MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2433 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Lifebonds by "Abigail Laughlin" 2) Braid/Brightly Burning by "Ashes Dust" 3) Re: MIST: One-liners and snipping by "Layla Voll" 4) Re: Braid/Brightly Burning by Elindreada-+AT+-aol.com 5) Re: MIST: One-liners and snipping by Elindreada-+AT+-aol.com 6) Lifebonding et. al by Lisa Whitman 7) Braid: BB Shielding/ Life-Bonds by "Li'nia Stormdancer" 8) Re: Braid/Brightly Burning by "Layla Voll" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 16:48:17 GMT From: "Abigail Laughlin" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Lifebonds Message-ID: <> The characters you're thinking of are Keren (Talia's riding instructor and Teren's twin), Sherrill (Talia's first friend at the Collegium), and Ylsa (the Herald-Courier who was killed bringing an important message, and whose death Talia shared Empathically). Keren and Ylsa were lifebonded and when Ylsa was killed, Sherrill's lifebond with Keren came to light. Someone notes shortly after that, had Keren or Ylsa recognized Sherrill's bond, they would have had one of the very rare triple lifebonds, which implies that all three would have been bonded together, not just Ylsa and Sherrill both being bonded to Keren. But Sherrill's fixation as pictured by Talia, if I recall correctly, centered mostly on Keren, so.... y'all's guess is as good as mine. It's a rather tired listee I am at the moment, but a happy one; I and my Companion wannabe Ashby went to a schooling show this weekend and won a few ribbons, including a rather surprising first place in an equitation class. Go team. :) Zha'hai'allav'a, Raven Darkblade and Mor the raven, Holy Hand of the Goddess of Elves, Member of the Mistic Circle, Webmaster of the Circle of Stone, Knight and Founding Member of the Order of Unsung Heroes; http://www.angelfire.com/ky/Ashke/ - The Labyrinth _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 14:08:52 CDT From: "Ashes Dust" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Braid/Brightly Burning Message-ID: OB Misty: I have seen several folks mention that the Skif story has been postponed for her to write a Collegium series. 1: Where is this info coming from? Is it true or just a rumor? and 2: Wouldn;t this be a lot like the Harry Potter books out now ( a student going through several years of school)? Samhain sheep to all! Windborn --------------- Well, I got my info from Firebird Arts Mailing List. Here's the qoute from the newsletter: ~~~~Mercedes Lackey Mailing 8/30/00 News from Misty: Ok, here's the update. It looks as if the Skif and Alberich books are on hold for a while, thanks to a request/brainstorm from our editor at DAW, Betsy Wollheim. I'll be starting a new series, THE COLLEGIUM CHRONICLES, an eight-book series taking one young Herald Trainee year by year through the Collegium. And if this sounds a little familiar, well just blame the success of the books by a lovely and talented writer named Joanna Rowling! Hopefully I will be able to make this as original and entertaining for everyone! These will be adult books, tho, not YA; we've discovered that smart kids like reading our adult books quite well. We are going to be the Guests of Honor at a convention in New Zealand held over Easter Weekend of next year, so those of you who are Oz-dwellers or Kiwis might want to check that out. I spent a month in the UK this summer, doing more research for the books coming up. I got to Tintagel, walked all over London, and generally had a great time. One thing I missed---easy Internet access. One thing I didn't---heat! It was perfectly lovely there, and horribly hot here! Misty in Tulsa ~~~ Hope its okay that I sent this on, but a lot of people have been asking about it. ~~~ Brightly Burning Spoiler Coming up(for those of you who haven't read it) - - - - - - - Spoiler - - - - - - - - - Spoiler - I think that it is wierd that Kalira and Lavan could be lifebonded, my question is, how would their bond be any different than a regular herald/ companion bond? Sheep who ask to many questions to everyone, Becca ------------------------ Think about it, a Lifebond is one step past a love-bond. A Herald-Companion bond is based on need, duty, and being Chosen and THEN turns into friendship, respect, and love. No one gets Chosen for a Life-bond, because it's one-sided in the Chosing then. Also, look at most of the heralds, they are three cents short of a nickle half the time, emotionally unbalanced for most of the rest. The little part that's left is where the sane come in. Lavan was SO unbalanced, that he needed the strength of both. ---------------------- Finally, I, myself have a question or two to toss out. 1) What's a groat? I'd heard that a gift of a knife can cut a friendship before, but what's a groat have to do with it? BB pg. 