“OBJECTION!!! There’s nowhere near enough proof for Alagaesia to win.”

I have to agree. This match is far from over.

“Oh, and I figured out a way Galbatorix and Murtagh might die, even in the middle of their fortress. A team of a100 or so Mswriths, incredibly skilled INVISIBLE assasins. They have lain waste to forces vastly outnumbering them. Being invisible, they could easily sneak into the castle, and kill Galbatorix, or if that proved to difficult, steal the dragon’s hearts of hearts. The Mswriths could easily tilt any tie by assasinating powerful dragon riders.”

Galbatorix and Murtagh are protected 24/7 by innumerable layers of wards. Trying to get a blade into them, even with invisibility, would be like trying to destroy a tank with a sword. The Eldunari are likewise hidden where no one except Galbatorix knows where, and undoubtedly protected by even more magic wards, which would make them impossible to steal except maybe for a Pillar of Creation, who would probably view the Eldunari as simple glass balls.

In Alagaesia, the elite are also accustomed to dealing with invisibility(Alagaesian magicians can cast invisibility), assassins cloaked from magical detection, and Ra’zac, which are like superpowered Mriswith with many of the same powers(including the ability to hide themselves from magical detection) who have armor as their skin. While quite lethal, I doubt the Mriswith could become such an unstoppable force in a world used to dealing with these sorts of things. They’d be better off working in the field as scouts as assassins against miltiary commanders who aren’t as well protected . . . though they might run into trouble if Alagaesia sends the Ra’zac or their dwarf ninjas to hunt them down.

The effectiveness of the Mriswith might depend on how well Alagaesians can pierce their invisibility. Their cloaks hide them from detection by all magic except those with both Additive and Subtractive, so I doubt anyone except maybe Galbatorix and Murtagh would find them with their minds. Then again, that might not protect the Mriswith if they set off the equivalent of magical tripwires or such that have been laid out to detect motion.

i don’t think it’s fair to bring Alageasia into any fight in factpile yet. The last book hasn’t come out ( or been written yet) in which probably every character will reach their peak power. If the current trend in power levels from book to book continue Eragon is gonna be worth a hundered dragon riders ( probably ), not to mention the fact that Galbatorix is going discover not just the key to magic but the key to controlling reality.
This fight ain’t over, but at current levels SoT wins

“You got me there. but I still mantain Mriswriths could be an incredibly deadly foe. Remember in “Blood of the Fold” where a small group of them killed off hundreds of D’Harans? Imagine the whole population of them, invisible ravaging the countryside or perhaps doing a night raid on the enemy camp. One of Kahlan’s favorite tactics mights have its effectiveness increased a hundredfold if any ordinary soldier could not see or hear what is attacking them…”

They would definitely be deadly, particularly if they were used against the common soldiers of Alagaesia rather than the heavy hitters. They could probably take down “common” magicians in Alagaesia like Trianna, provided their wards aren’t too strong. If I was a commander in Alagaesia, I’d send the Ra’zac after them. The super-senses of the Ra’zac would be useful in finding the Mriswith, and their superhuman speed and strength would mow them down pretty quickly from there. The problem is the Ra’zac’s lack of serious numbers.

“not to mention the fact that Galbatorix is going discover not just the key to magic but the key to controlling reality.
This fight ain’t over, but at current levels SoT wins”

“As for Galbatorix controlling reality, SoT can duplicate that through the Boxes of Orden. We decided to leave that out so as to give Alagaesia a chance. But we could gladly bring the boxes back…”

OY! No divine/gods/reality dominating cosmic powers in this match. That’s the rules, as specified when this match was requested and in the descriptions. Let’s not get into “Galbatorix dominates all magic with the true name!” vs. “The Boxes of Orden pwn all!” and “Guntera vs. the Keeper!” now. It never helps.

“The Four Dragon riders may be incredibly powerful, but an average SoT wizard outclasses an average Eragon spellcaster.”

I’m not so sure about that. A war wizard/Sister of the Dark would certainly outclass the average Alagaesian magician, but I don’t think a general Addtitive wizard or sorceress could say the same. As I said in one of my earlier posts, the Inheritance Magic system has quite a few advantages when Subtractive Magic is not concerned.

“OY! No divine/gods/reality dominating cosmic powers in this match. That’s the rules, as specified when this match was requested and in the descriptions. Let’s not get into “Galbatorix dominates all magic with the true name!” vs. “The Boxes of Orden pwn all!” and “Guntera vs. the Keeper!” now. It never helps.”

