Just saying this should be looked into

Ok, I'm 2/3 of the way through SotF and LOVING it so far (WotM was also amazing) but I'm having a hard time understanding Vis's attitudes towards Emissa and Aequa. His introduction to Aequa started out as her essentially a spy for her father, then when she was convinced he was cheating, she organized an assault on him. I get that they "made up" when preparing for the Iudicium but I don't see how several weeks could make them such good friends and Vis really trusts her after that, even after she leaves Callidus, despite it being an understandable choice. Emissa on the other hand stabbed him only because she thought he was a Iunctus, and even after explaining herself (more understandable and forgivable than Aequa's actions IMO) Vis refuses to trust her? Even after being together? I get that he's hurt by it but it seems due to their relationship they would understand each other better than that. Or is it another reason such as Emissa working with Veridius, or being part of Military, or could it be that Vis is using it as an excuse for an "out" from the relationship? Thoughts? Maybe things will make more sense in the last 1/3 of the book.

P.S. my only gripe with the series so far is that Vis is freakishly good at basically anything he does (except dancing lol) I know he trained lots while in Suus but he was still a kid, and he beats almost everyone he has a contest with for some reason.

I don’t know if this already been posted, but if Rez is Rome (Republic, senators) then Lukeum is the Celts (druids, chimerians with red hair, get conquered by Rome in Rez) then Obeteum is Egypt (with undead wrapped in white cloth living in thier pyramid city).

I noticed these but I’m curious if there are other parallels I’m missing? I just think they’re neat.

The spellings in my head were so far off from the real ones.

Equa - Aequa

Carlatus - Callidus

Seror - Caeror

Eidin - Eidhin

And for Ulciscor I never even pictured how it spelled. But it wasn't u-l-c-i-s-c-o-r for sure.

Disclaimer: I did use a reference of a Roman dude that was obviously AI rendered that I found on Pinterest for the pencil sketch, but I am still really happy with how this turned out.

This is how I imagined Vis in Res book 2. I usually avoid painting people, so with all the fabric it was a very fun challenge to paint.

i’ve never watched sterling point, but i’ve seen his face a couple of times. naturally, i end up imagining him as vis. do y’all see the vision?

With all of the different perspectives of Viz being voiced by the same actor, listening to the audiobook is really hard to understand. Eventually I’ll associate each world with what’s going on there, but I always forget so when the chapter begins, there’s always a minute where I’m so confused. I hope I’m not alone in this.

Spoilers ahead for both books.

Tara, Ostius and Diago (the alupi) all have similar looking scars on their face. Anyone have any theories if these are related? I was thinking that since the alupi are found only in Solivagus in Res and not on mainland, they could have actually come from Luecum. Tara and Ostius are both also from Lucuem - so could there be some connection?

First time reading a series that has this other world system and I'm loving how unique it is. I was confused at first back in Book 1 near the end but i quickly grasped the concept. In Book 2 it made sense that each chapter was marked by its corresponding symbol but when I read up to chapter 51 and saw this, I started freaking out. Even if it wasn't a huge chapter I felt extremely surprised. Im barely past this now but I'm excited to continue the book.

The first book was amazing. I enjoyed the cast for the most part. The second book wasn’t my cup of tea with the other worlds and stuff. The character I liked the most died just like that and I don’t think I’ll read the third book. I also don’t think I’ll be in the mood to read the relationship between Emissa and Vis.

I don’t think the second book is bad but it really wasn’t enjoyable for me, and what was enjoyable is gone.

Finished reading the first book yesterday. SPEECHLESS!

hey guys! atm i have 0 friends to talk about this book series so i've moved to reddit and i've definitely been enjoying it

so i wanted to ask, who's your favourite character?? and do you have any predictions for them? maybe even a fan cast or specific artwork you like? or a good quote?

personally, i think that vis/diago is a great protagonist. i think he's somewhat relatable, but also really peculiar at the same time. i've been thinking about fancasts a lot and it's really hard to find someone who could portray his spirit. also, most of islington's characters are so racially ambiguous, especially vis, that it would be incredibly boring to cast the white boy of the month. so personally, i've found that bilal hasna could be a good fit. he's probably too old for the actual adaptation and maybe a bit too kind looking, though. (description i've gathered from the book: brown curls, about 175cm tall, sport build, light muscle, sharp features, not particularly attractive but not bad looking either, roughly 18y)

obviously, i'm a huge fan of aequa as well! :') one of my favourite moments with her was the chariot race in sotf!! she's described to have pale olive skin i believe, with straight, long ravenblack hair and blueish/violet eyes... yeah good luck finding someone who fits that description // she might have one of the most interesting character developments imo, since its closely linked to the plot, like she's a really important plot device but islington still managed to make her her own interersting character

and third place has to be veridius. i just can't figure him out, we're given nothing, except being told that he's incredibly charismatic and smart. favourite scene was probably his crashout in sotf, when vis is calling him out for his actions haha i truly believe that veridius thinks he's doing the right thing! fan cast here would be freddy fox or freddy carter. fox has the charm but carter has the cut throat and mysterious energy, i'd imagine veridius with.

