The power of the Vow

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Not that I've got a lick of evidence for this idea, but it struck me within the last few days that sometimes people in the Land can accomplish miracles just by being extremely intense about their commitments. Case in point: the Bloodguard Vow. Now was this a one-time kind of deal, or are we going to see the Earthpower rise up to strengthen anyone else in the future, granting them special abilities that might help them prevent the destruction of the world?

How many things are there out there, more than Lord Foul or whoever else can conceive/imagine (as Hollian said to Avery, I think)?

[Relayer]

We've heard about at least one other instance... when the Fire-Lions responded to Berek.

[Vraith]

You're actually very right about the commitments, and there's lots of evidence:
Kevin's Desecration, Mhoram's discovery, both acts by Lena's parents [summoning TC and the floor rending]...the "daunting" of the Raver merely from touching Mhoram, the healer who repairs TC by breaking herself, the defeat of the Guardian through surrender [a completely non-Haruchai thing to do]...most of these particular instances are backed up by Lore, but the Lore itself is not enough for the deed. There are others, I know, but not recalling right now...the Giant containing the Raver so it can be rent is one, though. Almost all of Hile Troy's deeds come damn close to it, though more ordinary kind of miraculous.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

We've heard about at least one other instance... when the Fire-Lions responded to Berek.

Do you think the Haruchai who swore the Vow articulated it using the Seven Words, maybe?

[Relayer]

In Gildenfire (I think) the scene is described, including the words they invoked ("ho-aru something..." ??). Also, I doubt they would've used the Words, though they might have heard them from Kevin. They don't generally choose to use power or weapons.

I was also thinking about Troy ... when he "made a vow" to do whatever the Forestal wanted if his army could be saved. Since the Forestals are essentially an incarnated expression of Earthpower, that seems similar in it's way to the Haruchai Vow.

Be careful what you ask for in the Land!!

[earthbrah]

Hell, I bet the Power of the Vow could have been one of Kevin's Wards...

[bikebryan]

We've heard about at least one other instance... when the Fire-Lions responded to Berek.

Do you think the Haruchai who swore the Vow articulated it using the Seven Words, maybe?

I doubt it. I think they made the vow in their own language, and the Earthpower in the Land recognized and sealed their committment.

[Fuzzy_Logic]

The Haruchai were already Earthpowerful, though--maybe the vow is just a kind of lore that gives their inborn power expression.

[SkurjMaster]

Did they know that the Vow would invoke Earthpower? Did they Vow to not sleep, be stronger, whatever, etc?

[bikebryan]

The Haruchai were already Earthpowerful, though--maybe the vow is just a kind of lore that gives their inborn power expression.

Don't say that to a Haruchai. Bannor made it quite clear in The Illearth War that the Haruchai had no use for Lore. It was a weapon and they had no use for weapons. As Bannor stated, a knife can be turned against its wielder.

[Fist and Faith]

In Gildenfire (I think) the scene is described, including the words they invoked ("ho-aru something..." ??). Also, I doubt they would've used the Words, though they might have heard them from Kevin. They don't generally choose to use power or weapons.

Ho-aru was the name of one of the two Haruchai clans. The other was Nimishi.

The Vow was this: Ha-man rual tayba-sah carab ho-eeal neeta par-raoul.
Which seems to translate to this: "We are the Bloodguard, the keepers of of the Vow - the keepers and the kept, sanctified beyond decline and the last evil of death." But I don't think that's sufficient. I think SRD didn't bother telling us everything they said (or everything those words mean).

Did they know that the Vow would invoke Earthpower? Did they Vow to not sleep, be stronger, whatever, etc?

No chance that they knew it would invoke the Earthpower. If they'd known, they never would have done it. They weren't much into power and lore. I suspect they took the Vow expecting to stay just as they were. So, over centuries, many thousands of Haruchai would have died, even of old age (if the extremity of their lives permitted them to reach old age), and been replaced by another. Instead, the Earthpower did what it did, and, unless they were killed (and killing an Haruchai is not an easy thing, eh?), each lived for centuries. So not many more than the original 500 ever served as a Bloodguard.

I don't believe they were Vowing to not sleep or age. (They were already that strong.) I think they Vowed to protect as well as they possibly could. And when 500 incredibly strong minds were absolutely focused on that one thing, the Earthpower said, "OK, I'll help you do it better. You can't protect if you're sleeping, so now you don't have to sleep. And since there will not come a time when you don't want to stop protecting them, you may as well live forever."

The Haruchai were already Earthpowerful, though--maybe the vow is just a kind of lore that gives their inborn power expression.

Don't say that to a Haruchai. Bannor made it quite clear in The Illearth War that the Haruchai had no use for Lore. It was a weapon and they had no use for weapons. As Bannor stated, a knife can be turned against its wielder.

Still, not intending to, the Haruchai are Earthpowerful. As Mhoram said:
"The Haruchai yet live within their mountain fastness. In their way, they know the name of the Earthpower more surely than any Lord."

[Fuzzy_Logic]

I think I misspoke when I chalked it up to lore. What I meant was that the power of the Vow gave expression to their native earthpower, just as the lore of Kevin gave expression to the earthpower of the Lords.

I had assumed that any form of expression was a kind of lore, but I now remember this is wrong. Linden and Covenant rather explicitly have "no lore." They invoked power only by unmediated passion--and the Haruchai resemble the outsiders more than the lords.

So much more, in fact, I feel an essay coming on...