I agree. This match makes much more sense if the people participate. I was just making a point that what Galbatorix might accomplish has already been done in Sword of Truth.

“I’m not so sure about that. A war wizard/Sister of the Dark would certainly outclass the average Alagaesian magician, but I don’t think a general Addtitive wizard or sorceress could say the same. As I said in one of my earlier posts, the Inheritance Magic system has quite a few advantages when Subtractive Magic is not concerned.”

In my opinion, an average Alagaesia spellcaster could beat a sorceress, perhaps tie with a Wizard of the Third Order, but be beaten by a Wizard of the Second or Third Order or a Sister of the Dark. I may be remembering wrong, but the Alagaesian wizards just seemed weak to me. Of course, everybody seems weak when compared to Eragon, but a Alagaesia spellcaster would not last long against Warren, a knowledgeable wizard (and prophet) but not even on a Zedd power level.

Which reminds me, we have not discussed the possibility of phrophecy affecting this fight. Nathan and Warren could be incredibly useful in predicitng momentous occasions, and with Prelate Anna they might be able to use this to win a victory…

“Well, like I said, that’s mostly because the ones we see in the Varden are below-average as magicians go. I think the elves in particular, given their superhuman stamina, could probably beat any wizard or sorceress from Alagaesia who doesn’t have Subtractive Magic.”

Did not consider elves…I definetely meant Varden and perhaps some of the weaker Empire spellcasters.

As for heavy hitters, everybody talks about the four dragon riders, but SoT has four times as many super powered wizards or magic users…

Nicci, Richard, Darken Rahl, Zedd, Sister Ulcia and her four cronies, Kahlan Amnell, Nathan, Warren, Prelate Verna, Nicholas the Slide (haven’t reached him yet but have heard he is very powerful), Prelate Anna, Jagang the Just (although he would find formidable opposistion if he tried to invade their minds while awake, he could make every dream the worst nightmare for many a spellcaster…Except for Eragon and a few others, can’t concentrate on blocking your mind when you are asleep…)

And all it would take was one wrong move against a Mord-Sith or Confessor and even Galbatorix himself would be on his knees…

I personally never read the SOT series so I don’t know how confession works can some one tell me. And by the way John Anen I wrote comment # 99 before I learned about confessions or any of the other super powers were brought to the argument. And I am a very intelligent person its just that sometimes due to human mistakes it doesn’t seem that way

@admin

Are you implying that Every spellcaster is immune?

“Are you implying that Every spellcaster is immune?”

Magic by itself is no protection from Confession, unless they manage to craft a shield with their magic that can stop that specific magic attack.

Adim, is there any one who is natuarlly immune to confession and why is it called confession

Thank you for telling me that the wizards of SOT are immune to confessions and yes I agree with you that it is very possible that casters of Aligasia might also be resistant to confessions, but WHY IS IT CALLED CONFESSION?

“Book of Mormon universe agianst the LOTR universe”

Hahahaha, now that would be fun.

Man, I have been out of this debate in a long time. Good job AHEM in keeping logic in the fight and not emotion. Work has been killing me, though it is good to see the progress of information in this fight.

- pf

“Wizards in SoT are immune to confessions. This is why Richard can sleep with Kahlan without loosing his free will. It’s very plausible that casters that use their own supply of mana will be capable of resisting confession.”

Pardon me for the rude reply Belisaurius, but you are wrong. Dead wrong. Wizards in SoT are not immune to Confession. Richard being able to love Kahlan has absolutely nothing to do with him being a wizard. Didn’t you read the conclusion to Wizard’s First Rule?

SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SWORD OF TRUTH SERIES BEGIN HERE SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON’T WANT WIZARD’S FIRST RULE TO BE SPOILED

Richard is able to be with Kahlan without her power affecting him because he already loves her absolutely. Because Confession works by multiplying the ambient feelings of love and compassion that a person can have, it was unable to get a hold on Richard because he had already reached a level of devotion to her where the love-blast didn’t affect him.

SPOILERS END HERE

Wizards are not immune to Confession. Anyone who reads even the first book will see this plainly.

Midway through WFR, Kahlan plans to use her power to threaten the wizard Giller into submission. It wouldn’t have been a very effective bargaining tool if he was immune, would it be?

