Kevin's Watch

In the GI for Oct. 2008:

SRD wrote:But *unimportant*? Break out the cardiac paddles. I think I'm having an infarction. If you asked me to name just one thing that makes the Land worth writing about, I would probably pick the Wraiths. If you asked me to name just one thing from the Land that I would like to actually see in person, I would probably pick the Wraiths. *Unimportant*? I'm afraid you'll have to ask someone else. I can't get there from here.

The Wraiths are the most important part of the Land?!

No, but seriously, the Wraiths are the most important part of the Land?!

This seems... important... to the story, but every clue is but a wraith.

Imagine how the Last Chronicles would have looked if SRD couldn't see what he was writing.

shadowbinding shoe wrote:Imagine how the Last Chronicles would have looked if SRD couldn't see what he was writing.

I'm sure some people would say, "The way they look now: like $%^&!"

Mighara Sovmadhi wrote:

shadowbinding shoe wrote:Imagine how the Last Chronicles would have looked if SRD couldn't see what he was writing.

I'm sure some people would say, "The way they look now: like $%^&!"

Unfortunately, this is how I feel (Still reading them though )

On Topic: (Apologies if you've thought this already) I don't know if SRD is saying that the Wraiths are the most important thing in the Land. I think he's saying (and has said elsewhere) that the Wraiths are his favourite thing in the Land, and this maybe because they represent its essence absolutely purely. One of the reasons that someone might think that the Wraiths are unimportant is that they seem to be basically helpless/powerless, which may be a reflection of the Land's own essential powerlessness. The Land can only enact good and thus is incapable of defending itself. Covenant's books come to mind connecting power with guilt. The Land is guiltless, as are the Wraiths.

u.

ussusimiel wrote:One of the reasons that someone might think that the Wraiths are unimportant is that they seem to be basically helpless/powerless, which may be a reflection of the Land's own essential powerlessness. The Land can only enact good and thus is incapable of defending itself.

I've always been aware, or 'sensed' might be a better way of putting it , that the Wraiths of Andelain were the living souls of the murdered tree-folk of Soaring Woodhelven.
This of course must be nonsense - after all, wasn't Covenant's presence at Banas Nimoram before the giant tree was attacked and destroyed.

I'm also sure, though I can't explain in certain terms, that the Fire Lions of Mount Thunder are the desecrated Wraiths empowered by White Gold Magic.

If so, this would make the Wraiths a formidable force to be reckoned with.

ussusimiel wrote: they seem to be basically helpless/powerless, which may be a reflection of the Land's own essential powerlessness. The Land can only enact good and thus is incapable of defending itself. Covenant's books come to mind connecting power with guilt. The Land is guiltless, as are the Wraiths.

u.

Perhaps...though they aren't quite powerless [we didn't know that really till recently, when they barred Longwrath from entry].
A case can be made.
But for me what it is about them is they are beyond power [or lack] and guilt [or lessness]...it is because they are the world distilled and filtered...
or the culmination of an uncorrupted flow...
leaving only....
pure beauty.

My two cents: the Wraiths know the lore of refusal and will be instrumental in holding back the Worm (if the thing can be held back at all). After all, the Worm in itself is the size of a range of hills, and where do the Wraiths wander the most...?

Mighara Sovmadhi wrote:My two cents: the Wraiths know the lore of refusal and will be instrumental in holding back the Worm (if the thing can be held back at all).?

I like this.