The Four Revelations of Cinial’jin of just Four Revelations is an Atrocity Tale published by R. Scott Bakker it was released in November 7, 2011 as free in the blog Three Pound Brain.
This Atrocity Tale, along with The False Sun, was included as appendix in The Unholy Consult under the title, Four Revelations.
Fan Summary[]
An extrapolated journey through the atrocious and fragmented memories of the Erratic Nonman Cinial’jin.
Plot summary[]
The Nonman Erratic, Cinial’jin, is being tortured by Men. Nails pierce his body, and an old woman thrashes him with thistles. Men bound him to a pole and as they set bracken at its base, he wonders how the end of memory will look at death. A boy, goaded on by the angry crowd, reluctantly sets the bracken alight. The Erratic writhes and screams, laughing how being burned alive is something he will never forget. As he accepts his fate, he sees armored horsemen scattering the crowd. The Erratic does not realize he has been saved until he is on the ground. A man appears at his side, relating his grandmother’s lessons on his superiority to other Men and how he had saved the Erratic to ask questions that a long-lived being would know, such as how immortality feels.
While all these events are occurring, Cinial’jin has disjointed memories of the painful experiences in his life. He remembers Cû’jara-Cinmoi’s impious arrogance and visiting the ruins of a Mansion. He remembers his adulterous wife Aisarinqu, how he beat her and his grief cradling her as she died of the Womb-Plague. He remembers his daughter Aisralu, also suffering from the Womb-Plague, begging him to kill her, which he does, pushing her from a precipice in Siöl. He remembers the Battle of Pir Minginnial, where his son Enpiralas was slain and his corpse placed on an Inchoroi shield. He remembers confronting Skafra with his cousin Pil’kmiras and fellow Ishroi Par’sigiccas, the latter being incinerated by the Wracu. He remembers a little girl who befriended him, how her father had whipped her for stealing food, not knowing she was giving it to the Nonman. As she reminded him of his daughter, he strangles her so he will not forget her, an act which provoked the wrath of the nearby Men.
Insensible due to his dolorous reverie, Cinial’jin does not respond to the man’s questions and annoyed, the man begins cutting him with a knife.
Trivia[]
According to Bakker himself " 'Context baiting' is pretty much what this piece is all about. Fragments that will or will not reward readers depending on their intimacy with the books."[1] Besides "another part of the [story] was to contrast the varieties of the sordid/human (via the burning and Conphas) versus the epic/Nonman (via C[inial’jin]’s memories of trauma). The problem is that the lack of clarity is the creative point, which is well and fine for readers who have a taste for that thing, and frustrating as all hell for readers who do not".[2]