Amok

[bikebryan]

I just read something on another site...the person stated they believed that Amok was of the Insequent. I see no evidence of this whatsoever.

I thought I would ask other's opinions of this as well. I firmly believe that Amok was simply a creation of Kevin's lore, designed solely to lead others to the Seventh Ward when the time was right.

Other opinions?

[IrrationalSanity]

Amok was made by Kevin as the Seventh Ward, to appear when sufficient lore was recovered to activate the Krill. (He didn't lead to the ward. He was the ward. He led to the Earthblood, and consequently the Power of Command.)

[dlbpharmd]

Agreed. Amok was not an Insequent.

[ussusimiel]

One of my nitpicks about the Insequent is that Amok didn't mention them when he talked about the wonders he had seen: Sandgorgons, Elohim etc.

Definitely not an Insequent.

u.

[DrPaul]

I just read something on another site...the person stated they believed that Amok was of the Insequent. I see no evidence of this whatsoever.

I thought I would ask other's opinions of this as well. I firmly believe that Amok was simply a creation of Kevin's lore, designed solely to lead others to the Seventh Ward when the time was right.

Other opinions?

You're quite right. The nature of Amok and the purpose of his creation by Kevin are made quite clear in TIW. His accelerated ageing and death once he has accomplished his purpose underline this.

[Vraith]

One of my nitpicks about the Insequent is that Amok didn't mention them when he talked about the wonders he had seen: Sandgorgons, Elohim etc.

Definitely not an Insequent.

u.

Well, to be fair, Amok is from the 1st Chrons---when no future Land-works were intended. If the continuing Chrons included only things mentioned in the first...well, Amok's speech would have had to be a LOT longer [["Why are people TALKING so much when THERE'S a WAR going on???!!!]]---or the continuation would have had a lot less to it. Though THAT option would probably have made quite a few people happy. No ugly/hurting land, no Linden, etc. [[and, sadly, no ussi, either.]]

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

One of my nitpicks about the Insequent is that Amok didn't mention them when he talked about the wonders he had seen: Sandgorgons, Elohim etc.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Ussy, than are dreamt of in Amok's travel brochures.

[JIkj fjds j]

I thought I would ask other's opinions of this as well. I firmly believe that Amok was simply a creation of Kevin's lore, designed solely to lead others to the Seventh Ward when the time was right.

Other opinions?

Amok could be a golem!

A creature I first read about in Piers Anthony's Split Infinity series gave me the idea that Amok may have originally been made from wood - evoked presumably by High Lord Kevin using the Staff of Law - and programmed with a set of algorithms dependent on the circumstances of his summons.

LINK - a good description explaining the creation and purpose of such a creature.
It's interesting that the article mentions the golem, "running amok", and that sometimes a scroll of parchment would be placed in the arm.
Can Amok and Vain have more in common than mere curiosities?

[wayfriend]

Certainly Amok was an automaton of sorts. I could agree that he was a golem except that "golem" implies that he was built from materials other than flesh and bone, and everything about Amok tells us that he was.

(Iron Council by China Meiville had some fascinating golems in it!)

[aliantha]

Yeah, no. A golem is made from clay and never transmutates (to my knowledge) into flesh and bone.

Amok was more like Siri -- all Covenant had to do was ask him the right questions.

[JIkj fjds j]

Amok was more like Siri -- all Covenant had to do was ask him the right questions.

Siri! Yeah, Ali ... won't that be the day.

[Avatar]

...and everything about Amok tells us that he was.

Well, it looked like flesh and blood. I never really thought it was. I wonder what would happen if Vain and Amok touched? (Although I always sorta saw Amok as an expression of Law, which is really what Vain was too.)

--A

[JIkj fjds j]

Hile Troy was transmuted from flesh and bone into a rooted stump of wood. In the Land where almost anything seems possible surely wood can then be transmuted into flesh and bone.
So while the Staff of Law, Loric's Sword, and the chicanery of Damelon were all used to create Amok, Vain's forearm was more likely the Forestal's doing.

[aliantha]

Agreed about Vain.

You think Amok was sort of a mobile hologram? Hmm...

[wayfriend]

Let's not forget health-sense.

Covenant watched as two more Bloodguard came into the Close with the stranger between them. He was slim, simply clad in a cream-colored robe, and his movements were light, buoyant. Though he was nearly as tall as Covenant, he seemed hardly old enough to have his full growth. There was a sense of boyish laughter in the way his curly hair bounced as he came down the steps, as if he were amused by the precautions taken against him. But Covenant was not amused. With the new dimension of his sight, he could see why Growl had said that the boy was "not as other men." Within his young, fresh flesh were bones that seemed to radiate oldness - not age - they were not weak or infirm - but rather antiquity. His skeleton carried this oldness, this aura of time, as if he were merely a vessel for it. He existed for it rather than in spite of it. The sight baffled Covenant's perceptions, made his eyes ache with conflicting impressions of dread and glory as he strained to comprehend.

If Amok was in any way not human, health-sense would have revealed it - as it did his antiquity. Certainly had he been made of wood or anything else, or had been odd in any way, anyone with health-sense would have known.

Of course, this still leaves open the notion of a transmutation at an earlier time...

[JIkj fjds j]

Of course, this still leaves open the notion of a transmutation at an earlier time...

How might High Lord Kevin have made Amok?

The white statuette stood on an ebony base. It was a rearing Ranyhyn mare made of a material that looked like bone. The work was blunt of detail, but through some secret of its art it expressed the power of the great muscles, the intelligence of the eyes, the oriflamme of the fluttering mane.

... looked like bone? Or, ivory perhaps!
Maybe if Kevin knew marrowmeld. Adding ancient magic to the mix, abracadabra! zimzallahbim! - Amok.

[DrPaul]

How might High Lord Kevin have made Amok?

Amok describes himself as the Seventh Ward of Kevin's Lore, so I'm going to suggest that he could only have been made by means of lore contained in the Sixth Ward, which of course would have been far advanced on anything we see in any of the Chronicles.

[Avatar]

And it says right there...he was a vessel for what he contained. Anyway...whatever he was...it wasn't human.

--A

[IrrationalSanity]

I think we're in accord the fact that he is not Insequent.

Amok was a creature, but a made one - not unlike the spawn of the Demondim, but made with the lore of the Old Lords. In that respect he is quite like Vain, the Urviles and the Waynhim.

Like Vain, he was made for a purpose. Also like Vain, he had some leeway in the fulfillment of that purpose. And like Vain, when he had fulfilled his purpose, his existence was essentially at an end.

[Avatar]

Yeah, pretty much agreed.

--A