Kevin's Watch

Re-reading WGW, I just noticed this passage, when Covenant is about to give the ring to Foul:

Only his eyes showed no collapse. They burned like the final dark, the last deep midnight were no Sunbane shone.

...

Cool find! I've been thinking that around the Last Dark there will be no more sunlight. (Where can you go from corrupting the sun?) I think most likely all the heavenly lights will go dark, making it a permanent starless night.

I'm sure "Shall Pass Utterly" is also a reference from the Chronicles. And "Fatal Revenant" may be as well.

"Shall Pass Utterly" refers from Lord Kevin's Lament.

Creator!
When You desecrated this temple
rid Yourself of this contempt by
inflicting it upon the Land,
did you intend
that beauty and truth should pass utterly from the Earth?

"Fatal Revenant" feels new to me, as far as I can remember.

Although there are references to Covenant as a "revenant" in WGW...

In any case, about the aforementioned quote regarding the Last Dark... reading further on in WGW, the moment in which Linden possesses TC to avoid him giving the ring to Foul and she experiences that sort of "mindscape" in which she's running to Covenant in the meadow and he remains far from her, she also noticed that his eyes were dark (something that, being also repeated before that, seems to mean that he had an unshakable faith in his purpose), and:

His darkness was as lonely as hers. But hers was like the lightless cunning and violence of the Wightwarrens; his resembled the heart of true night, where the Sunbane never shone.

Given that the same comparison about the Sunbane was made about the "final dark" quote above, and that the "heart of true night" where the "Sunbane never shone" likely meant the moment in which the Land was free from the ravages of the Sunbane - in essence, the moment in which the Land could be at peace - it would have interesting implications about the "final dark".

I just finished rereading WGW last month. "Final Dark" is mentioned 2 times once they get inside Mt Thunder. And fatal revenant is mentioned once somewhere in the book--though I can't remember where.

I'm currently slowly rereading the Chronicles - first time after Runes - and haven't gotten to that part yet. I'll pay attention when the phrases appear.

By the way, of the philosphical virtues truth, goodness, and beauty, Kevin mentions truth and beauty, while out of the three goodness is the one Lord Foul is really against. Harm to the other two is means to an end or collateral damage as far as he is concerned. I wonder if this point will get attention in Shall Pass Utterly.

This discussion reminds me, some of us tossed around our thoughts about the "final dark" in an earlier thread started by variol son: Fantasy concepts of darkness

Just wanted to share.

Another probable clue: the last of the Seven Hells is Darkness. Darkness is also the underpromoted one of the bunch thus far, so I think SRD put it in for the Last Chronicles.

Not "final", but an interesting Second Chronicles darkness anyway:

The cloudless sky darkened; powers blasting against each other dimmed the sun. A long tremor like the opening howl of an earthquake ran through the ground.

...

He [Vain] had escaped their direct grasp. And the sun poured into him like an aliment. Over all the maidan, the air was dim with preternatural twilight; but on Vain the sun shed its full strength, reversing the dissolution which the Elohim had wrought against him. Spreading his arms, he turned his black eyes upward and let the light restore him to himself.

...

Slowly, the Demondim-spawn lowered his arms; and as he did so, midday returned to the maidan.

And Vain came to be one half of the new Staff of Law... I think in the light of that, the previous section has some ominous implications on the nature of the new Staff.

Nerdanel wrote:"Shall Pass Utterly" refers from Lord Kevin's Lament.

Creator!
When You desecrated this temple
rid Yourself of this contempt by
inflicting it upon the Land,
did you intend
that beauty and truth should pass utterly from the Earth?

Berek also said it:

"Alas for the Earth. We are overthrown, and have no friend to redeem us. Beauty shall pass utterly from the Land."