Kevin's Watch

"Mhoram's eyes crackled with sudden visionary fire"

cool!! :b

If you got to run to someone, Lady Alif isn't a bad choice.

You dog, Danlo!

yeah .. woof woof

I am just beginning 2 get really deep in2 "Don't touch me" in TOT. This is where the Kemper finally straps TC 2 his chair, attaches his apparti and focuses all his lenses. He has already mezmerized Linden w/his "ocular" and geas, but not our hero Brinn, of course, who xplains,

"He spoke to me with his gaze. I heard, but did not choose to listen"

This is a very pivotal part of the story where the Haruchai's trust in Linden is going down the toilet, the Giants are holding on 2 the last second for Pitch and Sevinhand 2 complete Starfare's Gem's repairs and Kasreyn begins his depraved machinations on Covenant.

But what about the Kemper's arts in general--all these circles, that must have a single flaw left in them, the Doom, the Gyre, the ocular, the lenses, the Sandhold and his thaumaturge in general. A ring--especially of white-gold must have sated his every aspect and driven him wild. Help me dissect this strange art...How did the Haruchai resist? Dis-passion, mindmeld, purpose?

So many possibilities. Most people would be entirely surprised if someone spoke to them telepathically. The shock of it might make them powerless to resist. Since the Haruchai speak to each other with their minds all the time, it might have been just another conversation.

Maybe the Haruchai are simply immune to this, as they're simply immune to the Sunbane, possession by Raver, Morinmoss' energy-draining that leaves even Giants exhausted, etc. Just one more thing.

Maybe the Bloodguard experience with the Illearth Stone helped them, too. They knew what it was to be possessed, and now knew how to resist it.

How was it they were immune 2 the Sunbane? Because it was never directed @ the Westrons? Physical toughness, something else? They could not be posessed by a Raver, but they could b captured by the Clave? Overwhelming force? The power of the rukhs? And apparently they aren't immune 2 the chemicals in the powder Lady Alif blew in2 their faces...

The Bloodguard, with the strength of their Vow, were able to deny death itself. It would be my belief that the Haruchai were able to resist this magic simply by the strength of their will.

Pure will power. They are the Haruchai. Your suggestion, Danlo, of a mind-meld strikes me as interesting..

The Kemper strikes me as an alchemist. Would his more 'modern' powers be any good in the Land? Truly, they would spoil the rustic nature of the Land...another danger that the Land faces in the Third Chrons?

I already gave my opinion of this in the Haruchai/Zen Master thread that I just bumped. Not that there isn't validity to lots of stuff being discussed here, but I like the Zen idea.

Their telepathic form of communication would seem to leave them immune to the ravers, since that seems to be the way the ravers gain possession. When Nom rent samhadi raver he was able to speak in the fashion of the Haruchai. The Haruchai are familiar with how the ravers operate then.

Actually, the Giants also, since Honniscrave knew that he would trap the raver if he was killed with the raver in him. The ravers were only able to enslave the Giant brothers with the might of the Illearth stone. samhadi had to be desperate in order to attempt to gain possession of a Giant without possession of the stone.

Damelon wrote:samhadi had to be desperate in order to attempt to gain possession of a Giant without possession of the stone.

He did have the Banefire though, possibly he thought it sufficient. And maybe it would have been but for the giants immunity to fire.

Good point! I hadn't thought of the Banefire.

I don't have the book in front of me, but is it possible that samadhi went for the closest being, not checking first to see who it was, and Honninscrave allowed the Raver to get in, somehow sensing that he would be able to trap it?

That could be. samahdi, I would have thought, would have known that a Giant was a tough being to possess. Honniscrave had no knowledge of ravers before, so probably as soon as samahdi tried to enter him Honniscrave knew that he could trap him. A big mistake on the raver's part.

Yeah, it could be that he preferred the more-or-less absolute power he enjoyed in that limited area to the risk of trying to expand, and possibly running into a bigger baddie.

I always thought of Kaseryn as a free lance bad guy myself. Not tied with Foul.

No, I've never imaginced any ties between the two either.