How did Mhoram do that?!

[Ur Dead]

...Since the lomillialor rods don't "ring" or "buzz" when a message is coming...

Maybe it had a really cool tree ring tone.

It wouldn't be a ringtone.

It would only bark.


/runs

[Vraith]

...Since the lomillialor rods don't "ring" or "buzz" when a message is coming...

Maybe it had a really cool tree ring tone.

It wouldn't be a ringtone.

It would only bark.


/runs

And if no one answers, it would tell you to leaf a message...
hmm....could someone tap the line?
That would be sweet.

[SGuilfoyle1966]

The lomilliar also is a subtle reminder of what's going on with Troy.
He wanted a walkie talkie. When he "got" them at Revelwood, it created a sense of "hope" that he was not going to fail, with himself if not with first-time readers.
When he finds out that Foul's army is too g-darn big, he tries to jump. Then he starts planning, but the rods are not where he anticipated them being.
I think also Triock proves you don't need a Lord to use one. But unless there's something tricky going on here, it wasn't the purpose for which they were created.
I never got the sense the Unfettered almost connected with Mhoram. At least, not through the rod.

[Kalkin]

I don't think The Unfettered One connected to Mhoram, but he certainly seemed to think he could.

[SGuilfoyle1966]

I don't think The Unfettered One connected to Mhoram, but he certainly seemed to think he could.

Didn't Mhoram sense something that we can interpret as the Unfettered One's death in TPTP?
I attribute it always to Mhoram. The Raver seemed to sneer at the Unfettered's lack of acuteness. But Mhoram was so in tune.
I think it was in another cut scene, but Mhoram also sensed the destruction of Alderaan.

[Kalkin]

Too bad Sir Alec can't play him in a movie adaptation.

[SGuilfoyle1966]

Too bad Sir Alec can't play him in a movie adaptation.

Oh, but he can.
Ewan McGregor, mentioned by someone else in relation to Mhoram, has already proved he can NAIL Sir Alec's performance.

"hello there."

[Kalkin]

Putting a mole on does not make one Sir Alec.

[Shuram Gudatetris]

TPTP, Chapter Eleven, The Ritual of Desecration:

"As he [Mhoram] strode along passages and down stairways, he used his staff to summon Hearthrall Tohrm and all the Gravalingases. He put his full authority into the command, so that as many of the rhadhamaerl as possible might resist their panic and answer."

lomillialor-style communication, or something else?

[Barnetto]

TPTP, Chapter Eleven, The Ritual of Desecration:

"As he [Mhoram] strode along passages and down stairways, he used his staff to summon Hearthrall Tohrm and all the Gravalingases. He put his full authority into the command, so that as many of the rhadhamaerl as possible might resist their panic and answer."

lomillialor-style communication, or something else?

Something else. Here the Gravelingas would all have been within Revelstone and Mhoram should have been able to reach out with lore from his staff within the immediate environs without any problem. Communicating across many many leagues would have been a different problem altogether.

[Krazy Kat]

TPTP, Chapter Eleven, The Ritual of Desecration:

"As he [Mhoram] strode along passages and down stairways, he used his staff to summon Hearthrall Tohrm and all the Gravalingases. He put his full authority into the command, so that as many of the rhadhamaerl as possible might resist their panic and answer."

lomillialor-style communication, or something else?

Something else. Here the Gravelingas would all have been within Revelstone and Mhoram should have been able to reach out with lore from his staff within the immediate environs without any problem. Communicating across many many leagues would have been a different problem altogether.

lomillialor-style communication, or something else? Maybe both.

This is interesting, because I cannot recall any other time in the chronicles when the rhadhamaerl or the Hirebrands communicated like the way the Haruchai talk to each other or the Lords mind-melding. (if we disregard the three lomillialor rods).

And I'm guessing it all goes back to what Mhoram discovered in Elena's sculpture: a melding of Covenant and Bannor. A new kind of magic!