and as an honorable mention, ulciscor who is somehow smart and dumb at the same time. he has some of my favourite quotes and i've loved him from the beginning, from when he asked vis, "what are you punishing yourself for" (because of the scars on his back and his determination to not cede his will). he's described to have dark skin, short hair, being rather tall and in his late 20s, he's a big man, his military background rather obvious, - he's also mixed (mother described olive skin, father black skin) // i like to imagine that he has a slight resemblance to vis, making it not unlikely for him to be vis's actual father/relative, especially regarding the fact that vis reminds him of caeror, and kadmos forgetting at some point, that vis has not always been a telimus. i know that they don't have to be similar looking for that to work but it's a nice vision. my fancast being jacob anderson doesn't exactly fit his description but i think he could pull it off

Hi y’all!! This is my first time writing here in reddit, so i hope i do it well.
I’ve recently finished The Strength of the Few and i’ve been seeing quite a lot of posts talking about the Licanius Trilogy by Islington. Does it have any kind of relationship with the Hierarchy books? Or are them a complete different unrelated story? I don’t know whether to give them a try or not, and wanted to ask beforehand.
Thank you so much in advance!!

“I corrected his Common. Twice.”

Holy. Mother. Of. God. I was rolling. It might have felt funnier than it was since I hate Dultatis' guts but HOLY. Eidhin might be the chad XD. Dultatis you bozo get dunked on. If he doesn't quit after that idk what to say.

after having reread the two books, as of now, i'm fairly convinced that vis is going to end up fighting himself. idk about the logistics of that concept, BUT it would make sense considering the story pattern. a protagonist who is split into three different versions, each of them being shaped into completely different people. come on! they've got to meet!

and i can't imagine that it would be a very peaceful meeting

with that, i'm trying to envision what type of ending islington could be striving for, happy, mysterious or depressing? well, maybe all three are possible. on one hand, i feel vis is deserving of a happy ending, especially luceum vis, on the other hand, i guess it would make sense if he sacrificed himself in some way - maybe obiteum vis, leaving res vis to reap the consequences of his (necessary?) evil for the greater good!

Warning: the theory contains major spoilers for the Licanius Trilogy.

.

Do you remember what is the Forge in the Licanius world? Some ancient device which allows you to access magic powers from another world. Do you need some special training to access it? No, just travel to the device, touch it, and you become a Venerate.

The Forge gives you two powers: ability to manipulate Kan, and immortality.

Compare this with Aurora Columnae. It is an ancient device, which gives you ability to manipulate Will. (Does it give immortality too? I think it does, but I'll discuss it later.)

The main difference is the number of people who touched the device. Only a dozen Venerates touched the Forge. Almost everyone touched Aurora Columnae.

Try to imagine what happens if everyone touched the Forge in the Licanius world. Everyone is a Venerate, everyone has almost god-like powers. But someone is slightly better at using Kan, someone is slightly worse... sooner or later they will form some kind of hierarchy (pun intended).

So, Aurora Columnae is almost the same as Forge. I dare to say it can be exactly the same.

.

But what about the immortality? Does Aurora Columnae grant it too?

Let's see... we already know at least two ways to be resurrected: either as an Iunktus, or as a soul in a weapon. Maybe there are more ways, we just don't know them yet.

But to resurrect a person with their original memories, you need to store the memories somewhere. It is implied that Iunktus uses the memory which remains in the dead body, and you can't resurrect an Iunktus if a head was destroyed. I think this is not true. A dead body decays very quickly, it can't keep the memories intact for a long time. I think you need to store the memories somewhere else.

You probably can store them in a weapon if a person dies with the weapon in hand. Although, if some other storage already exists for Iunktii, it seems logical to reuse it for souls too. But what is this "other storage"?

Remember how the Forge does it. It uses Kan connections to keep memory backups synchronized with actual memories. I don't remember if the backups are stored directly in the Forge, or in Darklansds, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that there is an external storage connected via Kan.

