Kevin, why didn't he do it?

[Blackhawk]

As someone mentioned, no, Kevin had no other options. Nothing in the land or the world can stop Foul. That's the whole point of why he despaired. Once he understood the full nature of who and what Lord Foul was, he knew everything was screwed. I can't remember if it was ever mentioned what Kevin did to fight Lord Foul, but regardless of whether their were wars with armies or high falutin' magical showdowns, Kevin would have lost at every turn and despaired. The only thing left would have been the Ritual.

(the elohim as earthpower in person can't stop Foul. They are hard to understand but since they are earthpower I wonder if Foul (since he came from outside the word) is completely outside their sphere of influence and they just can't really involve him in their thought processes. They always piss me off because they get in everyone's way when people are trying to stop Foul. But, all they do, is try and protect the world at all costs. They know the One Tree mission is folly because the worm might wake up and destroy the world. They worry about wild magic because it might break the arch and destroy the world. But they have blinders on when it comes to Foul. He just doesn't register on their radar since a. he can't destroy the world on his own (just mess it up) b. he and his power doesn't come from earthpower so they don't understand him at all. He is totally foreign to them.)

yeah he didnt seem to have too many final options...Let Foul Have the Land to use as his person plaything...to manipulate and form to his own personal hell under the arch of time. Or.............Burn it down - turn it to ash and sludge.. like having to killl something to prevent its unended suffering.
Third option ..some how get ahold of white gold.. surprising to me that Kevin didnt bring white gold to the land, Mhoram was able to call it and so was Elena, Even Atiaran called Hile Troy... Kevin could have taken a chance and tried to call the White gold Knowing alot more of its uses than TC did and Possibly beat Foul back for a few thousand more years.

It could be that Kevin did want the wild magic, he may have even tried calling upon it..there was a song dedicated to white gold so im sure he or one of his predecessors tried to call white gold, but it seems the Creator has a hand in who is called or if anyone is called at all, Kevin could have been sweating his ass off in the council chambers with the other lords trying to call white gold .... and the creator was blocking the attempts. possibly knowing if Kevin were given the white gold he would break the arch trying to rid the Land of Foul forever (so far we see it cant be done)..he wasnt the right person to wield the white gold. like akharu kenaustin ardenol, only being found by the one not looking for him, It could be the white gold was the same, it required someone who did not want it or wasnt searching for it. or it could be it required someone exaclty like Thomas Covenant.

The Elohim I think are actually afraid of becoming Fouls playdough... can you imagine if Foul Gained influence or actually was able to control any of the Elohim? the only thing to stop an Elohim that was corrupted would be another Elohim, and if that happened they would have no choice but to fight. thats what they dont want. Foul is older than they are and Insane as he is probably knows how to manipulate anything that has his attention..given time - and time he has plenty of.

[ninjaboy]

I am liking this thread...

It is my understanding that Kevin was the most powerful of the Lords of any time. Berek was probably the most powerful figure, but it was he who first experienced and became aware of the Earthpower. Unfortunately that means that he has less understanding of Law and of Earthpower than those who followed, and less instruments to weild it. All the Old Lords who came after Berek developed more uses for Earthforwe and more Instruments to weild it with. Unfortunately most of that knowledge and those devices were lost during the RoD and most of them haven't yet been rediscovered. Thus none of the New Lords were as Mighty as Kevin.

Earthpower may have helped to fight against Fangthane's armies, but as the Renderer was not of the Land it would have been innefective against him. However, the RoD is said to have Diminished him.. I believe that the power of the RoD is Earthpower, thus it may have been possible to diminish the Despiser using Earthpower in other ways - perhaps a well-thought-out phrase with the Power of Command.

As far as summonning the White Gold into the Land (and you have to remeber that TC is the White Gold), I do believe that during the days of the Old Lords attempts would have been made. As many of our brothers & sisters have said TC woulnt've been ready for the summons, thus I would believe that others from TC's world would have been brought to the Land in the way Hile Troy was (accidentally).. However it seems that those achieved little, if anything.

[Borric]

I think Kevin receives a rather bad press.

What does any leader do when faced with certain defeat?.
You lose the battle to win the war.
Kevin did just that. He warned the land of what was to come. He preserved his lore for future generations. And sent the Bloodguard and Ranyhyn to safety.

I know its not that simple. I hear the explanations of why it is best to die fighting for what you love than to desecrate
But I find this rather naïve.
We saw some of the pain Kevin must have gone through, reflected in Mhoram’s struggle to cope with a similar situation when Satansfist had revelsone under siege.
There we saw despair close to beating the remnants of the lords.
But they had the faint hope that white gold could still come to there aid.
And so Mhoram attacked the raver to distract Foul.

