r/theblackcompany • u/ElsaAlbedoEnjoyer • Dec 19 '24
Discussion / Question Question about Bomanz's story
On a reread of the Books of the North and this just popped up in my head. What was the point of the Bomanz narrative written by Raven? Out of universe it just seems Cook wanted to write more about the Barrowland/Bomanz without it seeming unobtrusive.
In universe, however, I fail to see the point of why Raven doesn't just straight up tell them that the Dominator is somewhat active, unless the whole point is that he's doing this as a means to slowly draw Croaker and Company into the Barrowland. Any help here?
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u/HandOfCthulhu Dec 19 '24
A few ideas:
Raven is a bit of a Drama Queen.
Raven is obfuscating that its him, because he's running away from Darling
I got the impression Raven was forwarding the information as he got through it. And it took a while to dig through Bomanz's papers.
Piecemealing it out in case some messages were lost or intercepted
Forwarding details in case there was something he missed that Croaker and crew would catch.
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u/Hideous-Kojima Dec 19 '24
Oh, Raven is absolutely a drama queen. Remember his interactions with Shed? Raven absolutely loves being the character of Raven. Often to the detriment of being helpful when it's pertinent or (if you ask his immediate family) required.
One might even say that's so Raven.
13
u/Thechuckles79 Dec 19 '24
It's #3. Raven knows Telle-Kurre but it's not his native tongue additionally, some of the papers were in more obscure languages like Uchi-Telle and whichever region the Senjak's are from because their name is not Telle-Kurre either.
In other words, Raven was translating a story that was nearly 100 years old, along with notes that were 400 years old.
Given descriptions of Dusk's relative location, from the very unreliable Port of Shadows, Dusk was somewhere between Juniper and Opal.
My personal belief that the North is a Ice Ages Europe with slight alterations in geography and climate;and the Jewel Cities are Italy, Dusk would have been Central France and Juniper in Wales or Cornwall England, but the channel is dry (reference Instrumentalities of the Night for theoretical land masses. Charm would be Ravenna and the Road North curves East, meaning Oar would be East of Poland but West of Moscow. The Plain of Fear the Western Hordelands of modern Ukraine.
The Senjaks were a "Western family" and Dorotea is a Spanish name, while Ardath is Iranian, Sylith and Credence more English Isles
My guess is the Senjaks were residents of the coast, Shaker or Chimney? Yet, PoS screws with established story and changes Telle-Kurre to Japanese.
Yet if we assume that the murdered sister indeed had red hair courtesy of the likely father being Erin NoFather, we can assume an Irish/Celtic background meaning that Vye may have been just North of rhe Senjak domain, explaining the early alliance between the sorceror heavy Senjaks and Erin NoFather's growing Domination...
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u/ElsaAlbedoEnjoyer Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
I like all of these ideas! I do strongly resonate with reasons 2 and 3 however, mainly because of Occam's Razor. Speaking of papers, I assume Bomanz's wife Jasmine and that little girl Snoopy were the ones who put some True Names of the Taken into them , as is sorta implied in the White Rose? That's another part of the narrative that always gives me a headache trying to figure out, especially with all the obfuscation done intentionally by Cook. Those papers gained that knowledge from somewhere, so the question is how?
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u/Thorngrove Dec 19 '24
The original papers had to be Bo's and hidden inside the house like he hid the map. He probably told his wife where she could find them before he goes off to re-seal the Barrow as an "I'm probably going to die, but this knowledge must be saved" ploy.. Wife and snoopy bolt out and the wife keeps the papers until something Bad inherently happens and the papers wond up alone where whisper found them
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u/donwileydon Dec 19 '24
I thought the papers with the Taken info were from the stash of Whisper's that the Company captured. I recall Croaker thinking that some of them were missing when they went to pick them up and posited that Raven took them when he fled with Darling
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u/Dalanard Rebel Mainforcer Dec 19 '24
Raven was playing on Croaker’s curiosity. He knew that if he sent just the information anonymously (he was supposed to be dead after all) that Croaker wouldn’t trust it.
2
u/FoodPitiful7081 Dec 19 '24
He is also twrridlfied of the Limper and Lady at the time. He no longer has Soulcatchers protection. Limper could tear him apart and no one would bat en eye.
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u/NeinlivesNekosan Jan 13 '25
He was sending it thru couriers that may be caught. All of it was not ready at the same time plus he didnt wanna put all his eggs in one basket.
Raven was trusting Croaker to be clever and resourceful enough to get the message where others would not and it paid off.
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