Why didn't the Ritual of Desecration destroy Andelain?

[matrixman]

Here's the specific passage Lord Danlo was referring to, from LFB (chap. 21), in the words of Lord Mhoram explaining Treacher's Gorge to Covenant:

For here at Treacher's Gorge, Lord Foul the Despiser revealed his true self to High Lord Kevin. Here was struck the first blow of the open war which ended in the Ritual of Desecration.

Before that time, Kevin Landwaster doubted Lord Foul without knowing why--for the Despiser had enacted no ill which Kevin could discover--and he showed trust for Lord Foul out of shame for his unworthy doubt. Then, through the Despiser's plotting, a message came to the Council of Lords from the Demondim in Mount Thunder. The message asked the Lords to come to the Demondim loreworks...to meet with the loremasters, who claimed knowledge of a secret power.

Clearly, Lord Foul intended for Kevin to go to Mount Thunder. But the High Lord doubted, and did not go. Then he was ashamed of his doubt, and sent in his stead some of his truest friends and strongest allies. So a high company of the Old Lords rafted as was their wont down the Soulsease through Andelain to Mount Thunder. And here, in the roar and spray and ill of Treacher's Gorge, they were ambushed by ur-viles. They were slaughtered, and their bodies sent to the abyss of the mountain. Then marched armies...out of the catacombs, and the Land was plunged all unready into war.

So a number of the Old Lords were killed prior to the RoD, but we don't know the exact figure. But this "high company" included some of Kevin's "truest friends and strongest allies", so I would have to guess they were among the most powerful Lords on his Council. So, yes, my understanding is that Kevin was driven over the edge into despair because he blamed himself for having sent his fellow Lords into ambush.

Which brings up a question: if these Lords were indeed very mighty, why couldn't they call up some wicked Earthpower to defend themselves, even if they were ambushed and unarmed? Must have been one heck of an ambush to have been able to kill Lords of such power. And what of those Bloodguard who I assume were with them? Couldn't the Bloodguard have staved off the ur-viles' attack long enough for the Lords to regroup and fight?

As for the RoD itself, it's curious that SRD provides little detail about such a pivotal and cataclysmic event in the Land's history. Maybe it was his intention to describe the RoD only briefly, in order to allow our imaginations to conjure up our own visions of hell on earth? Or maybe SRD is saying: Look, there's not much to describe. It's (mostly) the end of all things. Deal with it.

[Guest]

Maybe Andelain was once much larger and encompassed a larger (most ??) of the Land. It seemed that everything that survived the desecration did so in a reduced manner - lore, probably the population of the land, and so forth.

The other thing I always wondered about was - how did the people escape ? It seems that it could not have been a nuclear esque blast of fire, or else all the population of the land would have just been fried on the spot. Maybe the "radiation" from Mount Thunder took a while to seep out and kill unwary people, but some must have had time to pack up and move.

[Blackhawk]

Kurash plentethor they resurected the old death is what Corimini said during the last moments of Revelwood..the region was spoiled and made inhospitable to anything trying to grow.. a standard fire or even a nuke wouldnt do that..stuff would mutate but still be able to grow, how did kurash plentethor/trothguard and the surrounding region take such a hard hit compared to everywhere else? or am i jumping over the actual cause of KP Stricken stone, I feel there was some other reason for its Sterility, something about the black river?...but cant remember the cause other than desecration.

and the forests & Andelain probably survived because Cerroil Wildwood had some lore to protect them. if there were any lore available the Elohim would have granted or made possible that ability to the forest or its protector with their Appointment or sacrifice, I would think so anyway or what a waste that appointment would have been. though Cerroil wildwood must not have been in touch lately(over the last millenia or so) with the other forrests, and i say that because of the Urviles that burned the Gilden in Grimmerdhore. or maybe each forest had its own Forestal and the other Forrestals actually died during the protection of their appointed forest during the desecration..Cerroil was the only one to survive possibly. all speculation though at this point.

[RFlowers]

For some reason, I remember Landsdrop being a result of the RoD. However, in exploring these posts, I don't see any mention of this. Was this just my imagination providing "extra content?"

(BTW, this is my first post. I am a long-time reader of the Chronicles, and an occasional lurker here. No, not the Sarangrave Flat kind!)

[Ur Dead]

Trees can regrow back in 500 years and depending on how the power was directed, may have spared Andelain of the full effects.

Welcome RFlowers. Landsdrop was well ahead of the RoD. It was something before people entered the land or so I read somewhere.

[Blackhawk]

Trees can regrow back in 500 years and depending on how the power was directed, may have spared Andelain of the full effects.

