You may have heard of Peak Oil. The plain geological fact is that we live in a finite world with finite resources, and if we keep on using those resources faster than they regenerate (for our purposes, fossil fuels don't regenerate at all), we WILL eventually run into supply problems. This sort of problems don't usually appear in fantasy novels, but there is no inherent reason to forbid them. (For an example of magic as a natural resource, see the short story "Magic Goes Away" by Larry Niven.) It is beginning to appear that neither in the Land magic is available without limit.
I would like to know if the Demondim "use up" the corpses they appropriate for wearing. There are some indications that this is the case. The Ramen were able to keep the Demondim out of the Plains of Ra, and I don't think that would have been possible if the Demondim had simply resurrected themselves every ten seconds. I think the most likely possibility is that the battle created a dead zone void of usable corpses (pun not intended) on the edge of the Plains of Ra, and the Demondim had to walk from beyond its borders to attack. (The question, however, is how they got back OUT of the dead zone if they were killed there. Field mice corpses?)
At least, we know for certain that one's spiritual power can be used up. In the end of the Second Chronicles Lord Foul spent most of his spirit by attacking Covenant. Interestingly, it is possible that Lord Foul's spending himself made sense for him, since his attacks burned the venom from Covenant. Just a short while previously Covenant had said to Linden that he would never use power again, but we saw that the venomless Covenant-as-the-Arch was willing and capable of significant deeds of power, like his distraction of the Cavewights by resurrecting that mysterious thing. At the time of the Last Chronicles, Covenant appears far less powerful. I suspect that this is because over the centuries he has used up the power he gained by absorbing Lord Foul's blasts and has no power source of his own. On the other hand, if Lord Foul had stopped after his first unsuccessful blast, the venom would have remained in Covenant and Covenant probably would still have been unable to use power, leading to him remaining a passive obstacle to Lord Foul that would have needed an incredible amount of power to remove.
We have seen that in the normal course of things Lord Foul prefers to use various tools. In addition to the Ravers, in the First Chronicles he had the Illearth Stone, his armies, and the Dead Elena, and in the Second Chronicles the Clave and the Sunbane, while characters were able to sense that he was very puissant on his own too. I think we can say Lord Foul's lack of use of power is a large part of what makes him so powerful.
I think Earthpower itself may be in peril. We have been explicitly told that the Staff of Law is capable of channeling all the Earthpower in existence and is limited only by the strength of its wielder. It is unmentioned but obvious that the Staff is also limited by the total amount of Earthpower. Now with caesures attacking the Earth's very structure and Linden blasting things with the Staff, it is conceivable that Linden will run into unexpected limits. (I think the Staff will become corrupted, lose its power, or break, or possibly a combination of those.)
Without Earthpower a lot of things could be different. There would be no hurtloam or aliantha. People of the Land would have no health-sense and Giants would lose their talent of speaking all the languages. Ranyhyn would lose their powers. And I think Haruchai would suddenly find themselves much less impressive fighters and bereft of mind-speech. The Haruchai believe they are operating on their own strength, but it seems clear to me that their superior talents signify that Earthpower is in them. After all, they have more endurance than a Giant, as we learned in White Gold Wielder. In essence, Haruchai would be sort of human Ranyhyn. I think their opposition to the use of Earthpower will be revealed ironic indeed.
Finite Magic
Moderator: dlbpharmd
Although I tend to believe that Earthpower is a natural expression of life in the Land and in its world, and therefore simply cannot disappear as long as there is life in the world (or rather, its disappearance would imply the death of any form of life), your post reminds me of a thought I had about wild magic, long ago.
It is said "wild magic is graven in every rock, contained for white gold to unleash or control", which seems to imply that the world (or, if you wish to be strictly literal, all the stones of the world
) is "filled" with wild magic, as an enormous reservoire. Every time wild magic is called upon, then, it logically follows that it "depletes" the reservoire a little. Of course, as long as there is some wild magic left, no one would notice anything; the wielder of wild magic would only notice the day he or she tries to use the ring and it sputters and fizzles instead.
Of course, this could be a moot point, given that the world is a pretty big place and before Covenant there was no wild magic wielder in there - but I'm curious, did anyone else have the thought that wild magic itself could be finite - that using it too much would deplete it completely and (possibly) forever?
