Here's a question that hopfully hasn't been kicked around too much in the forums.
How were the lords and Revelstone defeated in the years following Covenant's victory in the Power That Preserves and why was Covenant not summoned to help?
I can't recall if SRD explained at all what happended or if he just left as a portion of the Land's history lost to time.
Between TPTP and TWL
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All was revealed in the soothtelling towards the end of tWL.
High Lord Mhoram ushered in an era of prosperity for the Land, and the New Lords accomplished feats greater than any before. However, there was a reason these thing came so easily to them. The Staff of Law.
The Staff was created to control and guide the Law, and as such it became part of the Law it served. When the Staff was destroyed, it opened the way for Corruption of the Law itself.
Eventually, the new Lords, at their peak, decided to honour the man who began it - the High Lord named himself na-Mhoram, and the Council was called the Clave. However, within the next 1000 years, the Sunbane began.
The corruption of Law was such that no one had realised when Samadhi possessed the High Lord, and named himself the first na-Mhoram. Samadhi took each na-Mhoram in turn, and over the centuries corrupted the teaching, the songs and stories, and by the time the Sunbane arrived, was easily able to convince the na-Mhoram-in, na-Mhoram-wist, and whatever-the-other-ones-were, that the Banefire, fed by blood, would prevent the Sunbane claiming the world.
Another 1000-2000 years, and people forgot that the Sunbane had ever had a beginning, and the sunbane was a part of them. That is when Foul was ready to call Covenant back to the Land.
High Lord Mhoram ushered in an era of prosperity for the Land, and the New Lords accomplished feats greater than any before. However, there was a reason these thing came so easily to them. The Staff of Law.
The Staff was created to control and guide the Law, and as such it became part of the Law it served. When the Staff was destroyed, it opened the way for Corruption of the Law itself.
Eventually, the new Lords, at their peak, decided to honour the man who began it - the High Lord named himself na-Mhoram, and the Council was called the Clave. However, within the next 1000 years, the Sunbane began.
The corruption of Law was such that no one had realised when Samadhi possessed the High Lord, and named himself the first na-Mhoram. Samadhi took each na-Mhoram in turn, and over the centuries corrupted the teaching, the songs and stories, and by the time the Sunbane arrived, was easily able to convince the na-Mhoram-in, na-Mhoram-wist, and whatever-the-other-ones-were, that the Banefire, fed by blood, would prevent the Sunbane claiming the world.
Another 1000-2000 years, and people forgot that the Sunbane had ever had a beginning, and the sunbane was a part of them. That is when Foul was ready to call Covenant back to the Land.
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duchess of malfi
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Very nice summation. 
The Council fell from treachery from within when one of the Ravers took over a High Lord.
For a full accounting you can read the Soothtell chapter in The Wounded Land.
The Council fell from treachery from within when one of the Ravers took over a High Lord.
For a full accounting you can read the Soothtell chapter in The Wounded Land.
Last edited by duchess of malfi on Mon Feb 09, 2004 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A lot of the mystery is revealed in the blood-letting / soothsaying episode that TC went through at Revelstone in The Wounded Land before he left the Land in search of the One Tree. I don't think I really have a definitive answer because it has been a while since I last read the 2nd Chrons.
I'm reading TPTP right now and... I don't know about you, as I get older and read books again, I seem to get a bunch more out it than I did the first time. Your question is definately a question I've had also. At the first part of the book where the story's point of view is Mhoram, it hints at what he feels needs to change in order to confront the current danger from Foul. Much of it centered around the decision of the new Lords to overcome despair by vowing the Oath of Peace and how that philosophy has hindered them from learning and using the Wards of Kevin. Somehow, the willingness to desecrate what you love the most was also the link that was needed to unlock the power. At the end of the war in TPTP the Oath of Peace is renounced... They decide to seek out their own source of power in their service to the Land.
As with all things, as time passes and you allow the past to be rewritten, good philosphies can get corrupted. I think the extent of the corruption of history gets revealed in that soothsaying. But as usual, SRD makes you work for the answer (which is why I'm drawn to the books all the time), and it's been too dang long since I've read it.
This story is soooooo cool!!
I'm reading TPTP right now and... I don't know about you, as I get older and read books again, I seem to get a bunch more out it than I did the first time. Your question is definately a question I've had also. At the first part of the book where the story's point of view is Mhoram, it hints at what he feels needs to change in order to confront the current danger from Foul. Much of it centered around the decision of the new Lords to overcome despair by vowing the Oath of Peace and how that philosophy has hindered them from learning and using the Wards of Kevin. Somehow, the willingness to desecrate what you love the most was also the link that was needed to unlock the power. At the end of the war in TPTP the Oath of Peace is renounced... They decide to seek out their own source of power in their service to the Land.
As with all things, as time passes and you allow the past to be rewritten, good philosphies can get corrupted. I think the extent of the corruption of history gets revealed in that soothsaying. But as usual, SRD makes you work for the answer (which is why I'm drawn to the books all the time), and it's been too dang long since I've read it.
This story is soooooo cool!!
But hear then, for good or ill. I fulfill the law of my creation. My maker can require no more of me.
Covenant wasn't summoned to help because the Council never knew it was in danger. By the time the Council became the Clave, Covenant's name had already been distorted into one of scorn and fear: the evil Halfhand who had come to bring doom to the Land in the guise of Berek, the "First Betrayer." So, of course, he would be the last person anyone in the Clave (besides the Raver) would want to summon. But the Clave wouldn't have been able to summon Covenant on its own anyway, lacking as it did the Staff of Law. Foul was able to summon Covenant, but only under very specific conditions.
