Line #38 WMG/Unsounded


1	[[WMG:Elka has one of the pymaric simulcrums.]]
2	The one she's looking at in the last panel we see her with the catalogue. She appears to be looking at her hand in that panel, as if she's comparing it to the one in the catalogue, and if you look closely, it looks like her palm is glowing blue, just like a pymaric. It could just be the lighting, though. Of course, this means that simulcrums must be capable of looking like ordinary limbs, but surely, in a world with healing magic, it would be easy to graft skin over the metal or some such thing?
3
4	Either that, or she's thinking about getting one.
5
6	[[WMG:The real reason for Sette's mission is to get Duane into Cresce]]
7	Lord Winalils [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_08.html mentions the Ilganyag]], so he is almost certainly a member of the Black Tongues. He also looks similar to the [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch02/ch02_06.html Black-Tongue doctor that Cara describes]]. He probably convinced Sette's father to send Sette to Cresce with Duane. They used Sette because they knew that Duane felt protective of children. And [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_34.html apparently]] Starfish is being threatened by Frummagem to get his job done. Matty [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_32.html suggests]] that Starfish is smuggling something that likes pain, but maybe he is actually luring Duane by hurting children (although there seem to be some magical reasons as well).
8
9	But the Red Berry Boys are running a slave operation that's complicated, long, and tough to keep hidden. It seems like too much potential hassle for a black tongue sorcerer to commission this solely to get an undead wright into Cresce.
10
11	* [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch09/ch09_25.html Confirmed,]] though the intended destination is Alderode and not Cresce.
12
13	[[WMG: The crow amulet Bastion gave Sette is Duane's phylactery.]]
14	Think about it: Duane is really closer to a lich (albeit a primarily benevolent, involuntary one) than a typical zombie, and clearly has his sense of self/soul harbored elsewhere considering that his brain dribbled out his nose years ago. The amulet gives Sette control over Duane in the night-time hours, and also bares a crow motif- very similar to the crow deity that serves as a 'mascot' for the Black-Tongues.
15
16	At very least, it's filled with his blood from the night he died.
17	* As of chapter 7, it's made clear that Duane's soul is housed in the khert at night, not in a pymaric, and as of chapter 10 it seems like his tether is connected directly to his body. The amulet is a control rod that keeps his zombie self from eating Sette and others alive.
18
19	[[WMG:Sette and Duane are {{Decoy Protagonist}}s. The real story is going to revolve around Murkoph.]]
20	Ashley pretty much says it outright [[http://www.formspring.me/GlassShard/q/181887214744011439 here.]]
21
22	[[WMG:Murkoph's body is made out of First Materials.]]
23	Murkoph is a roleplaying character of Ashley's who will be appearing in the story eventually. He's apparently a zombie who has maintained sentience, like Duane. We don't know much about him other than that -- all we have to go on is a short comic on Ashley's [=deviantArt=] page. That comic (assuming it's canon) is pretty enlightening, though. In it, not only is Murkoph surprisingly well-preserved (unlike Duane, who is a skeleton), ''he's standing over water''. Pymary doesn't work over water, and since zombies are held together purely through pymary, they just collapse if they go over water. But Murkoph is just fine. The only things that can maintain magical properties over water are enchanted First Materials, so it's probable Murkoph made a body for himself out of some. (This would also explain why he doesn't decay, since the enchantment preserving him would be permanent.)
24	* A possible problem with this theory -- in the comic, there's another wright who uses pymary, even when he's out as far as Murkoph. It's possible that he just wasn't out far enough for the AntiMagic to take effect, though the fact that he was willing to get that close to something that should be fatally dangerous to him still lends credence to this theory.
25	* Most likely {{Jossed}}. Ashley says that docks and the like can be "grounded" by filling them with earth -- this allows the khert to move over them unhindered. The dock Murkoph was standing on was one such object, so even if the comic is canon, it can't be used to prove anything.
26
27	[[WMG:Duane will become Murkoph.]]
28	Murkoph is very similar to Duane -- a plod that has maintained sentience. He also likes to ramble a lot about existential weirdness, something that isn't entirely uncharacteristic of Duane. Murk's psychopathy should disqualify him, but Duane is already displaying SanitySlippage...if he snaps, Murkoph could be what he becomes. Furthermore, assuming the above-mentioned comic is canon, he's a tacit caster as well...