Welcome RFlowers. Landsdrop was well ahead of the RoD. It was something before people entered the land or so I read somewhere.

and the banes hidden in mount thunder are i think what they said caused the upper land to separate from the lower, might have been Mhoram or Prothal telling Covenant one of the myths of landsdrop when they were entering Mount Thunder.

[Carson Napier]

I appreciate that a lot of people think the Desecration started a massive firestorm, and perhaps it did.
I always thought of the Desecration as causing more of a defoliating and polluting scenario:

The trees all lost their leaves, and stood bare and bleak.
The grass shrivelled, and perished, and the desert left behind baked and cracked under the sun.
The rivers stank, and they withered away, leaving dry beds in which the corpses of fish and reeds alike rotted and reeked.
The snow was gone from the mountains, and their sides were bleak. What water still flowed down their flanks was noisome and black, the stuff of pure poison, madness, and death.
The Dark Magic struck down the Old Lords and all their people, and lay their bodies upon the ground, and the insects had their feast upon the corpses.

Yeah, that's my view of what the Ritual of Desecration did.

-

My personal guess ... just an opinion ... is that Andelain was damaged in this way, but Andelain came back faster and stronger from the damage than the rest of the Land.
The very strength that enabled it to survive the Sunbane, with Caer Caveral's help (whereas Morinmoss did not have such strength) enabled it to recover fully from the Desecration and regain it's primordial health and beauty.
Just a thought.

That's a great post, and it fits with my own personal vision of the Ritual of Desecration. What ever happened made the land barren, polluted and unliveable for a long time...it wasn't just a storm of fire that leveled everything, the place would've been back to normal after a few decades if that was the case (IMO).

[Caesar]

...Or maybe TC goes back in time in the new series and protects Andelain.....

Considering the possibilities revealed to us in FR, this is not such a far-fetched theory. I admit it's very unlikely, but it's still spooky, given that dANdeLION said this before any of the 3rd Chrons were published.

[SGuilfoyle1966]

I think the first trilogy is absent any real discussion of the effects of the Ritual, except for one passage in which Covenant, under the "spell" of someone's voice, imagines what the land must have looked like right after the desecration.
I don't have a digital copy handy like some, so others will have to find it.
But I think, however, SRD lets us know EXACTLY what the ritual was like.
it was like a sun of pestilence, a desert sun, a fertile sun, all of the Sunbane, wrapped up in one fell blow, that might have lasted a week or so in the striking, but the effects don't go away for millennia.
I said in a long thread in which it seems some try to excuse Kevin for what he did that we have to remember exactly how precise SRD is in his language.
This wasn't the ritual of destruction.
A desecration goes way beyond mere destruction. Part of the desecration was the moral horror Kevin had to engage in to use the very power meant to preserve the earth AGAINST the earth itself.
I don't think there is any doiscussion that andelain was either equally subject to the Ritual nor was it immune.
However, there is discussion that the Wraiths and Banas Nimoram were inviolate and survived the desecration. Since they seem to be the represenatation of the Hills, I think the Hills may have survived. Just a guess.

[Blackhawk]

I think most people believe the Ritual of desecration was a firestorm because of Trell's personal Desecration(at least for me it was that)..it looked like he was going to turn revelstone into slag with fire that had already started melting the close before Mhoram and Tohrm could stop him. that was my only reason for thinking the Desecration was of fire. but the desecration being like the sun of pestilence and desert would make sense.. first it would rot then it wold turn to sludge. and seep into the earth preventing new growth for what 1000 years in some regions? the battle region at landsdrop to the south of Mount thunder was said to be bare due to all the blood and death that had taken place there during the battles of the Old Lords.... and as far as the forests go, i think the Ancient Hatred would be gone from the forests if they had been destroyed, and the new growth would have no reason to hate..it would be new and have no knowledge of the old forest. i would think

[omega_695]

wasnt anderlain protected by a forestal and with the amount of earthpower in anderlain i soppose it had 2 things protecting it

[Rocksister]

I believe 2010 and 2013 will provide prequel info back to the creation of the Land. I have many theories on it, but can't post them here. Andelain's power is one of those. Stay tuned.........

[Orlion]

I always imagined the RoD to be a desperate Kevin using whatever lore he had in what ever combinations he could think of in a vain attepmt to end the persistence laughter and mockery of Lord Foul...

We also know that whatever the RoD consisted of, it did not
1. Destroy Revelstone
2. Destroy Seareach
3. Didn't seem to make any notable change on Mt. Thunder

Also, it seemed the focus of the RoD was north of Andelain.

[balon!]