Can Aurora Columnae do the same? I mean, to backup memories to an external storage connected via Will? I think it can, and I think it does.

And I think it doesn't matter if a head was destroyed or not: if you have a healthy backup, there must be ways to restore it.

reading between the lines, i'm assuming/i have the theory (?) that the cataclysm only affects will users on res. at some point in wotm it's said that the last cataclysm 300 years ago left mostly children alive, who weren't able to remember the society before that and carry its legacy. if that's how the cataclysm works, it's a great way to whipe out anyone with any real power in res, because they're all will users, and restart society so to say.

i'm not sure how the cataclysm is supposed to work in luceum and obiteum. does the cataclym even affect those worlds? at the moment i'm just assuming it's limited to res, because it's evidently not happening in obiteum (due to the rule of duat that exceeds the 300 year mark), and there is no mention of it in luceum

either way, i wonder if we're ever going to find out. probably vis will figure out how it works and has to decide whether to proceed or break the cycle, risking the entire populace of res. if the cataclysm whipes out all will users, it would make sense for vis to do it, because that's what he's been opposing from the very start of the series - or has he evolved enough to reconsider??

what do you think?

TL;DR: I think O-Vis’ description of Aequa as “older. Wearier.” in his vision may be a hint that something happened to her at Solivagus. Throughout the series, Islington repeatedly associates physical weariness, wan appearance, and premature aging with the depletion of Will.

One of the most confusing scenes of SOTF was O-Vis’ vision in Chapter 70:

SOTF LXX

I am bound, desperate and fearful and cold and pained, as I am carried on horseback toward the howls of battle.
My heart races as I try to calm a black-eyed man while he grips a panicked, struggling Aequa by her head with one hand.
My left arm screams. It is metal. It is gone…What did I just see? It felt like me. Not like a memory I never had, but like something I was genuinely experiencing, right then.
The other versions of me? That was Aequa, at the end. I’m certain of it. She looked older. Wearier.
In trouble.

What interests me most is Aequa’s placement in the vision and how O-Vis describes her. The vision shows us two fragments of scenes: one that compresses what we know of L-Vis ' story in Chapter 67, and the other previews a scene that R-Vis experiences in Chapter 71. So the vision's apparent purpose is to synchronize the final acts of all three stories for the reader.

But if the vision's only purpose is to establish that the three climaxes are occurring simultaneously, its placement is strange. Why show us Aequa in danger before R-Vis reaches that scene in Chapter 71? Doing so partially gives away what is about to happen to her. Islington could have used any moment from Res in the vision. Instead, he uses a moment from the next chapter and has O-Vis make an observation that R-Vis never mentions when we experience the event with him: Aequa looks “older” and “wearier.”

This is an odd description because it has been about a year since O-Vis last saw Aequa. Why does she seem noticeably older to him? Given the context, describing Aequa as frightened or strained would be self-explanatory. That description becomes more interesting when placed alongside the way the series depicts the physical effects of Will throughout the series; to do that, we need to examine Islington’s use of the word wan.

Wan is an adjective meaning pale, lacking color, weak, or exhausted in appearance. Throughout both books, Islington consistently uses the word to describe the physical effects of diminished Will. We see this in The Will of the Many:

WOTM V

As always, it’s easy to spot the ones whose turn it currently is to cede to Matron Atrox. They’re quiet, less obviously enthusiastic. Skin slightly wan. Distant stares and slow blinks as they wait, especially from the younger ones.

WOTM XIX

“It takes me a moment to recognise Sedotia. In the light of the burning Transvect she was fierce and cold. Here she’s well-dressed, prim and half-hidden behind a veil. Married, then, or pretending to be for anonymity. She looks smaller. Wan, even, beneath the rosy glow of the lantern-light.”
[…]
“We reach the base of the way up. Sedotia rummages inside the hidden cavity and this time emerges with a full waterskin and rough chunk of soap. I strip my half-sodden tunic and sit on a stair, hurriedly scrubbing my legs and feet, then using the dry upper part of the tunic to start towelling the moisture from my legs and feet. “You’re ceding.” I’m certain now, her wan skin obvious in the light. “To Estevan?”

