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The Sword of Truth is a fantasy series written by Terry Goodkind. Thus far, it consists of ten novels, with the eleventh novel predicted to be the last in the series.

Novels of the Sword of Truth

The Sword of Truth is a sweeping epic fantasy series featuring a young man named Richard Cypher, who over the course of the series will learn about his past, develop powers untold, and strive to change the world for the better. Each book is loosely themed around a Wizard's Rule, tenets by which all wizards should abide by.

The ninth book in the saga, Chainfire, is the first of a trilogy that will conclude the entire Sword of Truth series.

The novels in the series are:

There is also a prequel novella, set a few decades before the events in the main series:

  • Debt of Bones (2001) - (First published in the anthology Legends in 1998)

Keith Parkinson was the cover artist for most of the novels, beginning with Stone of Tears and up through Phantom. He also painted new covers for Wizard's First Rule and Blood of the Fold, which appear on the paperback and new hardback edition of the books. Parkinson died on October 26, 2005, but not before completing the cover art for the last two books in the series.

Geography and History

The action primarily takes place on two continents, the New World, where the early novels take place, and the much, much larger Old World, which is introduced in the later books.

The New World can be divided into three distinct roughly equal sized regions: D'Hara in the east, the Midlands between D'Hara and Westland, and Westland in the westernmost part of the continent.

The three regions are divided by mountain ranges, and at the beginning of the first novel, by a magical barrier called the boundary as well. Additionally, the Midlands are roughly split by the immense Rang'Shada mountain range.

The background history to the series involves a war fought long ago, mostly when wizards were much more powerful than in the present. At that time, wizards who could use both additive and subtractive sides of magic were the rule instead of the exception.

This war was basically fought over whether magic should be allowed to continue to exist or should be removed as a factor in the human condition. The wizards in the Old World believed in extinguishing magic, while the wizards in the New World believed in its preservation.

In an end game to the war, both sides began constructing towers that derived their energies from the spent lives of wizards. This series of towers, when finished, would enable one side to win the war in an unexplained manner. Both sides built their towers in a thin isthmus that connects the Old World and the New in a pattern converging towards the other system. In the end, the two systems of towers stopped each other just short of either of them reaching the point of completion where they could be used to produce victory. The powerful magical forces in these towers functioned to effectively separate the Old and New Worlds from each other and thus ended the war in a stalemate. The only people who could pass were sorceresses and wizards who hadn't yet reached their peak. Even these were unable to pass more than twice.

A long time passed, during which magic among human beings suffered a marked decrease.

In the New World, there was a continual struggle among wizards who believed that their magical abilites gave them the right to rule over others and wizards who opposed this view. A number of conflicts over this issue are alluded to but not expanded upon in the series.

The immediate lead-up to the series sees Panis Rahl, leader of a nation called D'Hara, conquering his neighbors one by one until the entire eastern third of the New World, which is now collectively known as D'Hara, is under his sway.

The Midlands, much like D'Hara before the conquest of Panis Rahl, was made up of several distinct nations but cooperated in an organization called the Council of the Midlands. The Council of the Midlands was given force by the wizards and Confessors, who enforced its rules and ensured that small or weak nations were protected by larger more powerful neighbors.

Panis Rahl tried to fool the Midlands in a manner similar to the one he had used to conquer D'Hara and met with some success. He then began invading the Midlands, which started a long and bloody war. One of the main characters of the novels, Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander (nicknamed Zedd), led the battle against Panis, and in an act of desperation, used ancient and powerful magic to create a magical boundary between D'Hara and the rest of the New World, effectively separating them and bringing the war to an end. In a last act of revenge, Zedd used Wizard's Fire to kill Panis, an act which also severely wounded Darken Rahl, his son, and the main antagonist of Wizard's First Rule.

Several people of the Midlands, after this bloody war, were sick of magic and its alleged evils and wanted to live in a land free of magic. Zedd used the last of the spell to form an additional boundary between what became Westland, which was populated by people who wanted to be rid of magic, and the Midlands. Zedd himself left the Midlands for various reasons and settled in Westland.

Westland is sparsely populated, and details of its governing structure are sketchy. It has only a few moderate sized cities, which are run in a town hall manner of government. There is a central government whose powers are left vague, but it is at least capable of gathering a respectably sized army.

Thus the beginning of the series, some 40 or so years after the boundaries were raised, finds D'Hara ruled by Darken Rahl, who has the same nature and ambitions as his father, the Midlands still a loose confederation of nations ruled by the Central Council of the Midlands, and Westland deliberately removed from the affairs of the rest of the world.

The Old World's history from the end of the great war between the wizards to the recent past is unknown, but as the series continues it is revealed that starting about the time the war against Panis Rahl ended in the New World, Jagang, a major character in the series, began a military campaign that would eventually see him in control over the entirety of the Old World. Before this conquest, the Old World was a collection of unconnected nations, much like D'Hara before its consolidation under one rule.

By the time the series is underway, Jagang is already comfortably in place as ruler over the entire Old World, which is much larger, and with a much greater population, than the New World.

Magic

There are many types of magic within the series. Additive magic has the power to "add" or create. Subtractive magic has the power to "subtract" or remove and derives from the underworld. For the past 3000 years, all wizards have only had the Gift (or natural ability) for power of additive magic (though Darken Rahl and the Sisters of the Dark learn subtractive magic by making a dark pact).

