Family on the Old Council?

[Lordsfire]

I'm in the process of re-reading before I pick up AATE, and after finishing the 2nd chrons, I was struck by a thought. It is mentioned multiple times throughout the first 6 books that Kevin was extremely long-lived. That being the case, do you think his forebears also lived unnaturally long lives (compared to non-Earthpower-wielding Land people)?

I'm going to take it one step further and suggest that, if they did, there may have been a time when all of Berek's lineage (except perhaps for Berek himself) were sitting on the Council at the same time.

I know it might be a stretch, and doesn't really add much of anything to the story, but I thought it might be an interesting thing to ponder.

[Fist and Faith]

Actually, that is an interesting thought. I'm sure it didn't happen, because we would have heard if Kevin's father, grandfather, and/or great-grandfather were killed by Foul. But we only heard that his friends and fellow-Lords were. Still, it's an interesting thought that they may have handed down High Lordship, instead of only giving it up when they died. Having one or more of them on Kevin's council would have been pretty interesting.

[variol son]

I think you're looking at it from the wrong direction Fist - I think that Loric and Kevin could easily have been on the Council during Damelon's High Lord-ship.

[Fist and Faith]

*smacks head* Duh! Can't imagine why that direction hadn't occurred to me. Yeah, you're right. And that almost certainly was the case with at least a father and son, eh?

[Krazy Kat]

I know it might be a stretch, and doesn't really add much of anything to the story, but I thought it might be an interesting thing to ponder.

Whether or not it adds to the story it might be fun to play around with various scenarios, like, what if all four of the Old Lord were the council. Even if Berek was like Variol in LFB, a dozy old gereatric.
I mean, isn't Loric's krill in TPTP akin to King Arthur's Sword in the Stone. And hence, the Knights/Old Lords of the Round Table.

Because...Tamarantha and Variol knew Foamfollower's parents who in turn knew High Lord Kevin. A tenuous link maybe, but a link all the same.

Doesn't really go anywhere, but fun to ponder!

[Vraith]

I'm pretty sure, if my memory is working right, from various clues, that they all did live longer than normal...and each generation longer than the last.
Berek/Damelon almost had to be on Lord's council at the same time...after that, we don't really have any textual idea...but it would be really very odd if there weren't pretty much always a father high-lord, son on the council [maybe grandson or not...but almost certainly father/son/grandson all alive at once, if not all Lords at once.]

[DrPaul]

Don't forget that in The First Chronicles the New Lords also lived longer than normal humans, as their lives were prolonged by their lore and use of Earthpower. However as their lore wasn't as potent as the Old Lords, their lives weren't as long. It is fairly clear from the back-story that the lore of the Old Lords accumulated in depth and power from the time of Berek's apotheosis on Mount Thunder until Kevin's death in the RoD, so Berek, Damelon, Loric and Kevin had progressively longer lives.

[Fist and Faith]

From TIW, The High Lord:

Elena moved as if she meant to pursue that idea, but then she stopped herself, reconsidered, and took a different tack. "I do not know your world - but the Warmark tells me that such things do not happen there. Have you observed Lord Mhoram? Or Hiltmark Quaan? Or perhaps Hearthrall Tohrm? Any of those you knew forty years ago? Does it appear to you that - that they are young?"

"I've noticed," Her questions agitated him. He had been clinging to the question of age, trying to establish it as a discrepancy, a breakdown in the continuity of his delusion. "It doesn't fit. Mhoram and Tohrm are too young. It's impossible. They are not forty years older."

"I also am young," she said intently, as if she were trying to help him guess a secret. But at the sight of his glowering incomprehension, she retreated from the plunge. To answer him, she said, "This has been true for as long as there has been such lore in the Land. The Old Lords lived to great age. They were not long-lived as the Giants are - because that is the natural span of their people. No, it was the service of the Earthpower which preserved them, secured them from age long past their normal years. High Lord Kevin lived centuries as people live decades."

[Ur Dead]

I think there a thread with this question asked.

From my take:

4 lords in 2000 years. From Berek to Kevin.
Only two of them were born into Earthpower.
Loric and Kevin.

Berek may have lived at the most, twice his normal lifespan. Which may have been a total of 120 to 180 years. At the time of his aquiring Earthpower he may have been approaching 40 or in his 40s.

His son may have been a teenager when affected and it prolonged his life even further. Revelstone and meeting the Giants was in Damanon's time and the Giants do not remember Berek. Loric may have lived 400 to 500 years.

Loric lifespan may have been 800 to 900 years with Keven's lifespan maybe around 1200 years.

I read somewhere that Loric and Keven were born in the latter lives of their fathers. So there may be no recollection of his grandfather. They would be as distant as a person who lived several hundred years ago in todays world.

It also funny that each one had one known child. This may have been a side effect of Earthpower. But still....
It leave so much unanswered... The wifes lifespan, no sibling? No cousins?
(esp in Kevens time) Very selective history of the lords.

[Lordsfire]

Without going back to check, wasn't one or both of Mhoram's parents on the council with him in LFB? I seem to remember the battle of Soaring Woodhelven and what happened there. The idea does seem to be supported, it's just not something that's ever seemed to have come up in the storyline.

[DrPaul]

Without going back to check, wasn't one or both of Mhoram's parents on the council with him in LFB? I seem to remember the battle of Soaring Woodhelven and what happened there. The idea does seem to be supported, it's just not something that's ever seemed to have come up in the storyline.

Yes, Lord Mhoram's father and mother, Variol and Tamarantha, were on the Council with him in LFB along with Lord Osondrea and High Lord Prothall.

[jackgiantkiller]

Mrs Berek is not mentioned anywhere, nor loric or dameons wife/mother. perhaps they are clones