Anele's Cave

[Relayer]

I'm re-reading TPTP right now, and just read the chapter where Triock tries to find the Unfettered One to send a message to Mhoram. What a chapter! I completely forgot about it.

I don't know if this has been discussed but the search function didn't turn up anything...

Triock and co are searching in the hills far to the west of Mithil Stonedown. Because of the blizzard, the description of the surroundings is vague, but they climb up a ways, and it seems they come into a valley. Then, they come upon the One, who leads them to his cave, through a jumbled maze of boulders which eventually lead into the cave itself...

Is this not the same cave where Anele lived with the Staff 3000 years later, before the caesure took him to the "Runes present"? The descriptiion is too similar to the cave Anele leads them to on Linden's search for the Staff. The Unfettered One is even following his Weird -- reading the history of the Land in the stone!!!!

Borrowing from an old post by Furl's Fire in the dissection:

..."Stone is alive. Do you see it? You are Stonedownor--do you see it? Yes, alive--alive and alert. Attentive. Everything--everything which transpires upon or within the Earth is seen--beheld--by the Earthrock.

(snip)

"But the--the process--the action of this seeing is slow. Lives like mine are futilely swift--Time---time!--is consumed as the seeing spreads--from the outer surfaces inward. And this time varies. Some veins pass their perception in to the mountain roots in millennia. Others require millennia of millennia.

"Here...can be seen the entire ancient history of the Land. For one whose work is to see. In these myriad facets are the myriad perceptions of all that has occurred. All!

"It is my work to see--and to discover the order--and to preserve--so that the whole life of the Land may be known.

"Since the coming of the Wraiths, I have studied the fate of the One Forest. I have seen it since the first seed grew to become the great Tree. I have seen its awakening--its awareness--the peaceful communion of its Land-spanning conciousness. I have seen Forestals born and slain. I have seen the Colossus of the Fall exercise its interdict. The hand of the Forest is upon me. Here."

"I see men with axes--men of the ground with blades formed from the bones of the ground--I see them cut!"

"I am Woodhelvinnin. In this rock I see the desecration of trees. You are Stonedownor. You bear a rare fragment of the High Wood, precious lomillialor."

"Give it to me! ... It will help me see.... My life is not the equal of this rock."

WARNING: Crazy speculation ahead

I suspect that the Unfettered One of TPTP is Anele... that passage above sounds exactly like him! (if he were sane again, or at least spent enough time communing with rock) ... "myriad" -- Anele uses that word myriads of times ... "my life is not the equal of this rock" -- Anele's despair at feeling unworthy. Likely that any adept who reads stone would read the same things, but the phrasing seems to be just like Anele. Obviously, SRD didn't have Anele in mind 30 years ago (talk about mining the earlier stories for ideas ) ... But it's just too coincidental that two Unfettered would happen to choose what appears to be the same cave, which was obviously so hard to find, and both would have the same gift of reading stone.

An interesting tangent is that Anele tells Linden he forsook his legacy and became Unfettered. But who at that time could have performed the Rite? (for that matter, how would he have even known what an "Unfettered One" was? Who could have taught him the song of the Unfettered?) But this point may be unimportant, maybe Caer-Caveral, Sunder, or one of the Haruchai told him; either way, Anele disavows the expectations of him and follows his own calling, and settles in the cave to study the stone before succumbing to the caesure and losing the Staff.

At some point later in the story, I suspect that Anele will travel back to the time before TC arrives (maybe to learn from the stone before the Land is destroyed?) ... officially receives the Rites during the time of Tamarantha, and returns to his cave for 100 or so years until he meets this most unfortunate end. "Poor Anele" indeed!!

[Warmark]

I like the idea that it could very well be the same cave, but i really hope theres no ''go back in time and become someone else'' in the final Chrons.

Be it TC into berek or Anele into a dead Unfetttered, i just think it seems very forced.

[wayfriend]

Two problems with the theory, sorry to say.

