Mark Reads ‘The Stone Sky’ – Syl Anagist: Five

In “Syl Anagist: Five,” Hoa reveals his origins. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Stone Sky. 

Trigger Warning: For discussion of slavery

HOLY SHIT!!! THIS WAS TOO MUCH!!!! I keep getting chills thinking about this chapter and what it just revealed to us. THE WHOLE FUCKING MYTHOLOGY JUST CHANGED. I mean… just look at the notes for this chapter specifically, because I thought I knew what was going on, and then my whole fucking brain BROKE when I found out that I had been interpreting this wrong. NOT STONE EATERS. NOT OROGENES.

TUNERS.

Oh my god. So I’m guessing this won’t be the sole “Syl Anagist” chapter, and through these, Hoa is going to explain what happened all those years ago when then Obelisk Gate was used and the Moon was flung away. We’re not even there yet, and my mind is blown. Because there was something on the Stillness before orogenes, and they were called tuners, AND THEY WERE CREATED. Created!!! Oh my god, there’s so much in this chapter that made no sense the first time around because I just assumed all the talk of bodies, of how Kelenli looked and behaved, was because she was human and the others were stone eaters. But now I’m remembering details from the prologue: Didn’t Hoa say he was in a prison? And putting that detail with the ones I learn here… that’s where tuners were kept, right? And maybe he was casually referring to this place as a prison because that’s what it essentially was. The tuners were created specifically to work on the Plutonic Engine / Obelisk Gate, and it also seems obvious that they weren’t granted personhood along with that. Look at one of the main conflicts in this chapter: Gaewha and Hoa talk about one of their own, Tetlewha, being moved to the “briar patch.” I am CERTAIN that is a horrible euphemism for DEATH. They kill the ones who aren’t useful, right? And that also reminds me of what would happen to “bad” orogenes in the Fulcrum! THIS SHIT IS CYCLICAL, Y’ALL. Tuners are valued in their utility in the world of Syl Anagist. 

Which makes me want to know who the FUCK Kelenli is. She’s not a tuner, and yet, she can speak in their “other” form of communication. Yes, she’s a prototype for the tuners, but… why is she around? Why does the Conductor seem to prefer Kelenli over the others?

Perhaps all humans think she is one of them, until someone tells them otherwise. What is that like, being treated as human when one is not? And then there’s the fact that they’ve left her alone with us. We they treat like weapons that might misfire at any moments… but they trust her. 

So my guess? Kelenli is the spark. She is what is going to begin to change the minds of the tuners, all of whom have “opinions and experiences” that “have been carefully constructed.” What we’re seeing here is a manufactured slave class, a group of living people who aren’t considered people in any sense, even by the tuners themselves! It is from them that orogenes evolved, and it’s also deeply disturbing how many of the same negative motifs and ideas persisted over thousands of years. But the version of Hoa that we meet as a stone eater is not who he is here, as a tuner.

How is that going to change? Is Kelenli the one who will help kickstart a radical shift in thinking? Because she does tell Gaewha and Hoa that she has a month to show them who they really are. What potential does she see? And how will this mark the beginning?

NOTES

• why is that numbered
• wait, are these all stone eaters? Do the stone eaters even exist at this point????
• I am so lost and I love it. why do they talk like that???
• “one of their kind and another” WHAT THE FUCK
• OH WAIT
• okay he’s talking about a human woman! so a woman came to talk to the stone eaters?
• baahahahah I don’t know why Hoa being “cute” is so funny to me.
• okay, but what are they talking about? the obelisk project, I’m guessing? 
• why the role name of Conductor? Conductor of what?
• “We are always watched. A certain amount of performance is essential.” HI WHAT. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN.
• oh, the way they communicate is FASCINATING.
• oh my god I am still so lost WHAT IS ALL THIS
• decommissioned??? oh I don’t like it
• what connections? what network??? 
• OH
• OH SHIT
• THEY’RE HOLDING OBELISKS AND THE MOON
• whait she 
• wait!!!!!
• how!!!!!
• how can kelenli speak like that!!!!
• decanted????
• I am so confused. were each of the stone eaters created for a purpose????
• kelenli is a prototype? I AM LOSING IT
• what the fuck
• okay wild question: is kelenli the first guardian??? er… rather, the first surviving guardian?
• oh my god y’all
• wait
• no
• I have gotten this all wrong
• this is BEFORE stone eaters
• it has to be
• meaning that they’re all orogenes? or something in between a stone eater and an orogene
• kelenli being attuned to only ONE obelisk feels important
• Corepoint!!!! zero site!!!
• WHAT IS A PLUTONIC ENGINE
• OH
• IT’S THE GATE
• who you really are???
• what
• ?>>>!>!>!>1>!>.!1>!>1.
• TUNERS
• NOT OROGENES
• OH
• OH SHIT
• OROGENES EVOLVED FROM TUNERS
• oh my fucking god
• the tuners were created
• I am losing my shit. they weren’t natural. they were CREATED
• PEOPLE CANNOT BE POSSESSIONS. OH. OH. IT’S ALL A METAPHOR FOR SLAVERY
• revolution
• oh my god
• THIS ENTIRE INTERLUDE RUINED ME

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