly not something to have an animus about.

 

Otherwise, why not try and create a Sump space which is expressly for negativity?

Not remotely. I used to be much more invested, but after fifteen years, I truly want this thing to finish, and not because I have a high opinion on it, but so the anxiety essentially that they will ruin it will go away.

 

I used to invest far more time, far more care into the setting, so no, I'm fine.

 

EDIT: I'll tell you what though, I'll try and reduce my righteous khornate ire, for your sake.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Scribe

[Petitioner's City]

 

 

 

As much as I agree... there's the whole debacle with Falkus Kibre. You can't tell me that ADB didn't tell Abnett during their many Siege meetings that he's a big player in the Black Legion. First of the Ezekarion too I believe. From what I can see, the Siege series seems to operate as the most premium of canons (yes I know 'canon' in Warhams is a misnomer don't @ me) and can realistically get away with whatever it wants to. Just look at Perturabo withdrawing from the Siege, which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering his overall character arc during the Heresy, but in the wider scope of 30k/Legion Wars/40k, it's just a bizarre thing to introduce...

Its stuff like this which just gets to dismiss vast parts of the wider series as non-existent or irrelevant.

 

One cannot convince me that this sub-series was managed as they claimed it would be, it just didnt happen.

 

I actively just want it to conclude at this point so we can sort out the mess ourselves after the fact.

Scribe, do you ever think you invest too much energy into your complaints about the heresy series? It's like a fetish - I understand you don't like it, but must you keep returning to that well, keep detailing it in such detail and in such a black-and-white way? Wouldn't it be better for blood pressure/mental health/mindfulness to instead focus on something that doesn't make you so angry?

 

I don't know, but with the heresy, it feels like you have too much of an attachment to it, which doesn't feel good to see from the outside. To reiterate, it just feels like a negativity trap. Honestly all the issues we talk about and complain about aren't big issues, and in the grand scheme of things they don't matter - certainly not something to have an animus about.

 

Otherwise, why not try and create a Sump space which is expressly for negativity?

Not remotely. I used to be much more invested, but after fifteen years, I truly want this thing to finish, and not because I have a high opinion on it, but so the anxiety essentially that they will ruin it will go away.

 

I used to invest far more time, far more care into the setting, so no, I'm fine.

 

EDIT: I'll tell you what though, I'll try and reduce my righteous khornate ire, for your sake.

 

 

Thanks for explaining and apologies to vent myself this morning!

[mc warhammer]

two weeks later, 30% in. as much as i tried not to, i've started skimming bits. mostly titan stuff, though i did really enjoy the scene where the different legios were discussing who will "walk".

 

the knights stuff works well for me  so far.

 

the problem is, all the stuff i really loved in the beginning...hasn't been touched on again. i keep waiting to go back to those characters but it's like french doesn't think i deserve to yet and i have to pay the toll of reading a few more chapters of stuff i don't care about before i'm given permission.

[mc warhammer]

and as soon as i say that i get some more perty goodness. the shiban stuff i quite like...it's like an astartes in mccarthy's the road

[DarkChaplain]

I've been consistently baffled by all the mythical figures that Oll's sections just canonize as real historical figures in-universe. Medea, Ariadne, Orpheus, Persephone, Theseus, Minos & the labyrinth presumably with Minotaur, Jason, Nimue aka the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, and then there's the whole Babylon thing.

 

It's honestly too much. When you have literally the "queen of the underworld", daughter of Zeus and Demeter and wife to Hades, as a real figure, you might as well assume the rest of the olympian pantheon to be real as well, which opens up a whole new can of worms. You can of course derive that, say, the Oracle of Delphi would be a potent farseeing psyker, or that the Warp mutated a boy into a bull, considering the Sirens are also a thing. But when you make the ancient gods "real", especially without proper context, you're jumping the shark.

And then having one solo guy be best buds with half of the mythological figures? Man, lay it off, Abnett & French. Less is more, in these cases.

 

Fun fact: Keeble managed to mispronounce Ollanius as Ollainus repeatedly in the paradise-climax of the audiobook. Instead of feeling the threat emanating from the foe's words, I had to laugh, so that took me out of the experience quite thoroughly.

 

On the subject of names, it's pretty much absolute that Actae is Cyrene, with even John pointing out that insufferable Damon Prytanis having gone for her. Not that it mattered, because he went from Betrayer to The Unremembered Empire without her or having shut her down.

However, I find it hilarious that the novel itself tries to make Actae all mysterious about her identity, with her not telling Oll her real name... as if the reader wouldn't know from the conversation up to this point, anyway.

The more interesting part is that Oll is confirmed to be using an adopted name himself, which I don't think was 100% confirmed before.

 

And here's my prediction for Oll's identity reveal aboard the Vengeful Spirit: He's Adam, either the one from Eden or Primordial Man. It'll make him being pseudo-catholic even funnier.

Alternatively, he's Epimetheus, which would match his hindsight is 20/20 attitude. This one would fit better if he wasn't a bunch of millennia older than the Emperor - there'd have been a decent level of symmetry between Emperor-as-Prometheus and Oll-as-Epimetheus instead. While this could still be considered, since greek mythology wasn't around when either of them were born yet, it would not work as their primary identities.

 

I think my favorite part of the book is actually Katsuhiro's coming-of-age, so to say, towards the end. Him realizing how far he'd come mentally, while not really progressing much physically, and gaining command of his section, inspiring the troops around him and being heard for his steadfast faith, that really worked. It also worked how initially, he was close to breaking in his hope, if not faith, because of what he witnessed, the growing understanding of the forces of Chaos' logic, but then manages to move past that and reaffirm his faith through an Astartes sacrifice. It's a great scene.

Edited October 18, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[Valkyrion]

I've been consistently baffled by all the mythical figures that Oll's sections just canonize as real historical figures in-universe. Medea, Ariadne, Orpheus, Persephone, Theseus, Minos & the labyrinth presumably with Minotaur, Jason, Nimue aka the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, and then there's the whole Babylon thing.

 

It's honestly too much. When you have literally the "queen of the underworld", daughter of Zeus and Demeter and wife to Hades, as a real figure, you might as well assume the rest of the olympian pantheon to be real as well, which opens up a whole new can of worms. You can of course derive that, say, the Oracle of Delphi would be a potent farseeing psyker, or that the Warp mutated a boy into a bull, considering the Sirens are also a thing. But when you make the ancient gods "real", especially without proper context, you're jumping the shark.

And then having one solo guy be best buds with half of the mythological figures? Man, lay it off, Abnett & French. Less is more, in these cases.

 

 

 

 

I may be mistaken, it's been a while since I read it, but doesn't ADB imply in Master of Mankind that the Emperor is the Olympians during one of his psychic throwbacks with Ra?

[Bobss]

Katt=Morianna is the best thing since tinned tuna. Not only does it give some purpose to the Calth tagalongs who stand out like a sore thumb at this point in the finale, but it also bulks up the theme of '30k's nobodies are 40k's somebodies.' Also, her otherworldly arrogance and complete lack of fear in the presence of demigods, which K-On remarks upon in Black Legion, can be explained by everything she's experienced, jumping through time with Oll and the like. Facing down Abaddon probably isn't all that difficult when you've seen things no other human has. I would much prefer this to Cyrene/Actaea=Morianna, and seeing two of the Inquisition's earliest head honchos (Katt and Kyril) go on to do big things would give me a lot more appreciation for their respective stories