First, Anele isn't an Unfettered One. And I don't think that Triock and the other Stonedowners would refer to someone as an Unfettered One just because he or she are a little on the wild and hairy side.

Second, Trick travelled west from Mithil Stonedown, across Doom's Retreat, into the western mountain range (north of Garroting Deep). From the map in Runes of the Earth, I don't think Anele's cave is in the same place.

He intended to skirt the peaks west and south almost as far as Doom's Retreat, then swing northwest toward the isolated wedge of mountains which defended the South Plains from Garroting Deep. [...]

[dlbpharmd]

Agree with Wayfriend. According to Fonstad's "The Atlas of the Land," the cave of the Unfettered One is far to the west of Mithil Stonedown, north of Doom's Retreat. Anele's cave is much closer. Also, the Unfettered One was struggling to read the stone, but Anele had no problems with reading stone wherever he went.

[Relayer]

I agree w/ Warmark that I really don't want it to be so... the cave part is fine, but I think it'd be stretching a bit (ok, a lot!) for SRD to make it work as Anele. It just seemed a logical extension from noticing the similarities of the caves, two Unfettered who both read stone, etc. Unless SRD just has a thing for caves that are blocked by rockfalls

That said... I'm not sure how much I trust the map in Runes, as SRD has said he doesn't like it anyway. It really doesn't give any perspective and simply shows the general lay of the land... just that Anele's cave is somewhere west of the Stonedown. Linden and crew both came and left via caesures, so we really have no idea where they are from the text.

Anele isn't an Unfettered One. And I don't think that Triock and the other Stonedowners would refer to someone as an Unfettered One just because he or she are a little on the wild and hairy side.

You mean Liand? I'm sure that thanks to the Masters, no one in Runes-time has never heard the term "Unfettered One." But Anele himself says of the time after his parents died:
"High among these crests and vales... I made a place for myself -- not so distant from Mithil Stonedown that I could not hasten to the Land's aid at need, but far enough to attain the silence and loneliness... There I became Unfettered. The Haruchai had spoken of such men and women. From them I had learned the words, though I did not know the song... 'Free... Unfettered... Shriven... Free...' "

Ah, well that answers my tangential question about where he learned it (these were the Haruchai of the post-WGW era, not Masters) ... but how close to the Stonedown is unstated. A few days' walk probably was close enough for him. If we get the new map SRD has talked about in FR maybe it'll help.

[finn]

We don't know that Anele cannot draw power from the rock, or what form that power could take; he may well be able to travel extremely quickly.

"Unfettered", appears in context to be more than just something you become by virtue of living the life of a tibetan monk, it appears to be a level of attainment, a reaching of a state whose boundary, when crossed, removes some aspect of physical or metaphysical constraints.

It could then be one of those words, that in the land has a defined meaning much as we might use nirvana. In todays language we do not use unfettered because we do use fettered but words like manacled or chained, in SRDs Land there are many archaic words which are common.

[Xar]

In any case, remember that Nassic, in TWL, claimed to be Unfettered himself, and that he came from a long generation of Unfettered Ones, starting with the one who had first foreseen TC's return to the Land. Therefore, it is likely that the knowledge of the "title" (if not of the meaning) has been passed on to Sunder by Nassic, together with the tales of the old Land; maybe Sunder didn't know about the Rites of Unfettering or the song of the Unfettered Ones, maybe he thought that "Unfettered One" is simply a name for someone who is so focused on a single aspect that he or she forsakes the whole; but it's not a stretch to say that Sunder passed on his father's stories to Anele when the latter was young, and told him about "Unfettered Ones" as well. Additionally, since Anele can talk with the stone and the stone remembers the time of the Lords, it could be that he learned something about the meaning of being Unfettered from the stone itself.

[dlbpharmd]

That said... I'm not sure how much I trust the map in Runes, as SRD has said he doesn't like it anyway.

