Amok

[JIkj fjds j]

How might High Lord Kevin have made Amok?

Amok describes himself as the Seventh Ward of Kevin's Lore, so I'm going to suggest that he could only have been made by means of lore contained in the Sixth Ward, which of course would have been far advanced on anything we see in any of the Chronicles.

It seems to me you're saying you don't believe in such things, in a book I might add, with the word "Unbeliever" in the title.

I read somewhere there was only ever meant to be the one trilogy. If so, then the first chronicles are self-contained and all undisclosed Wards remain as Kevin intended, well and truly hidden ... unless, you happen to believe such things.

[IrrationalSanity]

How might High Lord Kevin have made Amok?

Amok describes himself as the Seventh Ward of Kevin's Lore, so I'm going to suggest that he could only have been made by means of lore contained in the Sixth Ward, which of course would have been far advanced on anything we see in any of the Chronicles.

It seems to me you're saying you don't believe in such things, in a book I might add, with the word "Unbeliever" in the title.

I read somewhere there was only ever meant to be the one trilogy. If so, then the first chronicles are self-contained and all undisclosed Wards remain as Kevin intended, well and truly hidden ... unless, you happen to believe such things.

I don't think Rune is suggesting that he doesn't believe. Only that the Lore to create Amok was beyond any that was otherwise demonstrated directly in the text. He presumed it was contained in the 6th ward, but that isn't necessarily the case.

The Sixth Ward contained (at a minimum) the Lore required to awaken the Krill, and also detailed the consequences of such awakening - including Amok's summoning and a description of his nature. It is possible that the Lore to create such beings was held in earlier wards. It is even possible that other such beings exist, but the conditions for their summoning were never realized.

These are things we'll never know for sure.

[JIkj fjds j]

Amok describes himself as the Seventh Ward of Kevin's Lore, so I'm going to suggest that he could only have been made by means of lore contained in the Sixth Ward, which of course would have been far advanced on anything we see in any of the Chronicles.

It seems to me you're saying you don't believe in such things, in a book I might add, with the word "Unbeliever" in the title.

I read somewhere there was only ever meant to be the one trilogy. If so, then the first chronicles are self-contained and all undisclosed Wards remain as Kevin intended, well and truly hidden ... unless, you happen to believe such things.

I don't think Rune is suggesting that he doesn't believe. Only that the Lore to create Amok was beyond any that was otherwise demonstrated directly in the text. He presumed it was contained in the 6th ward, but that isn't necessarily the case.

The Sixth Ward contained (at a minimum) the Lore required to awaken the Krill, and also detailed the consequences of such awakening - including Amok's summoning and a description of his nature. It is possible that the Lore to create such beings was held in earlier wards. It is even possible that other such beings exist, but the conditions for their summoning were never realized.

These are things we'll never know for sure.

I did ellude to an idea earlier of the ancient Ramen craft anundivian yajna being more refined in Kevin's time. Elena's sculpture was described 'blunt of detail', which suggests Kevin could have produced far more intricate work.

[shadowbinding shoe]

The scene at the Earthblood cave (near the end of IEW) when Amok dies made it sound like he was made of Earthblood. Amok is very powerful. He traveled to Bhrathair and rode Sandgorgons for one thing. He is impervious to the effects of Time, like the cavern under Melenkurion. When he returns to the scene of his creation, he melts back into it, like the One Ring in Lord of the Rings. The tool which summons him, Vilesilencer, was created from a Earthblood-saturated stone from that same area.

While others (Elena) thought only of drinking the Earthblood and commanding the Land, Kevin transmuted them into a living creature.

Did Kevin use the Ramen Bone-lore in creating him? Possibly.

[Cord Hurn]

Yeah, no. A golem is made from clay and never transmutates (to my knowledge) into flesh and bone.

Amok was more like Siri -- all Covenant had to do was ask him the right questions.

Amazingly enough, Amok did give Covenant the answer when Covenant asked him how to use the white gold ring.

"Ah, bearer, ask the Sunbirth Sea or Melenkurion Skyweir. Question the fires of Gorak Krembal, or the tinder heart of Garroting Deep. All the Earth knows. White gold is brought into use like any other power - through passion and mystery, the honest subterfuge of the heart."

At once, the Despiser attacked him. Foul put his hands on the Illearth Stone, placed his power on the pulsing heart of its violence. He sent green might raving at Covenant.

It fell on him like the collapse of a mountain, piled onto him like tons of wrecked stone. At first he could not focus the ring on it, and it drove him staggering backward. But then he found his error. He had tried to use the wild magic like a tool or weapon, something which could be wielded. But High Lord Mhoram had told him, You are the white gold. It was not a thing to be commanded, employed well or ill as skill or awkwardness allowed. Now that it was awake, it was a part of him, an expression of himself. He did not need to focus it, aim it; bone and blood, it arose from his passion.

With a shout, he threw back the attack, shattered it into a million droplets of rank fever.

[Shuram Gudatetris]

Clearly Amok is not an Insequent. However, he did remind me of one with the way he appears and disappears when we first meet him. I just re-read that part yesterday or the day before, and I said to myself, "Huh. He's like an Insequent. I wonder how that makes the Haruchai feel...." and was surprised that the Bloodguard seemed so relaxed about him until I reminded myself that they remembered Amok from Kevin's days.

Wait a sec, DID they remember him? They act like it, but they never came out and said it, did they?

Interesting concept, Amok being made of EarthBlood. It makes me wonder how Kevin did it. If Amok is an expression of Law, is it Lawful to create life artificially? He reminds me more of Vile-lore. The Demondim created ur-Viles, and the ur-Vile's created Vain. I wonder if Kevin dabbled in the Dark arts. He did have his buddy a-Jeroth whispering in his ear, after all.

I may be getting way off base here, but what if *that* is why Amok was un-made by the presence of EarthBlood. It was too Lawful and it unbound his artificial essence, the way the Staff hurts Waynhim and the Harrow unwound Demondim and ur-Viles.

[wayfriend]

I would say that the Bloodguard did remember Amok, although it may be that they had never seen him directly. They would know what Kevin had been up to, and, like bodyguards everywhere, they never discuss what they see.

But, to me, Amok is more like Vain than he is like the Insequent.

We know Amok started falling apart well before he was touched by Earthblood. "The air of this place unbinds me." But it was also clear that the Seventh Ward was designed to be used but once. Kevin designed Amok to be that way. So, in my mind, it's much more probable that standing near the Earthblood was a signal, in the same way that the ignition of the krill was a signal, a signal which caused Amok to enter a new phase of his existence. This phase being a terminal one. He disintegrated because he was built to disintegrate upon the necessary signal. (He carried within himself the seeds of his own destruction, one might say.)

All indications are that Amok was like Vain in that he was a being of rigid structure. "I am who I am." Would the Earthblood - pure Earthpower - would be overtly antithetical to such beings? I'm thinking of Vain... he merged with Earthpower itself, and transcended rather than fell apart. Law and Earthpower work hand in hand often enough.

[IrrationalSanity]

Earthpower is not itself lawful, but it is subject to law, and can build mightily when channelled through law's structures. Yet is is also subject to being weilded for chaos, as seen through the fire Lions and rituals of desecration, the illearth stone, and the ultimate corruption of the sunbane.