The Mahdoubt

[Satansheart Soulcrusher]

There are some interesting ones for Revelstone, like
STEVEN LORE
NEVER STOLE
RESENT LOVE
NOVEL RE SET

[High Lord Tolkien]

Right on, Soulcrusher!

Ya wanna talk about anagrams? Get this one:

Donaldson = Donald Son

Really makes ya think, doesn't it?

Sheesh.

Hey!
I was kidding.

Put your sarcasm hat on and read it again.

"Dumbo Hat"?
You guys thought I was serious?

Sheesh right back at you.

[Zahir]

Kastenessen's lover sounds good to me, but then after I read it a new theory came to mind...

Berek's Queen.

[drew]

...bit of a stretch here but.....

Bereks Queen could be Kassy's lover. If she stayed alive all this time, she would have been alive in the pre-history of the land.....but I don't see it.

I'd say Kasstenessan's lover--esspecially the way she dissmisses whatever Men seem to say, and always knows what is important to Linden.

Her name must signify something....Mahdoubt; it was the doubt of the Bloodguard that did them in....?

[PitchDude]

Sorry HLT!

I was just having a bit of fun.

Jim

[CovenantJr]

Another theory - I think she might be a manifestation of injured time.

Her patchwork dress = moments seemingly stitched together randomly into a whole

She seems to 'see' what is needed and when (see thru time? precognition)

The way she places the tray of food precisely, as if there is the right spot for it.

Mahrtiir initial recognises something about her and questions Liand's statement "She serves?" I read this that he recognises that she is like the Ranyhyn or the Elohim, power incarnate. Only instead of earthpower it is earthpower as specifically manifested as time.

Interesting idea. I like it.

[burgs]

I have no viable alternate explanation for the Mahdoubt, but I have a hard time seeing her as anyone's lover or queen, though if she were Berek's queen, that would be rather intriguing stuff. But could you imagine a queen with such an ugly robe?

One other anagram for her name, which I think is the most relevant (if it is, indeed, an anagram of something) is OATH DUMB.

Think of how many oaths have been made: the oath of peace, the oath that the Haruchai made with the lords. The oath that the Haruchai made to Kevin, while honorable I suppose, was just plain DUMB. I don't care how deeply I'm moved by something, I'm not leaving my family over it. No chance.

[ur-bane]

Perhaps the Mahdoubt is a descendant of Memla? (Not directly, but at least someone from the Clave that felt as Memla did?)
It would certainly explain a lot of her knowledge, and her kindness toward Linden.

[Thunderhead]

I've just now finished reading The Runes of the Earth and events are probably still too fresh in my mind for me to properly contemplate but the one thing that stood out for me about the Mahdoubt was the patchwork, not just of her dress, but her as a whole, the different coloured eyes, that she seemed to have " been sculpted by an unruly child during a tantrum". I get the impression that she is somehow a puzzle with some of the pieces missing.

[Thaale]

Her patchwork nature (clothes, unmatched eyes) suggests that she might be an amalgam of two or more different people.

It is a theme Donaldson returns to repeatedly: the imperfect alloy of white gold itself; the necessity of simultaneous belief and unbelief; Esmer’s mortal and immortal natures warring with each other. The Mahdoubt may be such a “paradoxical” figure. With the Laws of Life and Death being broken, who’s to say that two people couldn’t return in one body, or that one person couldn’t return to share the body of someone living?

Not that that gets me any closer to a specific guess… Do some find that she reminds them of Mhoram?

You can’t always guess usefully. Probably no one could have figured out Amok before Donaldson revealed the answer.

[burgs]

Given the way her facial features were described, as I noted earlier in this thread (I believe), I think that suru-pa-maerl may be involved in her creation.

[Thaale]

I think that suru-pa-maerl may be involved in her creation.

Maybe she's a combination of Covenant and Bannor?

[Sheriff Lytton]

I'm siding with anyone that thinks she's the mother of the merewives. That dysfunctional little family unit is a big part of the story.

[Revan]

Wow, we do get some wacky theorys here

heh,

Nah, i don't think she's a merewives, Kassy's lover, a combition of Bannor and Covenant, nor Bereks Queen. I really can't make any decent theorys on her; because there simply isn't enough info on her.

Bereks Queen: Do you really see a Queen serving?

Kassy's Lover: She'd most likely be with Kastenessen if this were true.

Bannor and Covenant: Are you serious?

Merewives: They live in the sea, no place else.

[dlbpharmd]

I think that suru-pa-maerl may be involved in her creation.

Very intriguing - would you care to elaborate?

[burgs]

My only reason for thinking that is the way her face was described. Somewhere, although apparently not in this thread, I quoted the scene. I'll requote.

...features that might have been sculpted by an unruly child during a tantrum.

We know of only ONE source of sculpting in the Land, and that is the suru-pa-maerl. That said, this could be merely a coincidence, just as Anele spelled backwards is Elena. That was an oversight on SRDs part. No one's perfect.

But he goes to such care to describe The Mahdoubt, that I doubt he would make the same mistake here.

[ur-bane]

I could be mistaken, and my spelling will be off, but I thought the sculpting was anundivian-yajna. Bone sculpting.

suru-pa-maerl was the art of finding shapes in the rocks. If I recall, (paraphrasing) Lena was speaking to Covenant:

"I look for the shapes in the rock. I don't say 'I am going to find a horse.' Perhaps it will be a horse."

Something along those lines.

I think that is what you meant, burgs66. Although the term was incorrect, I find the hypothesis interesting. Now, a question. Who do you feel may be the "sculptor"?

As far as the Mahdoubt goes, there is too little known about her to do anything more than stab in the dark.
But I am sure that will be remedied rather quickly in Fatal Revenant.

[burgs]

You have the spelling right, with the exception of the dash. I think that'll pass.

You're right. And anundivian yajna is the lost Ramen art of bone scuplting. Given what is happening with time, perhaps that art has been found again. Or perhaps the Mahdoubt was brought forward from another time (where she was sculpted thousands of years ago).

If SRD used the word scultping, and he did, then he certainly did not mean suru-pa-maerl.

So who was the sculptor? A Raman, perhaps, or even an Old Lord. Who knows what they're capable of.

[ur-bane]

Another interesting point brought up by your mention of the Old Lords, and the Mahdoubt possibly having been "sculpted" by someone in the past, is that not all of Kevin's Wards were discovered.
If I remember correctly, only the First (given to the new Lords by the Giants), the Second (found in the catacombs of Mount Thunder), and the Seventh (Amok) were ever found.

Could it possibly be that she is another manifestation of one of Kevin's Wards? And that the aforementioned "sculptor" was Kevin himself?

It would certainly fit with what we have guessed so far. And although apparently most of the Land's artful history was lost during Covenant's battle with Gibbon in the Hall of Gifts, it was never truly mentioned that everything was lost, and we have not been brought back there. Perhaps the Mahdoubt has secreted herself there until her "sign" was given, and will lead Linden there to discover a relic from the past that may aid in the battle for the Earth and Arch.

[[Syl]]

TWL

Covenant hardly heard her. "The First and Second Wards." He gestured toward the shining caskets. "The Third Ward? Did they find the Third Ward?" Foreseeing the Ritual of Desecration, Kevin Landwaster had hidden all his knowledge in Seven Wards to preserve it for future Councils; but during High Lord Mhoram's time, only the first two and the last had been found.
"Evidently," a Rider retorted. "Little good it did them."

Same info also revealed in the Soothtell in WGW.