The Unfettered - selfish or what...

[Alan]

I'm quite annoyed with the Unfettered.

I mean I'll gladly buy a beer for the One who rescued TC and Atairan - but what the Zarking Photon is the point of the rest of them?

"Your Dreams are Troubled my young Apprentice"

"Mercy! - That looks sore!" (What did you expect you silly woman)"

"What an interesting strata - look - oh, Raver...

[Fist and Faith]

*shrug* Some people with power are extremely introverted. And maybe some feel a type of power that is not known in the First Ward, so they go out to figure it out wherever they're drawn to do so.

[wayfriend]

The Unfettered were important to the overall story, I feel.

The Unfettered are an example for Covenant, without which I feel he could not have resolved his dilemma in the first Chronicles.

The Unfettered represent the capacity for people in the Land to abandon lore and find their own path to power, however strange and bizarre that path may be. Because they were possible, because they could be effective, this meant that Covenant might also find a path to his power, be effective. The Unfettered reminded Covenant that he was indeed capable of power, power which the Lords need not impart to him or even understand.

Similarly, the remind Mhoram that he, too, need not follow Kevin's Wards. They are an example that Mhoram can see and so emulate.

The Unfettered also represent the capacity for the Lords to ask for nothing. If you don't serve willingly, you may go free. Because this example has been set, the Lord's response to Covenant's Unbelief is more authentic and plausible. Their response to the Ur-Lord, thet they will ask nothing and trust completely, isn't something that they suddenly invented, they had chosen that type of response many times before, and the Unfettered demonstrate that.

The Healer need not have been Unfettered. There is a purpose for their participation in the story, beyond the Healer and the other assorted appearances.

[Linna Heartbooger]

Umm, wayfriend, that was really useful.. I never realized all of that. I could only see the Unfettered's purpose in the sense of "Authorial Sovereignty" that some of them "needed to" be there... and needed to be found outside the "system" with the development of gifts that the "system" didn't have the place or time or structure to support.

If you don't serve willingly, you may go free.

I also like this idea.. there's the potential to protect from certain inner dangers (i.e. bitterness, lack of courage to carry out a vision that one no longer shares but has committed his/her life to) this way.

[Ur Dead]

Wayfriend

I found that

The Unfettered represent the capacity for people in the Land to abandon lore and find their own path to power, however strange and bizarre that path may be.

Spoiler

To be very similair to what the Insequent do..

Maybe it's the way you phrased it.

[Relayer]

Totally agree w/ what Wayfriend said. To me, the concept of the Unfettered is that it's honored and celebrated that not everyone walks to the beat of the same drummer. That it's totally ok to follow your own guidance. That the people of the Land live this way is one of the things I find so beautiful about them.

[amanibhavam]

Spoiler

The Unfettered also nicely prepare the way to what/who Anele is.

[iQuestor]

I think the unfettered were a brilliant creation, and as WF says, were essential to the story.

The idea of letting one explore their own ways of service, as opposed to serving the Lords in some traditional and structured way, is one aspect of the same idea as when Mhoram allowed Covenant to reject his summons when the snake-bitten girl needed his help. The good in the Land would not be undone with such acts as those, indeed.

The unfettered to me were like the Indian Gurus, who were solitary and sought out their own knowledge untainted by the press of society.

[Alan]

Aye - thanks guys but I remain unconvinced. At the time of TC's appearance in the Land the Council of Lords was at a very weak point. The damage from the Ritual of Desecration was such that even by the time of the second Chrons it was still apparent.

These guys went through the process of Sword and Staff only to cry off at the last moment.

I fail to see how the private vision - however laudable - can in these circs. be valid.

[Unfettered One]

Thanks for all the kind words...

[wayfriend]

Give the Lords a little credit for wisdom. They didn't Unfetter these guys because they were dropouts. (Else Atairan would be an Unfettered.) They Unfettered them because they recognized special talents which their lore did not encompass. Remember, their lore was limited to the First Ward of Kevin, which in turn was limited to the lore of the Old Lords, and so did not include the lore of the Demondim-spawn and many other forms of magical knowledge. The Lords correctly recognized that they were not the sum total of everything.