One thing that I've been flipping around in my head is the possibility that one of Kevin's Wards sustained Andelain when he performed the RoD. It wouldn't be difficult to find a primo spot in Andelain where a Word of Warning could be set up. And the Ward would serve as a focal point for Andelain to rally when the RoD started. :two cents:

[Nerdanel]

My theory is that the Ritual of Desecration was done inside Mount Thunder not only because it was in the center of the Land and the Ritual worked in a radius, but because the true power of the Ritual came from inducing a massive volcanic eruption. Kevin melts up the heart of the volcano and Mount Thunder does the predictable thing and turns the Land into a Mordor. The reason the Staff of Law is not found for a thousand years is that it's buried in solidified magma, just like the Illearth Stone.

It's said somewhere that in the early times the entire Land was like Andelain. I agree with other people that the power in the heart of Andelain was overwhelmed by the Ritual and was only capable of maintaining itself by permanently reducing the area it affected.

[Rocksister]

Strange, my Sunday posts are showing as Monday posts. Hmmm, are we in a caesure?

[Aleksandr]

My own view of the Ritual is that Foul challenged and guided Kevin into using the Earthpower itself to destroy the Land-- that would be a very Foul-like to do. So Kevin and Foul working together sent a huge hypercharge of destructive Earthpower through the Land, killing everything it touched as it were an electric shock and quite possibily draining the Earthpower from the land for years to come so that nothing could recover. And while the Desecration did not physically damage Revelstone or Seareach, it was still necessary for Giants and Haruchai to flee the land, implying they would have died if they had stayed in place.
However we do know that Ur-Viles, Cavewights and Wayhim did survive, so I will guess that the effects of the Ritual were limited to the surface of the Land: things deep underground were spared, and possibly airborne things like the Wraiths.

[deer of the dawn]

I thought the Ritual was enacted from Kevin's Watch. Isn't that stated? (No books to hand at the office either)

The snow was gone from the mountains, and their sides were bleak. What water still flowed down their flanks was noisome and black, the stuff of pure poison, madness, and death.

Waxing Tolkienesque there, with that 'noisome'

Actually whatever effect the Ritual had on Andelain and everywhere else I never thought of stinking fish and rot afterwards, I saw it as a complete removal of natural cycles of life and even natural death, so that what remained after was a blasted, sterile, almost industrial wasteland. Those regions where Earthpower was inherently strongest (the old forests, Andelain, Revelstone) or farther away (it seems like the Verge, Climbs, Sunbirth sea etc) were affected less, but I doubt that they were unaffected utterly.

[Seeker of Truth]

I would tend to agree with Edelaith. Since the Desecration is also derived from Earthpower, it would stand to reason that it would be more akin to a relatively sudden spoiling of the Land than a massive firestorm, meteor shower, disintegration or whatever apocalypse we can otherwise conceive. So yes, probably trees lost their foliage and died because of the lack of nutrients in the ground ( lack of unpolluted Earthpower, too? ), grass died for the same reason, water was polluted and flowed black, unable to give life to anything, and animals and people died. I've always imagined Desecration as a pollution of the Earthpower - or rather, as a temporary change in the Earthpower that would turn it into something that could not be used by anything living to survive, and that could actually "pollute" the ground - to make a comparison, as if Earthpower normally were a quiet, clear and sparkling pool of water, and the Desecration suddenly turned it into a salty, muddy bog.
In any case, people and animals needn't be struck down by the Desecration for this theory to be valid: even if they were spared ( since they don't directly draw their nourishment from the ground and the Earthpower contained within ), they would eventually die from utter lack of food and water - and even if they had tried to flee the Land, they couldn't have made it in time, since there were no ways for them to find clean water, or even just aliantha. As for Kevin and Foul, perhaps the strain of the ritual was too much on Kevin's body and mind ( he didn't just destroy a bit of Revelstone like Triock did, he destroyed an enormous expanse of land ), and he died ( whether by exhaustion, or by draining of vital energies to power the ritual, or even just once he saw that Foul wasn't dead ). Foul could have been hurt because he, too, actively partecipated to the Ritual, together with Kevin - or maybe the ritual's effects were more destructive the closer you would get to the enactors of the ritual, so, if people had stood by Kevin, they would have been killed by the ritual, but if they had been ten miles away, they would only have been sickened, and if they had been one hundred miles away, they would have been unaffected ( directly, at least ).

Andelain was the heart of the Land, so I suppose that's where the Earthpower is strongest in its "pure" form ( apart from the EarthBlood ), and therefore there the Earthpower might have reverted to normal sooner than elsewhere, thus giving the dormant seeds within the soil what they needed to flourish long before the lingering effects of the Desecration vanished from other places.

Desecration = Sunbane = Desecration

Perhaps the ROD was a foretaste of the Sunbane Foul unleashed on the Land??