Kevin's Watch

So....can someone give me a concise list/accounting of all Seven Wards of Kevin's Lore?

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Horrim Carabal wrote:So....can someone give me a concise list/accounting of all Seven Wards of Kevin's Lore?

It's an impossible task, since SRD has never done so in any of the Chronicles.

well.. one i believe was left in revelstone.. which i guess taught them to wield their staffs and earth power.. the second ward i believe was in mount thunder and that taught the lords the word of warding magic.. and then it skips the the seventh.. which is amok.

i guess the others are still out there. He really should have left them in revelstone. besides amok.

Hmmmm, OK. How about:

1. First Ward - brought to the Council by the Giants after the RoD. The Giants translated it for them, as the Council no longer understood the language of the Old Lords. It seemed to include the basics about Earthpower, and the Warlore.

2. Second Ward - found by the Quest for the SoL under Mt. Thunder. Contained a lot of info about nurturing and restoring the Land. With it, Trothgard was restored and Revelwood was created.

3. Third Ward - found by the Council after the events of TPTP. Nothing was ever done with it, as the Clave was about to start.

4. Fourth Ward - ?

5. Fifth Ward - ?

6. Sixth Ward - unknown, but from TIW we can glean some info. It likely contained info about the krill and probably info that would have allowed the Council to know the name of the 7th Ward (Power of Command) so that when Amok showed up (as he was originally intended to do so by Kevin) they would've been prepared for his arrival.

7. Seventh Ward - the Power of Command, manifested in the Earthblood under Melenkurion Skyweir.

^ is smarter than me

Yes but since this is TDL forum we can include those wards mentioned at the end. Weren't they 4 and 5?

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That may or may not be true. However, "smart" is not the same as age, depth of life experience or memory of what one has read.

Props to dlb for the concise and correct recap of the Wards!

The 4th and 5th were the chest and tapestry, right? But which was which?

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Horrim Carabal wrote:Yes but since this is TDL forum we can include those wards mentioned at the end. Weren't they 4 and 5?

[mod edit - to remove spoilers]

Sad to say, but unless SRD reveals this to us sometime in the future, I don't think we'll ever know.

Let's hope for a revival of the Gradual Interview soon!

Just a guess with nothing to support it but I'm imagining the tapestry had either to do with the use of the krill or Damelon's Door. Though I can't remember if Amok stated that the Door was not mentioned in any of the wards.

Thinking further on this - trying to figure out what knowledge or power have we seen manifested that we can't account for in what we know about the Wards. At some point, Loric's knowledge of metallurgy would've been included (assuming he passed that down to Kevin.) This could have been contained in 4, 5 or 6.

The New Lords knew how to fashion metal swords and staff-heels when Covenant first arrived in the land so some metalurgy at least was contained in the first ward.

I'd guess that Moksha gave Jerremiah the knowledge of the wards in its proper order so the bejeweled chest in the great swamp is the 4th ward, the tapestry in the northron climbs is the 5th and the state of the art DiskOnKey full with lost knowledge is the 6th.

One thing that bothers me is the weight that's given to Kevin's knowledge and to the 7 words. For one thing we've been told several times that the laws of the world have changed significantly after all the time and crises that it's been through. Why would his lore still be effective? Also, from the start, his lore was flawed, even before his desecrative leanings made him pervert it (he forgets one of the 7 words because it's anti-desecrational). The Theomach made sure to include some troyan horses in their lore to ensure that their tragic future was fulfilled.

So a bejeweled chest might contain rare objects of power. The Lurker would want to keep such objects in its grasp.

The tapestry is perhaps a map of the world detailing centers of Earthpower and information about important races? It will probably be outdated by the present time and its doubtful how much information it contain about the more remote locations of the world. After all, this knowledge didn't help the giants find the route back to their homeland.

Obviously, the new Lords (or someone on their behalves) could work metal, hence the Warward's gear and weapons. The staff-heels, as well, as shoe mentions.

I agree that the chest and tapestry are the missing Wards, but what in the name of Creation is the periapt that contains a library's worth of knowledge?

