Lord Foul's Bane: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book One

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Cynicism Catalyst: His bitterness comes from being diagnosed with leprosy and losing his wife and child. Covenant meets a girl named Lena, who uses a special mud called hurtloam to heal the injuries from his fall and cure his leprosy. Covenant's loss of two fingers on his right hand makes Lena think he is the reincarnation of ancient hero Berek Halfhand. Believing himself to be in the grip of a dangerous delusion, and overwhelmed by his newfound sense of health and vitality, he rapes Lena. Unwitting Pawn: Drool apparently trusted Foul to give him good advice in the use of his powers. That... is one of the worst mistakes possible to make in these books.

Body Surf: The basis of their immortality, since a Raver can always escape his host's death at the last moment and steal a new body. The only way to actually kill them is for someone with a will strong enough to resist the Raver — like a Giant or Haruchai— to voluntarily allow themselves to be possessed, then trap the Raver in their body while someone else kills them. Samadhi and Turiya both bite it this way. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a series of ten high fantasy novels written by American author Stephen R. Donaldson. The series began as a trilogy, entitled The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. This was followed by another trilogy, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and finally a tetralogy, The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. In their review Fantasy Books Review gave the novel a 9.5 on a scale of 10, calling it a very complex work of fantasy, which is tough going but rewarding. [3] The main character of the stories is Thomas Covenant, an embittered and cynical writer, afflicted with leprosy and shunned by society, and fated to become the heroic savior of the Land, an alternate world. In ten novels, published between 1977 and 2013, he struggles against Lord Foul, "the Despiser", who intends to escape the bondage of the physical universe and wreak revenge upon his arch-enemy, "the Creator".

The Elohim

God's Hands Are Tied: He can't reach into the Land directly without also making a hole big enough for Foul to get out, hence having to act through (at times extremely contrary) proxies. Evil Is Deathly Cold: The interior of Foul's Creche is described as frigid both in its temperature and aesthetic; Covenant calls it a "damn icebox".

Their given names are also very close to Semitic words. "Jehannum" sounds like "Jahannam," the Islamic concept of hell, "Herem" can mean "utter destruction" in Hebrew (it refers to irrevocably giving something to God) and "Sheol" is the realm of the dead in ancient Judaism. Wizards Live Longer: Mhoram, by the end of the First Chronicles, is nearly eighty. He looks somewhere between half and two thirds of that. The main antagonist of the first book, Drool was a Cavewight whose ambitions far exceeded his ability to pull them off. A tool of Lord Foul, Drool is ultimately a pitiable figure, albeit still an extremely dangerous one. He is also the initial summoner of Covenant to the Land, albeit under the direction of Lord Foul. Character Development: Truly massive amounts of it. It's a long, hard road from the cynical, spiteful husk of a man of Lord Foul's Bane to the messianic figure of The Last Dark. Shippey, Tom (2013-12-06). "Book Review: 'The Last Dark' by Stephen R. Donaldson". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 2023-10-02.During the time of Kevin Landwaster he worked his way into his Council and received gifts of Orcrest and Lomillialor from Kevin. Ultimately he was discovered and so war broke out between him and the Lords. His power was too much and Kevin's army began to falter and so he met him in the heart of Mount Thunder where he invoked the Ritual of Desecration in the hopes of destroying Lord Foul, not realizing that invoking the ritual was Foul's plan all along. Classical Anti-Hero: Though never as unpleasant as Covenant at his worst, Linden — a young, largely untested medical doctor who wrestles with trust issues and depression — isn't exactly the stuff epic heroes are made of (at least, she certainly believes it about herself). In the Last Chronicles, she's much more proactive, but also more ruthless, making her more of a Pragmatic Hero.

Our Giants Are Bigger: A larger-than-life people in every way, the Giants are strong, boisterous, and friendly, always eager to meet new people or hear new stories.

Demoted to Dragon: The Ravers actually predate Foul's arrival in the Land; they were its reigning supreme evils for a while, until Foul showed up and the Ravers were drawn to him like moths to a flame. Of course, seeing as personality-wise there's little difference between Lord Foul and a Raver, they still get to do pretty much what they would have done anyway except with a more powerful patron, so they're generally content in their servitude. I had conceived the ambition to write a fantasy novel about a “real” character who rejected the fantasy experience (no doubt partly in an attempt to answer my own questions about why fantasy matters); and it occurred to me one day that if I wanted my character to have any true substance, he would have to be someone with very personal reasons to prefer fantasy (a leper, in this case) - someone for whom integrity is more important than convenience or easy gratification. And, of course, integrity is a journey. We don’t simply have it. First, we have to discover it. Then we have to earn it." Glamour Failure: Unusually for possessing spirits, the Ravers aren't that hot as actors, with their lust to do violence shining through no matter what body they're possessing or role they're trying to assume. Only generations of subtle corruption created an environment where Samadhi was able to rise to power in the Clave, and even then, the head of a cult that practices Blood Magic and human sacrifice is more or less a Raver's dream job. Worm/Word/Weird. In the cosmology of the Land, the Earth's core consists of a coiled-up serpent called the "Worm of the World's End". When Covenant attempts to sever a branch of the One Tree by using the power of the white gold, he risks rousing the Worm (which is not fully asleep, but merely resting) and thus destroying the Earth. The Waynhim and Ur-viles believe in a principle of ethics or destiny called the "Weird". The Elohim have a concept which appears to do duty for both these beliefs: it is impossible to determine whether the sound used for this is "Worm", "Word" or "Weird", as it comes out in a blurred form sounding something like "Würd".