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| Obduction Backer |
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:46 pm
Posts: 847
Location: The Cleft, New Mexico
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Shorah!
So glad to see so much interesting discussion here! 
It's entirely possible that the pillars were *also* a representation of the Bahro relationship with the D'ni. I doubt it's an accident that the pattern they form is a match for the Minkata symbol (which also began showing up in other places at about the same time Minkata was released, Watson returned from his pilgrimage where he freed the Bahro, and the Bahro civil war began). Yeesha made an obvious connection between the dots when the Relto crack appeared, sending us back to the Cleft with its identically-shaped crack. This one is less obvious but just as clear, I think.
I've theorized about Bahro linking bubbles before (regarding Descent vs. current day) and am wondering if we're seeing that on an even larger scale here in Minkata. I've believed for quite a while now that Yeesha's "magical" Writing abilities are derived directly from her apparent apprenticeship to the Bahro. She's been hanging out with them for a number of years, probably ever since Calam was killed (which would have been in the middle 1800s by our reckoning), so she's had time to learn a *lot* from them.
In examining the history of the Bahro enslavement, we have only bits of data. Yeesha's said they were enslaved 10,000 years ago, which roughly coincides with the arrival of the D'ni to the Cavern. It's looking more and more to me like the Bahro are associated only with the D'ni (not the rest of the Garternay refugees) and that their enslavement is one of the D'ni dirty secrets Yeesha began trying to teach us about in her original Journey Ages. The Kemo glyphs, the Teledahn slave caves, the Gahreesen prison cells all hint at both Bahro and human enslavement. Explorers have wondered for quite a while exactly *how* the D'ni transported unwieldy goods across the Ages but considering what we seem to be seeing about Bahro linking "magic", it could explain their enslavement. Trish's D'ni class system journal on the Tokotah rooftop talks about the Bahro being the lowest of the low classes to the D'ni (the Sub-Poor in Trish's terminology, the Least in Yeesha's terminology), which implies their enslavement was not hidden to the D'ni as a whole, but was considered a "normal" part of their society. Note: However, we also know that the D'ni kept the lowest classes quite separate from the rest of their society, so there were apparently some "slum" areas in the Cavern whose residents were kept under lock and key as it were.
Although there aren't any direct references to the Keep in the books, I'm speculating that it was housed in K'veer deliberately by the D'ni. Perhaps Lord Rakeri was the last D'ni to have had control over the tablet (that is before Yeesha and Esher arrived). Yeesha's comments about the tablet imply that it's fairly complex in design, "choosing" people rather than being usable by just anyone who finds it. If my speculation is anywhere close to the mark, Rakeri would have been the most powerful D'ni of his time and his family's dedication to the notion of enslavement and the strict division of classes further illuminates the bitter division between Veovis and Aitrus. And, interestingly, when we examine both the Keep and tablet, the tablet appears D'ni in design while the Keep and its four Age counterparts are clearly of Bahro design; yet these Bahro parts are integral to their enslavement. I'm sure there's some interesting history behind this, if only we could learn it!
My best guess is that Dr. Watson discovered the Keep in K'veer during his pilgrimage and after he abandoned his journal in the Great Shaft Tomahn (January 17, 2004 is his last journal entry); he found that he could interact with the tablet there, which attracted both Yeesha's and Esher's attention. And apparently it took him a pretty long time to complete the Age explorations and finally free the Bahro. So from the DRC's view, Watson disappeared in December 2003 without a word, only to reappear unexpectedly almost four years later, in September 2007. It's a fairly good bet that Watson freed the Bahro shortly before his return to the Cavern; judging from Cavern events at the time, we might even pinpoint the moment he freed the Bahro to coincide with the cave-in at the Kahlo Pub area, which shortly thereafter led to the deaths of Rosette and Wheely. Wheely's accounts of her Bahro encounter tell us a great deal about their inherent linking abilities--she was transported instantly to numerous places, her raging thirst was suddenly slaked, her signal kept appearing and disappearing in the KI lattice, she was able to communicate with the Bahro by drawing the signs Watson had discovered and used during his pilgrimage.
One of the more interesting aspects of Yeesha "magic" is the apparent ability to shift time or travel across time. The Kadish Tolesa future vault is the most obvious example of this, with its torn bits of a note hinting that Yeesha had figured out how to save Kadish's life. BrettM has written a very interesting analysis of this aspect of Yeesha's evolution as a Writer.
So the gist of all the above explanatory information is that I think it's quite possible that everything we have been talking about here is part of the final reality of Minkata. I think it can be all of the above: it can be an old D'ni age Written as a lesson for apprentice cartographers; it can be a Yeesha and Bahro lesson Age; it can be a construct a la Ahnonay; it can be an exercise in time travel. When I look at the scattered bits we see and infer about the Bahro, it seems all this and much more is possible here.
I think it's quite possible that Minkata was the last lesson/teaching Age Yeesha chose to give us and that its lesson is entwined with her final speech in K'veer, that we are now on our own, we must find our way, we must make a home, we must find an answer to the Bahro war, and that this answer cannot be found in any of the known Ages. Perhaps she and the "good" Bahro embedded into their altered version of Minkata everything they believe we'll need to accomplish this grand task... 
Food for thought! 
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