29	* A kink in this theory -- Murkoph has hair. Duane is bald. Although, Murkoph is also not a skeleton, so if Duane does become Murkoph, he would have to make a completely new body...which could tie into the above theory, if he makes it out of First Materials.
30	* {{Jossed}}. Murkoph is from Sharteshane: http://fav.me/d1ahaoq
31	** This old art has things in common with Unsounded, but it's not canon and a lot has been changed.
32
33	[[WMG:Quigley is doomed.]]
34	Even setting aside the fact that he's entering the threshold for keeling over from old age at any moment, he can't stay alive if the plot is to be kept intact. Quigley wants to save the children from Starfish's operation, which will derail that major plot thread. It's too early for that plot to be solved, even partially. There's also another problem that decreases his survivability: whatever wants those slaves isn't going to be happy if Quigley comes up and goes "So hey I'm taking these kids with me bye~", especially if they're the main course. As if that wasn't enough, Ashley says there's going to be a WizardDuel in the next chapter -- almost certainly between Quigley and Duane, which would be a perfect chance to off him.
35
36	As a corollary to this, Matty may be doomed as well without his father to help him...
37
38	* The fact that Quigley wants to save the children doesn't mean he must do so or die...he could easily just fail, as Duane failed to save Cara. Or he could succeed. Starfish is just a thug hired to do a smuggling job. The short term plans on those who hired him might hinge on the success of that job (if they didn't account for the possibility of such a risky undertaking failing...Starfish might not be the only one they hired), but they're still around no matter what happens...the failure of one smuggling job wouldn't come close to resolving everything.
39	* As of chapter 11, Quigley has survived the Red Berry Boys arc. His future survivability is still up in the air, of course.
40
41	[[WMG:Bastion had something to do with Duane's reanimation.]]
42	We haven't seen much of Bastion so far -- however, in the one scene we've seen him in so far, he [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch04/ch04_06.html places great emphasis on Duane's condition]], insinuating that calling him a mere plod is not at all accurate. Alone, this wouldn't be ''too'' suspicious...except that Ashley has also said on her Formspring that he's an exceptionally knowledgeable gruftgrammer who knows a lot of weird, unknown magic. Most notably, he's practically the only wright on the continent who can reliably teleport, a skill that requires a strong sense of self. Duane's enchantment seems to use a similar function -- his ''self'' is persisting even after his death. These facts seem to point to one of two things: Either Bastion reanimated Duane himself, or knows a great deal about how he was reanimated.
43	* [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch09/ch09_25.html A recent boost]] to this.
44	* Confirmed in [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch11/ch11_47.html chapter 11, page 47.]] Bastion is directly responsible for the reanimation.
45
46	[[WMG:The reason pymary fails over large expanses of water is because...]]
47	(Post your own theories here!)
48
49	* Blank ocean is like a void in the khert, or there are no {{Ley Line}}s over it or whatever. Perhaps magical energy is attracted to land, so there's nothing to tap into if you go out too far.
50	** This theory is impossible -- the khert is required for life. There's life in the ocean, so there must be a khert (or something very similar) over it.
51	* Water is AntiMagic for some reason, though only in large quantities.
52	** Perhaps there is such a thing as First Water, and large expanses of water (like the ocean) contain a fair amount of it?
53	*** Unlikely. WordOfGod says First Water does exist, but it's contained in nereids. It's possible there's some freefloating First Water, but probably not enough to dispel the khert so effectively.
54	* Vengeful water spirits. They were apparently trapped and controlled by wrights earlier in history in an attempt to stop natural disasters, so perhaps those that remain have learned to stifle pymary.
55	* There's a competing force that bonds to water and water animals to contrast with the khert that bonds to land and land animals. They're not compatible and wrights haven't had the means or maybe even the chance to develop something like pymary to control the water-khert.
56	* The khert is attached to land for some reason. There is a khert in the ocean, but only on the ocean floor -- thus, people on boats can't access it.
57	* The khert's powers fade with distance. If you were to travel by airplane, the same effect would occur. Since the khert is bound to the land, the farther you are away from it, the weaker it is. Just like magnetism and gravity. Water has nothing to do with it beyond acting as a physical barrier between you and the khert.
58	** Answers on Formspring seem to say this is the case. Going too high in the atmosphere will also cause you to escape the khert's influence, and mountain ogres (i.e. the things that become the earth) have their own kherts attached to them. So yes, it seems like the khert is bound to land.