The map in Runes may not be the best, but it is fairly accurate in relation to Anele's cave, the Verge of the Wandering, Tarn of the Ranyhin, etc. Again, Fonstad's Atlas provides similar details (limited to events of the 1st and 2nd Chronicles, of course.)

[wayfriend]

Anele isn't an Unfettered One. And I don't think that Triock and the other Stonedowners would refer to someone as an Unfettered One just because he or she are a little on the wild and hairy side.

You mean Liand?

Wha? No, I mean Anele. I am sure Triock and the other Stonedowners, who know exactly what an Unfettered one is, being someone who was schooled in Sword and Staff and then granted the Rites of Unfettering by the High Lords of Revelstone, would never refer to Anele, should they ever meet him, as an Unfettered One, simply because of a hermetic lifestyle or because of a dabbling in mysterious arts.

- - - - - - - -

Anyway, the things you noticed in the base post are valid. But what I think we should conclude from them is that (1) there are Runes in the Earth, that is, that the history of the Land is captured by the slow dreaming of the bedrock of the Earth, and (2) that the lore needed to read such Runes is accessible, and has been found by several people, not just one. And also, that the Runes exist in and of themselve, whether or not someone reads them.

[Relayer]

In any case, remember that Nassic, in TWL, claimed to be Unfettered himself, and that he came from a long generation of Unfettered Ones, starting with the one who had first foreseen TC's return to the Land. Therefore, it is likely that the knowledge of the "title" (if not of the meaning) has been passed on to Sunder by Nassic, together with the tales of the old Land; maybe Sunder didn't know about the Rites of Unfettering or the song of the Unfettered Ones, maybe he thought that "Unfettered One" is simply a name for someone who is so focused on a single aspect that he or she forsakes the whole; but it's not a stretch to say that Sunder passed on his father's stories to Anele when the latter was young, and told him about "Unfettered Ones" as well. Additionally, since Anele can talk with the stone and the stone remembers the time of the Lords, it could be that he learned something about the meaning of being Unfettered from the stone itself.

Thanks Xar, I did remember that Sunder and Nassic came from a line that preseved the memory of Covenant, but forgot that they were Unfettered. But although they might not have known all the info, I don't think Anele has any confusion about what it means to be an Unfettered One. He was told by the Haruchai, who certainly retained all their knowledge from their days with the Lords.

Finn, I agree... Unfettered is more than just being a hermit... it's a specific state bestowed on someone who chooses to follow their own specific personal vision instead of continuing their training to become a Lord, etc. Anele essentially fits this, in that his legacy and "training" was to be the Staff-bearer and continue to heal the Land. But instead, he chooses to follow his vision of reading the Earthrock. From the Haruchai he learned of the Unfettered and the Rite.

Wha? No, I mean Anele. I am sure Triock and the other Stonedowners, who know exactly what an Unfettered one is, being someone who was schooled in Sword and Staff and then granted the Rites of Unfettering by the High Lords of Revelstone, would never refer to Anele, should they ever meet him, as an Unfettered One, simply because of a hermetic lifestyle or because of a dabbling in mysterious arts.

Ah, I understand your point (I thought you meant Liand and not Triock), and agree that Triock et al would know. But as I said above, Anele is not just being a hermit or dabbling. There was no one else to perform the Rite, but he is Unfettered. If you were to ask a Master, he would probably agree. Anele knows the song and the history. He reads the Runes of the Earth, just as the One at Glimmermere interprets dreams, the One in Andelain works w/ the animals, and the One in TPTP reads the history in the stone (which started this whole thread in the first place )

But what I think we should conclude from them is that (1) there are Runes in the Earth, that is, that the history of the Land is captured by the slow dreaming of the bedrock of the Earth, and (2) that the lore needed to read such Runes is accessible, and has been found by several people, not just one. And also, that the Runes exist in and of themselve, whether or not someone reads them.

I agree, this is really all we can say we know (in the Haruchai sense of the word)... but what fun would the Watch be without speculation?