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This article is about the setting for a series of books by Stephen R. Donaldson. For other uses, see The Land (disambiguation)

The Land is the primary setting for the series of fantasy books by Stephen R. Donaldson called The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.

Although a larger world exists that is mentioned throughout the series and visited in several of the books, most of the action in the Chronicles takes place in the Land, as it is the main target of Lord Foul's despite. It is home to many different races and has a long history stretching back thousands of years, although much of it is entangled with resisting the destructive machinations of Lord Foul as he tries to break through the Arch of Time (which surrounds the world) so that he may escape and do battle with his enemy, the Creator.

Geography

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The Land comprises several areas, physical features, habitations and special sites:

Many of these places are mapped in Karen Wynn Fonstad's 1985 book, The Atlas of the Land.

History

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The Land has a history that precedes the arrival of Thomas Covenant by many thousands of years.

Before the First Chronicles

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The Creation of the Earth:

According to a tale which Lord Tamarantha told to Thomas Covenant in Lord Foul's Bane, the Earth was made by a supernatural being referred to as the Creator. The first act of the Creator in the process of Creation was to make the Arch of Time — the boundary between the universe in which the Land exists and the infinite cosmos beyond. The keystone of the Arch was made from wild magic. Through a long process of shaping and reshaping, the Creator next made the Earth. Once the Earth was made, the Creator next made the living things which inhabit it.

The Creator was justly proud of his Creation, but was dismayed when he saw that it contained evil things not of his making. The Creator found that the Despiser had interfered with his work. In grief and rage, the Creator wrestled with the Despiser and eventually cast him down from the infinite cosmos onto the Earth. The Despiser became part of the world of Time: unable to leave it, but free to torment it. The Law of Time prevents the Creator from directly affecting the world. If he were to reach within the Arch of Time, not only would the Arch and the world within it be destroyed, but the Despiser would be set free to do works of evil throughout the infinite cosmos.

There is a second creation story, told by Pitchwife to Linden Avery. According to the lore of the Elohim, there is a great Worm which alternates between eon-long periods of sleep and activity. While awake, the Worm is filled with a ravenous hunger which drives it to consume the stars. During one period of wakefulness, the Worm consumed so much that although its time of sleep had not come, it felt a great desire to rest. The power of the stars which the Worm had consumed caused the Earth to be formed around it, and caused the creation of living beings. When the Worm ends its time of rest, the Worm will shake itself free of the Earth, destroying it. For this reason it is called the Worm of the World's End.

There is also a third story told by the Clave, according to which the World was created as a prison for a-Jeroth "Of the Seven Hells" (an alternative title for Lord Foul) after he seduced the Creator's spouse. While the first two legends probably contain elements of truth (perhaps coded in symbolic language) the third is almost certainly a deliberate concoction designed to justify the na-Mhoram's evil policies.

The Tale of the One Forest:

Before men came to the Land, most of it was a single vast forest with a consciousness and will of its own. The first people to enter the Land were ignorant of the One Forest's sentience, and of Earthpower, and so many of the trees were cut down. The destruction of the One Forest was further encouraged by the three Ravers.

One of the Elohim people came to the Land, hoping to defend the One Forest. He gave the forest his knowledge and power. With them, the One Forest created both the Colossus of the Fall (a talisman which barred the Ravers from the Upper Land) and the Forestals, guardians charged with protecting the remaining forests.

The Era of the Old Lords

Millennia ago, all the Land was a single nation, ruled by a King and Queen. They ruled together in unison and peace, until the King began to lust after power, and he became a cruel despot. The Queen opposed her husband, and there was war. The King's army was the stronger, and the last of the Queen's champions, Berek, challenged the King to single combat. The two were nearly matched, but when the King cut two fingers from Berek's hand, the Queen's champion fled. Berek ran for three days without stopping, the King's host behind him the whole way.

When Berek arrived at Mount Thunder, he cried out in despair. He heard the Earth reply, offering its friendship to him in exchange for a pledge to serve and heal the Earth. Berek made the pledge, sealing it with blood, and the fire-lions of Mount Thunder destroyed his pursuers. Berek still had many battles to fight, but he eventually defeated the King's forces. He then created the Staff of Law from a branch of the One Tree, established the Council of Lords, and became the first High Lord. Because of his pledge to the Earth, the Earthpower conveyed unto Berek and his line extreme longevity: It was said that the Old Lords easily lived centuries as we live decades.

