Gart: The High King's Monomach *spoilers*

[Ozowen]

Think of Gart as a cross between a Ninja or an Hashishin.
Dedicated to his art, focussed, fanatical and well trained by those who know both mind and body.
The Ninja were taught mind strategies as well as body arts.
Consider that the higher in their circles on became the more mind games they played. Some were so adept that they ran more than one Ryu (school/ system) and kept the different Ryu at war with one another and even organised assassination attempts on themselves.
Hassan Bin Sabbah the Old Man of the Mountain who controlled the Hashishin played serious mind games with his private army of assassins.

In both cases the moral is that the master strategist can control the most powerful adpet of physical arts.

[Avatar]

Just finished my reread, and Gart still rocks.

I love the part at the end, where Artagel is asking him if he has no dreams, and Gart replies, "I dream of blood!"

I see that earlier in the thread (all those years ago) I wrote about the "brain-washing" that Apts probably go through to turn them into perfect servants of Cadwal.

The instrument of the High King truly is all that Gart was.

Would have loved to see more of him.

--A

[Nathan]

Would have loved to see more of him.

But that's the reason he's cool!

He retains an air of mystery and intrigue because you don't get to see that much of him.

[Avatar]

I'd swap it for a tale of the Apt's training, or Gart's own past.

--A

[Nathan]

Don't do it man! You'd be destroying the very thing you love!

[Avatar]

It's not his mystery I love, it's his skills. Like in The Killing Stroke.

--A

[Cord Hurn]

Yes, Gart is a killing machine, but there must be some part of him, buried deeply, that wishes to be more, have more, for himself. Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten angry at Artagel needling him for being a tool.

[Avatar]

I dunno...a tool is not diminished by being used. Being used is it's purpose. I think Artagel underestimated the satisfaction Gart's position gave him, allowing him to indulge in his dreams without consequence.

--A

[Cord Hurn]

All I know, is *something* about Artagel's mocking Gart for merely being a tool sure seemed to make Gart mad!

I'll have to look up the relevant passage in AMRT to verify this.