The Arguleh - the what-ifs

[shadowbinding shoe]

Someone speculated in the "Worst book of the chronicles" thread what would have happened if the Waynhim, Thomas Covenant, Linden Avery and the giants didn't stop the Arguleh pack.

Would they have stayed near Coerci to intercept Covenant? Or would they try to invade the Land and fight the Sunbane?

Did they obey Lord Foul or had their own purposes?

As far as we can tell it looked like they were marching south along the beach where the Sunbane wasn't present. If they continued on that path they would have reached the Great Swamp or the Sarangrave Flat.

What would've happened if they entered the demesne of the Lurker of the Sarangrave?

[Vraith]

I suspect [but only suspect] the croyel in charge aligns with LF [and eventually, if not already, therefore become his servants].
If they continue south, they'll die, the croyel will get a new, probably nastier host.
OR...maybe they turn west before out of ice...I think that, eventually, that brings them to Haruchai homeland...let the combat begin!.
.

[shadowbinding shoe]

I suspect [but only suspect] the croyel in charge aligns with LF [and eventually, if not already, therefore become his servants].
If they continue south, they'll die, the croyel will get a new, probably nastier host.

I'm pretty sure Croyel die with their hosts (unless they took over someone without a will?) There is some kind of symbiosis between the Croyel and its host, for example the power of the Mega-Arguleh and Kasreyn are radically different.

But I did think that the Arguleh-croyel hybrid could be transformed into something even nastier by the power of the Sunbane Dawn, or the Sarangrave. But other powerful beings (like the Haruchai or the Sandgorgon) weren't transformed by it.

And the Arguleh horde was a pretty formidable force by itself. They turn the sees solid and the temperate weather arctic, they revive their dead and heal their injured easily, they defeat opposing ordinary magic. Would something as diffuse and unfocused as the Sunbane be able to stand against them?

I'd give the Sarangrave a bigger chance against them than the Sunbane (though the Raver-lord in Revelstone would have evened the odds) though that too is uncertain. Their ice shields are very hard to break. Was their path (going into the Sarangrave and the Swamp) an insurance by Lord Foul that if they weren't defeated there was someone in their way who would know how to take care of them?

OR...maybe they turn west before out of ice...I think that, eventually, that brings them to Haruchai homeland...let the combat begin!.
.

I may be wrong but I got the impression that the north isn't cold because sunlight is scarce but because Ice Elementals (the Arguleh) like to reside there. Just like Mount Thunder isn't volcanic and a source of landscape changing earthquakes because of geologic reasons but because Fire Lions like to get their tan on its top and the revolting banes that are stashed in it make the rest of the landscape shudder and move in disgust. And perhaps the Bharathair-continent is arid and sandy because sandgorgons' galloping destroy any budding vegetation.

As for the lay of the Land, the Haruchai seem to reside in the mountains west of the Land, not the ones to the north, so the Arguleh would have to skirt the Land to get there.[/quote]

[Thorhammerhand]

The 'sun of ice' assumes that they would serve LF's evil purposes.

However the Arguleh are described as feral beasts that hunger for the deaths of all warm blooded creatures. I think that they would have shredded their way through the land and the surrounding areas untill they met up with the ravers and LF himself. At that point the final outcome is anybodies guess.

[peter]

I suspect [but only suspect] the croyel in charge aligns with LF [and eventually, if not already, therefore become his servants].

I don't think the croyel dance to anyones tune but thier own. I suspect even Corruption would think twice before trying to forge deals with the Croyel - these are bad ass m.......s if ever there was!
I don't even want to THINK about what would happen if the Arguleh/Croyel complex found it's way down into the Sarangrave - Lifeswallower is good, but not that good.
My guess is that even the Sunbane faced with the preternatural winter of this scource would be forced into abayance - sort of like the decomposition process in a piece of meat put into a freezer! Love the question though

[thewormoftheworld'send]

As I recall, the Arguleh don't normally hunt in packs. Arguleh are solitary creatures that even attack each other given the opportunity. They were under the control of a croyel. If Covenant and company hadn't been there, no pack would have been formed by the croyel. There would be no point to it. in WGW, as soon as the croyel's hold on the pack was broken, the Arguleh immediately set to attacking each other, and the threat was gone.

It seems that the croyel work with Foul as it suits them.

[peter]

It seems that the croyel work with Foul as it suits them.

Undoubtedly it was the 'croyel effect' that held the savage Arguleh in check - but I don't think there presence there with the croyel HAS to be linked to LF. It seems to me that the croyel are somewhat opportunistic in thier appearance and Findails description of them gave no indication that they were in the buisness of forging alliances (other than with thier victim who was 'damned indeed'). But I do admit the possibility though
In respect as to why the croyel were there at that time - what can we know of the deeper intent of beings such as the Croyel! (Cop out or what! )

[wayfriend]

"The Sunbane and the Despiser's malign intent rouse the dark forces of the Earth. Though they act by their own will, they serve his design of destruction. And such a force has come among the arghuleh, mastering their native savagery and sending them like the hand of winter against the Land."

So there is a connection to Lord Foul, but it is a very tenuous one, one which the arghuleh or the croyel might not even be aware of.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

"The Sunbane and the Despiser's malign intent rouse the dark forces of the Earth. Though they act by their own will, they serve his design of destruction. And such a force has come among the arghuleh, mastering their native savagery and sending them like the hand of winter against the Land."

So there is a connection to Lord Foul, but it is a very tenuous one, one which the arghuleh or the croyel might not even be aware of.

Yes, that's the quote I was vaguely thinking of.

I was also thinking of quotes such as this one:

Lord Foul was probably already gloating at the possibility that he, Covenant, might unleash wild magic to aid the Waynhim.