The Worm as entropy

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

I think somewhere in the GI it's said that the moral problem of physical entropy is part of the metaphysical theorizing of the protagonists on some level. (That is, although some passages in the Chronicles might seem like "lectures" on metaphysics or ethics, they are really just what metaphysical/ethical judgments these characters make, albeit very high-level and well-informed these judgments are--therefore represented in a fairly convincing way.) The Worm seems to embody the Platonic Form of entropy, if you will, at least in the sense that SRD has implied that the true structure of the Land is akin to the World of the Forms Plato asserted.

Caerroil Wildwood's question in Fatal Revenant might even be a form of the question of entropy's relationship with ethicality. But now he refers to beauty as well as truth.

The Dance of the Wraiths and the Elohimfest are said to be extremely beautiful. We know the Worm is hungry, but what other states is its heart or mind capable of? Could it be enraptured by pure beauty? What if the Wraiths and the Elohim danced together as the Worm prepared to crash down upon Andelain? Could the Elohim open the portal to their transcendent plane of existence anywhere besides the island we last sojourned to Elemesnedene from? Could the Wraiths use the power of the krill in some unexpected fashion?

If the Viles were specters, weren't they Dead? The Dead of the One Forest, even? Wouldn't that mean that the Law of Death had been broken long before Elena's fall? Is being Dead a solution to entropy, and is that part of how the Vilespawns' ultimate goal will contribute to the solution to the entire story? Rember the hypnotic majesty of the Viles' works of art and consider again if the Worm can be at all put into a trance--slowed down by a trance at least, I'd pray.

[DrPaul]

There are plenty of examples in the Chronicles of incorporeal beings that aren't Dead - the Ravers are the obvious ones.