236 2) On the reincarnation thing, BB pg. 260 Qoute from Pol ("Gods, now I know how the Weaponsmaster feels." "I always did," said Satiran, and left it at that.) Should this be taken at face value, or could Satiran be saying that he was once a Weaponsmaster? Ashes _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 19:23:23 GMT From: "Layla Voll" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: MIST: One-liners and snipping Message-ID: Elindreada-+AT+-aol.com writes: >becs71-+AT+-hotmail.com writes: > > > I think that it is wierd that Kalira and Lavan could be lifebonded, > my >question is, how would their bond be any different than a > regular >herald/companion bond? > >Tylendel actually partly explained this in MPawn. He said his bond to his >COmpanion was more of like a beloved teacher, not a bonding of equals. I >think the normal cmpanion bond ties the as if they were family. A life >bond goes even beyond that. A mage can feed energy for a gate from a >lifebond but not his Companion bond which shows that they are at different >levels entirely. That's why it was neccesary for Kalira to lifebond to >Lavan, she wouldn't have been able to control his Gift otherwise. Lifebonds aren't voluntary, though, are they? So certainly Kalira couldn't have controlled Lavan's Gift without being lifebonded to him, but the lifebond wasn't something that she decided to do because it was necessary to control his Gift. That is, it wouldn't be necessary for Kalira to lifebond with Lavan -- it would just happen, and end up also being incredibly useful when Lavan's Gift needed to be controlled. Unless I completely misunderstand the idea of a lifebond. (Which is also very possible.) Which makes me wonder whether there could somehow be some "planning" to arrange it to make sure that Kalira was a Companion (and unattached) at the right time for Lavan to be Chosen. (Assuming that there aren't a kajillion souls capable of lifebonding with Lavan.) Just Herald's luck? Layla ------------------ Layla Voll Layla_Voll-+AT+-hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 15:42:59 EDT From: Elindreada-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Braid/Brightly Burning Message-ID: In a message dated 10/23/00 2:36:58 PM Central Daylight Time, banshee_ashes-+AT+-hotmail.com writes: > 1) What's a groat? I'd heard that a gift of a knife can cut a friendship > before, but what's a groat have to do with it? BB pg. 236 A groat is a coin, probably the smallest denomination they have, equal to a penny or so. It's just a token gesture so that they can say that the knife wasn't a true gift. > > 2) On the reincarnation thing, BB pg. 260 Qoute from Pol ("Gods, now I > know how the Weaponsmaster feels." > "I always did," said Satiran, and left it at that.) Should this be taken > at > face value, or could Satiran be saying that he was once a Weaponsmaster? I think it should be taken at face value, concidering that he has a daughter in the field. But I've know to be wrong. Elin > > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 15:54:26 EDT From: Elindreada-+AT+-aol.com To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: MIST: One-liners and snipping Message-ID: In a message dated 10/23/00 2:39:59 PM Central Daylight Time, layla_voll-+AT+-hotmail.com writes: > Lifebonds aren't voluntary, though, are they? So certainly Kalira couldn't > have controlled Lavan's Gift without being lifebonded to him, but the > lifebond wasn't something that she decided to do because it was necessary > to > control his Gift. That is, it wouldn't be necessary for Kalira to lifebond > with Lavan -- it would just happen, and end up also being incredibly useful > when Lavan's Gift needed to be controlled. Unless I completely > misunderstand the idea of a lifebond. (Which is also very possible.) > > Which makes me wonder whether there could somehow be some "planning" to > arrange it to make sure that Kalira was a Companion (and unattached) at the > right time for Lavan to be Chosen. (Assuming that there aren't a kajillion > souls capable of lifebonding with Lavan.) Just Herald's luck? > > Layla > > ------------------ > "Hearld's luck" isn't really luck. It's litterally magic. It's the web that Vanyal created before he died. So yes, something aranged for Kalira to be avalible for Lavan. It's how Griffon just "happened" to show up at the first battle so he could defeat the deamons. (AotQ) It's a good possibility that if not for Kalira Lavan wouldn't have even been chosen, her father even thought she was a little batty for choosing where she did. Fate or magic, it was aranged somehow. Elin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 13:19:57 -0700 From: Lisa Whitman To: "'mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk'" Subject: Lifebonding et. al Message-ID: >Which makes me wonder whether there could