Official Discussion Forum for the works of Stephen R. Donaldson
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I thought you'd pressed enter a few too many times.CovenantJr wrote:Quite so. I believe the King was possessed by a Raver, certainly under Foul's command. But I think the "Berek the Betrayer" comment is relevant to the current situation. Foul recovers because of Earthpower. Berek was the first person to use Earthpower. In the current climate, particularly given the Haruchai's reasons for their Mastery, Berek could indeed be viewed as the one who facilitated everything Foul has done since then.
My sig is one lineDarth Revan wrote:Can you please make your sig shorter Roger?If you're talking about my posts being big, it's not my sig - it's my avatar. All we Edge-ites have these big gaps, because his avatars are bigger than the standard KW ones.
Sorry my friend. 
Then they should see Linden as an enemy also. She made the Second Staff of Law.CovenantJr wrote:True. But since the Haruchai oppose all use of Earthpower, and Berek was responsible for Earthpower being so openly used, they could see him as an enemy in some sense.
Very true, but if they saw Linden as a threat, they would act against her.CovenantJr wrote:Most of them do. Of all the Haruchai, only Stave is Linden's ally. But if you recall, they don't have a problem with Earthpower existing, just with use of it. They don't object to the Staff's existence, but they disapprove of any active use of it.
They probably think that because she is an ally of the Land... she should not be hindered..yet...CovenantJr wrote:Yes, I do wonder why they didn't. What do they want? Or perhaps that should be "What do they believe they want?" Since Foul said they serve him unwittingly, presumably they haven't acted against linden because Foul needs her...but I don't know what they believe their reasons are.
So far, "everyone" has unwittingly served Foul, he's laughed about it until he's sick, and then he's been undone. I'm starting to wonder if all of these years of imprisonment, defeat, rebirth, defeat, rebirth, etc., have driven him insane. Seriously.CovenantJr wrote:Yes, I do wonder why they didn't. What do they want? Or perhaps that should be "What do they believe they want?" Since Foul said they serve him unwittingly, presumably they haven't acted against linden because Foul needs her...but I don't know what they believe their reasons are.
That's why they fear his return... i don't think that Thomas is what he appears to be.They can fear him without him being Foul. They weren't crazy about him in The One Tree. Their fear can be simply based on his ability ("You are the wild magic") to destroy their world.Darth Revan wrote:No... But I think the Elohim are scared of Thomas because he is FOul.
Yet even in the first trilogy, he could have allowed his anger and hatred towards Foul ("He laughs at lepers") to cause a conflagration of wild magic that could have rent the Arch of Time, although that really wasn't an enormous concern at the time because Foul wasn't *trying* to get him to go crazy. Still, it could have happened, and even with his health sense.Romeo wrote:LOL!!!!
They feared Covenant because he didn't have Linden's health sense to guide his use of the wild magic.
iirc it required the venom to heighten his might to make him powerful enough to do that.Yet even in the first trilogy, he could have allowed his anger and hatred towards Foul ("He laughs at lepers") to cause a conflagration of wild magic that could have rent the Arch of Time
On an external level, Covenant's leprosy is both the mechanism for and the symbol of his alienation from any sustaining form of human community (marriage, children, friends, etc.). This brings his inner Despiser to the fore. In a manner of speaking, it makes him a fertile field for what Lord Foul wants to plant. (What saves him--to extend the metaphor--is that the Land and its people can also plant in that field.) And as such, of course, it *is* something that he has to deal with in order to deal with Lord Foul. But "accept and overcome"? Ah, that's where it gets complicated. Covenant is on a spiritual journey--and it ain't over yet. To say that he "overcomes" his "inner corruption" in order to deal with Lord Foul would be accurate enough for the first trilogy. But at that point he is still a long way from accepting that inner corruption. Naturally he makes progress in the second trilogy. There he discovers the power that can be found in ceasing to try to overcome. (We're getting pretty Zen here, I admit.) But if that were the whole story, I wouldn't need to write "The Last Chronicles."