59
60	[[WMG: In life, Duane was a Gold]]
61	The girl Duane sees in flashbacks has [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch05/ch05_44.html blond hair and green eyes]], and it might explain why Duane can tacit-cast since the Golds have an odd connection to the Khert. And when Quigley asks him his caste, he replies [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch05/ch05_45.html ssom soud]], and according to [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/Alderode the wiki]] "soud" is the name for the Gold caste. I'll actually be surprised if this isn't the case.
62	* The fact that he explicitly says "I am Gold" in Tainish means this can be considered confirmed. Also, I think Ashley confirmed it even more explicitly on Formspring.
63	* Golds don't have an odd connection to the khert. On the contrary, they are distinct from other Aldishmen in that Alderode's modified khert(or at least khert-based-system) doesn't change them and their connection to it at conception.
64
65	[[WMG: Sette is connected to Tirna in some way]]
66	Mostly based on her command over insects, which are [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch03/ch03_28.html shown to be associated with Tirna]]. Her independence, her by turns vicious and loving nature, and her understanding of the world are also thematic links. Could be an [[SemiDivine actual in-universe connection]] or simply a deliberate allegorical link to add a layer to characterisation.
67
68	Tirna's a goddess that can effortlessly change her form and Sette's never met her mother. It's not that unlikely Sette's inhuman traits come from the child of a god.
69	* OP: a [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/ch7-p34 recent boost]] to this.
70	* Some [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch13/ch13_26.html comments by a senet beast]] suggesting Sette might be a reincarnation of Tirna.
71
72	[[WMG:Ashley's "tomorrow Matty dies" jokes are actually a cunning ploy to throw us off our guard.]]
73	At one point, she will actually tell the truth -- a spoiler hidden in plain sight. However, we won't suspect anything because of all the other times she's said it. Thus it will be a shocking plot twist when Matty actually ''does'' die, despite the fact she spoiled it in advance! (Indeed, it will actually make it ''more'' surprising, since we will assume she's lying!)
74
75	[[WMG: Mr. Starfish is related (by blood or marriage) to the Frummagems.]]
76	We already know he's working with them in some capacity, and not just with Sette's branch of the family. Also, compare his face to Knock-Me-Down's: They're eerily similar, especially the nose.
77
78	[[WMG:Lawrence Murkoph is Blondo Mcwhoopass from 1-16.]]
79	Blondo is blond, and Murkoph is... kinda blondish. They have the same general hair/face shape. And Ashley has been sort of ambiguous about whether Murkoph is from Sharteshane or Alderode, possibly to throw us off the scent? And she hinted that someone's [[http://www.formspring.me/GlassShard/q/393657233776340021 theory about Murkoph being Duane's brother]] might be on the right track.
80	* {{Jossed}}! "Blondo Mcwhoopass" is [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_67.html Duane's brother Lemuel.]] Lawrence Murkoph is someone else, it would seem.
81
82	[[WMG:Murkoph is Ssael.]]
83	YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE
84	* A serious bit of consideration for this: [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_45.html Murkoph's facial scars]] are very similar to the glamoured scars that Duane displays [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_66.html here,]] depicting Ssael's injuries after being mauled by lions. However, WordOfGod says that Murkoph is Sharteshanian, which throws a wrench into this...unless there's a SURPRISE TWIST that Ssael was from Sharteshane?
85	* Appears to be {{Jossed}} as of [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_113.html this page.]] Murkoph explicitly mentions Ssael, which would imply that they are not the same entity.
86	** It's possible that the legend of Ssael is based on (heavily distorted) stories of Murkoph's exploits, and Murkoph either doesn't know or doesn't care about this. Alternatively, he may have lost his memory.
87	*** As of [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch11/ch11_90.html the end of chapter 11,]] Murkoph's exploits took place after Ssaelism was founded. Unless he's ageless and has wandered Kassylne for centuries, he can't be the basis for Ssael.
88	** WordOfGod says Murkoph is not Ssael, but he ''was'' Ssaelit. Hm...
89
90	[[WMG:Mikaila is responsible for Duane's zombie state.]]
91	From one of the comments: "All this time, I've been presuming that Duane zombified himself to protect his daughter. Now I realize I may have been terribly wrong. It's looking like his daughter did it, as/after he is dying. (Since she now has a displayed pattern of miscasting spells) She must have either botched a healing spell to make him undead, or botched the zombie spell, to tie in his actual spirit instead of just the body, which is the proper(?) way to do it."