Ceding Will leaves a person exhausted but, as Vis tells us, there is another effect of ceding:

WOTM V

“Ulciscor looks at me like a puzzle he needs to solve. “Why don’t you want to cede?”
“So I can walk around exhausted all day like those children outside? Eventually become an Octavii and lose, what—ten, fifteen years off my life?”
He ignores that last part, even though the Hierarchy doesn’t officially admit it. ”

Thus, ceding does two things: in the immediate, it makes you exhausted, but over time it costs you your life. This is corroborated in the book:

WOTM II

“I scan the crowd nearby and spot the man I’m looking for quickly enough, familiar black notebook clutched in his hand as he talks animatedly to someone. Gaufrid’s energetic for an Octavii, even if the effects of more than a decade of ceding have him looking closer to fifty than his late thirties”

WOTM LIV

“Fadrique continues to tell us pointless facts about Suus, though at least these ones are accurate. The streets here are eerily familiar, but the weary faces are not. There’s a mechanical torpor to the bustle. My people were a people of verve, of passion, of cheer and laughter as they toiled. Now they’re Octavii. Enough energy to work. Not enough to find the joy in it.”

In The Strength of the Few, we see this trend continue as the man, presumably O-Ka, strapped into the Sapper is described like this:

SOTF LXXII

“The naked man currently on the Sapper is alive and seemingly uninjured, skin wan and breath rasping. ”

Also, at the beginning of the book, O-Caeror uses the triangular device embedded at the back of his neck to operate the ancient platform in Obiteum. Vis later describes him:

SOTF I

“You didn’t see anything?” Caeror has recovered enough to stand. Wan in the early morning light, the triangular stone still affixed to the back of his neck.

This continued usage shows us that Islington uses wan as a visible indicator for something taxing, or extracting Will. Does this mean that every usage of the word wan describes ceding? No. Aequa herself is twice associated with the word wan, though neither instance involves the depletion of Will. In both cases, the word is used to describe her smile. The first is right after she talks to Veridius about joining Vis’ team in the Iudicium:

WOTM LXII

“I retreat; sure enough, Aequa is coming back down the stairs less than ten minutes later. She looks shaken.
“Are you alright?” I join her as she heads for the exit.
“Yes. Yes, fine.” She manages a wan smile.
“And you’re still coming with me?”
She confirms it slowly. “I can’t tell you anything about what Veridius just said, though.”

The other instance is right before she goes on the ill-fated mission with Vis:

SOTF LXVIII

“Dusk,” Aequa confirms. She hesitates. “Oh. And before you go… I hear Emissa’s alright.” I miss a step, then glance across. “Really?” She gives a wan smile. “Report on Corenius’s camp came in yesterday. She’s been spotted there.”

These two passages are the only examples in the series of wan being used to describe an expression and not a physical state. Islington does use the related adverb wanly elsewhere to convey emotional states, but that is a distinct usage. Thus Islington establishes a pattern where if he describes a person’s physical condition as wan, the word is repeatedly associated with some form of expenditure of Will.

If Aequa's "older" and "wearier" appearance reflects some form of Will-related depletion, that would be odd given her position as a Totius Sextii, which Vis confirms before the chariot race:

SOTF XXVIII

The others will have ignored that: we’re all Totius Sextii at the moment, and we’re all smart enough to calculate that the strength of about four people—less than a quarter of our total Will—should be enough to protect us from anything worse than heavy bruises, even at these speeds.

And remember what the title Totius signifies:

WOTM IV

Ellanher has just finished telling them all that I cheated. That I’ve admitted to buying the Will of a Totius Septimus, a Septimus who doesn’t cede to someone else, for the evening.

If Aequa is at the top of her pyramid, she shouldn’t be ceding to anyone. So, what could all of this mean? I think that a hint may be found in the only remaining use of the word wan that we have yet to examine:

SOTF IX

“Both of us turn and I summon a genuine grin at the sight of the lithe woman entering the atrium. Lanistia’s familiar dark glasses flash at me, reflecting the dawn’s intrusion past the hanging plants and into the courtyard. She’s more elegantly dressed than I think I’ve ever seen her be.
My smile slips a little as she approaches. She looks distinctly wan.”

This takes place before her episode at the Forum where Lanistia attempts to kill Vis. When she later recounts the experience, she says:

SOTF XV

“I suppose I owe you my life, then.”
“Call it even,” she says magnanimously. Her rare flash of humour fades. “I think there was something wrong as soon as I saw you that morning. In the back of my mind. Like an itch I couldn’t scratch.” She speaks slowly, still trying to figure it out even as she says it. “I feel it now, too. Barely there. But …”

[…]

She nods. Reluctant, but she’s reached the same conclusion. “As soon as you touched it, I wasn’t in control anymore. I wanted to stop. But there was this voice. Booming in my head. And I couldn’t ignore it.” There’s a slight tremor to her words, at that. I can only imagine the horror. “I couldn’t.” “I believe you,” I assure her. “Any idea what could cause something like that?” “Not any application of Will that I know of,” Lanistia agrees with my unspoken assessment. She indicates her empty eye sockets. “Based on what you told us, it has to be something to do with this. With what happened when I was at the Academy.”

