Ritual of Desecration

[wayfriend]

I think Trell's Ritual would have grown and grown until it had become as large as Kevin's, if he had had the time. It was a chain reaction in nature: power breeding power. First Revelstone would fall, then the whole plateau ... and then ...

If he were not stopped, the gates would only be the first part of the Keep to break, the first and least link in a chain of destruction which might tear the whole plateau to rubble.

Perhaps, in Trell's case, the term "Ritual" might be a bit misleading. He brought power and lore to the table, but not the specific lore to do the same exact thing Kevin did. Trell's ritual was despair and instinct and anguish become power, accidentally and perhaps instinctually becoming similar to what Kevin did.

The Old Lords? I think that they could have performed the Ritual. If Trell could, they could. And they were not bound by the Oath of Peace.

The Old Lords simply never reached such despair as Kevin had.

But I agree with HLT that, unlimited, they used a heck of a lot of power. Power to devestate the land where battles were fought. But I would add that Foul and his minions were weilding power, too. It was the combination of the two powers in opposition, with the Ritual happening on top of it afterwards, that so mangled the lands like Kurash Plenethor.

[shadowbinding shoe]

Was it the power? My impression was that it was something completely different that left those areas desolate: the bloodshed and the horrors of war. The Land remembers what happened on it. Not manifesting there, turning its back on it so to speak demonstrates its repulsion from the things that happened there, its unwillingness to coexist with it.

A bit off topic but didn't the test Kevin put for summoning Amok and getting to the seventh ward prove that he wasn't the pinnacle of the Old Lords? After all igniting and using the Krill was surely something his father could do just as well as Kevin since it was his sword and not Kevin's. The seventh ward itself was found by Kevin's predecessors. Various instances in the books give the exact opposite impression from the image of sons that are stronger than their fathers. So is Kevin given more credit than he's due?

[wayfriend]

Was it the power? My impression was that it was something completely different that left those areas desolate: the bloodshed and the horrors of war. The Land remembers what happened on it.

I could sign up to that interpretation.

The last great battle between the Lords and the Despiser had taken place there, and had left it burned, ruined, soaked in scorched blood, almost soilless. Some of the old tales said that Kurash Plenethor had smoked and groaned for a hundred years after that last battle.

Or it could be both the power and the blood together - a great battle would have enough of both.

Do you remember the Giant ravers "ground-based" attack on Revelstone, the one that sent fear into everyone's hearts? I cannot help but imagine that that is just a taste of the kind of things that happened in the older battles. Whatever of the earth that was not damaged beyond repair was surely withdrawn in revulsion.

A bit off topic but didn't the test Kevin put for summoning Amok and getting to the seventh ward prove that he wasn't the pinnacle of the Old Lords? After all igniting and using the Krill was surely something his father could do just as well as Kevin since it was his sword and not Kevin's. The seventh ward itself was found by Kevin's predecessors. Various instances in the books give the exact opposite impression from the image of sons that are stronger than their fathers. So is Kevin given more credit than he's due?

The seventh ward was created by Kevin, when he was secretly preparing for the aftermath of the Ritual. So the test that Amok spoke of was not for the Old Lords, but for the New.

I agree that Kevin seemed mightier than his forefathers, building upon their lore and adding his own.

Although that doesn't mean that Loric, his father, couldn't use the krill as well as he. He did use it to become the Vilesilencer, after all. Whereas I'm not sure of Kevin ever having used the krill at all.

[danlo]

I don't believe we've ever heard of Kevin using the krill. Sequentially, Kevin has to be the most powerful Lord...especially when it comes to the wards (and the location of the "Door") and the incorporation of the Bloodguard.

[Vraith]

There are 2 different issues here, I think. The destruction/pain at major battle sites is one thing...the devastation from the RoD is something else, one localized, one systemic...and of different kinds...the battle site damages are symptoms/side effects, the RoD was direct attack on the Land itself.

And I'm pretty sure Kevin made all the Wards..but obviously didn't discover all the Lore they contained. He consolidated all the Lore that the Old Lords learned in "Lord College" into a correspondence course, with a built-in test [in his time, there were teachers around, testing and grading]...a number of the Old Lords knew about "The Power of Command" [wasn't Damelon only the second High Lord? and he knew it...Kevin might not have even been born then...of course, we also know why Damelon knew about the "Power of Command..or at least how he knew where it was...and that power isn't really anything about Lore...just place..which is why it had to be protected, same reason Nukes have Launch Codes..anyone can push a button, no matter how stupid...in a lot of ways, the RoD is similar..just slightly more demanding of knowledge...Trell couldn't desecrate everything NOT because of lack of power to do so, but because of lack of Lore to keep himself alive long enough to finish]

It is pretty clear also, though, that each generation of Lords expanded on the knowledge of previous generations.

[Krazy Kat]

it may not be 2 issues but both simultaneously

when elena is explaining to covenant her marrowmeld craft she say's that the ramen lost the art of bone-sculpting during the RoD

this might mean that the RoD took a long time

grim thought, really.