somehow be some "planning" to >arrange it to make sure that Kalira was a Companion (and unattached) at the >right time for Lavan to be Chosen. (Assuming that there aren't a kajillion >souls capable of lifebonding with Lavan.) Just Herald's luck? Actually.. it is very likely that in the grand scheme of things, it was "planned" by the powers that be (other than the writer.) It has been mentioned that specific gifts show up when needed which would argue for a "divine plan." Or at least a guideline. It would be rather funny irony if it were Sunsinger/Shadowdancer's souls that were in these two. Always together, forever apart again. *grin* But that would just be kinda silly. Lisa ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 13:29:20 -0700 (PDT) From: "Li'nia Stormdancer" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Braid: BB Shielding/ Life-Bonds Message-ID: <20001023202920.16435.qmail-+AT+-web1205.mail.yahoo.com> Heyla List-Sibs! --- Rebecca McAllister wrote: > Brightly Burning Spoiler Coming up(for those of you > who haven't read it) > > - > - > - > - > - > - > - > Spoiler > > - > - > - > - > - > - > - > - > - > Spoiler > - > I think that it is wierd that Kalira and Lavan could > be lifebonded, my question is, how would their bond be any different than a regular herald/companion bond? ======================== >From what I've seen, most pairings between a Herald and Companion are fairly equal. Or maybe I should say, most Companions don't have to work at shielding their Heralds the way Kalira had to shield Lavan. Most Heralds can shield themselves, and the Companions don't have to worry about that (except for cases like Talia losing control, and Rolan had to help her a little). IMOHO, I think they had to have an even tighter bonding of the spirit, in order for her to do that. So maybe that could explain why. Lavan couldn't have any other bondings with anyone else, or else she may not have been able to control his Gift the way she did. ======================== Lish Monahan wrote: My question though is just how strong is a _regular_ Companion-Herald bond? When Tylendel lost his Companion he killed himself, though could that perhaps be chalked up to his already immensely unstable state? I believe there is a reference elsewhere, though, to the fact that Companions and Heralds rarely outlive each other, because they tend to pine away without the other. So are Comanions and Heralds just really good friends with some sort of bond that allows energy transferance and communication? Or is there something akin to a soulbond in there? Maybe a sort of weaker version of the lifebond? ======================= The Companions and Heralds, once linked, can't be separated. A piece of their soul is joined, and once they lose it, they go insane. Tylendel lost all control once he lost his link with his Companion and Lavan lost his as well, when Kalira was killed. I know they're under different circumstances, but the outcome is the same; without that link to their Companions, the lose it. It is as though a part of their soul is now gone. The Companions go off somewhere and quietly die if the Herald dies of old age, like Jadus in AotQ. Of course, Heralds and Companions rarely live to die of old age. Lifebonds are a lot like the H/C bond, in that they are joined at the soul, and if one part dies, the other will go insane unless there is something like what Ylsa/Keren/Sherrill had. However, the H/C bond allows the Herald to fall in love with others, while the lifebond will not. However, the lifebond doesn't seem to be affected by the H/C bond. Did that make any sense to anyone? lol ===== ---<---<---<----+AT+- Li'nia Stormdancer -+AT+---->--->--->--- Peon to the Powers That Be, (Hopeful)Goddess of All Things Possessed, & Caretaker of the Arena of Discussion and Dissention __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Messenger - Talk while you surf! It's FREE. http://im.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 21:11:15 GMT From: "Layla Voll" To: mercedes-lackey-+AT+-herald.co.uk Subject: Re: Braid/Brightly Burning Message-ID: Elindreada-+AT+-aol.com writes: >banshee_ashes-+AT+-hotmail.com writes: > > 2) On the reincarnation thing, BB pg. 260 Qoute from Pol ("Gods, > now >I know how the Weaponsmaster feels." > > "I always did," said Satiran, and left it at that.) Should this be > >taken at face value, or could Satiran be saying that he was once a > >Weaponsmaster? > >I think it should be taken at face value, concidering that he has a >daughter in the field. But I've know to be wrong. > >Elin Or perhaps Satiran is saying that all Companions have that same kind of feeling of responsibility for their Heralds, to teach them how to stay sane/alive. Layla _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ End of MERCEDES-LACKEY Digest 2433 **********************************