The Mahdoubt

[Insanity Falls]

It reflects the name of the Fremen housekeeper in "Dune", called the Shadout Mapes. This enters the discussion on page 10.

I also wonder whether it reflects the words "My doubt", and/or "Ma's doubt"

[wayfriend]

Does the name "Mahdoubt" mean anything to anyone? Such an odd name.

Several have already pointed out that it is similar to the term "shadout", in Dune - e.g. the Shadout Mapes. Even the author says there is an correspondence.

To me, it seems to be a re-arrangement of 'doubting thomas'.

[Insanity Falls]

Wayfriend - What do you make of "Ridjeck Thome"?

Is this a garbled "Reject Thomas / Reject's Home"
(as in Lord Foul perhaps being the rejected part of Thomas)

???

[Steve Hurtloam]

Well, maybe I missed page 10. But thanks for the refresher course. It is an interesting name.

I know when I read about "Pitchwife" when I was a kid, it was hard to wrap my mind around the fact that it was a male character.

Also, you don't want to know what I thought when I first read that the Ranyhyn "reared" Covenant.

[The Leper Messiah]

Ok so here is something I have been thinking about. She serves. She is hidden, she has insight into the truth of what is happening around her, we dont know where she came from, she is recognized or is accepted as if she is known, she has earthpower and the sight despite kevins dirt, There hasnt really ever been another character like her befor(?). A coat of many colours?

It has been suggested that she could be like Amok. That her voice seems to be like that of the Creators. (although pretty well established that she cant be the Creator or his hand directly in the land for fear of smashing the arch of time) sooooo

What if she is something that the creator built into the land when he made it in the first place? What if she is like a seed that he planted there because he knew that he would not be able to be a part of the land after it was finished (the arch of time etc) so he put something like a gurdian or lets say a descendant for example, like maybe a son? That acts in his stead, can affect the land, help the people, bring about new understanding. Someone who doesent actually have huge amounts of power but has wisdom and law and maybe could even be the ultimate sacrifice, long term. He could have set it up so that certain events triggered her appearance (like Amok).

I know this all sound familiar. Christianity has a Creator that does not interfere directly (depending what you believe) but that sent his Son, made him a man, so that he could move about in the land and affect change. He was but a humble carpenter and he did not have huge powers to show off, but simple and divine ones for those who would take notice. He worked his changes in small ways to affect time in the long run.

It always disturbed me that a creator that cared so much for his creation did not at least leave himself some kind of backdoor entry into his creation. Perhaps the Mahdoubt is just that. Perhaps SRD gave her the name and station of a housekeeper just to throw us off. But it is pretty obvious she is much more than a housekeeper. I cant wait to see what she does in the next book.

It also disturbs me that the creator has, to date, been asigned the doormans position. Neither in nor out, just pointing the way and giving the odd bit of weird advice. Im not saying that SRD is really writting a book about religion here, just that it would be one way to maybe bring the creator into the land and even things up against what the despiser apears to have become.

Cheers

[longinus]

well i think that the idea that she could be kasstenessens lover is plausible. but i alaso had another thought. along with the way that she is described it says that she looks as thought she was carved by a child in a tantrum. could she have been created by jeremiah, a child who constantly creates things, these creations are his only out let in our world. could the mahdoubt be jeremiahs way of interacting with people and the land, being one of his creations? is she a way for him to communicate with linden just as the lego building of mount thunder and revelstone were?

[finn]

I believe the Mahdoubt is linked to the creator and see no reason why she cannot be his proxy, agent, voice or another character associated with the creator, his wife perhaps?

I think that both characters have a presence that exudes power but in a passive way and I think this it is probably inspired in some way by SRDs association with the martial arts.

One of the great works of Japanese literature is Musashi, a collection of stories about the legendary swordsman. The people with the most influence on Musashi were quiet, humble and lived lives of sevitude to their master and/or their art.

The Mahdoubt as a housekeeper, what are we defining as the house? Revelstone? the Land? Pretty big responsibility.

Would a host be any less obliging than the creator when ushering people into his creation?

Both characters would have great power but are quietly confident of their prowess, not loud, drum beating types. They have nothing to prove and are not themselves threatened. Just my opinion.

