Kevin's Watch

Forgive me if this is obvious-- in short, my question(s) is this: How does an increase or decrease in the Sunbane power (as modified by the Claves mega-rukh with blood) affect the cycle of the Bane upon the Land. (ie-a 3 day cycle of Pestilance followed by Rain, etc.) Does an increase in power shorten the cycle? If so, what would be the objective of a super strong Sunbane- one day cycles? How would this result in more trauma for the Land?

After the soothtell (p.367 TWL) Covenant felt "suddenly sickened by the idea that the soothtell were a lie...if two days of rain were followed by only two days of pestilance--"

I guess I'm not grasping what he means here!

I actually think that the Clave meant well and that the blood was used to keep the Sunbane stable - sort of a stable chaos.

The more blood the shorter the cycle--the shorter the cycle the more warped the Land becomes

I gathered that the sunbane worked something like a machine that ran on blood. The more blood it was fed, the faster it went, the faster it tore up the land. Not enough time to adjust, just like the body's reaction to extreme changes in temperature.

I agree that a one day sun doesn't seem like it would be as bad as any sun that lasted a week. The only thing I can think of is that the lingering effects of the suns would compound more. A sun of pestilence that came after a sun of growth that came after a sun of rain would probably be pretty bad.

I reckon its like over-correction ... fishtailing from one extreme to the other. Instead of a pleasant mix of options, the land is allowed only one at a time and in an accelerated mode.

From that, I believe that it would be more painful for the Land if this cycle was sped up. Flung from one extreme to another, with no chance to even try to find its footing during any of the phases.

That's my take on it.

Boy. Did I have it all wrong. I thought that feeding blood actually prevented the cycle from shortening.

Vain wrote:Boy. Did I have it all wrong. I thought that feeding blood actually prevented the cycle from shortening.

That's what the Clave was led to believe. If they'd actually known that the Banefire was feeding the Sunbane, they wouldn't have carried on for 1500 or 2000 years.

Once Covenant left Revelstone, Gibbon na-Mhoram threw aside all caution and depopulated the whole Land for scores of leagues around to feed the Banefire, speeding it from three days to two in a matter of months. No doubt he kept the Clave in line by a combination of subterfuge (blaming Covenant for the acceleration of the Sunbane) and sheer terror.

In any case, if the Clave was fooled for centuries, you're hardly blameable for missing the point when you've merely read the books.

It's interesting-directly after the escape from Revelstone, just after Covenant revealed the soothtell-- Memla, Sunder, Covenant and Hollian were all especially anxious to to gather tidings of the next sun- they'd had two days of Pestilance.
Presumably, if Covenant's soothtell was correct and not a ruse, the Sunbane cycle should weaken and extend into a third day because of the release of the prisoners, especially the potent blood of the Haruchai.
Covenant breathed a sigh of relief when this was true.

basically the raver and foul were just trying to destory the land, the most painful and slowest way.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

according to what it says inthe book, the banefire powers the sunbane. The more blood is fed into the banefire, the faster the sunbane gets - and, once the sunbane reaches a cycle of one day, it will destroy the land and begin spreading to the rest of the world.

Now, even when Linden healed the Land, didn't it say the the Sunbane would never go away?

Linden absobred the Sunbane unto herself, she was in great pain in the process.

Hmm... I don't really think thats how it happened. It seemed to me that, in Kiril Threndor, she used the staff and the White Gold to heal the corrupted earthpower and restore it to what she percieved as healthy. As the sunbane was simply a result of the corrupted Earthpower, once the Earth was healed the sunbane stopped.

This is my take on linden.
She absorbed the sunbanes fury. It was a creature or sentient by the time she got to it. You were right about the shorten=bad.
She destroyed the sunbane by taking it all unto herself and just brushing it off. From what i got from all of the last stuff about how she put the thought of triumph in thier heads was becouse she killed it with her god like power
Go linden!

I found it! Page 462 - 463, White Gold Wielder:

Deliberately, she opened her senses and went by her own choice back out into the Sunbane.

...The very Earth was bleeding to death. Linden had no way to save herself from downing.

That was the truth of the Sunbane. It could never be stanched. She was a fool to make the attempt.

So, what Linden did was set things aright. She re-set the seasons and gave the Land her understanding of nature and health and the natural progession of nature and healing. She did not destroy the Sunbane because she couldn't.

If the Clave had stopped feeding the Sunbane, would it eventually have gone out? Or would it have simply equalized? In other words, did the blood actually feed the Sunbane, or did it simply make it go faster? I've never been clear on this.

I think if they stopped feeding it the sunbane would revert to it's initial state - remember that when it started it was 7 or 8 days long.
This seems to be backed up by the fact that it's speed is altered by how quickly they feed it - they were feeding it at a pretty constant rate from the Haruchai, and it didn't get faster than three days, but as soon as they increased the rate of feeding blood into it, it changed to two days, so it would seem likely that if they stopped it would slow back down.

I dont think so .. It seemed to be feeding on the bleeding wound it had created in the earth as Caamora alluded to. Even after Foul was defeated and no more .. Linden explains the sunbane would continue without him but without mind or purpose.

Maybe the blood the Sunbane was fed was to increase its impact more rappidly on the Land. I am not so sure about that tho'.

SRD wrote:And beyond this fertility lurked rain and pestilence and desert in erratic sequence, waiting to repeat themselves over and over again, always harder and faster, until the foundations of the Land crumbled. Then the Sunbane would be free to spread. Out to the rest of the Earth.

Its interesting how LA combatted the Sunbane.

SRD wrote:She did not attempt to attack the sunbane. Instead she called it to herself and accepted it into her personal flesh.

..thought I'd bump this up for some new insight..

So which would be worse, a sun of 7-8 days, or a sun of 2 days?