The next High Lord was Berek's son Damelon, during whose time the Giants first came to the Land. The Giants established friendship and Rockbrotherhood with the people of the Land, and built Revelstone, the Lords Keep, which was made by carving it out of a mountain.

Damelon's son Loric was the next High Lord. During Loric's reign as High Lord, the powerful and austere Viles came under the influence of Lord Foul's despite, the Viles learned to hate the forests and became enemies of the Old Lords and the Land until they were exterminated by the Old Lords under the leadership of High Lord Loric Vilesilencer. Lord Foul lured the Demondim (creatures of immense, often dark, power, spawned by the Viles) into creating the deadly and lore-wise ur-viles. Several battles between the ur-viles and the Lords ensued during which time High Lord Loric created the krill, a short-sword whose spectacular center gem contained immense power against the ur-viles driving them out of the Land for a time.

The last High Lord of the Old Lords was Kevin. During his time, the Haruchai, the race inhabiting the high mountains surrounding Lord's Keep, came into the Land across the northern mountains seeking to conquer the Land for themselves. So moved were they by the beauty they observed and friendship they received, they swore the Vow which created the Bloodguard. So deep and powerful was the Vow that the sentient Earthpower itself was moved to make all those Haruchai who swore the Vow be unaffected by the passage of Time nor needing any desire of the flesh (food, water, emotion). Also during this time, the Despiser took human form, and infiltrated the Council of Lords. When Kevin realized the Despiser's true identity, he despaired. In an attempt to destroy the Despiser, Kevin chose to enact the Ritual of Desecration. But before undertaking this act, he recorded all the lore of the Old Lords in seven Wards and hid them. He also sent the people of the Land into exile beyond its borders. Together with the Despiser, Kevin enacted the Ritual of Desecration. This rite laid waste to much of the Land, and destroyed almost every living thing within it. Kevin's purpose, however, was not achieved, as the Despiser was merely "reduced" for a time, and not destroyed.

The people of the Land spent five hundred years in exile, during which the they splintered into two groups: those who favored the stone-lore and those who favored the wood-lore. Each group abandoned and forgot the lore which the other favored. These two groups, when they returned to the Land, would become stonedownors and woodhelvenin, respectively.

The Era of the New Lords

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When the people of the Land returned, they discovered that the Giants had somehow survived the Desolation. The Giants gave a gift to the people of the Land: the First Ward of Kevin's Lore, which the last of the Old Lords had left in their keeping. The people renewed Berek's pledge to serve and heal the Earth, and reestablished the Council of Lords. Furthermore, they also swore the Oath of Peace, so that there would never be another Desecration.

At the Time of the First Chronicles

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Thomas Covenant is first summoned to the Land 1000 years after High Lord Kevin and Lord Foul's nuclear holocaust-like Ritual of Desecration had desolated the Land and destroyed much of its heritage.

Thomas Covenant arrives in a Land repopulated and largely replenished. Covenant himself is greeted by the people of the Land as the reincarnation of Lord-Fatherer Berek Halfhand, a hero of great historical significance. His white gold wedding ring is recognised as a talisman of great power.

The New Lords of this age are limited in their abilities to defend or succour the Land, retaining only remnants of the wisdom and power that their predecessors had possessed. According to Lord Mhoram, the New Lords have not yet even mastered all of the Lore contained in the First Ward, and High-Lord Kevin devised Seven of these Wards in order to ensure that the knowledge of Earthpower and its uses would be both available and yet protected from misuse, for only by mastering all of the Lore in each Ward would the nature and location of the next Ward become clear.

However Thomas Covenant's arrival also heralds the return of Lord Foul the Despiser, and the Land and its people once again find their future under threat as Foul attempts to break the Arch of Time to escape his imprisonment upon the Earth, thus ending all life.

At the Time of the Second Chronicles

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Three thousand years after Thomas Covenant defeated Lord Foul, a new evil known as the Sunbane menaces the Land. Appearing as a corona of varying color around the sun, the Sunbane perversely affects the climate of the land, cycling through periods of pestilence, desert heat and desiccation, fertility run rampant, and torrential rainstorms.

The Lords of Revelstone have been supplanted by the Clave, a group that professes to oppose the Sunbane through a mystic flame known as the Banefire—a power fueled by blood attained through human sacrifice. The Clave and their agents assert that the Sunbane is a punishment upon the people of the land for past failures to resist a-Jeroth of the Seven Hells (the new guise of Lord Foul the Despiser), and demand "volunteers" from each community on a regular basis to feed the Banefire. They claim to work in the best interest of the Land, using the Banefire to prevent the Sunbane's influence from growing; however, all is not as it seems.