[MrKABC]

Just re-read the passages about the Mahdoubt about an hour ago... I wonder what the significance of the orange eye is? There is a reference to the orange eye "flaring" momentarily.

Also, the Haruchai appear strangely quiet about her - making me believe she is similar in nature to Amok. Either they know her history, or she is like the Elohim, able to surpass their health-sense. Was she created for some reason? She stresses her age, but is very vague about how old that age really is.

I wonder if her character is like Boba Fett in the Star Wars movies... lots of people talk about the character but the person doesn't really *do* anything and isn't really important to the story arc...

[Aleksandr]

I believe the Mahdoubt is linked to the creator and see no reason why she cannot be his proxy, agent, voice or another character associated with the creator, his wife perhaps?

In the Clave’s legend of Creation the Creator did have a wife (Mininderain?) who cheated on him with a-Jeroth (=Foul) and was banished to the Earth. A lot of Clave BS, no doubt, but maybe some kernel of truth in it?

[variol son]

Ah yes, Mininderain. Good thought!

Slightly off topic, but SRD says in the GI that only one character in Runes of the Earth really did something something that surprised him. I was thinking about who this might be, and I thought that maybe Mahrtiir's recognition of the Mahdoubt came as a bit of a surprise to him.

Sum sui generis
Vs

[Khat]

VS - remember when I grabbed that quote from PTP about the healer? Check out her description:

She was a dusky, loamy woman, with hair like tangled brown grass, and an old face uneven and crude of outline, as if it had been inexpertly molded in clay. The hood of a tattered fallow-green cloak covered the crown of her head. And her eyes were the brown of soft mud, an unexpected and suggestive brown, as if the silt of some private devotion filled her orbs, effaced her pupils-as if the black, round nexus between her mind and the outside world were something that she had surrendered in exchange for the rare, rich loam of power. Yet there was no. confidence, no surety, in her gaze as she regarded him; the life which had formed her eyes was far behind her. Now she was old, timorous. Her voice rustled like the creaking of antique parchment ...

Could it be that with the Law of Death broken and the fact she died to save TC that she now lives? This may be why she has a multicolored cloak - to indicate all the lives she saved as a healer? And because she nolonger needs to represent just the land with her brown eyes she has two colored eyes????

[Sheriff Lytton]

You're all wrong. The Madhoubt is Saruman.

My God, insomnia's a wonderful thing.

[Sunbaneglasses]

Much like Amok could the Madoubt have been created in ages past to appear at a certain time/event?Could the Old Lords have made her to appear during a time when certain criteria indicated a possible end of the earth?Could she be some kind of bearer of hidden knowledge/lore that could possibly give the Land a fighting chance,or a figure meant to provide comfort near the end?

[The Pumpkin King]

Much like Amok could the Madoubt have been created in ages past to appear at a certain time/event?Could the Old Lords have made her to appear during a time when certain criteria indicated a possible end of the earth?Could she be some kind of bearer of hidden knowledge/lore that could possibly give the Land a fighting chance,or a figure meant to provide comfort near the end?

I never thought of that...

That's...that's really genius.

[MrKABC]

Much like Amok could the Madoubt have been created in ages past to appear at a certain time/event?Could the Old Lords have made her to appear during a time when certain criteria indicated a possible end of the earth?Could she be some kind of bearer of hidden knowledge/lore that could possibly give the Land a fighting chance,or a figure meant to provide comfort near the end?

[Sunbaneglasses]

Much like Amok could the Madoubt have been created in ages past to appear at a certain time/event?Could the Old Lords have made her to appear during a time when certain criteria indicated a possible end of the earth?Or could the Ceator seeded her into his creation befor it was sealed to him by the AOT?Could she be some kind of bearer of hidden knowledge/lore that could possibly give the Land a fighting chance,or a figure meant to provide comfort near the end?

[dlbpharmd]

You're quoting your own quote??

[jelerak]

I think that she is Susie Thurston.

(I had to put this name in there...this is probably about the only thread that she hasn't yet graced our presence in.)

[Jerico]

Nope I think it's in here someplace

[Sunbaneglasses]

oops,I don't know how that happened,I'm still fairly new at this message board buissiness.Anyway I think I meant to add the possibility that she was seeded into the earth befor it was sealed by the AOT.Or something like that.