Although I don't believe Mhoram was mind-melding.
I see it more as the language of the Earthpower in the stone and the wood. Mhoram demonstrated this to the other Lords when he channeled the power of his staff into the floor and the walls of the refectory, reaching out to all the people of Revelstone, with the song of Berek Earthfriend.

Maybe this is what happens when different lore combines, like the way that Covenant's gold ring is an alloy. A new kind of magic -

edited: Halfhand/Earthfriend

[Barnetto]

I seem to recall many examples in the First Chronicles of the Lords "mind-melding" or sharing strength or thoughts telepathically, though only when they were in each other's company.

[Krazy Kat]

I seem to recall many examples in the First Chronicles of the Lords "mind-melding" or sharing strength or thoughts telepathically, though only when they were in each other's company.

ey up, me duck!

I agree with you that there had been many times the Lords mind-melded or gave their strength to others when needed. But this summons Mhoram was putting out to the gravelingases and the hirebrands seems to be something entirely different.

In LFB, I think it was Atairan who explained to Covenant, that the gravelingases only studied stone lore and the hirebrands only studied wood lore, and they never shared their own lore with the other. Stonedowns and Woodhelvenins traded goods, but not lore.

I've always imagined that the Land, in the days of Kevin, before the Ritual of Desecration, lore was shared. This being one of Kevin's great achievements.
(Assuming, as an example, graveling might provide Woodhelvenins with heat and light, without setting the tree on fire).

So in Revelstone, when Mhoram summoned Borillar and his Hirebrands, Borillar answered half-timidly with a sign in the wall. In the wall?

Or am I reading too much into this?

[Vraith]

I seem to recall many examples in the First Chronicles of the Lords "mind-melding" or sharing strength or thoughts telepathically, though only when they were in each other's company.

ey up, me duck!

I agree with you that there had been many times the Lords mind-melded or gave their strength to others when needed. But this summons Mhoram was putting out to the gravelingases and the hirebrands seems to be something entirely different.

In LFB, I think it was Atairan who explained to Covenant, that the gravelingases only studied stone lore and the hirebrands only studied wood lore, and they never shared their own lore with the other. Stonedowns and Woodhelvenins traded goods, but not lore.

I've always imagined that the Land, in the days of Kevin, before the Ritual of Desecration, lore was shared. This being one of Kevin's great achievements.
(Assuming, as an example, graveling might provide Woodhelvenins with heat and light, without setting the tree on fire).

So in Revelstone, when Mhoram summoned Borillar and his Hirebrands, Borillar answered half-timidly with a sign in the wall. In the wall?

Or am I reading too much into this?

I've always thought [and maybe said elsewhere before?]...a mason knows stone, a blacksmith knows metal, a carpenter knows wood...but the guy trying to build a cathedral has to know some of all of those and, more importantly, a bunch of theory, math and materials stuff to put it all together...that's a Lord. [analogically].

[Shuram Gudatetris]

I seem to recall many examples in the First Chronicles of the Lords "mind-melding" or sharing strength or thoughts telepathically, though only when they were in each other's company.

ey up, me duck!

I agree with you that there had been many times the Lords mind-melded or gave their strength to others when needed. But this summons Mhoram was putting out to the gravelingases and the hirebrands seems to be something entirely different.

In LFB, I think it was Atairan who explained to Covenant, that the gravelingases only studied stone lore and the hirebrands only studied wood lore, and they never shared their own lore with the other. Stonedowns and Woodhelvenins traded goods, but not lore.

I've always imagined that the Land, in the days of Kevin, before the Ritual of Desecration, lore was shared. This being one of Kevin's great achievements.
(Assuming, as an example, graveling might provide Woodhelvenins with heat and light, without setting the tree on fire).

So in Revelstone, when Mhoram summoned Borillar and his Hirebrands, Borillar answered half-timidly with a sign in the wall. In the wall?

Or am I reading too much into this?

