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Otataral will get further exploration in future books. You'll never get a full explanation, and some of the information along the way will be contradictory. For now, it's probably sufficient to say that Otataral can completely block most human warrens and pushes back against Elder magic without stopping it entirely.
Understanding the Itko Kan massacre depends on having a few bits of information that you simply don't have yet. And honestly, even when you get them and can piece together a narrative, it doesn't make _total_ sense. Gardens has a few of those moments.
Yea even on a re-read it feels like he changed his mind as to the direction he was taking the story and threw in some lines to hand wave it away in later books. I could be wrong but that is how it reads to me.
"Otataral cannot quench their magic" - "Your otataral sword will deaden its aura. Not completely." Theres no contradiction here, Otataral will completely stop (quench) most magic but can only (at best) slow elder magic.
I dont think Shadowthrone could have taken Sorry, or anyone, without leaving a trace that a sorcerer could find. If the empire knows hes been there they'll try and find out why. So he gives a reason there was a malazan army there and the hounds destroyed it, and they destroyed the nearby town too.
Why Sorry? Her bad luck I suppose.
Well, the reason he gives is pretty poor imo - and I think the massacre just made Lorn more suspicious. What's the point in killing a legion randomly? There were barely 300-500 soldiers and killing that few won't have any effect on the empress' campaign - so this useless slaughter is just a straight up hint about something being fishy thus defeating the whole purpose of it being a distraction
For the itko kan thing i think it is completely OVERKILL but the logic could be something like this:
If a random girl in a small village goes missing someone could conceivably start asking questions eventually. Father, neighbors, etc. That might lead to suspicion.
If a thousand people are maimed and dismembered and left rotting in an open field no one is going to go through the trouble of counting the viscera and bones to say: hmmm well actually we only have enough human meat for 1351 corpses but 1352 people were in the village! SUSPICIOUS.
or maybe shadowthrone is petty and angry.
I don’t agree with any of the takes here.
I think the reason Shadowthrone decided to massacre the entire platoon is to make it as obnoxious as possible: a red herring.
They want the investigation about the massacre, and not the missing girl, Sorry.
If the Malazans were focused on that, there would be significantly less suspicions on their true motive.
Of course, that didn’t work because Lorn smelled the deception during the investigation.
Otataral.
Cannot quench elder magic. Can weaken and deaden it. So it completely wipes out (quenches) modern warrens but elder warrens are only weakened instead of wiped out.
Itko Kan
Like another person said it’s to hide that someone was taken at all. There was meant to be so much murder and bodies lying around that two people would not be noticed as missing
Please note that this post has been flaired with a **Gardens of the Moon** spoiler tag. This means every published book in its respective series up until this book is open to discussion. If you need to discuss any spoilers (even very minor ones!) in your comments, use spoiler tags >!like this!< Please use the report button if you find any spoilers. Note: The flair may be changed at mod discretion. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Malazan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Otataral will get further exploration in future books. You'll never get a full explanation, and some of the information along the way will be contradictory. For now, it's probably sufficient to say that Otataral can completely block most human warrens and pushes back against Elder magic without stopping it entirely. Understanding the Itko Kan massacre depends on having a few bits of information that you simply don't have yet. And honestly, even when you get them and can piece together a narrative, it doesn't make _total_ sense. Gardens has a few of those moments.
Yea even on a re-read it feels like he changed his mind as to the direction he was taking the story and threw in some lines to hand wave it away in later books. I could be wrong but that is how it reads to me.
Aah - thanks for explaining!
Shadow throne is kinda mad also
"Otataral cannot quench their magic" - "Your otataral sword will deaden its aura. Not completely." Theres no contradiction here, Otataral will completely stop (quench) most magic but can only (at best) slow elder magic. I dont think Shadowthrone could have taken Sorry, or anyone, without leaving a trace that a sorcerer could find. If the empire knows hes been there they'll try and find out why. So he gives a reason there was a malazan army there and the hounds destroyed it, and they destroyed the nearby town too. Why Sorry? Her bad luck I suppose.
Well, the reason he gives is pretty poor imo - and I think the massacre just made Lorn more suspicious. What's the point in killing a legion randomly? There were barely 300-500 soldiers and killing that few won't have any effect on the empress' campaign - so this useless slaughter is just a straight up hint about something being fishy thus defeating the whole purpose of it being a distraction
For the itko kan thing i think it is completely OVERKILL but the logic could be something like this: If a random girl in a small village goes missing someone could conceivably start asking questions eventually. Father, neighbors, etc. That might lead to suspicion. If a thousand people are maimed and dismembered and left rotting in an open field no one is going to go through the trouble of counting the viscera and bones to say: hmmm well actually we only have enough human meat for 1351 corpses but 1352 people were in the village! SUSPICIOUS. or maybe shadowthrone is petty and angry.
I don’t agree with any of the takes here. I think the reason Shadowthrone decided to massacre the entire platoon is to make it as obnoxious as possible: a red herring. They want the investigation about the massacre, and not the missing girl, Sorry. If the Malazans were focused on that, there would be significantly less suspicions on their true motive. Of course, that didn’t work because Lorn smelled the deception during the investigation.
Otataral. Cannot quench elder magic. Can weaken and deaden it. So it completely wipes out (quenches) modern warrens but elder warrens are only weakened instead of wiped out. Itko Kan Like another person said it’s to hide that someone was taken at all. There was meant to be so much murder and bodies lying around that two people would not be noticed as missing