The Earthpower is unknown to the common denizens of the Land, and the legends of those who wielded it have been warped to make them seem corrupt and misguided; Berek Halfhand is now reviled rather than revered. The only powers accessible to the people are attained through blood sacrifice—either that of a victim or the wielder's own blood—which is used to harness the ill power of the Sunbane itself. With no other way to mitigate the effects of the Sunbane, the people have little choice but to give victims over to both the agents of the Clave and for the village's purposes.

At the time of the Last Chronicles

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The Land has healed from the devastating effects of the Sunbane, but Earthpower is still unknown to most of its people due to the efforts of the Haruchai. Deciding that all uses of Earthpower eventually lead to evil, the Haruchai, now known to the people of the Land as "the Masters", suppress all knowledge of Earthpower. This is facilitated by a new ill upon the land, a particle cloud dubbed "Kevin's Dirt" which covers the Land, but is only visible from above, in the mountain heights. Kevin's Dirt suppresses the people's natural Earthsight that would otherwise enable them to perceive the Earthpower in the Land around them; with the Dirt invisible from below, and the Masters discouraging travel to the heights, the people have no reason to suspect the truth. Though this aids the Masters in maintaining ignorance of the Earthpower, they recognize it as a manifestation of evil and a blight on the Land. In addition, stormlike disruptions known as caesures or "Falls" appear on occasion to ravage whatever they touch, and the great and wicked yellow wolves known as kresh roam the Land once more.

Peoples and races of the Land

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  • Bhrathair - A prosperous, 'gaudy' race of humans who populate the Great Desert in Bhrathairealm.
  • Cavewights - Weak-minded, cave-dwelling creatures who serve Lord Foul's dark intentions. They are physically strong creatures, long-limbed with spatulate hands as big and heavy as shovels. Their pupil-less eyes are red and laval, and their heads are like battering rams.
  • croyel - Mysterious parasitic beings which bargain for power.
  • Demondim - Spawned by the Viles, the Demondim were a semi-corporeal, zombie-like race who were taught to despise their forms by Lord Foul. They spawned the ur-viles in an attempt to improve upon their own forms. Under the influence of Lord Foul's despite, the Demondim learned to hate the forests and became enemies of the Old Lords and the Land until they were exterminated by the Old Lords under the leadership of High Lord Loric Vilesilencer.
  • Elohim - Mysterious and powerful faery-like beings that dwell in a far land called Elemesnedene, whose motives and actions in relation to their Earth are inscrutable. They are Earthpower incarnate.
  • Feroce- Are short human like creatures with big eyes. They are descended from the jheherrin and worship the lurker of the sarangrave as their "high god". They are only able to leave the sarangrave through exertion of a green power. They are able to manipulate memories, both in creautres and in inanimate objects. They do not have individual personalities but seem to share a comunal hive mind.
  • Fire-Lions - creatures of living lava which can be called forth from Mount Thunder.
  • Giants - A seafaring people of the Earth, the Giants are long-lived lovers of stories and song. Their physical stature makes them practically immune to fire and cold.
  • Haruchai - Dark-skinned, flat of features and curly of hair, the Haruchai are a hot-blooded, strong-loined race of people who originate from the Westron Mountains. In the days of the Old Lords the Haruchai marched upon the Land intending to conquer it. But the Lords of the Land, knowing their own might, refused to wage war with the Haruchai lest they destroy them. The Lords instead bestowed rare and priceless gifts upon the Haruchai. The Haruchai army was overwhelmed by the beauty of the Land, the nobility of the Lords, the magnificence of the Giants and the Ranyhyn. Their extravagant and extreme natures moved them to forge an oath of fidelity, pledging them in service of the Land. They spoke a powerful Vow, which was bound by the Land's Earthpower. Those Haruchai who swore the Vow and remained in the Land became the Bloodguard, fierce and loyal defenders of the Lords. The Bloodguard numbered 500. When one was slain in battle, his body was sent back to the Westron Mountains and he was replaced by another Haruchai. Their fidelity to their Vow meant that the Bloodguard neither slept, nor died unless slain. The Vow was eventually abandoned by the Haruchai after the Illearth Stone corrupted Korik and two of his companions, leading them into Lord Foul's service.
  • jheherrin - The 'soft ones' are the unfortunate, incomplete creatures and beasts misformed by Lord Foul's breeding experiments. Outcast and abhorred by their creator, the Jheherrin live fearfully, but hold within them the hope that a prophesied 'Pure One' will redeem their plight. Saltheart Foamfollower later fulfill this prophecy. Ancestors to the sur-jheherrin.
  • merewives - The Dancers of the Sea, a ferocious half-Elohim, half-human race.
  • Quellvisks- A six limbed race of reptillian creatures with venomous magical powers. They were originally peaceful herbivores but were corrupted by Lord Foul. They are extinct at the time the books are set, having been wiped out by the Elohim.
  • Ramen - Nomadic people of the Plains of Ra, devoted tenders and servants of the Ranyhyn. Ramen are highly skilled and cunning warriors who are able to defend the Ranyhyn against various enemies. Ramen are classified by a simple class structure: Winhomes, Cords and Manethralls. Manethralls are the leaders of the Ramen, men and women who have all of the skills and knowledge necessary to serve and defend the Ranyhyn.