Unfettering is a smart move. You give those people a chance to come up with something new, something that may potentially change your circumstances. That's always better than same old same old, and at little cost.

[Unfettered One]

Unfettering is a smart move. You give those people a chance to come up with something new, something that may potentially change your circumstances. That's always better than same old same old, and at little cost.

I agree with most of what you said, except the "little cost" part. I think the new Lords would have loved to have a few more of their number when their crisis came. If I recall, in TPTP Mohram says something like "It's too bad that so many lately have taken the rites of Unfettered".

That being said, the Unfettered affected me upon first reading the series when I was a teenager. It speaks of the acceptance of non-conformity, allowing people to live out their lives in their own way.

The song for the Unfettered, to me, is one of the most beautiful in the whole series. My mind immediately put a melody to it.

[Relayer]

Spoiler

Yes, and it was beautiful that the song reappeared in Runes. To me, it's no coincidence that Anele took the Rites of Unfettering.

[matrixman]

I'm quite annoyed with the Unfettered.

I mean I'll gladly buy a beer for the One who rescued TC and Atairan - but what the Zarking Photon is the point of the rest of them?

"Your Dreams are Troubled my young Apprentice"

"Mercy! - That looks sore!" (What did you expect you silly woman)"

"What an interesting strata - look - oh, Raver...

Yes, the way you're belittling some of the most powerful and moving scenes in the Chronicles like that, you've made your feelings clear. I commend the Watchers here for being patient and civil in defending the Unfettered.

[Sill]

Wayfriend...Dang! Are you SRD? This is some profound stuff you're dishing out. I never quite looked at it that way.

[MsMary]

Yes, excellent post, Wayfriend.

[wayfriend]

Thanks all. S'just my opinion, tho.

Unfettering is a smart move. You give those people a chance to come up with something new, something that may potentially change your circumstances. That's always better than same old same old, and at little cost.

I agree with most of what you said, except the "little cost" part. I think the new Lords would have loved to have a few more of their number when their crisis came.

Ah, but they were unfettered because they had power and talent, but the standard path was not working for them. For the most part they would not have succeeded as Lords. They were "called", and called away.

"There are those from the Loresraat," she said, "who find that they cannot work for the Land or the Lore of the Old Lords in the company of their fellows - Lords or Lorewardens, the followers of Sword or Staff. Those have some private vision which compels them to seek it in isolation. But their need for aloneness does not divide them from the people. They are given the Rites of Unfettering, and freed from all common demands, to quest after their own lore with the blessing of the Lords and the respect of all who love the Land. For the Lords learned long ago that the desire for aloneness need not be a selfish desire, if it is not made so by those who do not feel it."

Since they can't be good Lords or Lorewardens or Staff or Sword, the Lords lose nothing by freeing them.

[Alan]

*Matrixman*

I'll grant you a little light-hearted - I try not to take these things too seriously!

But do none of you guys agree with me? You all seem to be in favour of the "Unfettered Wastrel"

[Wyldewode]

Yes, I am in favor of the unfettered. I think everyone needs freedom to follow his or her own path. What I find to be true and useful for me may not have relevance to you. And as Wayfriend so eloquently put it, it cost them very little indeed to let the unfettered follow their own paths. Perhaps it comes down to the fact that the unfettered were valued not for what they did--but who they were. They have their own wild beauty in them, and their very own way of expressing the rightness of the land--all while adding their own notes of harmony to the song that is the land. To disrespect the unfettered is to demean and diminish the land itself, and to miss a great lesson of the story itself.


That's my opinion, of course. You're free to take it or leave it.

[Alan]

OK - Saturday - so lots of Housework.

And lots to think about while I scrub the floor - my question was fairly light-hearted but yer response, well, OK, I'll need to consider...