92	* This troper wonders why would Mikaila know how to do that, though? She learns her pymary from some innate talent and from her father's spellbooks. Do you think a devout Ssaelit Rector (y'know, a religion that abhors allowing the human body decay and all forms of undeath) would have material on necromancy? Pymary doesn't run on wishes, it's rather strict.
93	* Jossed; it turns out Bastion was responsible.
94	** Technically it's true; chapter 16's flashbacks reveal Mikhaila's last act on that bloodied snowbank was to use Pymary to slice up Bastion's back in response to his human experiment on her father, not realizing she interrupted the full resurrection.
95
96	[[WMG:Mikaila is alive in the present day.]]
97	I can see Duane still being in full patriot mode even if Alderode killed ''him'', but I don't think the same would be true if they killed his ''family''. Furthermore, if Mikaila died, wouldn't Duane be flashing back to her bloody corpse instead of seeing her alive and well? He is clearly not a happy individual, you'd think he would be fixating on that if Mikaila's dead.
98	* Well, [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_102.html crap.]] I'm still going to insist she survives somehow. There's apparently a time gap between [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_108.html this]] page and [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch07/ch07_109.html this]] one, between which Mikaila's body has gone missing. Also, I know that metagaming is bad, but some time before the scene in question, Ashley talked about how [[http://www.formspring.me/GlassShard/q/471749984035823634 comics can easily be used to mislead the viewer.]] Coincidence? In the scene itself, there's a lot of margin for error. In the first shot, the view of the sword is blocked by her arm, and in the second, she's hunched over, making it difficult to tell where the wound is centered. Also, I can't find it for some reason, but I could have sworn reading a formspring answer about how Ashley doesn't actually like killing off characters because it ends character development. All of this just seems a bit too suspicious.
99	** Well, there is a question that will add another layer of creepy here: how does Murkoph knows name of Mikaila's best friend? What if he was a person who taught Mikaila some of her tricks?
100	** We never do see Mikaila's body though, after getting stabbed. We only see her walking into a door beckoning Duane into the khert. I think it was just an illusion of sorts, or some sort of near-death dream since she doesn't answer him when he calls to her.
101	** Almost certainly {{Jossed}} as of [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch08/ch08_40.html this]] page. The only way this theory can still be true is if Lemuel's lying, which seems unlikely.
102	*** I don't think it's that unlikely. Assuming his goal was to get Duane to leave, he'd have a motive to sever his ties to Alderode with that kind of lie.
103	* As of 16-124, [[spoiler:confirmed. Bastion stabilized her wound, allowing her to survive.]]
104
105	[[WMG: Sette is somehow born of the Khert.]]
106	When she's running around in the Khert in chapter seven, she mentions it smells familiar, can interact with it in unexpected ways, and has an odd interest in Lady Ilganyag's 'baby forest.' Duane translates Ilganyag's line there as "Run away," but could be that he was getting the account secondhand, and it was "Runaway"--tl;dr Sette is one of the crow-lady's babies, incarnated in the real world.
107	** It would explain why Lady Ilganyag was chasing her when Sette ran and only left to get Duane when she knew Sette was in danger. She wanted to protect her run away. Makes you wonder if "Aum yut shenut" means something along the lines of "Welcome back home".
108	** While it's not a stretch to say a god can manipulate the khert, it's interesting to see Lady Ilganyag interact with [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch10/ch10_70.html the khert]].
109
110	[[WMG:Murkoph is an infection of Duane's prymarics.]]
111	It's pretty well-known that Duane's eyes and larynx are both prymaric, replacing the bits he lost in the fight that killed him. However, it comes to light that pymarics will eventually be haunted with ghosts [[http://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/113994295045/sorry-if-this-has-already-been-answered-but-what]] from the khert, which is a common problem with plods.
112	What if Murkoph who keeps appearing out of nowhere, consistently stalking our heroes, is such a haunting or infection, following Duane wherever he goes.
113	* Ghosts that infect pymarics travel outside the khert, though. If Murkoph's still trapped in the khert, he's not inhabiting any pymaric. It's still possible that he's a more-coherent-than-usual ghost, maybe even connected to Duane's creation somehow.
114	* [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch11/ch11_90.html Murkoph was around before Duane's reanimation.]]