Cords are apprentices to Manethralls, young Ramen who study and train under the direct guidance of a Manethrall. Cords advance to the level of Manethrall after passing a challenge called "Maneing." The Winhomes class is composed of elderly Ramen or children, Ramen who do not fight or hunt but rather tend to the living requirements of the Ramen community. Young Winhomes may advance to become Cords after passing a challenge known as "Cording." The sole weapon used by Ramen is a garrote, and is used with great skill in defense of the Ranyhyn. Manethralls carry garrotes in their long hair, while Cords tie their garrotes around their waist.

  • Ranyhyn - Magnificent, Earthpowerful wild horses from the Plains of Ra. Larger and stronger than ordinary horses, the wise and intelligent Ranyhyn also appear to possess some facility to manipulate time. A Ranyhyn may allow itself to be ridden only when it has chosen the rider.
  • Ravers - Three ancient, malevolent spirits, brothers who serve as Lord Foul's most powerful agents. Virtually immortal, they are capable of cruel possession. The brothers are samadhi Sheol Satansfist, turiya Herem Kinslaughterer, and moksha Jehannum Fleshharrower.
  • Sandgorgons - Fierce creatures capable of great destruction. Able to travel at phenomenal speed, Sandgorgons were once a terrible bane upon the lives of the Bhrathair, until the mysterious Kasreyn of the Gyre brought his alchemic 'Kemper' arts to Bhrathairealm. He contrived a whirlwind-like prison called Sandgorgons Doom for the creatures deep in the Great Desert from which no Sandgorgon may escape, unless its name is uttered in summoning. Whilst only roughly larger than a human, Sandgorgons are immensely powerful, using their blunted arms to batter and rend any obstruction. They have no physical features upon their 'faces', and their legs bend backwards at the knee to allow the Sandgorgon to attain great speed upon the sand.
  • skest - Creatures of acid similar in shape and size to a child. They serve Horrim Carabal, the lurker of the Sarangrave.
  • Skurj - Large snake shaped creatures made of lava, they are apparently able to consume earthpower.
  • Stonedownors - Natives of the Land who commune in stone villages. Stonedownors make use of the Earthpower in stone in their daily lives.
  • Ur-viles - Spawned by the Demondim, ur-viles are black, eyeless creatures who rely on their exaggerated nostrils for navigation. The tall, hairless creatures have limbs of equal proportion, allowing them to ambulate both upright and on all-fours. Lore-wise and organised, they represent the most cunning and valuable members of Lord Foul's army throughout the 1st Chronicles. However, by the Second Chronicles, the self-loathing ur-viles have broken allegiance with Foul. As a token of their new purpose, they present the giant Saltheart Foamfollwer with a perfectly engineered ebony humanoid, Vain, whose mysterious purpose may ultimately aid Covenant in his efforts to quench the Sunbane.
  • Viles - Ancient, insubstantial spirits of malice and dark knowledge. Their lore spawned the Demondim, whom they made in an attempt to give their malefic purpose flesh and life. Their dark deeds brought them into conflict with the Old Lords of the Land.
  • Waynhim - Spawned by the Demondim in the same manner in which the ur-viles were created, the Waynhim are an anomalous race who were disinherited by their makers. Waynhim have proportionate limbs akin to their dark brothers, the ur-viles, and are similarly eyeless. However, they are smaller and paler than the ur-viles. The Waynhim serve the Land according to their own obscure dictates.
  • Woodhelvennin - Natives of the Land who commune in tree villages. Woodhelvennin make use of the Earthpower in wood in their daily lives.

