Three questions - definitely SPOILERS

Book 1 of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

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saera
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Three questions - definitely SPOILERS

Post by saera »

Okay, first, a minor thing, but still something that bugged me. Vitrim. I don't remember Covenant at all finding the taste foul; so I was really startled at Linden's reaction to it. Did Covenant also see the taste as yucky, and I just forgot it? :o

Second. Why didn't Linden send the Demondim into the future? She had that caesure, she controlled it, she knew it intimately as she said, so why risk fighting them and killing twoscore Haruchai and who knows how many Waynhim and ur-viles? Why not scoop them into the caesure and send them far far away in the future?

Lastly:
Linden & Stave wrote:"How long ago do you think it was?"
/.../ "I cannot speak with certainty. Ten score years, perhaps more. Not more than fifteen." /.../ "So I estimate."
(when they've all gone through the caesure to the past) Wtf?! How could he know that? Yes, the Haruchai have this preserve information-thing going, but he only knew the feeling, and how could they preserve that over the decades? It just struck me as awfully wrong. Good, I guess, that they would know they were in about the right time, but there should've been a better way of finding out. Bad Donaldson. :-x

That's all. :)
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Re: Three questions - definitely SPOILERS

Post by Damelon »

saera wrote:Okay, first, a minor thing, but still something that bugged me. Vitrim. I don't remember Covenant at all finding the taste foul; so I was really startled at Linden's reaction to it. Did Covenant also see the taste as yucky, and I just forgot it?


I thought that too, but remember it was the ur-viles who gave the vitrim to Linden, not the wayhnim. Maybe the taste depends on the maker.
saera wrote:Second. Why didn't Linden send the Demondim into the future? She had that caesure, she controlled it, she knew it intimately as she said, so why risk fighting them and killing twoscore Haruchai and who knows how many Waynhim and ur-viles? Why not scoop them into the caesure and send them far far away in the future?
Good question. :?
saera wrote:
Linden & Stave wrote:"How long ago do you think it was?"
/.../ "I cannot speak with certainty. Ten score years, perhaps more. Not more than fifteen." /.../ "So I estimate."
(when they've all gone through the caesure to the past) Wtf?! How could he know that? Yes, the Haruchai have this preserve information-thing going, but he only knew the feeling, and how could they preserve that over the decades? It just struck me as awfully wrong. Good, I guess, that they would know they were in about the right time, but there should've been a better way of finding out. Bad Donaldson. :-x

That's all. :)
That didn't bother me. That Stave could make a guess as to "what time it was outside" was as good a way to do that as any to advance the plot.
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Re: Three questions - definitely SPOILERS

Post by saera »

Damelon wrote:Maybe the taste depends on the maker.
Good point. Maybe. O.o
Damelon wrote:Good question. :?
:P You can't really claim that she was too exhausted to do it, since she did use the Staff of Law to make it vanish. Since it was her creation, she would've been able to just as easily wield the wild magic, right?
Damelon wrote: That didn't bother me. That Stave could make a guess as to "what time it was outside" was as good a way to do that as any to advance the plot.
It's so unrealistic, so it bugs me. :P
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Post by SoulBiter »

If she sent it into the future.. who was going to shut it down? NO it was too dangerous to send it into the future where no one might be able to stop it.
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Post by burgs »

Absolutely. No way in the world would Linden - or anyone with a conscience - dump the Demondim-spawn on an unsuspecting future generation, especially since she couldn't possibly know what defenses they could muster. Perhaps the Staff of Law is lost again in the future, and the wild magic is gone from the Earth, and all we have are stome Stonedowners, Haruchai, Ranyhyn, Ramen, Woodhelveners, etc., with no lore of their own to fight the lore-loaded Demondim who are accessing the Illearth Stone.

SHE has the Staff; SHE has the wild magic. If anyone has a chance against the Demondim, it's her.