It is said "wild magic is graven in every rock, contained for white gold to unleash or control", which seems to imply that the world (or, if you wish to be strictly literal, all the stones of the world
) is "filled" with wild magic, as an enormous reservoire. Every time wild magic is called upon, then, it logically follows that it "depletes" the reservoire a little. Of course, as long as there is some wild magic left, no one would notice anything; the wielder of wild magic would only notice the day he or she tries to use the ring and it sputters and fizzles instead. Of course, this could be a moot point, given that the world is a pretty big place and before Covenant there was no wild magic wielder in there - but I'm curious, did anyone else have the thought that wild magic itself could be finite - that using it too much would deplete it completely and (possibly) forever?
I think wild magic were to run out, the Arch of Time would probably crumble down without its keystone. I think it's possible that every use of wild magic harms the Arch somehow somewhere or makes the rocks weaker by draining them of the wild magic graven into them, or something.
Now that I think of it, this brings potential new light to the caesures, which you may remember are drawn to Linden's ring. I think the caesures eat wild magic from things and that's why they make things crumble.
I would guess Earthpower is like the Earth's biosphere, powered ultimately by sunlight. Therefore using Earthpower would be fine, although some very large limits would exist. The problem is that the final book is called The Last Dark...
Now that I think of it, this brings potential new light to the caesures, which you may remember are drawn to Linden's ring. I think the caesures eat wild magic from things and that's why they make things crumble.
I would guess Earthpower is like the Earth's biosphere, powered ultimately by sunlight. Therefore using Earthpower would be fine, although some very large limits would exist. The problem is that the final book is called The Last Dark...
Well, first of all, Earthpower. I doubt that using Earthpower would harm the world - after all, we saw manifestations of Earthpower like the lillianrill or the graveling, which allow the use of Earthpower without consuming the item itself. Earthpower being the life force of the world, it stands to reason that using Earthpower doesn't necessarily deplete it: in fact, I tend to believe that uses of Earthpower simply "congeal" Earthpower into a certain form (say, a Word of Warding or Lords-fire) but the power is still there, and once it has run its course, it "thaws" and goes back to its source. In a sense, I view it as a sort of magical "energy can't be created nor destroyed, it just changes".
On the other hand, wild magic is possibly finite (albeit, in the whole world, there is likely such an enormous amount that even Covenant's most powerful eruptions have only negligibly depleted the "reservoire"). Since wild magic is the keystone to the Arch of Time, I agree with Nerdanel that in such a scenario, depletion of wild magic would cause the Arch to crumble.
Wild Theory
And to build a little on the concept of caesures seeking out wild magic: we know that caesures are born of wild magic (through Joan's madness), but we still don't know their nature: all we know is that they span all time, that they roam, that they are usually invisible, and that the passage of a caesure can destroy.
Now consider: what if the creation of a caesure derived from the depletion of wild magic within a specific area? Let's say wild magic is drawn too strongly from a certain area, and that area finds itself without wild magic. It is, in a way, a small nick into the Arch of Time, which needs to be "healed" (we know that the Laws have a certain ability to withstand damage, and presumably to repair themselves as long as they are not wholly broken). So perhaps the caesure - an area in which no wild magic exists - wanders in an attempt to "recover" enough wild magic to be stable again. the fact that caesures exist in all time could simply underline how these are localized disruptions of the Arch of Time.
Of course, this is just a fanciful theory - but it's interesting to see what you think of it.
On the other hand, wild magic is possibly finite (albeit, in the whole world, there is likely such an enormous amount that even Covenant's most powerful eruptions have only negligibly depleted the "reservoire"). Since wild magic is the keystone to the Arch of Time, I agree with Nerdanel that in such a scenario, depletion of wild magic would cause the Arch to crumble.
Wild Theory
And to build a little on the concept of caesures seeking out wild magic: we know that caesures are born of wild magic (through Joan's madness), but we still don't know their nature: all we know is that they span all time, that they roam, that they are usually invisible, and that the passage of a caesure can destroy.
Now consider: what if the creation of a caesure derived from the depletion of wild magic within a specific area? Let's say wild magic is drawn too strongly from a certain area, and that area finds itself without wild magic. It is, in a way, a small nick into the Arch of Time, which needs to be "healed" (we know that the Laws have a certain ability to withstand damage, and presumably to repair themselves as long as they are not wholly broken). So perhaps the caesure - an area in which no wild magic exists - wanders in an attempt to "recover" enough wild magic to be stable again. the fact that caesures exist in all time could simply underline how these are localized disruptions of the Arch of Time.