In the same book, Kahlan states that any human is susceptible to her touch, except for Darken Rahl, who has the protection of Orden. She never said anything about wizards being immune.

If Confessors could have relationships with wizards without destroying them, you’d think that there would be a quite a few more documented wizard-confessor relationships than one single incident 3000 years in the backstory. This is especially jarring considering that Kahlan continuously angsts about how Confessors can never have love and they have to live lonely lives and all.

It was not known that Richard was a wizard at the end of Wizard’s First Rule, yet at this point he was able to love Kahlan. Him possibly being a wizard wasn’t even brought up. You’d think that if this was the cause of his Confession immunity, the others would have gotten a clue to his being a wizard after seeing this.

In Blood of the Fold, Kahlan is able to Confess a sorceress, basically a female wizard, with no problems.

In Temple of the Winds, Kahlan uses her power against a wizard named Marlon, and it works.

In Faith of the Fallen, Kahlan uses her power against a boy wizard, and it works. She also attempts to use her power against another sorceress, even more powerful than the previous examples, and she is sure that it will work, though we never see it tested.

Do you really think, in the face of all of this evidence, that wizards are immune to Confession?

“but WHY IS IT CALLED CONFESSION?”

Because that is what it is used for. The Confessor uses her power to enslave the mind of a person, and after they are totally loyal to her and will do anything if she asks them to, she tells them to answer truthfully to something. This is commonly used to get condemned criminals to confess their crimes, to make sure that the right man is being convicted before the execution is carried out.

Besides, Confessor sounds a good deal more benevolent than “mindrapist by touch.”

there i supposed to be an ” a” between stop and criminal

“what would happen to a confessed person if the confessor dies does he or she go into constant mourning and eventually kill them selves or do they sort a “wake up” and go about their every day lives as if they weren’t confessed”

Apparently, they go right back to normal.

ok but it sounds sorta compilcated with all the rules and what not

like some have said, at current SoT levels, SoT wins. Remember those 5 or 6 sisters of the dark linked together to kill jagang? well, I don’t know anything about eragon or whatever this is, but “enough power to level a mountain” sounds game winning enough for me. now, I have commented several different matches yesterday and today, and people are probably annoyed with me for it. I bid farewell for a while

“Remember those 5 or 6 sisters of the dark linked together to kill jagang?”

By the way, it was 6 Sisters of the Dark: Ulicia, Armina, Tovi, Cecilia, Merissa, and Nicci.

“Do you know when the 4th book will be coming out mate? Been waiting for a while…..anyway, thanks if you reply.”

No release date has been announced, to my knowledge, though the author(and Random House) claims that the writing of it is underway.

Eldest was published two years after the reprinting of Eragon. Brisingr was published three years after that. It’s currently been about 1.3 years since Brisingr was released. If I was to hazard a guess based on how the author has written and published the books so far, I’d say that it will come out in late 2010 or early 2011, but that’s just my guess.

“Thanks for the information. That is the one thing I dilsike about sequals….you finish the book, and then you have to wait forever for the next one to come out, only to repeat the cycle till the series is done…..quite unfortunate mate.”

That’s pretty much the way it works, unless you don’t start a series until its already done completely.

“The mountain moving thing seems to be a pretty common misconception with SoT. I remember hearing someone else saying that in another thread with Zedd I think. I wonder what’s giving people the misunderstanding?”

I’m not sure, but I’m quite positive they don’t have that kind of power. If they did, dealing with the Imperial Order would have been a lot easier.

“Alagaesia is incredibly outnumbered. The elven warriors are superior to pretty much any SoT warrior except Mswrith, but will probably be pulled down by sheer weight of numbers.”

I don’t think Mriswith would stand much of a chance against elves, except by virtue of invisibility, which could potentially be counteracted. Mriswith are limited to peak human strength and reflexes, after all, and can be fought and killed by human warriors with sufficient skill who can detect them. Elves are superhuman in every aspect; the Mriswith would have a heck of a time just keeping up with their speed.

“If a fully trained Sister of the Light or almost-fully trained wizard could not sense them, how could the elves? Their cloaks were made by ancient, very powerful wizards who could put Darken Rahl to shame with Additive and Subtractive Magic.”

While the weakened, modern-day wizards and sorceresses cannot detect Mriswith, it is possible to do so with the right magic. Richard, and anyone else with both A & S magic, can sense them before they approach, and so can Gars. It could largely depend on how Alagaesian magic would interact with this, and how telepathy(which is something that no one except Jagang has in SoT) would.