115
116	[[WMG: Duane dies in the end.]]
117	For certain, this time. It will be very much a {{Bittersweet Ending}}, Lysa and Lemuel lose him for good, but he's at peace and with Mikaila at last.
118
119	[[WMG:Sette is a human child infused with senet beast properties, similarly to how Vienne used the field spreader to spread First Material properties.]]
120	This would explain why she's so human-like despite having senet beast properties.
121
122	[[WMG:Sette is Mikaila.]]
123	Mikaila didn't die; she was captured, had her memories wiped, and was subjected to some kind of experiment that changed her hair color and gave her her [[TheAgeless special]] [[TheNoseKnows properties]].
124	* [[http://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/150775326430 This]] official art of Sette as an infant seems to disprove this.
125	** Jossed.
126
127	[[WMG: Murkoph is Ssael. Lady Ilganyag is Issa]]
128	Imagine this: instead of becoming this bleeding-heart crusader of justice when hearing of all of humanity's troubles, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Ssael goes mad]]. Completely, entirely, murderously mad. [[AxeCrazy Mad enough to go murder some gods.]]
129	There's been some strong evidence that Murk is Ssael in the past, namely the fact that they both seem to be sporting the same scars, which [[WordOfGod according to the author]] are from when Ssael was mortally slain.
130
131	But what of Issa? She was only briefly mentioned in "Songs of Ssael", possibly as Ssael's mortal lover. However, there has also been some evidence (and some Ssaelit even believe this) that Ssael fell in love with Sister Tirna and her defiance of her siblings and spared her life. Jilted, Issa became this heartbroken amalgamation of memories, waiting for the day that Ssael will break free from his madness and return to her. Ilganyag herself even says that she has been "wronged" and is "in wait of her love".
132	* {{Jossed}}. Ilganyag has "[[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch10/ch10_70.html watched [this] world since its inception]]", so she couldn't have been a human originally. Ssael was quite recent in the grand scheme of things, remember.
133
134	[[WMG:Bastion is just trying to get Duane back to his family.]]
135	In chapter 10 Delicieu says Bastion is responsible for all of "this" -- the most obvious conclusion is the silver monster, but that seems to be Delicieu's creation. The other part of the plan was to smuggle Duane into Alderode, and as of chapter 11 we have confirmation that Bastion was responsible for Duane's creation. That sounded sinister at first, but now... Bastion doesn't actually seem like a bad guy. Maybe he underestimated how badly Duane would be messed up by the events... or maybe Lemuel was supposed to take him back to the Adeliers, but betrayed Bastion for his own purposes. It's possible that Duane fleeing Alderode was not planned. Bastion could be naive enough that he really thinks dragging Duane to Leysa's doorstep and being all "Look I resurrected your husband isn't this great??? :D :D :D" would fix everything.
136	* Given what Prakhuta says in [[https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch10/ch10_150.html 10-150]] ("You were meant to be pliant and incapacitated"), it seems unlikely Bastion planned for Duane to remain sapient after the resurrection. WordOfGod has also confirmed that Bastion hates Duane due to his authoritarian ideals.
137
138	[[WMG:Ssael never walked the khert. He was an ordinary man who dissolved when he died like everyone else.]]
139	Lady Ilganyag seems to have great contempt for Ssael, [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch10/ch10_68.html dismissing him as a "paper god" when revealing herself to Duane for the first time.]] And now as of the end of chapter 11, [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch11/ch11_92.html she repeats the phrase with some additional information:]] "Again and again [humans] see gods in themselves and capture them on paper." Ilganyag has been around since the creation of the world, so she'd know better than anyone whether Ssael really ascended to godhood... but she doesn't seem very impressed by him, and that last line implies she's seen something similar happen over and over throughout the ages.
140
141	As a corollary to this, it's possible that not even the Gefendur gods are real, or if they are, that the scriptures are wildly inaccurate.
142
143	[[WMG:Tirna was/is a doctor.]]
144	Tirna is well known to be associated with both poison and sickness, and what is medicine if not strategic poisoning? It also seems a good mirror to Baelar as a god of tools and crafts. Additionally, humans in Kasslyne don't seem to be very well informed on the matter of health and what actually causes disease, nor have they gotten the hang of using poisons in small amounts to treat infections. Two Toes, however, at least know that bacterial infections aren't ghosts, and they appear to have a connection with Lady Ilganyag, who in turn shares Tirna's color scheme.