You know, I forgot all about Borillar answering back. That certainly makes it all a bit more interesting, doesn't it? How does a Hirebrand send messages through stone walls?

[Krazy Kat]

How does a Hirebrand send messages through stone walls?

I've got absolutely no idea how Borillar made a sign in the wall.

But this part of the story has a ring of familiarity -
I hadn't considered how Mhoram was acting somewhat like Gandalf mustering the Rhohirim (in TLOTR) until I took notice of the fact that these events led to the collapse of the siege - Shortly before dawn on the fifth day, the onslaught broke like the collapsing of a tidal wave...


I could almost hear Lord Mhoram say - Here ends the battle for Revelstone. Now begins the battle for the Land.

[wayfriend]

The Lords studied lore so that they could do stuff. They could, for example, create a Word of Warning that spanned a whole valley. They could blast things with bolts of power. They could heal creatures who were severely harmed.

So I'm not perplexed that they had the power to call to someone voicelessly. It's just another one of the things that they could do.

This doesn't have to be something like a mind-meld or lomillialor communication. It's just some sort of tap-on-the-shoulder kind of a function. A magical alert. Probably the recipient becomes aware that Mhoram is calling them, and that's about it.

Perhaps this magic used stone as a medium. It makes sense in that they were in Revelstone, and stone connects every corner of it.

and Borillar sent a half-timid sign through the walls. We don't have enough information on this to know whether it was Mhoram or Borillar who provided this ability. It could very easilly be that Mhoram has the power to recognize certain signs made on the walls, made by anyone, with no special power required by the signmaker. Maybe this occurs as part of the process of "sending a call".

But while we know that the rhadhamaerl specialized in stone lore, and the lillianrill specialized in wood lore, I do believe that, especially in Revelstone, each could manage very simple things outside of that specialization. I think a Hirebrand could, for example, manage lighting a bowl of graveling in a pinch.

[Rigel]

Certainly, cross training is one of the requisites of the Lords, demonstrating the feasibility.

Atiaran says that, to become a Lord, you have to master "both Sword and Staff." She doesn't say either stone or wood, she just references Lore in general. I always assumed that the Lords were as capable as any Gravelingas or Hirebrand.

[Krazy Kat]

I always assumed that the Lords were as capable as any Gravelingas or Hirebrand.

I agree. But only within the lore of the first and second wards.
Knowledge of the seventh ward could only have come from what the Bloodguard deemed to relate.

Having said this my reply to Wayfriend's post now has additional contradiction!

To Wayfriend -

I think that on the surface these things you've highlighted can be seen as commonplace for Lords, Gravelingases, and Hirebrands. Their knowledge has to be extensive to reach the level of a master, whether it be Staff, Stone, or Wood. And each group must have some primary knowledge of the other, because all lore is connected to Earthpower.

As for Borillar's half-timid sign, I'll venture to say, that I can only imagine it was a faint white tree appearing in the stone, and that it would look like a hallucination if seen by anyone other than Lord Mhoram. But then that's just me grasping at straws.

The reason I imagine a white tree is because Mhoram gathered the Gravelingases into the Lord's courtyard so that they might find a way to tap into the shining floor of the Earthrock. He hinted at a slumbering power that only a rhadhamaerl may comprehend.

And -
in the courtyard behind the main entrance to Revelstone is the old Gilden tree.
I imagine Lord Mhoram seeing this connection but lacking in the deeper lore of the rhadhamaerl and lillianrill masters to put these ideas into words. He had to show, not tell.

Mhoram's secret knowledge was too dangerous, but I'm inclined to believe he was forced into sharing a little of it because of the immenent doom Revelstone faced.

This leads me back to thinking about the lomiliallor - And Triock's mission.

I've always assumed that Mhoram never received the message, but maybe he had heard the One call his name. The lomiliallor rod did glow with power just before turiya entered the cave. So although Mhoram didn't know Covenant was back in the Land, he may have been gifted the connection between the One Rock and the One Tree.