Origins #1

Author’s note: This is the first in what might be a series of short essays about some of my favorite fictional universes. Today; we’ll take a look at the backstory of the Land, the world of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

The story of the Land, and the larger world that it is a part of, begins with a Creator. The Creator sought to make a living world, so first he used white gold and wild magic to forge the Arch of Time, as a place for his world to be made within, and a bridge of light to connect it to himself.

At first, all seemed well. The world slowly took shape, and the Creator’s children crossed the bridge to dance in the sky of the new-made world.

But then disaster struck. The Creator looked at his world, and saw terrible banes buried deep in the earth through no will of his. He thus realized that Despite, his shadow or his brother, had been at work, and so he wrestled with Despite, finally throwing it through the arch and in the process broke the bridge of light.

Thus both Despite and the Creator’s children were trapped, and could not return, as long as the Arch stands.

But Despite was weakened, and for a long time the land had peace, as the great Forest grew.

Yet not all was well, for into the land came three spirits - the Ravers, who could possess bodies, and they attacked the trees.

The children of the Creator decided to sacrifice one of their own to create a guard for the trees, who would later be known by men as the Colossus of the Fall.

The forests were thus protected for a long time, until Men came to the land.

As Men cleared the forests, the trees responded by taking some of the energy of the Colossus to create Forestals, strange creatures that seemed like a blend of trees and humans, and who wielded the power of the Earth itself - Earthpower. These creatures became the guardians of the forest, which slowed the destruction of the trees, but it was too late.

The Ravers had returned.

One of the Ravers possessed the king of men, and shocked by his sudden cruelty his wife the queen began a revolt against him.

She gathered heroes to aid her, and the greatest of these was Berak, the bravest and the best that the kingdom had to offer.

But even Berak could not defeat the forces of the King, and during one of the battles, he himself was wounded, losing the last two fingers of his right hand.

Defeated, bleeding, and desperate, Berak fled to the foot of Mount Thunder, a place of ancient power, and begged the Earth below him to help him, offering his life and service in exchange.

And the Earth responded.

The top of the mountain opened, and great creatures of pure flame called Fire Lions came down, and swept away his enemies.

True to his word, once the battle was over, he gathered the survivors of his people, and began teaching them the way of Earthfriendship. He then replaced the monarchy with a Council of Lords, with himself as the High Lord. Despite that title, he ensured that the office of the High Lord was one of cooperation rather than dictatorship. He then forged the Staff of Law, as the ultimate expression of Earthpower.

Generations past, and the people slowly repaired the damage their ancestors had caused, and each new High Lord seemed greater and more powerful than the last.

And soon, they also had allies.

For into the land came Giants - beings almost twice the size of a man, who were sailors who had lost their way home, and now lived on the other side of a great swamp.

Soon, with the Giant’s help, the people had built Revelstone, a massive city made out of rock, a place that could also act as a refuge in times of trouble.

More time passed, and then another group came into the land, the Haruchai, who were fierce fighters from the high mountains. The Haruchai disavowed weapons or magic, relying on their extreme physical skills, and they wanted to challenge the Lords, who were at that time led by a new High Lord, a man named Kevin.

But Kevin won the Haruchai over, so much so that they took an oath of service, an oath so strong that Earthpower entered them, and some of them became the Bloodguard - sleepless, ageless, and stern.

But just when Men had all but forgotten evil, a being arrived at Revelstone. He appeared to be human, and named himself Lord Foul, but despite the name, he proved to be a holder of much knowledge, and Kevin came to trust him.

Then, one day, he sent a message to the High Lord, saying he wanted Kevin to meet him in the swamp because he had secret information to give him.

Despite his trust of Foul, Kevin doubted, and instead of going himself, he sent some of his most trusted aides in his place.

As Kevin had feared, it was a trap. His aides were killed, and Foul declared war on the High Lord.

And very soon, he was winning.

Eventually, Kevin was desperate enough to try something unheard of.

He challenged Foul to meet him at Mount Thunder, and recite with him a deadly spell, the Ritual of Desecration.

To help limit the damage he was about to cause, he sent the Giants back over the swamp, and had the Bloodguard take the people as far away as possible.

He met Foul at the mountain, and they recited the ritual together. Kevin knew he would die in the spell’s effect, but he thought that at least he would take his foe with him.

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Because Foul was not human, he was Despite, and could not be destroyed by any spell.

The Land was devastated by the spell, and lay in ruin for some time.

But finally, the people came back with the Bloodguard, and seeing the damage, they decided to take an Oath of Peace, to never again fall into the passion that led to Kevin’s decision.

They were cheered when the Giants returned and bearing a device that they came to know as the First Ward of Kevin’s Lore, something he had prepared long before. They would soon learn that all of his knowledge and wisdom was recorded on the Wards, of which there were seven, and that when they had mastered the first, it would reveal the location of the next.

They set up a new council with a new High Lord, and despite the loss of the staff of Law, began working at healing the ravaged land.

Meanwhile, the Despiser, although not killed, had been seriously weakened, and could not threaten the Land directly for a very long time.

But as he recovered his strength, he decided he wanted to do more than defeat the new Lords and take over the Land. He wanted to escape the Earth, to get past the Arch of Time and take his fight to the Creator once more.

But to do that, he discovered he needed white gold, and there was none anywhere in the Land.

Then the staff of Law was found by a creature called a Cavewight, named Drool Rockworm.

And Despite saw his chance to acquire white gold, by having Drool summon a bearer of the metal from whatever world had the substance.

And a bearer came: Thomas Covenant, who had once been an author, husband, and father - until a diagnosis of leprosy took all those things away.

Abandoned by his wife and child, shunned by the small town he had grown up in, and isolated on the farm he had once shared with his wife, he struggled to continue to find a reason to live.

Until he was pulled into the Land, and because he also had lost the last two fingers on his right hand, he was seen as Berak reborn, as well as the wielder of wild magic from the white gold wedding ring he still wore.

But he was convinced that he was experiencing a dream while recovering from being hit by a police car on his last futile trip into town, and resented the demands the Land would put on him.

And so he would take the title of the Unbeliever, but his time in the Land would change him forever ...

The beginning ...

Author’s postscript: If this intrigued you, check out the books, called collectively The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. If you liked this, please leave a kudo and a comment..