Surely the chest, tapestry and periapt are Wards 4, 5 and 6 in some order or other. Sure, Ward 6 must have contained some knowledge pointing to the method of "unlocking" Loric's krill, since it was the awakening of that which summoned Amok to turn up as the guide to the 7th Ward... but that doesn't stop it being the periapt (or the chest, or the tapestry).

The Krill test wasn't about creating Krill-like objects. It was about imbuing it with sufficient power to light it up completely and steadily. Maybe a wild type of magic similar to the wild magic is a component as well. Weren't we told that Kevin had dreams about wielding Wild Magic? He must have done some research on the subject.

Damelon wrote:Just a guess with nothing to support it but I'm imagining the tapestry had either to do with the use of the krill or Damelon's Door. Though I can't remember if Amok stated that the Door was not mentioned in any of the wards.

TIW, "Earthroot:"

Amok halted before this narrow gap. He waited until his companions were close behind him. Then, speaking over his shoulder in an almost reverential tone, he said, "Behold Damelon's Door - entryway to the Power of Command. For this reason among others, none may approach the Power in my absence. The knowledge of this unlocking is contained in none of High Lord Kevin's Wards."

This thread is ancient, but it contains an error I must correct. Amok did not show the way to the 7th ward. His responses to the question of "Who are you?" were always evasive: "Those who know know me have no need of my name." and (something to the effect of) "Among those who don't know me, I am called Amok".

It wasn't until one of the Lords had the insight to ask "What are you?" that he replied directly "I AM the Seventh Ward of High Lord Kevin's Lore." He was "the Way and the Key" to the Power of Command.

Think of it this way, a "Ward" as a noun is a container (e.g. hospital room, municipal district). As a verb, it means to protect. You could consider the noun form more specifically to be "a container under protection". Thus each of the Wards of Kevin's lore serves as a container that protects the information contained therein.

Amok was the protective container for the knowledge required to find the Power, and the physical key required to open the Door.

Now, extend this concept to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Wards, and the fact that only with full understanding of one can you make full use of the next.

The Fourth Ward can be found in the Illearth War. Look closely and you can see it.

IrrationalSanity wrote:Now, extend this concept to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Wards, and the fact that only with full understanding of one can you make full use of the next.

The 5th Ward is likely to be over a hidden bridge. There is some knowledge in the fourth ward that signifies this.

Lazy Luke wrote:The Fourth Ward can be found in the Illearth War. Look closely and you can see it.

IrrationalSanity wrote:Now, extend this concept to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Wards, and the fact that only with full understanding of one can you make full use of the next.

The 5th Ward is likely to be over a hidden bridge. There is some knowledge in the fourth ward that signifies this.

Full understanding isn't necessarily required to find, or even make limited use of, a subsequent Ward. Learning doesn't always come from formal study, but all Lore is built upon what is already learned.

If you attempt to follow an instruction set for which you don't have all of the precursors, you are likely to get a result that differs from the intent. Not necessarily a "bad" result, but one that varies in some significant way from the model.

The Oath of Peace blocked the New Lords from fully comprehending the Lore of the first Ward. That much is clear. Yet, when the opportunity came, they understood enough to recognize the hiding place of the second.

The New Lords had also derived a set of Lore of their own, which was based on the Oath - one manifestation of which was the Meld, allowing them a mind-to-mind connection. And, even with his limited formal introduction to Kevin's Lore from the first two Wards, Mhoram, upon finding within himself the capability for desecration, was able to leverage both that Lore and the Lore of the New Lords to ignite the Krill with his own fire - a capability which should (theoretically) only have been available after mastering all Six prior Wards.

IrrationalSanity wrote:Full understanding isn't necessarily required to find, or even make limited use of, a subsequent Ward. Learning doesn't always come from formal study, but all Lore is built upon what is already learned.

That's an archiac way of putting it, I suppose; something the Lords might say. I was merely thinking along the lines that the 4th Ward is 'vision' - a means to read alternative spellings, and phrasing, etc. Forth to War being a prime example. But how this helps the reader find the 5th Ward, I can only guess.

There is however a whole section of the Wounded Land titled Vision, which includes Weird of the Waynhim.
A good a place as any to start a search, I'd say.