Of course, this is just a fanciful theory - but it's interesting to see what you think of it.
Even though energy is never destroyed, it can change to a less useful form. For example, when you drive in your car, the chemical energy stored in gasolin is transformed into mechanical energy to move you forward, run the car stereo, and such. However by far the largest portion of the energy ends up as waste heat, and unless you have regenerative braking all of it eventually becomes heat. And while the resulting heat may have the exact same energy as the original gasolin, it is in a vastly more inconvenient form and cannot be used to power your car. SRD has said that entropy is a force that applies to the Land, so I think this example may have relevance to the magical physics of the Land.
Even wilder theory
I've been having a sneaking suspicion that the caesures are alive. Some of the language used might point that way. I remember the words "horrible deliberateness" and inside a caesure Linden thinks of the caesure's avatars which make me think there's more than meets the eye. I think the caesures may be connected to the Worm at the World's End a.k.a. the black hole that ate the stars/Elohim, being similar but smaller. Perhaps a new universe could form inside a caesure given the right conditions.
Even wilder, I've been wondering if Esmer might be a caesure in a different avatar and that he had eaten the original Esmer. At one point Linden thinks that "Cail's son" would never lie, but the phrasing Linden's intuition could still allow for Esmer to lie if Esmer was in fact not Cail's son. Esmer's physical presence makes Linden nauseous much like confirmed caesures.
And, by the way, I know how shaky this is, which is why I haven't already made a thread about this. It's slightly more plausible than the idea that Stave is a very well made artificial Haruchai made by the ur-viles, the only evidence for which is Stave's unusual name and placement near Linden.
To return to the realm of verifiability, the caesure that Linden created had grown when the company exited it. So if caesures wish to fill their hunger for wild magic, it is a hunger that can't be very well satiated by eating.
Even wilder theory
I've been having a sneaking suspicion that the caesures are alive. Some of the language used might point that way. I remember the words "horrible deliberateness" and inside a caesure Linden thinks of the caesure's avatars which make me think there's more than meets the eye. I think the caesures may be connected to the Worm at the World's End a.k.a. the black hole that ate the stars/Elohim, being similar but smaller. Perhaps a new universe could form inside a caesure given the right conditions.
Even wilder, I've been wondering if Esmer might be a caesure in a different avatar and that he had eaten the original Esmer. At one point Linden thinks that "Cail's son" would never lie, but the phrasing Linden's intuition could still allow for Esmer to lie if Esmer was in fact not Cail's son. Esmer's physical presence makes Linden nauseous much like confirmed caesures.
And, by the way, I know how shaky this is, which is why I haven't already made a thread about this. It's slightly more plausible than the idea that Stave is a very well made artificial Haruchai made by the ur-viles, the only evidence for which is Stave's unusual name and placement near Linden.
To return to the realm of verifiability, the caesure that Linden created had grown when the company exited it. So if caesures wish to fill their hunger for wild magic, it is a hunger that can't be very well satiated by eating.
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finn
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Theory:
What about the need to refresh the Land by desecration? If the magic of the land/earthpower was finite, did Kevin refresh it by the ritual of desecration? Much like winter before spring, we could be seeing the end of the cycle.
TC could then become the "Kevin" of the next cycle, if this were so, who was the previous Kevin and where did he come from?
I had not noticed that Stave's name was unusual but literally it has meanings related to supporting and bracing things, it can also mean a framework, ie musical notation is written on a stave, it can further mean to burst through, as in 'staved in'. That maybe why he is placed by Linden as a support for her, able to burst through things in her way.
What about the need to refresh the Land by desecration? If the magic of the land/earthpower was finite, did Kevin refresh it by the ritual of desecration? Much like winter before spring, we could be seeing the end of the cycle.
TC could then become the "Kevin" of the next cycle, if this were so, who was the previous Kevin and where did he come from?
I had not noticed that Stave's name was unusual but literally it has meanings related to supporting and bracing things, it can also mean a framework, ie musical notation is written on a stave, it can further mean to burst through, as in 'staved in'. That maybe why he is placed by Linden as a support for her, able to burst through things in her way.