The Elohim's opposition to Vain's purpose?

[marshm]

You have all missed an important fact regarding the Elohim, the Tree and its guardianship: The Bloodguard did not exist (at least as Bloodguard) when Berek put the guardian in place. In this way, and many, many others, the Bloodguard have been at the root of the failure of the Land's protectors - all, of course, with the "purest" of intentions.

Or are they?

Hmmm.... Interesting...

[MrKABC]

You have all missed an important fact regarding the Elohim, the Tree and its guardianship: The Bloodguard did not exist (at least as Bloodguard) when Berek put the guardian in place. In this way, and many, many others, the Bloodguard have been at the root of the failure of the Land's protectors - all, of course, with the "purest" of intentions.

Or are they?

Hmmm.... Interesting...

A lot of damage was done to the Land by good intentions. Witness High Lord Elena's madness, Hile Troy's destruction, Saltheart Foamfollower's ruin of Pietten, Covenant's bargains, High Lord Kevin's fall(s)...

The Elohim had only one intention and that was to secure the white gold for themselves "empowering them to aid the Land in their own fashion". They knew of Vain's purpose and on some level had to have approved, otherwise they would never have let Findail out of Elmesnedene.

The only reason IMHO for the trip to the One Tree was to convince Covenant or Linden to surrender the ring to them.

[wayfriend]

There's a statement in the Runes What Has Gone Before about this. I won't mention it - it's a spoiler. Where it mentions why the Elohim did what they did.

[Usivius]

Remember one thing, the 'proper' way to make a second Staff of Law is to know all the Seven Wards of Kevin. Once all that learning is understood, a person could go to the One Tree and (somehow within all that knowledge) create a new Staff of Law that would not cause the catastophy that occured.
Only with Vain and the power of the Elohim could a new staff be created without all this lost knowledge.
The Elohim were against Vain because they knew that one of their kind would have to be sacrificed in order for his purpose to be fulfilled. No one who is 'immortal' really wants that (they are quite selfish, remember). And, as stated before, they just felt that Thomas C. was just not the right guy to hold such infinite power and felt that Linden, with her earthsight, would be better suited.

That's my take on things...