As for how the elves could detect them, I’d like to bring up that elves have super-senses. They can hear the sound of a leaf falling to the forest floor if they listen. It’s that much harder to sneak up on someone, even when invisible, when they can hear, smell, and feel the environment around them to a greatly enhanced degree. Mriswith aren’t silent, after all, just invisible and very quiet. If they have beating hearts, which I think they very likely do, that could even give them away; to an elf, the beat of a living heart is comparable to a drum.

“And besides, the vast majority of Alagaesians cannot read minds, and those that can would not be able to counter hundreds of them, even if they did manage to enter their mind…”

The muggles and civilians and soldiers can’t, but every single spellcaster can.

“As for besting them physically, from the skill of the one battling Richard in Stone of Tears, I’d say their abilities were enhanced when they became Mriswrith beyond humans and equal to or better than elves…”

Um . . . NO.

The Sword of Truth does not grant Richard superhuman strength and agility. It increases the power of his direct strikes and grants him near limitless skill from its former wielders, but it did not make his muscles any stronger or his reflexes any faster.

Inheritance elves literally have faster reflexes. They’re so quick that a human cannot process moves and react in time to stand a chance. If the Mrisiwth were anywhere near the elves’ level in physical prowess, it would not have been possible for the Mord-Sith to have killed any(Mord-Sith have human limitations) at the end of Blood of the Fold. It would also have been damn near impossible for Richard to literally hold off hordes of them at once.

Again, I’m not saying the Mriswith are harmless or weaklings–they’re extremely dangerous by any standards–but I think you may have them overestimated to a degree.

“The point I was making from Stone of Tears was if Richard, with skill beyond perhaps any other human in SoT and Alagaesia (though not with superhuman reflexes or stamina), had trouble with one, perhaps they have enhanced reflexes.”

He won pretty handily against that one in Stone of Tears, and held his own against whole groups of them in Blood of the Fold.

“The Men-Who-Feel-No-Pain…now that would be an interesting weapon to put against the Sword of Truth…”

The best way to deal with the Laughing Dead is to decapitate them, or else inflict repeated injuries to the point where their bodies collapse from blood loss. The most dangerous thing about them is that they can survive injuries that would kill or incapacitate a normal human, making them prone to getting up after you think you’ve scored a killing blow. The heavy power of the Sword of Truth might put them down . . .but then, Richard’s precise and fluid fighting style might work against him, when he fatally wounds one and they keep fighting.

“It is possible for mages in alagaesia to sense life.”
When life is moving at almost (or perhaps) superhuman speed and invisible? Even if they were able to sense them, by the time they did, its yabree-in-mage’s heart.

I would not put it past Galbatorix to put at least half, if not most, of his army under that Spell-of-No-Pain once he realized the numbers he was facing. I think Richard could handle a number of them easily once he realized their abilites. I’m more worried about the impact of tens of thousands of them on, say, the D’Haran army. Wizard’s Fire would probably fail to stop them, arrows would probably fail. The only thing capable of stopping large numbers of them would be the Mriswrith, maybe the Baka Ban Mana (their skill may be enough to negate the Men-Who-Feel-No-Pain’s abilities), or high-powered spellcasters like Nicci, Sister Ulicia, Nicholas the Slide, and Richard….

“Richard and Gratch both have the ability to detect Mriswith at a distance, and by the time they did, they had plenty of time to react.”

Fair enough, but Richard is a war wizard, with more power than Nicci and more than enough to best a Varden or Empire mage, and Gratch was created for the sole purpose of hunting Mriswrith.

Maybe the combined might of elves and mages could eradicate them, but not without massive casualities of men, dwarves, urgals, and perhaps a few elves and mages, and there is few enough of them to being with.

if 300 Men-Who-Feel-No-Pain killed around a thousand Varden with mages and Roran, think of what 300 Mriswith could do!

I’m not saying they would win this war on their own, I’m just saying they would make good assasins and perhaps kill a few (or more than a few) thousand soldiers.

“Really, mass producing MWFNP is quite impractical. They, unlike other soldiers, aren’t reusable. Meaning if 500 MWFNP fought 500 Varden, most of them would die after the fighting from blood loss. They are good in last stand scenarios, where their all dead anyway, but they die too quickly and and in too large amounts too amass a large amount of them. Especially vs, SoT, when they are so severely outnumbered.”