145
146	If Tirna was indeed the doctor of the group, then it may cast the attempted poisoning of the world in a new light. Perhaps she viewed it as an infection or concluded that bringing it to term would kill Yerta, and she sought to treat her sister, making her action out of worry rather than malice.
147
148	[[WMG:Sette is originally the daughter of Lady Ilganyag and Ssael.]]
149	We see Sette as a small child with Lady Ilganyag in one of her memories. Lady Ilganyag seems protective of her and appears to miss Ssael greatly. Also, Minnow's perplexity at Duane's mention of Ssael followed by her asking about Sette suggests she knows about a connection that Duane doesn't.
150
151	[[WMG:Alderode discovered the secret to immortality but refuses to use it beyond extended longevity due to serious consequences]]
152	Even if we ascribe to the theory that the caste system works by siphoning lifespan from the commoners to the elites, a 400-year average lifespan extends beyond what would normally be viable with their general lack of understanding in biological medicine. But then, magic in Kessaline works by stealing traits and grafting them where they shouldn't go; what if they discovered a means of grafting extra 'energy' (mitochondria) into humans, thereby allowing their bodies' regeneration to remain in perfect shape, as opposed to the old growing tired as their mitos shut down?
153
154	Unfortunately, immortality in a theocratic police state has its drawbacks. Primary of which would be the sheer envy of the poor constantly reincarnating while the rich grow exceptionally old, their minds deteriorating while their children wait for a seat on a throne they'll never get. With centuries of wisdom, they've come to appreciate the fact that they can accept oblivion if it means the oppressive dictatorship they rule over will exist forever.
155
156	[[WMG:Also, cancer is not a 'thing' in Kessaline]]
157	Oh look, your body has begun mutating? Why just steal the mutation aspect with pymary and put it in a [[Series/TheMagicians cancer puppy]]!
158
159	[[WMG:Lemuel's copilot is Mikaila.]]
160	In chapter 16, Lemuel has two copilots. One is clearly a Plat, but the other's hair is completely covered by their cap, leaving their caste ambiguous. Evidence in favor:
161	# [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch16/ch16_51.html Lemuel and the copilot speak fondly and informally towards one another,]] with Lemuel saying he wouldn't have brought them if he knew how dangerous the mission would become.
162	# [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch16/ch16_106.html The copilot reacts calmly to a mention of Roger,]] implying they are Gold.
163	# On the same page, the copilot says that the mission isn't their first fight.
164	# In chapter 7, Mikaila says she wanted to become a warrior and fight for Ssael. She also admired Lemuel and his vliegeng, so it would make sense she'd join as his copilot.
165	# The copilot has a blue scarf. Blue was Mikaila's favorite color.
166	* As of 16-124, [[spoiler:confirmed]].
167
168	[[WMG:The Black Tongues' theology is correct: There is no reincarnation.]]
169	I can't find the source, but ''way'' back in the Formspring days, Ashley promised that we would never see [[DeaderThanDead soul destruction/denial of afterlife]] in the story, because it's a trope that upsets her. However, she has also said that Kasslynians who die outside the reach of the khert, such as at sea or inside a First Material bubble, cannot have their souls taken by the khert, and that they are as dead as they would be in our world.
170
171	The thing is, characters have already suffered this fate in the comic: Most notably Ballanstern and Chorley, who die inside Juste, a First Material bubble cut off from the universal khert. How is this possible without breaking Ashley's earlier promise? Simple: There is no afterlife to miss out on. There is even precedent for this: In-universe, the Black Tongues believe there is no reincarnation or immortal soul; the khert takes your memories but your consciousness does not persist beyond that. They are correct.
172
173	[[WMG: There is a proto-Dhammakhert in Cresce]]
174	It would be a poetic irony proving that Alderode and Cresce aren't that different. Cresce's artificial Khert is ALighterShadeOfBlack, but just as inhumane in its manipulation of the populace. It's subtle, it mimics the regular Khert, and most of its functions have negligible differences from the regular Khert. Most. But it runs background programs that seem to be simple propaganda like "long live the Monarch" or "obey the gods", which are actually performing low-level Charm Person spells on the entire populace, just weak enough to ensure the adult Crescians have an opinion (and can be culled), while children in Cresce are indoctrinated their entire lives.