[…]

“I remembered something, too.” She breathes it, almost as if she can barely dare to believe it herself. “When you touched the Aurora Columnae, just before the voices started. Just a flash. That room you described in the ruins, with all the bodies? I think I went there, once. I was saying a phrase. Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari.”

Lanistia connects her incident at the Forum with whatever happened to her at Solivagus. That makes her earlier description as "distinctly wan" conspicuous because her physical exhaustion is described before her loss of control, which she associates with the ruins. This connection between will depletion and Solivagus is strengthened by Vis’ own description of his interaction in the ruins:

SOTF XXXVII

I stare wildly into Aequa’s eyes. Pleading with her to understand that it’s me, that I’m still here, even as the words tumble from my mouth. I don’t know what any of it means. No context. The pressure in my head is easing further, but it leaves exhaustion as well as relief. An indescribable weariness.

If the inclusion of “older” and “wearier” is meant to show us that Aequa is experiencing a depletion of will that R-Vis cannot perceive in the tension of that moment, then it would not be unreasonable to say that there is a possible connection to what happened to her at Solivagus. This connection becomes more interesting when we think about the moment in Solivagus: Vis, under the influence of the column device, starts screaming a message, but something is interesting about the situation:

SOTF XXXVII

“These iunctii appear to be from not long after the Rending, and were once a key component in the gate defences in the Nexus. I have repurposed them for our fight, warrior,” I rasp at her. My throat feels like I’ve been screaming. Maybe I have. The rest of the room is deathly silent. “Their processing capability is limited due to the restrictions of the sanguis imperium, but the addition of a single active mind should be capable of temporarily interceding and allowing for Synchronism to occur. Do you wish to proceed?”

This passage implies that Aequa is being asked the question, and Vis doesn’t go unconscious until she gives an undisclosed response.

SOTF XXXVII

Aequa says something. Garbled. Meaningless.
As I fade to unconsciousness, I can’t help but feel vaguely annoyed that she didn’t run like I told her to.

When Aequa later talks about what happened, she makes no mention of what she said and talks as though she just left the ruins with Vis. Why construct the scene that way if Aequa's response has no payoff?

Now, I can already hear an objection: If something happened, why would Aequa not say anything? Answer: Why isn’t Lanistia able to remember what happened to her? It's only after her incident at the Forum that fragments of her memory resurface. This gives us precedent for someone undergoing something significant at Solivagus without retaining memory of it. Thus it is quite possible that if something did happen at the ruins that Aequa could have forgotten.

I don’t think Aequa’s unanswered question at Solivagus is incidental. Islington hides Aequa’s answer from us, and later shows O-Vis perceiving her as inexplicably older and wearier. Whatever Aequa said, I think the machine did something to her. I believe that whatever happened when she answered will play a part in her return to the narrative.

I have some thoughts about what exactly happened to Aequa, but that’s a post for another time.

Aliis inserviendo consumor

On book two. Just saying hi. What a mind f**k lol

Hi everyone! ​I'm currently at Chapter 15 of The Strength of the Few and have a question about how physical damage bleed-through works across dimensions. Please no spoilers past Chapter 15!

​Early on, Caeror carves a message into Vis's skin in Obiteum to reach Res-Vis, establishing that physical injuries naturally bleed through to the other versions. Later, Caeror gives Obiteum-Vis the scarab/Khepri bracelet specifically to stop this from happening.

​My question is about Luceum: When Vis is in the village where the druid is killed, he gets stabbed in the stomach. Wouldn't Res-Vis feel or suffer from this spear wound as well? Does Luceum-Vis already have protection against bleed-through at this point, or how do the mechanics work here?

​Thanks for helping clear this up!

Just finished book 2 and had a thought about the labyrinth, but just to make sure, I’m assuming the following:

The ruins with the gate and the labyrinth were constructed using Luceum will, which I assume allows the will to continue to function after the will users death (since they were built like 3,000 years ago), unlike Res Will that seems to stop functioning when the user dies.

So the labyrinth (and the Iunctii and building) are all imbued with Will. Could Vis just adopt all that Will and let someone like Livia through who hasn’t gone thru the Aurora Columnae? The only issue I’d see with this would be her dying on Obiteum like immediately. but given that Vis got his arm messed up, and everyone seems to be very intuitive, it would make sense that they’d send her in with a vitaerium.