Good point. Then I really do not see much hope for Alagaesia.

“That’s really not an accurate representation of their fighting prowess. This was in their first battle, when no one was aware of their abilities. Nasuada also just kept pouring troops into the brawl, creating intense confusion”

I was talking about a similiar encounter. Alagaesia, having never encountered anything like the Mriswirth, would not know what to think when soldiers started dying with no apparent killer. Alarm bells would be rung, more soldiers would be called in, who would then proceed to die, and by the time the Mages figured everything out and started killing Mriswrith, they would withdraw, leaving a ton of casualties behind.

“The Laughing Dead, however, have the advantage of not going down easily. While it is true that they will eventually collapse from exhaustion/blood loss afterwards and die for good, surviving isn’t their purpose. They are supposed to berserk and kill several times their number before they go down, inflict as many casualties as possible. In effect, they are kind of like suicide berserker soldiers.”

And how well have nations that fielded massive berserker armies fared in the past?

They are adequate in last stand scenarios, but on a long campaign you don’t want to be losing 90% of participating soldiers in every battle (especially when your outnumbuhed by this amount). They tend to disregard shields and just berzerker-charge the enemy. I shudder to think how they would fare against archers.

Also I’ve been wondering about the rules of this match:

“The battle takes place with both continents on the same world, with all characters and creatures (minus gods) available at full power to fight.”

Doesn’t this mean that all the riders and dragons of old are available for Alagasia?

“all characters and creatures ”

We need to know what this means. Does this mean character that were directly referenced but were dead before the time of the books? If it does, Alagaesia just scored Vrael, Eragon, Bid Daum (sp?) Evandar, The Forsworn, Eridor, Valinor, Brom’s Saphira, and all the other unamed riders and dragons of old. Plus every dwarf king and warrior since the dawn of time, plus every elf that ever lived.

“Trust me, you don’t want to include heroes that have been dead for thousands of years, because if you do, Sword of Truth gets the ancient wizards, capable of more than anyone living could even dream of. The ancients are more than a match for a dragon rider. Only the strongest dragon riders would have a chance of defeating them.”

Well, I guess it’s a trade-off. How many Ancients are there? ‘Cause if this match does include the riders of old, their getting swarmed by hundreds of riders probably only a little less powerful than Eragon. Simultaneously.

@Darth Destro
A) There were at least a thousand ancient wizards (I believe, AHEM is the expert) each of them more powerful than a Dragon Rider or elf.
B) What we have been doing so far is allowing all characters from the books, so Darken Rahl and Brom are included, even though both died in the first book of their respective series
C) There is no way a transforming cat could kill Richard! There are guards who would be on the lookout for sneaky assasins, and they can spot anything, even a black cat in a dark night. And Richard himself has a way of sensing danger. You’ll have to do better than a were-cat if you want Richard dead.

“If we get all characters in the entire history of Alagaesia, then that means thousands of Rider-Dragon pairs, and also thousands of elves.”
I really don’t think we should allow people and creatures dead before the book series starts, but there were about a thousand wizards AT ANY ONE TIME. Over history there were tens of thousands, if not more. Not to mention thousands of Confessors, thousands upon thousands of Mriswrith, thousands of Mord-Sith….

“Maybe not Richard, but generals might be targets. Or maybe they wouldn’t assinate, they could poison food, sabotage supplies, any number of things. The point is a black cat has a much higher chance sneaking into a camp undetected than a man.”

I can tell from that post you have not read the Sword of Truth series. D’Haran soldiers are the elite of the elite. A cat has a greater chance, granted, but it is still a very, very unlikely chance of getting past the guards and the magical barriers. It might have a better chance in the Imperial Order Camp, but Jagang is on the prowl for magical intruders and there are so freaking many of them; killing off even 50,000 was compared to stepping on one ant of an entire colony,

The point of this match is to set the Sword of Truth and Alagaesian worlds, as they appear in the books, against each other. Summoning up ancient parties who were dead long before the books began is simultaneously invoking factors that are not a part of the worlds presented within the books themselves, and bringing in variables that have not been seen/quantified within the canonical story in anything other than vague legends.

Therefore, we should assume that characters who have appeared in the books but are currently dead, such as the Ra’zac or Darken Rahl, are availble to fight, but those who never appeared in the books or were dead before they started are not. If we start going down the roads of including things that “had” existed in the SoT/ALG universes before the books began, we’re going to have quite a time quantifying the numbers of species and armies that have existed for centuries or milennia.

