The Bondsmagi of Karthain, ie: The Falconer

It was very convenient in the plot that the bastards crippled the Falconer by cutting out his tongue, as well as cutting off his fingers. I don't know if this was supposed to be some sort of cunning by Locke, or just a heat of the moment revenge act; however when you think about it...

Is it STILL possible for the Falconer to let the Bondsmagi know what the Gentleman Bastards did to him? He can't say anything, and he damn sure can't write anything...but he can speak into another persons mind. I was reading the description of "Red Seas Under Red Skies" and that reminded me of this.

There is a mention of the Bondsmagi, at the very end on Scott's website in the book description. Let's say the Falconer cannot even mindspeak anymore, the Bondsmagi will still be able to read HIS mind, correct? I am certain that the Bastards will have a future reckoning with more Bondsmagi, the question is will the Falconer be the cause of this - or just another chance encounter?

I think the former. Even if Falconer lost his fingers, he can still spell. Which means he can still point to letters on a page, Ouija-board style. My guess is that the Bondsmagi will be looking for some serious retribution. And if they can't get to Locke, perhaps they go after others in Camorr?

the only caveat to this is if a Bondsmagi goes insane with the death of its familiar. And I don't know if that's the case or no.

Well, is it just me, or doesn't the falconer seem a bit *insane* at the end of the book? I mean yeah in theory he could trace a name out in the sand with his foot or something. But my impression in the end was that he was kidna driven insane by the torture. And hence couldnt finger locke because of that.

However... I don't tihnk the bondsmagi are just going to shrug and forget about this either. From their description it sounds to me like they will expend every resource to find out what happened. And if they do that... they may very well find out in the end you know?

I def think its going to come back to bite locke at some point

The Falconer did seem rather insane at the end, but I doubt it would be too difficult for other Bondsmagi to find out the truth of what happened to him. And then they will be seriously pissed off. No one messes with the Bondsmagi and gets away with it.

Sanity can be regained, though... but yeah, I think the end result is that Locke is going to have a passel of sorcerors on his ass for the next, oh, 5 books or so.

I agree. I don't know how he's going to handle it, though. I mean, he had enough trouble fighting one, and he beat that one mostly due to his arrogance.

He'll have to get some strong allies. I suspect that there are a lot of people who are unhappy with the Bondsmagi for one reason or another.

Or maybe he'll have to learn to become a powerful sorceror himself. That's what would happen in a lot of fantasy books, anyway; I hope Scott steers well clear of that one.

I hope he does as well. Didn't Scott say (don't quote me here) that is was either book three or book five that focused heavily on the Bondsmagi? I believe he mentioned it on the ASoIaF board, I'll have to look.

I assume the "book five" comment was a joke, but we'll what happens in book three. I guess that Scott's virginal RAFO comment was on this subject.

I think Book 3 was supposed to mostly be about Sabetha. I'm not sure which was the one where we would learn about the Bondsmagi, but I imagine it was either 4 or 5.

Now that I think about it, I think I'm going to go back through the Lynch threads on the westeros.org boards and pick out any tidbits that hint at what might happen in future books. Eventually, they could be compiled into a collection akin to the So Spake Martin one on Westeros, and it would help to get started as early as possible.

Nevermind my last post. I just finished archiving Lynch's westeros.org posts, and it turns out that I was wrong. It will be in book three (which will also be almost entirely about Sabetha) that we take a closer look and the Bondsmagi, including their internal organization, which isn't as tight as they would like people to think.

I had thought of doing the exact same thing. Problem is, it could end up killing some discussion here at this point I think.

smash... might be cool if (untill/unless its on a webpage) you even felt like combining them all in one post here or something. Would be happy to sticky that post!

Alright, I'll go through the file later tonight and pull out all the relevant tidbits. I basically copied all his posts, including the ones where he talks about plans for touring and people's responses to his books, so I'll have to look through again and pick out the parts that are about future novels and further information about his world.

Ok, so we know we’ll see more of the bondsmagi in the future ( book 3 according to a certain Scott Lynch. Note that I don’t know personally this guy so I can’t say whether this is real info or a hoax )
And we know Locke didn’t exactly act in a way so as to make some new friends. Some of them are bound to get pretty annoyed with him and try to teach him some lessons about magic. Before killing him I mean. Well, after also for that matter.

2 scenarii come to mind :

- since there are factions amongst the bondsmagi (the same SL guy said the internal organization isn’t as tight as people believe), one of them will befriend him and help him out. [Crazy mode on] Locke being a sand grain (and a major pain in the ass), he won’t be a help, quite the contrary. At the end of the book, the organization will have imploded and each faction will become independent [Crazy mode off]

- or there are some magicians out there who are still independent and haven’t been enrolled. In fact, they are quite numerous, more than anybody would think. And they have formed an anti-bondsmagi coalition unknown to anyone. And they ally with Locke of course. [Crazy mode on] They then sue the bondsmagi for cause of antitrust and at the end of the book people can practice magic without having to be part of the bondsmagi [Crazy mode off]


As Mr Smash, I’ve ruled out the “Locke is the greatest magician of all time”, I think SL will definitely stay clear of that trap.
And I think (hope) some bondsmagi dude will join the Gentlemen Bastards.


Of course, all my (crazy) theories involve some sorcerors becoming allies with the GB, but it’s perfectly possible that the GB will beat them without any magical help. After all, Locke did beat the falconer with his only cunning. But I find it not plausible for the guy was alone at the time whereas now there’s an entire organization against them.

What do you think?
Scott?

I think the Gentleman's Bastards will be getting help from a renegade sorceror at some point in there. If they do go up against the Bondsmagi in book three (and that is Sabetha's book) it will almost be necessary for them to have at least one of their own...and it's quite possible Sabetha could be a magi on either side I guess.