Cotillion on the nature of the Soletaken Eleint
'But the Soletaken proved a problem. They possessed the blood of Tiam, and with it the vast power of the Eleint. Yet they could travel as they pleased. They could interfere, and they did.' (BH UK Tpb, p 52)
'the forces that are Soletaken and D'ivers are that old...They were old even in Elder times. No one species can claim propriety, and that includes the four Founding Races: Jaghut, Forkrul Assail, Imass and K'Chain Che'Malle.(DG, UK MMPB, p.455)
Felisin:'...How are they (shapeshifters) created?'
Kulp: 'They aren't. They're born.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.581)
'No shapeshifter can abide another - under normal circumstances, that is. There are exceptions...Yet, within them all, there is a hunger as deep in the bone as the bestial fever itself. The lure to dominance. To command all other shapeshifters, to fashion an army of such creatures - all slaved to your desire. From an army, an Empire. An Empire of ferocity unlike anything that has been seen before-...a miasma of chaos'(DG, UK MMPB, p.455-6)
Heboric, re: the Human First Empire and Soletaken...'Her daughter chose the Path of the Soletaken, a fraught journey, that. She was hardly unique, the twisted route was a popular alternative to Ascension. More...earthly, they claimed. And older, and that which was old was in high favour in the last days of the First Empire...It was understandable that Elders of the day sought to ease their children's chosen path. Sought to create a new version of the old, risk-laden one - for that had crumbled, weakened, was cancerous. Too many of the Empire's young were being lost - and never mind the wars to the west-' (DG, UK MMPB, p.514)
cont'd: 'Soletaken and D'ivers...The ritual unleashed powers that ran wild. Like a plague, shapeshifting claimed thousands, unwelcomed, no initiation - many went mad. Death filled the city, every street, every house. Families were torn apart by their own...All within but a handful of hours' (DG, UK MMPB, p.516-7)
'the strong spicy smell that came with the change' (DG, UK MMPB, p.108)
'The fangs and claws of D'ivers and Soletaken bred a singularly virulent sickness, often culminating in hallucinations, bestial madness, then death. For many who survived, the madness remained, reappearing on a regular basis for one or two nights nine or ten times each year. It was a madness often chracterized by murder.'
(DG, UK MMPB, p.146)
Kulp:'A bite (from a Soletaken) can poison you, a cyclical fever of madness, but you do not become a shapeshifter.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.581)
After being attacked by D'ivers and Soletaken, Duiker thinks that Bult has been poisoned by the scores of D'ivers wasp stings he has suffered...also, Duiker's legs have been bitten by D'ivers Fire Ants. Kulp replies with: 'Not poison. More like an infecting warren. I can deal with this...As with your legs.' (DG, UK MMPB, p.183)
After the botched ritual that resulted in the abovementioned attack, Sormo reveals that the ritual took them to the Warren of Tellann and speculates...
'Is there a blending between shapeshifting and Elder Tellann? Unknown. Perhaps the D'ivers and Soletaken are simply passing through the warren - imagining it unoccupied by T'lan Imass and therefore safer. Indeed, no T'lan Imass to take umbrage with the trespass, leaving them with only each other to battle.' (DG, UK MMPB, p.183)
Heboric: 'There is a bond between the T'lan Imass and Soletaken and D'ivers, a mysterious kinship that was unsuspected by the dwellers of this city - though they claimed for themselves the proud title of First Empire.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.517)
veering = from humanoid to beast
sembling = from beast to humanoid