175	* This seems unlikely, given Ufal's flippant response to the high priestess bemoaning the lack of Tirnasday sacrifice, and how easily Karl turned the nobles against Sonorie. It would also probably have come up by now, given Sonorie's plan seems to heavily involve the dammakhert.
176
177	[[WMG: Matty becomes a supervillain]]
178	The clusterfuck that was chapter 16 destroyed all of Matty's childhood delusions and revealed [[spoiler:his father sold him and his mother to StateSec]]. The icing on the cake would be that Karma is inversed for Matty; the moment he gives in to his demons and hatred, the whole multiverse seems to bow down to him and give him cosmic power, sending him to another universe in a freak teleportation accident involving the bomb right next to him (instead of, you know, ''killing him''), where he will train with godslayers and become a completely irredeemable world-destroying tyrant.
179
180	[[WMG: The Dhammakhert has genetically modified humans with the DNA of Senet Beasts]]
181	This is the great secret of the artificial Khert. It has, over centuries, slowly altered the genetic composition of its civilians by introducing bits of Senet DNA in the womb. While this may cause a high number of miscarriages and birth defects, it has become the normal for Alderode.
182	For instance, the Coppers may simply have Illganyag's DNA, collected by Ssael back when they were friends. In irony? The Coppers were the original lower caste of proto-Alderode and given the brunt of genetic surgery, while the process was refined with each succeeding caste until it was perverted into a min-maxing of pymaric ability in the Platinums.
183	This is also why mixed-caste pairings are persecuted to extremes; the higher-ups don't want enough evidence to show that hybrid castes have certain propensities beyond more than just their lineages. The Dhammakhert might not be fully capable of dealing with mixed-caste properties and might accidentally give them something powerful.
184
185	[[WMG: Lemuel will kill Queen Sonorie and then Etelarche all of Cresce to self-destruct]]
186	In the climactic showdown, Lemuel and his regiment will ambush Sonorie while she's busy fighting off the Inak revolutionaries, stab her before she can direct F.R.E.D. to use the local Dammakhert node to mind-control Alderode, and then, using the knowledge learned as a sleeper agent of the black tongues, redirect the Etelarche Curse order to 'as many Crescians as possible' to hate ''Cresce''. In horror, this works even more effectively than expected, and the entirety of Cresce's patriotic population is driven irrevocably insane, leading to a mass murder-suicide that utterly destroys the country.
187
188	[[WMG: The Golden Delight becomes the Silver Abomination's next pilot]]
189	As a final, cruel twist of fate for the end of Book One.
190
191	[[WMG: Sonorie's plan is to destroy the dammakhert.]]
192	Sonorie refuses to perform an out-and-out genocide against Alderode, but Roger says he is handing her "the unmaking of Alderode". What could possibly warrant that description that isn't mass slaughter?
193
194	Sonorie plans to destroy Alderode's ''cultural identity'' by breaking the dammakhert. Without it, there will be no castes, no stings, and no MindControl. The methods its government uses to control its populace will vanish, throwing the country into chaos and making them vulnerable to a counter-invasion or even willing to negotiate a ceasefire.
195
196	Moreover, I predict that she will ''succeed'', at least partially, and the fallout from this will form the crux of the next Book.
197
198	[[WMG:Alternatively, she'll use the Dammakhert to ''destroy Ssaelism''.]]
199	Someone else on Disqus thought of an even more devious and viable idea: the Black Tongues don't have enough data on the Dammakhert to reliably hack it completely, but they do have an entire soul's worth of data on the Etelarche Curse, a HatePlague which causes everyone to instinctually blame all the world's evil on a single person, and how it functions, possibly enough to cast the Etelarche Curse if they gain developer's access to the Dammakhert.
200	Which leads to one question: Who is the perfect target? Who is ''the'' stabilizing pillar of the entire country of Alderode? Whose name is plastered across every other book, mounted across every statue? Who is the central figure of Alderode's cult of personality?
201
202	''Ssael''.
203
204	Without his ghost worshiped at all times, hated instead by the power of the curse, the theocracy ''dies''. The survivors will be too disgusted with their previous reverence to resist Cresce's slaughter, or too willing to accept its forced annexation.
205	* This seems unlikely. Alderode's theocracy is held together by both Ssaelism ''and'' Gefendurism; destroying one would only strengthen the other, and in fact that seems to be what both the faiths are angling for judging by Bodie's statements in chapter 7. It is possible Sonorie is unaware of these nuances, however.

Context WMG / Unsounded