Extraordinary phenomena

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The three Chronicles contain many extraordinary and preternatural phenomena, although the author generally eschews the use of the word "magic" except in the term Wild Magic. Instead, a variety of terms, including "power," "puissance," and "theurgy" are used.

Earthpower

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Earthpower is described in the glossaries of the Last Chronicles as "the power of life," but it might be better to describe it as the power of the natural world, as it exists in both living and nonliving vessels . Earthpower is omnipresent throughout the Land and manifests itself in many different forms. Places, substances, and living things can all be Earthpowerful.

The region known as the Hills of Andelain is one of the most Earthpowerful places is the Land. Its innate Earthpower was so great that during the time of the Second Chronicles, it remained untouched by the Sunbane.

Bathing in the water of the Earthpowerful lake Glimmermere, located among the hills above Revelstone, relieves fatigue and lifts the effect of Kevin's Dirt.

Stone and soil can be Earthpowerful. Orcrest is a stone which can be made to emit light, uncover deception, and even manipulate the weather, though in this last use the orcrest will be wholly consumed. Graveling is a form of stone which can be made to generate light and heat. Hurtloam is a golden-flecked mud which heals injury and cures disease with astonishing rapidity.

There are many Earthpowerful plants in the Land, as well. Aliantha, is a shrub, the fruit of which is extremely nourishing; amanibhavam is a kind of grass which has, for horses, a healing virtue similar to that of hurtloam, but which can cause great harm to humans. Gildenlode is an Earthpowerful wood which has great use in the construction of ships: a ship with a gildenlode keel moves as its pilot wills it to, without need of oars or sails or current.

Earthpower has an anagathic effect on those who dedicate themselves to its service. The Old Lords had lifespans measured in centuries or millennia. In The Illearth War, Elena tells Covenant that Lord Mhoram is seventy years old, but Morham's appearance is closer to that of a man in his early fifties. According to the Last Chronicles, Sunder and Hollian are said to have lived for well over a hundred years.

Sunbane

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During the Second Chronicles, Earthpower had been replaced with the Sunbane. The destruction of the Staff of Law during the events of The Power That Preserves resulted in a weakening of the Law itself, because "the tool and its purpose were one." In the millennia between the First and Second Chronicles, Lord Foul manipulated the Law, transforming Earthpower into the Sunbane. Under the Sunbane, the seasons do not pass in a regular cycle, and instead the Earth is afflicted with rain, drought, fertility and pestilence in random sequence. The Sunbane can be employed to create works of theurgy, although doing so requires a sacrifice of blood.

Wild magic

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Wild magic is an extremely powerful and dangerous force which is antithetical to Law. It cannot be exerted except with an instrument of power made from white gold. The chief power of wild magic is to alter time. It can even break the Arch of Time, which is why Lord Foul desires it so much—it is the key to his prison (unfortunately, breaking the Arch will also destroy the Earth). It also creates the caesures of the Last Chronicles, regions where Time has no meaning.

Wild magic is also capable of immense physical destruction, manifesting as silver flames. By using "just a trickle" of power, Covenant once used wild magic to shave.

Wild magic seems to respond to other sources of mystical power. Covenant discovered that he could trigger wild magic by touching powerful objects like the Illearth Stone or a piece of orcrest. It unleashed itself to dispel a storm that Drool Rockworm had made with the Staff of Law.

During the Second Chronicles, the thaumaturge Kasreyn said that each of his theurgies contained a single deliberate flaw, because perfection could not endure within the imperfect world. He claimed that white gold would allow him to overcome this.

Linden Avery used wild magic to create a new Staff of Law by merging the Elohim Findail and the Demondim-spawn Vain.

Law

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The Law is the natural order, the fundamental rules that govern the way the world works. However, Law is also a force which can be exerted in works of theurgy. Law can be used to summon people from Covenant's world to the Land, manipulate the weather, heal injury and cure disease. Drool Rockworm used it to locate Thomas Covenant within the Land, which was possible because Covenant's shoes were made from materials not originally from the Land. Linden Avery used the second Staff of Law to destroy the Sunbane, and imbue people with health-sense.

Ur-viles, as created beings, are inherently unnatural, and so the presence of the Staff of Law causes them pain.

Characters in the Land

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