Kevin had no such thin hope.
Defeat was assured. Foul would turn his beloved land into a cesspit along with its people.

But…
If he could defeat foul, even on a temporary basis. Who knows what the future would bring. Future generations with new lore or powers. Who can say.
It would mean a brutal attack on his beloved land. Something he was sworn to protect.
But it would give a faint hope for ultimate victory.

I think Kevins story is one of the most profound. And wish we had more details.

I feel he had no choice. And was forced to do the unthinkable or hand the land over to foul.
Like him, I think the former was the best of two bad options.

[wayfriend]

SRD answers this question directly during Elohimfest 94. [link 3.5 MB WMV file]

I'm not going to transcribe the whole thing, but I think the key line in his answer is

That's really megalomania, what Kevin's doing: he's making himself responsible for things which are outside the question of, the integrity of his own lordship ... and Mhoram does not make that mistake.

[ninjaboy]

The OTHER thing you have to realise is that it HAD to happen the way it did. Say if HL Kevin didn't take up the RoD, if he tried anything else he would have failed. Lord Foul would have won the War and bent the entire Land to his bidding, yet without the White Gold in the land he would have had no means of escape. He would be even more trapped that way..

But as a story, we needed that backhistory - the previous war against Fangthane, the almost imminent defeat of a Lord way more powerful than any of the new lords, the defeat of an Army much larger than that of the New lords to put into perspective the struggles that were faced in the 1st Chrons.

[Borric]

Thanks for the link wayfriend,
Ill be sure to have a look.

I see you point Ninjaboy. Your saying Kevin was fouls tool to achieve desecration.
Therefore Kevins ultimate failure was being manipulated into achieving fouls main goal.
(so he would have been better just fighting to the death)
but had keving done so, foul would still have turned the land to ruin anyway. Who knows in a thousand years he could do more damage than the ritual of desecration did.
That must have been Kevins view.


i should hold further comment until I’v had a chance to read what SD said on this.
But it will take a lot to convince me.
This is something that has never made sense to me.

[wayfriend]

but had keving done so, foul would still have turned the land to ruin anyway. Who knows in a thousand years he could do more damage than the ritual of desecration did.
That must have been Kevins view.

That is indeed the heart of the matter.

Mhoram is the model of success that corresponds to Kevin's failure. Mhoram spoke thus:

He did not want to hear her thought uttered aloud. "Further, I tell you that there is no blame for us in the wisdom or folly, victory or defeat, of the way we have elected to defend the Land. We are not the Creators of the Earth. Its final end is not on our heads. We are creations, like the Land itself. We are accountable for nothing but the purity of our service. When we have given our best wisdom and our utterest strength to the defense of the Land, then no voice can raise accusation against us. Life or death, good or ill-victory or destruction-we are not required to solve these riddles. Let the Creator answer for the doom of his creation."

Mhoram understood that being true to what you believed in, being true to the idea of protecting and defending the Land, was what mattered. Not whether they won or lost.

At Kevin's time, the Land whould have been destroyed either way. But it matters who does the destroying, too.

Kevin chose to be the desecrator of the Land. He went against everything he ever believed in, in order to win. And lost himself.

All such choices always serve Foul.

[Earthwalker]

I'm guessing that SRD won't be writing about him in the future, unfortunately, so little detail is written about Kevin.

I'm thinking that Foul's influence during that time was key to Kevin's ultimate despair. duh...huh. But who knows what was being said....maybe he thought it wouldn't be as bad as it was?
It makes you wonder why he didn't give warning to all the inhabitants of the Land. A "stay at your own risk' kinda warning.
As a Mom of eight, I can't really imagine telling half of my kids to seek shelter outside ground zero and leaving the other half to fend for themselves.

[ninjaboy]

It's a tricky one...

The way I look at it is that the RoD seemed to be the only way to save the land. It's a kind of paradox in itself that in attempting the RoD Kevin won the land the opportunity to defend itself in the future. Kevin did submit to dispair in the end though, so it was a win for Foul who broke Kevin to achieving the Despisers end, and a win for the Land in allowing the opportunity for Foul to be defeated later.

Over the milennia, though it seems the Renderer keeps being overcome, all his apparent losses have with them important victories which may be helping him to achieve his main goal.. Fangthane also won by having HL kevin perform the RoD. Otherwise Covenant wouldn't have entered the Land and been able to fight for it.

The story's not yet over and perhaps all Fouls apparent losses will have him moving closer to his big victory. He seems to know all about losing the battle to win the war too.

Ultimately the war between the Despiser and Kevin was a -1 all draw, and perhaps the victories won and lost in the first 2 Chrons has bought us to 0-0 apice at the end of penalty time.