The Bloodguard and "Diassomer Mininderain"

Book 3 of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

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Mighara Sovmadhi
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The Bloodguard and "Diassomer Mininderain"

Post by Mighara Sovmadhi »

From Covenant's esoterics at the start of AATE, we know that there are at least 4 eternal categories: Creation, Despite, Love, and Indifference. The first three have been matched to individuals, but not the fourth. Now the fourth is the opposite of the third, so its power is the power that can cancel out the other. If She is Love, then maybe the problem with Her can be solved by an emissary of Indifference.

The Bloodguard lost their wives for the sake of their Vow. We know Vow-likeness to signify a lot in Her eyes, else Covenant brandishing a symbol of absolute fidelity in front of Her would have had no impact on Her awareness. The Haruchai are immune to Kevin's Dirt, an effect of Her power, and Stave defied Infelice. How often are we told that the Masters and their kind seem... emotionally indifferent?

Although I have no concrete idea how, I suspect the the Haruchai are going to be the most important part of the equation involved in stopping Her because they, or something they have unique access to, correlate with Indifference, which is Her antithetical corollary in the eternal scheme of things.
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Post by Savor Dam »

I cannot fault your reasoning...but we still lack knowledge of an Eternal entity (like Creator, Foul, or She) embodying that archetype.

True, we were only introduced to She very late in the series...but to add another Eternal in TLD would have to be very artfully done to still ring true. Few authors are capable of this...but SRD might be in that tier.
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Post by Vraith »

Somewhere around here there is a bit of discussion on this sort of...I think in the SHE thread. It was proposed/argued that the Worm is the 4th {Indifference}.
I argued against that, but it does make some sense.
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Post by Savor Dam »

Fair enough. It certainly hails from the realm of the Eternals.
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Post by wayfriend »

In [i]Against All Things Ending[/i] was wrote:"Despite isn’t the opposite of Love. That’s Indifference. Love has more in common with Despite and Creation than with Indifference."
I am not so sure Covenant is positing that Indifference is embodied. He's only mentioning Indifference by way of explaining that Despite doesn't occupy the position opposite Love.

In fact, he's actually even saying Indifference is in a different category than the other three.

All I know is, there was no way of predicting that Love would appear in the third book of the third Chronicles. There's no way to predict whom else might appear. It may be Indifference. It may be Futility, or Happiness, or Slightly Buzzed.
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Post by Mighara Sovmadhi »

wayfriend wrote:I am not so sure Covenant is positing that Indifference is embodied. He's only mentioning Indifference by way of explaining that Despite doesn't occupy the position opposite Love.

In fact, he's actually even saying Indifference is in a different category than the other three.

All I know is, there was no way of predicting that Love would appear in the third book of the third Chronicles. There's no way to predict whom else might appear. It may be Indifference. It may be Futility, or Happiness, or Slightly Buzzed.
I'm wondering if we've already seen Indifference "embodied" in the Haruchai. It seems that their extreme self-discipline requires them to regard a lot of reality in an indifferent way. Now are all the women the Bloodguard had married but then for Kevin disavowed, as it goes, an example of victims of the treachery that She despises? Or did those women, and therefore the Haruchai in general (via mental communion), learn some way to deal with the end of those marriages that the Masters can in turn apply to Her, to help Her to "love again, and forgive," or w/e it is that Covey hopes for? (Don't the Haruchai also have problems with forgiving?) And if so, will this reflect the archetypal opposition between Love and Indifference, a reconciliation of these maybe?

I'm thinking again of Stave's, and the Masters', immunity to Kevin's Dirt, even when directly in Her presence, as evidence that the redemption of the Haruchai will turn on solving the problem with Her betrayal inasmuch as they already have this peculiar relationship with Her power.
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Post by Vraith »

If nothing else, what you just said gave me a "wouldn't THAT be cool?!" moment related to Har/SHE suggestion...apparently, the Har [if they are persuaded to act, and indications/speculations are correct] will be heading to her place...and in many ways, the Har. are THE embodied answer to her "problem"...I mean, they are rectitude/commitment in the flesh.
[spoiler]Sig-man, Libtard, Stupid piece of shit. change your text color to brown. Mr. Reliable, bullshit-slinging liarFucker-user.[/spoiler]
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
the hyperbole is a beauty...for we are then allowed to say a little more than the truth...and language is more efficient when it goes beyond reality than when it stops short of it.
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Post by Mighara Sovmadhi »

Vraith wrote:If nothing else, what you just said gave me a "wouldn't THAT be cool?!" moment related to Har/SHE suggestion...apparently, the Har [if they are persuaded to act, and indications/speculations are correct] will be heading to her place...and in many ways, the Har. are THE embodied answer to her "problem"...I mean, they are rectitude/commitment in the flesh.
This, also. :biggrin:
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