Kevin's Watch

We have known the Lurker of the Sarangrave, Horrim Carabal, for a long time. It has hunted the heroes of the Land and tried to devour their powers with horrific results since time immemorial. But the Lurker revealed a new facet of itself in the Last Chronicles: the Lurker can speak to us. Using its puppets the Feroce it has spoke, bargained and made deals with our heroes. There's no question any longer, the Lurker is an intelligent being, or is it?

When the company enters the 'anus of Mount Thunder'(*) they encounter the High God's God, as the Feroce call it. A stinking pool in the headwaters of the Sarangrave Flat made of malignent sewer-water that unmakes any creature (or part of it) that touches its waters and that even rises up and spreads to hunt such prey that ventures near it.

When the Feroce reach this place they expect a similar (or even grander) intelligence to that of the Lurker they serve but they are disappointed. It is just a hungry pool that consumes things. While the pool shares the Lurker's drive it has no intelligence. But if not from the waters that compose it, where could the Lurker'sintellignece originate from where is its brain located?

The Falt and swamp contain rich plant life. Could it, like the One Forest be a communal plant intelligence? But unlike the One Forest where the trees are the central component of its being, the center of power of the Lurker and what manifestations of it we've seen have always been in the waters of it, not its plants. The plantlife has always played a marginal role in all the encounters we've witnessed with this being. What's more, the life cycle in the swamp tend to be vicious and rapid. There are no long-living trees like those of the One Forest. Likewise the native life of the swamp is not particularly impressive. Vicious insects and other beasts. The only interesting being with any display of intelligence are in fact the Feroce and their kin.

Could it be that the Feroce are the ones in fact that created and maintained for all those years their alleged High God? That the High God is in fact merely their group mind and that they, unknowingly, are the ones controlling the Sarangrave and not the other way around? Before the Jheherrin arrived in the Sarangrave, the Lurker, like its progenitor the hungry sewer pool was just a hungry thing that ate whatever source of Earthpower stumbled into its demense.

The Feroce realized this truth when we last saw them. That was why they were so rattled.

The elaborate trap enacted in The IllEarth War was obviously devised by Lord Foul himself and not by the Lurker and therefore cannot be posed as evidence to the contrary.



(*) thank you Z for that uproariously funny description of that part of the journey's company.

well, the feroce are just the latest evolution of the throw away , discards of the warrens of creature making in Mt Thunder..It seems to me these creatures get more timid and afraid of their shadow with each " evolution". They descended from the jheherrin, which were also casper milque toast but seemed a bit less devoted to the Lurker. So , directly, as literal creators of that which they worship,,is interesting and works in the sense of evolving. That is a fascinating observation of the relationship between the devout and their religion and god or gods.

The figurative or metaphorical of ..Their God becoming more compromising as they themselves become more timid or weak is interesting..Yet,,the issue seems to me to be of Surviving...As in..if ya don't change with the Times..you probably won't survive the Times. And even,,if you don't make the changes required to Survive, you probably won't survive..speaking metaphorically, and not literal life and death.hhhmmm..maybe a look at the changes of todays Roman Catholic Hierarchy would be comparable? ..That the Lurker compromised in order to survive,,subjugated itself to making a deal instead of ripping and tearing apart and devouring and whatever..indicates to me a variation of the " help" concept the author hits on thru out TLD. Perhaps with the Lurker grasping the minimum of Help,,those which worship it are also redefined. I thought that they were rattled because,,like the Lurker,,they Helped,,,and thus found value in themselves rather than being totally subservient to the Lurker..a neat parable of the spreading effect of Helping.

While on the subject...In the Mandela Eulogy by President Obama are the words of.." We achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others."..It seems to me that is the lesson of the Lurker and the Feroce in TLD,,as well as a few others but thats another post.