There are five general types of magic-users:

Wizards are found in both the New World and Old World. Their abilities are either innate (the Gift) or taught (the Calling), and can be either additive, subtractive, or both, although most can only do additive. There are various classifications of wizards, including healers, prophets, and war wizards, among others. Wizards are able to draw upon wizard's fire, a magic flame that is extremely hot and self-sustaining, similar to napalm in that it has a liquid quality. In dying, a wizard can let loose his Life Fire, similar to Wizard's Fire but much more powerful and immobile. When a wizard is killed by giving his life fire he leaves behind hints of himself. If he died for a noble cause (such as to protect another), the ashes will taste sweet. If he died simply to protect himself from pain or for selfish reasons, the remaining ashes will taste salty and sour. Wizards also live by wizard's rules, which are a series of guidelines, or bits of wisdom to help them keep ahead of others.

Though there could theoretically be female wizards, none are known of at the time, though many Sisters of the Dark have gained the power of wizards by skinning them alive and taking their gift.

War Wizards are special wizards who are not able to directly control their power when untrained. Rather, their fledgling abilities arise from great need and intense anger, and as such are unreliable and unpredictable. War Wizards are now extremely rare due to the consequences of the Temple of the Winds being removed from the world. They have the Gift of both the additive and subtractive sides of magic. Richard is the most recent War Wizard, his predecessor living more than three thousand years before. War Wizards are more powerful than even the strongest wizards when their power is loosed, but unable to even sense their own magical ability when it lies dormant.

Another exceedingly rare breed of wizard is the prophet. Prophets tap into magic's ability to foresee potential events of the future. Prophets are described as being the gardeners of the tree of prophecy, an analogous term for the entity that would be prophecy as a complete whole. The idea is that prophets will prune away false branches and add new branches. The only known prophets in the story are Nathan Rahl and Warren.

The only known Sorcerer is Brother Narev, a corrupt champion of the Imperial Order and Emperor Jagang's mentor. Sorcerers, we are told by Nicci, are as rare as War Wizards. The main feature of Sorcerers is that their magic can't be divided in subtractive and additive parts, giving them the ability to enhance and recreate some spells made by wizards with additive and subtractive magic. They also possess the unique property that their magic cannot affect a wizard and a wizard's magic cannot affect them.

Many of the sorceresses are known as Sisters of the Light in the Palace of the Prophets in the city of Tanimura. They are a religious order who serve the Creator and whose mission is to train young boys who have the Gift. They have several magical artifacts left to them by the ancient wizards to help them in this task. Secretly, there are Sisters of the Dark who are pledged to the Keeper. Sisters refer to their magical force as "Han". While the majority of sorceresses present in the story are Sister of the Light or Dark, there are other sorceresses in other places that have no association with them.

Currently there is only one witch in the series, a woman named Shota. She is talked about as being a very powerful woman, but as yet we are unclear as to what exactly her powers entail. It is clear that she has some sort of prophetic powers as she frequently tells Richard of visions she's had about him. Shota seems to want Richard to succeed in his quests, but she has proved a threat more than once.

Very little is known of warlocks, except for a passing reference of them by Zedd.

In addition, other groups, such as Confessors, dreamwalkers, Gars, the sliph, and Slides were created via magical means and have magical powers but are not themselves magic-wielders. Instead they are merely endowed with magical properties. War Wizards were able to create these constructs 3,000 years ago, but at the time of the series, only the Sisters of the Dark and Richard are capable endowing individuals with magical powers.

Coexisting beside the human race is a plethora of unique magical creatures. Some of these are mostly human with only small magical function, e.g. the Mud People who use magic to speak with the spirits of the dead. At the other end of the spectrum are the creatures which are primarily magical. In this category lie the translucent creatures of the lake, the nightwisps, and many more. Existing between the poles of this magical bandwidth are creatures such as the Dragons and Andolians who have a varying ratio of magic to 'humanish' qualities.

Sword and Seeker of Truth

In the series, the Sword of Truth is the magical weapon of the Seeker of Truth. It has two parts to its magic. The sword contains both the powers of anger, hate, and rage (additive magic) as well as the power of love (assumed subtractive magic by some). Only by using the magic of love will the Sword of Truth turn white. The Sword of Truth also "remembers" the skills of previous wielders, so that a true Seeker can call upon the blade techniques used by earlier owners. In the time after a Seeker's death, before the next Seeker is found, wizards act as guardians of the Sword of Truth. Once a new Seeker is recognized, he or she will be given the sword. Though many have wielded the blade, it can only be unlocked to its full potential by turning the blade white. Throughout time, only Richard is capable of using the sword to its full potential. A person who is not the true Seeker slowly degenerates as he wields the sword. The most prominent example of this is Samuel, who is under the command of Shota, but despite the sword's effect upon his person, Samuel is always trying to re-obtain the sword, much like Gollum constantly seeks the One Ring in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Characters

The protagonist of the series is Richard Rahl, who is originally introduced as Richard Cypher. Other important characters include:

There is also a God-like figure in the story, The Creator, and a Satanic figure named The Keeper.

See also: A partial list of Sword of Truth characters

External links

References

Series of fantasy books | Sword of Truth

Мечът на истината | L'Épée de Vérité | 真実の剣 | Меч истины | 真理之劍

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Sword of Truth".

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