Attuning your senses to the Land

[The Creator]

In LFB, when TC first uses the ring "to break the storm" with Atiaran, immediately thereafter, his senses become "attuned" to the Land.

Before that, he describes being able to see the health of the Land, but after this incident WOW! it hits him big time.

Why?

If it's a matter of being "from outside" how come Linden Avery can immediately do it and in a way that's more intense than the inhabitants?

[Lord Mhoram]

Well, Linden was a doctor here, giving her more of an ability to see the Lands health then the Landers(hehe new name for Land inhabitants). But thats not all. Remember, Creator, she WAS the Sun-Sage, giving her very, very great powers.
I remember, I may be wrong, that Covenant was able to see the Lands health and beauty before the storm(wasnt that a movie or book??), after he ate the aliantha for the first time.

[The Creator]

Mhoram,

Who "grants" Linden the power as the Sun-Sage? Are you saying that just any doctor would do or that only she could ever be the Sun-Sage?

About TC seeing the Land's beauty, that is true, he could see it from the start, but this concept of seeing health (inside a person), feeling vitality, tasting beauty and other "cross-sense perception" really kicked up a notch right after he uses the ring for the first time. Re-read that section and tell me if you see it...

In other books he refers to this phenomenon as his senses becoming "attuned" to the Land.

The Creator

[Lord Mhoram]

Excellent! New argument!
No one really grants anyone powers. Who grants Covenant wild magic? Who grants Linden wild magic? Now, being the Sun-Sage she has the power of wild magic, along with Earthpower,which makes her different then Covenant, not more powerful. W/these powers, she has a more immediately attuned sense of the Land's health.

[The Creator]

I am still confused. The granting is irrelevant. All I meant was is being a Sun-Sage inherent in Linden Avery by virtue of being a doctor or is it inherent in every doctor?

Wild magic is a tool of the holder. It is a particular expression of a person's inner passion or power. I agree there's no question of granting...

[Lord Mhoram]

Every doctor? No definitely not. If it was just any doctor then the Creator wouldnt have chosen her. Obviously he chose someone special. Linden was something special...like Covenant...

[amanibhavam]

I think this was discussed in another thread. Linden was not what she was because she was a doctor, but was a doctor and a Sun-Sage because of what she was. She had been chosen because of her inner qualities, her "structure", personality, whatever. Just like TC was white gold, she was something special; a receptacle.

As for TC's attunement, if you remember, TC uses white magic during that storm (albeit not consciously), thus causing the storm to subside. I beleieve this was the turning-point somehow.

[Tohrm]

I am not certain if I am going to say this right, but here goes anyway. I do not think that just anybody could become attuned to the land. Sure, we have three distinct cases that people came over and did, but is that merely a coincidence? Or is it possible that the potency of the land could allow anybody who came into it to eventually become attuned? I do not remember any references to anybody else who ever came over, much less anybody who did not become attuned except those who had lost the ability to do so from their influence of the sunbane in the 2nd chrons.
I remember that TC could not attune himself in the 2nd chrons. Could that be because of a) the progression of his disease b) LF being his usual self c)because of what TC did in the first chrons by turning his back on the land by leaving it by choice and coming back to our realm.

[Skyweir]

I forget .. were Hile Troy's senses attuned to the Land? He had sight restored .. but that is not the same as being attuned to the Land.

Tohrm raised some very interesting questions;

is it possible that the potency of the land could allow anybody who came into it to eventually become attuned?

Maybe so if HT was also attuned to the Land .. but then why not TC in the 2nd chrons?

I remember that TC could not attune himself in the 2nd chrons. Could that be because ... [left the Land]... by choice and coming back to our realm.

I have never thought of that before .. maybe that is a possibility .. though it seems a bit harsh .. seeing that the Creator must have surely wanted him to return to the Land too. Why would he deprive him of his health sense just because TC rejected his offer of a life in the Land? I think this question is very interesting all the same .. could that be the reason?

Also the point of his disease having progressed and the Land likewise infected by the Sunbane .. ???? .. a real mystery indeed *shrug*

[caamora]

Let me throw a question out there!

It appears that TC became "attuned" to the Land after treasure-berries and/or hurtloam. Could it be that in the 2nd chrons TC was not attuned to the Land because the Land had its' own kind of leporsy?

LA was the Sun-Sage - a title given to her by the Elohim. She could destroy the Sunbane. She was not "attuned" to any other part of the world in which she traveled. Her health-sense - as far as the world around her - was restricted to the Land. Yes, she could see people, but not her environment, that I recall. (I may be forgetting something.)

[Lord Mhoram]

I believe Covenant couldnt see the Lands health in the Second Chrons because he made that "deal"(call it what you will) w/the Despiser. After making this "deal" he lost several things...I have no clue what else...but one of them was his senses toward the Land, be became like all the other Landers...but not as ignorant.

[amanibhavam]

I see this problem a tad differently. I think that HT was really attuned to the Land, as TC was and all the other inhabitants of the Land, and all this because there was abundant Earthpower around. (Hurtloam is just a concentrated form of Earthpower that kinda triggered this change in TC.) Remember: HT had no eyes at all, no organs with which he could've seen in the first place, so any kind of vision that he had developed must have been a sort of attunement, a refinement and increase of his (no doubt preexisting) "sixth sense" as a blind person.
And in the 2nd Chronicles not only TC, but no inhabitant of the Land was attuned to the Land - otherwise they would've surely recognized aliantha for what it was and could've surely descried the Raver in Gibbon.

