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

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A race of humans who dwell on the Plains of Ra in the southeast of the Land, their culture revolves around the magical horses known as Ranyhyn. Card-Carrying Villain: Look at the name! Foul's what the bumbling, mustache-twirling Card-Carrying Villains want to be when they grow up. Word of God delves into Foul's opinion on the matter of his own Obviously Evil nature in a bit more detail — Foul doesn't actually perceive himself as evil, since he thinks he's beyond all moral judgments anyone else might make of him. However, he does find being labeled evil — including being given his various Names to Run Away from Really Fast— quite flattering. Monstrous creatures that live beneath Mount Thunder, the Cavewights are physically powerful but weak-willed and long ago fell under Lord Foul's dominion. They traditionally formed the bulk of his armies. Offstage Villainy: Inverted. Foul himself is almost always offstage, showing up in person only a handful of times across the entire Chronicles. His villainy, on the other hand, produces consequences which turn up seemingly around every corner, especially in the later books. Demonic Possession: Partway through the Second Chronicles, Linden learns to do this. She spends much of her time wrestling with the moral implications of using this ability.

Grandpa God: Assuming that he is the old beggar, he follows this aesthetic (interestingly, when Foul is forced into human form in The Power that Preserves, he also takes the form of an old, bearded man, but while the Creator is ragged but kindly, Foul is elegant and regal but coldly contemptuous). Classical Antihero: With shades of Nominal Hero. Covenant is a pretty pathetic shell of a human being, largely devoid of heroic (or even particularly pleasant) qualities, and though he's more ineffective and unpleasant than outright evil most of the time, his first major action in the Land is practically a Moral Event Horizon crossing. That said, he gets a hefty dose of Character Development across the First Chronicles, and by the Second Chronicles he's more of a Pragmatic Hero, still not classically heroic or particularly pleasant company, but much more genuinely devoted to protecting the Land and its people.Covenant, Elena and their two Bloodguard protectors journey through the remote mountain region on the western frontier of the Land to the hiding place of the Ward. Elena gains the power, but foolishly uses it to summon the long dead High Lord Kevin from his grave, and send him against Lord Foul. This act breaks the Law of Death, the barrier preventing the souls of the dead from interfering in the world of the living. Kevin's spirit is easily defeated and then enslaved by Foul wielding the Illearth Stone, and commanded to destroy Elena. The two High Lords engage in a battle of magic, in which Elena and her Bloodguard are defeated and killed, and the Staff of Law lost again. Covenant is able to save himself and his Bloodguard by using the power of his white gold ring, again without understanding how. 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". A Lord (later High Lord) of the Council of Revelstone, Mhoram is another of Covenant's friends and one of the chief leaders in the fight against Lord Foul. Though relatively young (by Lord standards), he is wise beyond his years, a tremendously skilled wielder of Earthpower, and a powerful warrior. Mhoram becomes particularly important in The Power That Preserves when, as High Lord, he is the leader of the final resistance against the Despiser's army, and much of the book is told from his perspective. The Ranyhyn are the great horses of the Land. In the early books these horses live on the Plains of Ra, though in the age of the Sunbane they leave the Land altogether. They are protected by their human servants the Ramen. The Ranyhyn are akin to normal horses, but are larger, always have a star and are in some indefinable sense enhanced by the Earthpower of the Land, so that their speed, endurance and intelligence outstrip those of a standard horse. The Ranyhyn can be ridden by individuals they deem worthy, but a person who seeks such a mount must travel to the Plains of Ra and offer himself to the horses for consideration. If a Ranyhyn accepts a rider, it is loyal to that rider until death. All of the Bloodguard (apparently) are accepted by the Ranyhyn, but not all Lords have been deemed worthy. The Ranyhyn also have a limited ability to perceive the future; these horses can "hear" when their rider will need them, hearing their calling days or weeks before the rider makes the call. Thus, when the rider summons his Ranyhyn, it appears shortly thereafter, regardless of the distance between them.

The Storyteller: They love telling and hearing stories. When Covenant tells them the story of their missing people, they nearly swear fealty to him on the spot.Lord Fouls Bane is the first volume in the The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, written by Stephen Donaldson. Supporting Leader: Leads the armies of the Land against Fleshharrower in The Illearth War while Covenant and Elena quest for the Earthblood.

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. Broken Bird: Her mom was insane, her grandparents found her hard to be around as a living reminder of the crime done to their daughter, her biological dad was completely absent, and her only vaguely-functional parental figure was her mom's ex-fiancé. Small wonder the poor girl grew up rather badly adjusted.The first volume in the series was included in David Pringle's book Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels. Lord Foul's Bane is a very complex piece of work but at heart a good old-fashioned tale of epic fantasy. It can not be read without the reader's constant concentration, it is adult fantasy fiction and the casual fantasy reader may need a period of time in which to become accustomed to this - there are no lovable hobbits to ease you into the story, here you have a man that has lost everything, a man who is angry, bitter, an outcast from the life and the world he knew. But the effort spent in reading this now ten-book series is rewarded ten-times over and I recommend that every fantasy fan read this seminal work. In Donaldson's fiction, Andelain is a focal region of the Land, where the Earthpower is especially strong. In the Second Chronicles it is the one place immune from the Sunbane, as it is protected by the Forestal Caer Caveral. The Big Guy: Well, he is a Giant, making him the largest and strongest main character in the First Chronicles.