Kevin's Watch

Esmer, Cail-son wrote:Because of the Haruchai there will be endless havoc!

I was re-reading TPTP and something came up that caught my attention.

Covenant, too could not bear to see Foamfollower's hurt. He turned on Bannor and gasped into the Bloodguard's ear, "Give it up! Admit you know him. Hellfire! Bannor -- You bloody egomaniac! You're so proud -- after the Bloodguard failed you can't stand to admit there might be any faithfulness left anywhere. It's you or nothing. But he'sa Giant, Bannor!" Bannor did not move, but a muscle quivered along his jaw. "Wasn't Elena enough for you?" Covenant hissed. "Are you trying to make another Kevin out of him?"

(Bolding Mine, Italics from text.)

Grabbing my copy of TOT, I read:

Did you ever ask yourself why Kevin Landwaster chose the Ritual of Desecration?" ... "He must've been an admirable man -- or atleast powerful" ... "if the Bloodguard were willing to give up death and even sleep to serve him. So what happened to him?"

She saw that Covenant might try to answer. She did not let him. "I'll tell you. The goddamn Bloodguard happened to him. It wasn't bad enough that he was failing-- that he couldn't save the Land himself. He had to put up with them as well. Standing there like God Almighty and serving him while he lost everything he loved." ... "Jesus Christ! No wonder he went crazy with despair. How could he keep any shred of his self-respect, with people like them around? He must've thought he didn't have any choice except to destroy everything that wasn't worthy of them."
...
But Brinn did not remain silent. "Linden Avery." ... "Is it truly your claim that the Bloodguard gave cause to Kevin Landwaster's despair?"

(Italics from text)

I think that Esmer is correct. Possibly not in the way that I think he is. This is what I think:

Because of the Haruchai, there will be endless havoc. I think that the Haruchai are what drove Kevin to commit the Ritual of Destruction.

The key here is Passion.

The Haruchai are intensely passionate people. Lack of Passion, due to the Oath of Peace, is what held the New Lords back from being able to use Kevin's Lore to its fullest. Passion is what finally enabled Covenant to use his Ring, to use the Wild Magic that destroys peace.

Passion in TCTC is what lets one use power. Not just Lore, but Power with a capital P. However, Mhoram learned, and Covenant learned, that Passion is dangerous -- it's a two edged sword. It let Covenant destroy the Despiser's home, reduce him to next to nothing with Laughter. And passion is what gave Kevin the ability to commit Desecration. What Mhoram and Covenant learned is that Passion without Wisdom -- Power without Lore, without Restraint -- serves the Despiser's purposes. It corrupts. The Haruchai have bragged many times that they make no use of Lore. The Haruchai are Passion unrestrained. Power unrestrained.

Their passion caused them to take up the position of Masters. Their passion served Foul's purpose -- they destroyed any chance of the Land itself being able to raise some sort of defense against what now transpires. There is only the leadership of the Masters, and, as Linden Avery the Chosen pointed out to them, they do not suffice.

The unrestrained extravagence of the Haruchai has caused more problems that anything else that I can see. Even more than Covenant. All the problems in the Second and Last Chronicles arise from Covenant destroying the Staff of Law. Because Elena summoned dead Kevin. Because she was born, because Covenant raped Lena.

However, none of that would have come to pass if the Bloodguard had not driven Kevin to commit the Ritual of Desecration. The unrestrained extravagence of the Haruchai is the root cause of all the problems. Everything else is secondary.

However, none of that would have come to pass if the Bloodguard had not driven Kevin to commit the Ritual of Desecration. The unrestrained extravagence of the Haruchai is the root cause of all the problems. Everything else is secondary.

The Haruchai are not in the slightest part to blame for Kevin's actions or feelings. Was it not said by Roger that kevin largely fell to despair because he let his friends die in his place?

Personally, i think the havoc that Esmer is referring to is placed on Brinn. Infelice said at the send of FR:

"He was" said Infelice in a tone which conceeded nothing, "and in his turn, the Theomach was defeated by one mere Haruchai. Now much threatens in the Earth which would not otherwise have occured"

Pardon that it's not an exact quote, i'm typing from memory. However why would Infelice say this? Brinn is closely linked with the One Tree, therefore with the Worm; so he must have some part to play. And Infelice suggests that because Brinn defeated the Theomach, there would be worse to come than if the Elohim or the Theomach guided the One Tree in his place.

I think EL has hit the notion real well. The Haruchai are a passionate people.(or so they say) But with that comes ego and they had plenty of it. They thought they were invincible because for a long time since they would battle each other and thought to test their power.
So off they go and lo and behold one little Insequent snaps their ego like a moth to a flame.
Kevin welcomes them and show them respect that they believe isn't earned. That's another ego brusier. So they take the Vow.

It's Cail, Brinn and later Stave that begin to realize that the Harachai philosophy is wrong. It's the idea that doesn't forgive and anybody who can't adhere to it must be contain or ignored. You saw in the Bloodguard in the guises of "humility". Covenant pointed that out to them when he first translated to the Land.

Brinn becomes the Guardian because of his acceptance of failure and he uses it to defeat the Theomach. Cail proves his failure is a strength when he resist the mind enslavement of the Clave. It is he who saves his fellow Haruchai and they ban him from their ranks! Cail got the shaft.

Now you have the Masters who after 7000 years again fall into their idea of what should be. Their Mastery of the Land is worse than the Vow their ancestors took. It just might take Covenant to put a stop to once and for all.

I think BOTH explanations are correct.