That's why the Creator had to bring Linden in: to have somebody from outside who by nature has this ability to see what's healthy and what's not (in Land-terminology health and moral goodness are synonyms).


I see a very nice shift of concept in this between the two Chronicles: in the First, all people from the Land were deeply attuned and in harmony with EP and deep head over heels in the OoP, and therefore having deep faith - so the Creator had to bring somebody in who in fact was capable of doubt, disbelief, estrangement, call it what you want, so that somebody can resolve the paradox of power and helplessness, guilt and innocence, faith and despair.
In the Second it was reversed. Very nice touch, IMHO.

[The Creator]

Amanibhavam, great insight! I never thought of it that way before.

What I still don't get is "how" it happens. In LFB, Covenant is aware to some degree of the health of the Land and others immediately. BUT in Chapter 9, Jehannum, (page 127 in my RED paperback):

With an intuitive leap, he grasped the change that had taken place within him or for him. In some way that completely amazed him, his senses had gained a new dimension.

Then

His thoughts reeled, groped, then suddenly clarified around the image of health. He was seeing health, smelling natural fitness and vitality, hearing the true exuberance of spring. Health was as vivid around him as if the spirit of the Land's life had become palpable, incarnate.

This was NEW at this point. And it happened after his FIRST use of Wild Magic.

I never considered how HT or LA got attuned. But it COULD be that normal, healthy people are automagically attuned. LA would be attuned no matter what the state of the Land. HT was healthy despite the loss of his eyes. ONLY TC was a leper. His senses truncated by the destruction of his nerves. So only when hurtloam healed his leprosy, was he open to becoming attuned.

Now, I am aware of one possible exception to this. In The Power that Preserves (PTP?), he is not healed of his leprosy by hurtloam. But is he attuned at all during that book???

I don't recall any health sensing that was out of the ordinary... Even on landsdrop the ending of winter was pretty obvious...

What do you think?

[Skyweir]

mmm .. fantastically interesting amy and Creator!!

Amy said

I think that HT was really attuned to the Land, as TC was and all the other inhabitants of the Land, and all this because there was abundant Earthpower around. (Hurtloam is just a concentrated form of Earthpower that kinda triggered this change in TC.)

ofcourse!! .. that makes perfect sense! .. I missed that .. all this time I didnt get that

And in the 2nd Chronicles not only TC, but no inhabitant of the Land was attuned to the Land

but ofcourse .. we often discuss TC's lack of health sense and attunement .. but as you rightly say .. no one else was attuned to the Land either .. there was no earthpower evident in the Land because of the sunbane!! .. excellent!!

I especially like the comparison between the ethos of the 2 chrons. The need of estrangement, doubt and despair to aid the inhabitants to realise the stark contrast between the OoP and the power inherent in the exercise of the Kevins Lore.

And in the 2nd where estrangement, doubt and despair kind of inhabits the Land .. is Linden the answer in contradiction to that?

I dont know .. isnt she also plagued with doubt and depair?? In this way she is akin to the inhabitants?

I can sort of get that point but how was the 2nd chrons reversed??

It could be that normal healthy people are attuned to the Land .. but as amy said .. health and moral goodness are synonomous it would seem. Was LA morally good? .. or was she just able to percieve health/moral goodness in the Land. Didnt she refuse to go to Andelain with TC because there was too much health and vitality evident there and she couldnt deal with it??

Did she have health sense or unhealth sense??

mmm .. and TC in the TPTP .. I cant remember if TC still had his senses attuned to the Land/health sense .. then .. I can see I have a lot of looking up to do ..

excellent points though!!

[aliantha]

I think if TC had realized in TPTP that his senses *weren't* Land-attuned, he would have at least mentioned it. It was such a big deal to him, not just to be free of leprosy, but to *feel* the health of the Land.

[The Creator]

aliantha,

He DID mention (as soon as he found out from overhearing Triock) that he was really disappointed that the hurtloam had "retreated" and could not heal him. So his sense of touch was not restored like before. He did mention something about his senses being truncated... (why can't I remember where?)

AND I now recall that someone who was "out unprotected in the Winter for too long" was affected negatively. There may be in that a tacit assumption that the health sense was waning at that time due to the Winter...

But if the Land had the power to "grant" the health-sense (as opposed to LA's Health-Sense) then LA wouldn't have gotten it because of the Sunbane.

Help!

[CovenantJr]

Also, remember that, at one point in TPTP, TC is faced with Raver Triock, but is unaware - he only notices that Triock is behaving strangely, whereas, if he had become 'attuned' again, he would have noticed Triock's possession immediately...

There seem to be too many commas in that paragraph. Ah well...

[amanibhavam]

that passage with Triock always bothers me when I reread it; TC behaves so... dumb; in a way, he is changed, too, after that little sojourn at the Unfettered's hut, and sort of in a limbo, but still

[aliantha]

Creator -- Good thing I'm going to be re-reading the Chrons with everybody else, isn't it?

[Lord Mhoram]

Also, Covenant didnt seem to notice the Evil in Elena at the Colossus; and didnt see the Dead Giant Raver in Fouls Creche.

Is it just me, or are there A lot of Capitals in my post?