Kevin's Watch

In my 2nd full pass through "Runes of the Earth", I noticed something strange. Stave professes significant doubt at the beginning of the book that Anele is who he says he is, and while at one point he admits that the son of Hollian and Sunder was named "Anele", he insists that this old man can't be the same person. Given the Haruchai thought-sharing process over the centuries and millenia, his denial would only be plausible if the Haruchai had never encountered Anele, because otherwise Stave would be able to identify his countenance, his voice, etc (the same way they can physically recognize Linden). However, Anele says at one point that he learned about the Unfettered and the Rites of Unfettering from the Haruchai. This seems problematic.

I think Linden is so easily recognizable by her strange appearance (ie clothing) and not so much her features (hair, face etc.) That wouldn't be true of course for Anele who probably looks like any other elderly Stonedownor. His blindness would've confused the issue, and his lack of sanity. The Haruchai seem to have a collective memory that has been expressed through mind-speech but I've never had the impression that their mental communication also includes imagery.

On the strict side, Borillar has got a point. The Harchuai could remember alot in fine detail. They have proven that again and again.

But doubt was on Stave when he saw an insane old man without the Staff of Law. Plus it was 3500 years since Anele was born. No ordinary Land dweller lives that long and of course the ceasures wasn't really studied by the Masters.

So Stave assumed that Anele was a Earthpower filled looney and had to be caught and contained. He was a threat by the definion of the Masters.

Does anyone think there is anything in the fact that "Anele" is "Elena" backwards?

SRD says not. He didn't even notice it.


And welcome. To the Watch, and, more important, to THOOLAH.

Thanks, i read about the Anele Elena thing after i had posted that.

Something else occurred to me: given that the Haruchai can tell Anele is filled with Earthpower, this should have convinced Stave that Anele was the same Anele as existed in the past (since they would have recognized that trait in the past too). After all, what are the chances that there are two such people? This fact, as well as the fact that the Land is filled with time-altering caesures that could explain Anele's appearance, further make Stave's refusal to accept Anele as the son of Sunder and Hollian utterly incomprehensible.

Borillar wrote:the fact that the Land is filled with time-altering caesures that could explain Anele's appearance

Just a question out of ignorance: Do we as readers know that the Haruchai understand that the caesures enable time travel? I have only read ROTE and FR once each and can't remember.

I don't believe we know whether or not the Masters know until Stave travels through.

I'm not saying that the Haruchai know definitively that the caesures allow for time travel; I'm saying that they know there are some time-related disturbances roaming the Land.