Will most or all of the Ranyhyn die?

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

What better way to prove the Mastery of the Land wrong than show that it leads to the death of the Great Horses of Ra? To show that if the Haruchai had not Mastered the Land, a way might have been devised to spare the Ranyhyn such a terrible fate?

Or maybe the Ranyhyn will pull a collective Khelenbrabanal on us...

[dlbpharmd]

I could see something like this happening. We've seen the slaughter (or near slaughter) of a race in both the 1st and 2nd Chronicles. For my part, I certainly hope we're wrong.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Another thought I had earlier today: the Ranyhyn are going to stampede onto the scene of the Andelain/Gravin Threndor battle, mowing down the Sandgorgons to some extent or something, putting their lives in danger, and the Masters will sacrifice themselves to save the Ranyhyn.

[Vraith]

Another thought I had earlier today: the Ranyhyn are going to stampede onto the scene of the Andelain/Gravin Threndor battle, mowing down the Sandgorgons to some extent or something, putting their lives in danger, and the Masters will sacrifice themselves to save the Ranyhyn.

Something like that could happen....the Har would almost certainly stand with the Rany [please, not crushing the Sandies, though...I want the Sandies to turn to the good guy side!!]

I can see a large death toll among the Rany happening [to address your original point].

And [tangent/speculation], I may have mentioned this elsewhere...but I think there is significance to the fact that the name of the youngest involved Rany [Jerry's mount] is Khelen...so close to the name of the First Horse.

[Krilly]

[Jerry's mount] is Khelen...so close to the name of the First Horse.

Whoa... Didn't notice that.

He also wears horse pajamas. Yeah, the Ranyhyn definitely have more work ahead of them.

[earthbrah]

Yep, there's a definite connection between Jeremiah and Khelen. Something will come of that I do believe...

I have to say that I love how Brinn introduces the Ranyhyn in the teaser: Here are heroes. Could the fact that both Mhornym and Naybahn survived be a sign that the Ranyhyn will not all die...?? I'd like to think so.

[Cord Hurn]

"Will most or all of the Ranyhyn die?"

Words cannot express how thankful I am that this didn't happen!



(Maybe the emoticons can't express it well enough, either, but I thought it was worth a try...)

[wayfriend]

Didn't SRD once mention that he had discussed killing off the Ranyhyn and his wife or someone shot back "don't you dare!" ?

[Cord Hurn]

Didn't SRD once mention that he had discussed killing off the Ranyhyn and his wife or someone shot back "don't you dare!" ?

Good question, wayfriend, and your recall is impressive, as usual!

Actually, I dislike horses. They are the stupidest animals known to man, and nothing is worth the amount of trouble they bring with them. I know from experience: My wife loves horses, and we raised one for five and a half years. At one time while I was writing COVENANT, that horse of hers convinced me to kill off all the Ranyhyn. She had to resort to emotional violence to make me change my mind.

(Well, seriously, now -- there was a time while writing COVENANT when I intended to destroy the Ranyhyn: I thought that was an appropriate thing for Lord Foul to do. My wife convinced me that I was in danger of destroying my story by carrying wholesale slaughter too far. She was absolutely right.)

But as a child (say, eight to ten years old) I was fairly typical in my attitude toward horses. I wanted to be the Lone Ranger and I couldn't very well do that without Silver. (Or was his horse named Kemo Sabe? I forget.) Writing fantasy is often a child-like (if not actually a childish) activity. In creating the Ranyhyn, I harked back to the days when I would have wanted one of my own.

www.stephenrdonaldson.com/fromtheauthor ... hp?Page=11

(It's the answer to the 9th question from the top of that page.)