I think that Esmer's havoc was unleashed by Brinn. And not merely because he allowed Covenant to reach the One Tree. But because he is a being that is part Haruchai, part Insequent, and part Elohim. (Why else did we discover that there was an Appointed Guardian?) And, as Infelice said, he has designs on the Würd - that is, the Arch.

And would it not be symetric and pleasing to discover that Brinn's legacy is as important as Cail's?

Look at the mess Esmer is. This is the result of his being the offspring of a crazy Elohim, crazy human female victims, and a spiritually transcended Haruchai. Offspring. His makeup is only a percentage of each of his ancestors.

Brinn/ak-Haru is made up of all those things, and more. And all of them, whole, not a fraction diluted by generations.

And, you have to ask, is Esmer unstable because his ancestors were crazy? Or is he unstable because of what he is composed of.

I have always assumed the latter. It seems that mixing Elohim and Haruchai is a lethal combination.

And if there is a reason for it, it has to do with the incompatibility of their essential natures. Maybe they are too diametrically opposed to be contained in the same vessel. Or they compliment each other in ways that push the limits of existence. I don't know.

Brinn/ak-Haru has to be worse than Esmer, in a way. And, unlike Esmer, he's his own cause, he doesn't work on the orders of others. In a way, Esmer's danger is mitigated by the fact that he is controlled by an insane person. Brinn/ak-Haru is not.

Covenant is wrong about the Bloodguard and Kevin. Or, at least, not totally right. Covenant was suffering from his own despair when he said those things.

But I agree that the Haruchai intransigence is ultimately at the heart of Esmer's havoc. Just as the Elohim's surquedry is.

Ur Dead wrote:

It's Cail, Brinn and later Stave that begin to realize that the Harachai philosophy is wrong. It's the idea that doesn't forgive and anybody who can't adhere to it must be contain or ignored.

And now Linden is the one who "doesn't forgive". She said it herself in FR more than once, and Stave kept reminding her of it. I'd say she's fallen into this sort of trap that the Haruchai have always been stuck in. Certainly, her arrival at this place was by a very different road than the Haruchai, but the destination is the same. She's unrestrained passion; she's got a (or at least had a) thirst for power. Such a strong desire usually comes from passion, often unrestrained. And her actions at the end of FR lead directly to " (Against) All Things Ending".

For herself if not also for the sake of the Earth and the Land, she's got to learn to forgive. If she can find a way to display this forgiveness in an extreme way, then maybe the Masters will forsake their "Mastery", and actually do something helpful as a whole.

You know, I've been thinking about this tonight, and of course your opinion is a great one that goes along with a lot of what Donaldson has written in the past and is probably correct.

And yet....

It strikes me that the one person in The Last Chronicles who is trying to solve the fundamental problems (when she doesn't get sidetracked by her concern for her son) is Linden. Everybody else seems to want to maintain a precarious status quo while the timer is ticking steadily towards the end of everything. Only Liinden really seems to grasp the scope of the disaster facing the world, and only she is really trying to do things beyond her own sphere of concern, even if she isn't up to the task.

I don't know where Donaldson is going with this. Your analysis smacks of what he did in the second trilogy, while mine seems to echo the first.

Perhaps Donaldson has a better answer for us than both of those.

Wayfriend wrote:
But I agree that the Haruchai intransigence is ultimately at the heart of Esmer's havoc. Just as the Elohim's surquedry is.

Wow, did you just really use the word "surquedry"?!?!?

SRD would be proud!

I don't think that the Haruchai is what drove Kevin to despair, at least not themselves. They were simply being what they were; passionate beings. It was Kevin's inability to deal with their passion and loyalty, and I think it was this inadequacy that drove Kevin to despair. Much in the same way that Linden's inadequacy caused her to resurrect Covenant. And that is what I get from all of this. Kevin, Covenant, Mhoram, and Linden; all of them had to deal with their inadequacy, and it was the consequences of how they dealt with it that are the important part.

I don't know if that's what SRD intended, but it's what I got out of it.

And how are the Haruchai dealing with their unquestionable inadequacy to their self-given purpose? They are doggedly holding onto it for better or worse. They are not sufficient to the Mastery they have taken upon themselves, and imposed on the Land, but they are plowing forward nonetheless.

SRD has said that these Last Chronicles are about Linden still having something to say about the redemptive potential of inadequacy. She's yet to discover it; but when she does, I bet the Haruchai will finally see the error in their method.

In a way, dealing with inadequacy is the main theme running through all the Chronicles. Kevin couldn't deal, so he desecrated as an outlet for his despair that was born of his acknowledgement that he was inadequate. (Was he called the Landwaster before the Desecration? Or only after?) The Haruchai still refuse to see the fact of their own inadequacy. Or if they see it, they're repressing big time. Linden is all too aware of hers, but carried out her purpose despite that knowledge. Her Ritual of Resurrection was born of the knowledge or conviction that she couldn't "do it" without TC. His inadequacy in these Last Chronicles is yet to be fleshed out.

Does Mhoram need to come in and slap these knuckeheads around, making them see the light???

You make a good point. It does seem that Mhoram was the only one that was able to come to terms with his inadequacy and use what he learned for good. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes an appearance at the beginning of the next one as one of Covenant's Dead.

As far as the Haruchai, they haven't dealt with their inadequacy, and that may be the "havoc" that Esmer spoke of, especially now that we know about the Theomach and Brinn and that whole ordeal. I haven't quite puzzled out what all that means (it usually takes me a few reads for me to figure some of the stuff out that SRD writes, and I'm fine with that), but I'm sure Esmer is referring to that than their problems dealing with the fact that they can't admit that undying loyalty isn't the answer to despair.

I'd be very disappointed in the Final Chronicles if before the end the Haruchai don't finally find their answer.