#schaffa guardian warrant

[genspiel]

some observations about the guardians. some speculation. disorganized rambling thoughts, honestly (this felt more coherent in my brain before i started to type it all out). full series spoilers below the cut

-guardians all have a corestone embedded into their sessapinae. this connects them directly to the earth and also allows them to live for far longer than humans should have any right to survive

-guardians take magic from their orogene charges, which helps them stave off the pain they are constantly in

-when schaffa is about to die, the earth provides an influx of magic that mends his wounds enough for him to continue to survive. it also erases much of his former identity (and would have entirely, if not for the strength of his will). guardians are not supposed to allow this to happen to themselves. the earth wants this to happen to them.

-the people in syl anagist's briar patch are kept just alive enough so that they can continue generating magic to feed the city and the obelisks. magic is the stuff of life.

-the magic the guardians take from both the orogenes and the earth is what allows them to live for so long...? as well as providing their superhuman capabilities (speed, strength), since they have access to far more of it than the average person would

-the original "guardians" were probably the syl anagistines who were present at zero site when everything went wrong... when the ball of stone from the earth's core shattered. or, actually, i'm skimming back through that last syl anagist chapter, and hoa says that the earth "learn[ed] how to take control of individual human lives" EVEN BEFORE burndown actually happened. the people there at burndown were supposed to die. their will is all that kept them alive afterwards.

the wire chairs, which were eventually used for creating new guardians and for the node maintainers, originated in syl anagist. they were used for the tuners at zero site.

god. the fucking. guardians. the earth tried to kill them from the very beginning, but they resisted. rebuilt the world until the guardian order exists as we know it in the story's present day...... the orogenes and the lorists both may have originated from keleni's descendants......... hnnnnn

[attackonalexander]

No but why this is Schaffa

[how-to-speak-cicada]

Schaffa: covered in blood for sexy reasons

Schaffa: also Syenite just stabbed me

[evilkitten3]

Schaffa: hello naughty children it's murder time

[st-just]

You're firemountain-glass, Dama. You're a gift of the earth-but Father Earth hates us, never forget, and his gifts are neither free no safe.

Schaffa Guardian Warrant

[teatoohottohandle]

notes on The Fifth Season

Orogeny: strange equation. "Take movement and warmth from your surroundings, amplify it by some indefinable process of concentration or catalysis or semi-predictable chance, push movement and warmth and death from the earth. Power in, power out" (77).

Essun: mother whose son (Uche) is dead and was killed because they're both Orogene. Son probably launched an attack that killed the village? Surrounding areas of the village? She wants to kill her husband/the father of their kids, Jija, for killing her son. She splits the ground, which swallows up the townsfolk.

Damaya: Picked up by Schaffa Guardian Warrant. Nickname is DamaDama. Older brother is Chaga. Her mother left her in the shed with no coat or bathroom, so she's been urinating and pooping in the barn and burying it underneath hay. The relationship that Orogenes have with their guardians is interesting. Orogenes have so much elemental power, they can end a person's or people's life, destroy villages, pummel towns, and yet here's a guardian who's used to control their powers and strength as much as possible.

Syenite/Syen: a prostitute used to breed more Orogenes. They call the men that they're assigned to "mentors." The mentor that she's assigned to is a 10-ringer. She's not from Fulcrum, so they call her a "mutt."

[scottyottyotty]

Have you read The Stone Sky yet?

Omg yes!!! This book was very emotional. We already know how the universe works so this book was filled with more emotion and less explanation of things. We finally get answers to things like The Shattering and Warrant which is really nice. But the star storyline of the book was Essun and Nassun. We the readers get a really in depth look at just how badly Essun messed up with Nassun. So bad that Nassun looks at her mother like her mother looked at Schaffa. Also, I did like Schaffa's story arc. Underneath all that guardian evil, he might have been a decent person. He couldn't have been to Damaya, but he's making it up with Nassun. I highly suspect that's why he latched on to her. I love the series! The only real complaint I have it that it did not have enough Alabaster. God I love Alabaster.

[genspiel]

"Do you fear me?" he asks.

For a moment the desire to lie rises within her. It will not please him, she thinks, for her to speak the truth. But she hurts too much, and she is too numb right now, for fear or duplicity or the desire to please. So she speaks the truth: "Yes."

"Good. You should. I'm not sorry for the pain I've caused you, little one, because you needed to learn the lesson of that pain."

(Obelisk Gate spoilers below.)

He remembers breaking Damaya's hand and flinches with it. Why would he do such a thing? Why did he do any of the horrible things he did, in those days? [...]

He finally blurts, "Nassun. Are you afraid of me?"

She blinks, barely lucid - and then she smiles. It untwists something within him. "Never." [...]

"Never again," he whispers, and twitches with the memory of that, too. Then the feeling changes and his resolve refocuses. What happened before does not matter. That was a different Schaffa. He has another chance now. And if being less than himself means being less than the monster that he was, he cannot regret it.

[genspiel]

I found another super interesting article on the Broken Earth trilogy, this one analyzing the development of Schaffa as a character throughout the series.

There are spoilers for the whole trilogy, of course, as well as discussions of child abuse, systemic oppression, emotional manipulation, and more, so please do read with care. (But if you're familiar with Broken Earth at all, you probably already know what to expect.)

[genspiel]

"That was wrong," Schaffa says. His voice is so soft she can barely hear it. She turns to look at him in surprise. He is staring at the ground, and there is a strange look on his face. Not the usual wandering, confused look that he gets sometimes. This is something he actually remembers, and his expression is... guilty? Rueful. Sad. "It's wrong to hurt someone you love, Nassun."

[genspiel]

not being able to visualize clearly is so weird because sometimes i'll see fanart of a book character and go "YES THAT'S IT THAT'S THE THING" but then other times it's more like ".........that's not right. i refuse. no"