The 7 Wards of Kevin Landwaster

[Relayer]

Not necessarily. The 4th, 5th, and 6th could just as likely be right in front of their noses, but they don't have the lore or knowledge to know it.

The "lot of work" you mention is probably more about the work to understand each Ward, more than it would be a physical journey to get somewhere.

Welcome to the Watch!

[Seeker of Truth]

hmm maybe a hidden white gold ring???

That would be very interesting, but since white gold is not native to the Land, who would have brought it there to begin with? I demand a Prequel!

Good question, I was thinkiing maybe Loric took a trip to our world and some old Guy in an Ocher robe walked up to him and said "Take this ring..ward it well..it is the keystone of time(maybe something a little more cryptic)..., Loric came back buried the white ring in the center of Andelain creating a gateway called Lorics Lair, very similar to Damelons door-the whitegolds presence created a raw power which in later years Berek moulded into the earthpower with his ritual of fire lions. could that be the hinted at white gold?



Im stepping into territory im not familiar with, as you can see in my signature.

errr.... as Loric was Berek's grandson it would be hard for him to bury a white gold ring for his grandfather to discover long before Loric himself was born unless Loric could time travel ...... would make him a Time Lord!! all he needs now is a TARDIS!!

[Valion]

I think the other wards are irrelevant ...

a. not only because SRD only invents what he needs so he's never given a second thought to them...

b. the seventh ward is the ultimate knowledge and it was completely useless, scratch that, worse than useless since it didn't stop foul and broke a natural law when it was used, so the other wards would be even more useless in terms of helping the story since they have less power...

c. isn't it true that Mhoram basically gives up on Kevin's knowledge anyway at the end of TPTP? I don't mean in a leading up to the clave way since the start of the clave and Mhoram are seperated by so many centuries if not thousands of years. But, he saw the futility of kevin's knowledge, I don't think they would have bothered with trying to learn more of it. (but then I think that is contradicted by the finding of the 3rd ward that others have mentioned, I'll have to check on that).

[amanibhavam]

The 3rd Ward may have contained knowledge that could be used for such beneficial purposes, such as healing the Land further from the remains of the Desecration etc. so it does not automatically follow that they disregarded it just because the decided to follow their own lore rather than to be imprisoned by the OoP and Kevin's Lore.

[ninjaboy]

As far as I'm concerned, the decision to abandon the Lore of the Old Lords was a mistake. During the seige of Revelstone the Lords realised the Oath of Peace prevented them from deciphering the Wards, and from there they had the opportunity to re-learn and find the rest of Kevin's Wards.

If they had decided to preserve and re-learn Kevin's Lore it wouldn't have ruled out opportunitied to discover new Lores for themselves, as I see no reason why Old and new Lores wouldn't be able to work together.

Quote: "b. the seventh ward is the ultimate knowledge and it was completely useless, scratch that, worse than useless since it didn't stop foul and broke a natural law when it was used, so the other wards would be even more useless in terms of helping the story since they have less power..."

I wholeheartedly disagree, Valion. I see no reason to suppoe that the 7th Ward was the 'ultimate.' It seems more likely that it would be the Ward most capable of being Corrupted (by which I mean used in such a way that would result in damage to the Land, irrespective of the user's intent) and thus would be the last Ward that Kevin would reveal to the new Lords, hoping their mastery of the previous 6 would enable the use of the Power of Command to be less prone to bad results.

Interestingly, has anyone else noticed that the phrase 'power of command' occurs quite frequently in 'The Illearth War' in ways unrelated to the 7th Ward?

Anyway, without the assistance of SD himself we will never have a way of knowing what the other Wards are.

[Valion]

Well...you can disagree but you are wrong.

If you see no reason to suppose the 7th was the ultimate...let my try. It's stunningly clear that the 7th ward is the utlimate because it is Earthpower personified and besides wild magic and Foul, earthpower is the ultimate power in the land. Its where everything from aliantha, to the ranyhyn, to andelain gets its power. It is explicitly stated that you can do pretty much anything with it. Think about it. This isn't the second chronicles where the staff of law is destroyed. Elena breaks the law of death while the original, fully functioning, staff of law is in existence! She can do anything with the power....except of course stop Foul. Nothing in the previous wards can have this kind of power.

Plus there is the obvious logic that since each ward leads to the next, then the 7th ward would be the penultimate of the old lords power. Even from the limited time the lords have to study the 2nd ward you can see that they gain knowledge and power above what the 1st ward offered. Its just logical that each ward would be more powerful with the seventh and last being the most powerful.

You are absolutely right that the 7th ward is most in danger of corruption and frankly, misuse because of ignorance. Kevin planned it out that each ward would need to be fully understood before the next could be found. In fact, the lords didn't fully understand the 1st ward and would never have gotten the 2nd ward if it wasn't for the intervention of wild magic. So then crazy Elena (seeking the ultimate power ) decides to go after the 7th ward even though they are far from being ready for it, and disaster follows. Kevin never even used the power of command* because he had the knowledge and knew that earthpower could not stop Foul. He Despaired and went for the Ritual of Desecration as the only solution.

(speaking of kevin, he gets such a hard time for being the 'landwaster' but besides TC he is the only one to ever stop Foul for a time. He paid a terrible price for it, but the land and the people recovered pretty nicely, at least compared to the land in the next two chronicles. And he provided time for TC to arrive and find less destructive ways of stopping Foul...for a time)

*Not sure if it ever says in the books that he never used the power of command. They may have asked the bloodguard, I'll have to reread and check. But I think that if he used something so powerful before the Ritual it would have been part of his legend. The old lords had so much more knowledge and power that if he needed to do something with the power of command that the lords couldn't accomplish on their own it would have been BIG and remembered!

[Blackhawk]

if there was an Eighth ward the only thing trumping Earthblood would be white gold.

nope Kevin never used earthblood, Banor or Morin told TC and Elena that no Haruchai has stood on this place(Melenkurion Skyweir) and Kevin had never been there in their company.

[High Lord]

I agree with ninjaboy they should not have abandoned the lore of the Old Lords. They should have kept learning it and used only what was good for healing the land.

[AjK]

Interestingly, has anyone else noticed that the phrase 'power of command' occurs quite frequently in 'The Illearth War' in ways unrelated to the 7th Ward?

Yes I did! I am currently rereading the 1st Chronicles (on TPTP right now). I must not have noticed it during previous reads but I certainly got a chuckle out of it this time. I am on the lookout now for other examples of this...

[ninjaboy]

I would be very interested to know what the other Wards were... *Sigh* But I doubt I ever will.

All the Old Wards, whatever they were, were not the sort of power that could defeat Fangthane, mighty though those powers may have been. Despite their inability to defeat Fangthane it saddens me that they're no longer used to preserve the Land.

I am looking forwawrd to learning more about the heroes of the Land in the next two books. And when they're finally out we're going to have to read the entire series in all its complexity.. It'll be brilliant. Hopefully there will be a lot more that makes sense or jumps out at us when we re-read it after we know he end.