YMMV / The Raven Tower

• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Overlaps with Neurodiversity Is Supernatural. One of the slaves Oissen sets to turning The Strength and Patience of the Hill, Siat, is described in a manner that brings to mind prominent characteristics ascribed to people on the autism spectrum:
    "[she] spoke rarely, and quietly, and would not look at the person she was talking to, but she sometimes spoke with a wry, unexpected sense of humor. She also had a fascination with rocks—had been visibly excited to see me, and on breaks would wander nearby, poking into the bare dirt or mud with her hands or feet, digging up what stones she found. She particularly liked ones with impressions of seashells, or bits of sparkling quartz. She was the sort of person who tends to become a priest in the north, and I began to think of her as a priest, even though no Ard Vusktian would have considered her one."
  • Siat has difficulty in social interaction, expresses a special interest in rocks, and spends her free time arranging her collection "according to size, or color, or some other criterion that had just occurred to her." The Strength and Patience of the Hill's observation that Siat is the "sort of person" that would have become a priest had she been born in the north (taken together with their description of previous priests) lends itself to the idea that in the world of The Raven Tower, neurodivergence predisposes an individual to godly influence.

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