With regard to Stave, he acknowledges that he cannot speak with certainty. It's just a guess. How? That's a good question, but I'm sure the answer is in front of our face somewhere. Donaldson doesn't make mistakes like that often, if ever.
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Post by saera »

Just thinking.. Since the Demondim were rising so fast from the ground after they'd fallen, the Haruchai couldn't defeat them. They said so. And being in Lord's Keep wasn't much protection, if they would keep on attacking. But they disappeared, so maybe it doesn't matter anymore. O.o Maybe they themselves jumped into the future of their own wills. Like, yay, 2245 here I come.
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Post by CovenantJr »

They hid. But at the end of Runes, they're on their way back, apparently pursuing Covenant and Jeremiah.
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Post by saera »

Oh yeah, of course. But where did they go in the meantime? o.O
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Post by CovenantJr »

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Post by Prover of Life »

saera wrote:Oh yeah, of course. But where did they go in the meantime? o.O

Into the earth?
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Re: Three questions - definitely SPOILERS

Post by Prover of Life »

saera wrote:Lastly:
Linden & Stave wrote:"How long ago do you think it was?"
/.../ "I cannot speak with certainty. Ten score years, perhaps more. Not more than fifteen." /.../ "So I estimate."
(when they've all gone through the caesure to the past) Wtf?! How could he know that? Yes, the Haruchai have this preserve information-thing going, but he only knew the feeling, and how could they preserve that over the decades? It just struck me as awfully wrong. Good, I guess, that they would know they were in about the right time, but there should've been a better way of finding out. Bad Donaldson. :-x

That's all. :)

Perhaps their tuning to the Earthpower provided a "tracer" to the approximate time, thereby enabling the Ranyhyn to pinpoint the Staff of Law.
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Post by saera »

Yes, I have no problem with them coming to the right moment or anything, it's just the bloody Haruchai knowing that bugs me. :P
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Post by burgs »

How did Linden know to ask him?
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Post by native »

Is it possible that the dead person who arrives at the end was raised by the Demondin with the power of the Illearth Stone? If so he would be as corrupted as Elena was. One has to ask where they got the body from? Did the Giants bring it back to Revelstone?

Worse, could that person BE Demondin?
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Post by Xar »

Resurrected Kevin and Elena both glowed with the same emerald power as the Illearth Stone... I would guess Linden would have noticed that sickly aura around
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not to mention her percipience would have noticed the wrongness, probably. While I have my doubts on the truthfulness of that person's identity, I think it's extremely unlikely the Illearth Stone is the cause of that return.

Demondim appear to be fluid and somewhat not completely in this world... nothing like that is said about
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at the end of the book, so I would think he's not a Demondim either... Besides, why should the Demondim care about making a new Demondim out of his body (which, I guess, would also be quite gone by now)? They loathed themselves and made the ur-viles and Waynhim exactly because of that... if I recall correctly, it was said that they wouldn't make others of their own because of that self-loathing. And besides, they come from a time where no one knew of him, or what he looked like, or what he would have done - so why him?
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urviles

Post by brinn18 »

i dont believe it was Ranyhyn Haruchai or Linden that made the Fall go back to that point. I believe it was the Urviles. They were using there Power to Keep everyone safe in the fall, when Linden used the white gold to reverse the fall the urviles could have used there Lore to put them out at that date. They obviously knew someone had taken the staff,(shown by their behaviour in that time) so there knowledge could have led to an approximate time as to when the staff was taken. (also if you remember they were not at the exact point from where Anele had left, they were decades later.)
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Post by Roynish »

Yes the Demondim just sort of trapsed on through. Well maybe a plot point.
SDR is writing a fantasy novel remember. But hey we have seen they control a fall themselves. They have some power over time as well.
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Post by burgs »

I thought that the ur-viles were the self-loathers, but then again I'm so hyped up over this election who knows.

Good point about the "emerald glow", but we know that SRD isn't going to make it that easy for us. I've stopped guessing.
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