“Imagine swarms of termites attacking fortifications, beetles munching on rations,, lice and fleas plaguing the camp, oxen and horses stampeding, snakes slithering in to tents and blankets, flies and mosquitos biting and stinging. This could seriously demoralize the SoT army.”

In the sixth book, the wizard Zeddicus mentioned the use of disease-carrying albino mosquitos against enemy armies, and that the wizards and sorceresses of a proper army need to be ready to counter such a threat. Given how SoT armies constantly try to sneak little magical traps and plagues into enemy armies, they’d probably know to be on the lookout for such things.

However, a non-magical creature being controlled from a distance is something that SoT would be unaccustomed to. Only Slides and Dreamwalkers have the ability to do things like this, and they are in very short supply in SoT. Seeing as how the armies never found a way of checking to see if someone or something was being possessed by a Dreamwalker or controlled by a Slide, I think its safe to say that they’d have a hard time spotting/dealing with non-magical vermin controlled from a distance. Disease and such was a major hardship for the Imperial Order during the invasion of the Old World. Nicholas the Slide even mentioned at one point that controlling someone’s horse and inducing it to throw them was an interesting and possible method of assassination.

“There is a difference between entering someone’s mind and controlling them. I don’t believe an animal, especially a bug, is ever controlled in the first three books of the Inheritance cycle. This may be because animal’s minds are different than human’s, or because bugs are simply too stupid to follow human orders. Human and beetle minds simply do not coalign like Humans and Dragons. Not to mention bugs will die of Wizard’s Fire just like anyone else, except easier. I think that one is a big if, though kudos on thinking that ingenious theory up.”

In the first book, Eragon was able to compel two horses to go through a waterfall, despite their unease, with his mind. Along with this, it is repeatedly stated by Brom and others that it is possible to communicate with animals using telepathy and the Ancient Language, which all animals can understand to a slight degree even if they think in different ways than humans.

Aside from that, though, I can’t remember any incidents of animals being controlled either. However, it was never stated that animals and insects can’t be controlled. I think it makes sense that they could be, to an extent. After all, animals and insects are controlled by urges, the urge to eat, the urge to flee, the urge to mate, the urge to move to a new area, etc. While they probably wouldn’t be able to understand complex orders, installing simple urges into their minds could very well control their behavior.

As for killing bugs with wizard’s fire . . . that’s kind of like using a sledgehammer to kill a house fly. Also note that quite a few insects, such as lice and ticks and such, tend to be on the bodies of humans when you want to get rid of them. How’re you going to use wizard’s fire on them?

D’Haran soldier: Agh! Damn these bugs! They itch!

Zedd: Hold still, man! I”ll burn them off of you!

D’Haran soldier: W-what? No, First Wizard, don’t-

Zedd: /blast

D’Haran soldier: EEEEEEEEahhhhhh!

Zedd: Bags! I told him to hold still!

Back to seriousness, I think Subtractive Magic would be a much better way of getting rid of pests like this, as its been used with that kind of scissor precision before. For example, in one of the later books when Nicci uses it to destroy the dyes in a dress to change its color without damaging it.

Talk about mundane utility. The Sisters of the Dark, the most feared and deadly sorceresses in the world, mobilized in the interest of pest control.

“Besides, there are other, more deadly creatures in Alagaesia. Imagine some Imperials scouting through the Beor mountains when a Beor charges out of the wood and attacks! Or maybe a Shrrg(sp) which is like a giant wolf. This also might immobilize their navy, with hundreds of jellyfish and sharks trailing their ships.”

Yeah, the Beor mountains has quite a collection of beasties. Shrrg wolves and Nagran beors are both about the size of fully grown horses, and the Beorn cave bears(also called Urzhadn) are as big as small houses. Not to mention the Fanghur, who resemble small dragons with telekinetic powers but cannot breathe fire.

“Besides, there are other, more deadly creatures in Alagaesia. Imagine some Imperials scouting through the Beor mountains when a Beor charges out of the wood and attacks! Or maybe a Shrrg(sp) which is like a giant wolf. This also might immobilize their navy, with hundreds of jellyfish and sharks trailing their ships.”

Whoa there Darth Destro. The way you are talking, there are hundreds of mages in Alagaesia with nothing better to do than to control jellyfish. At least Varden mages can only enter one mind at a time. So for each animal, you would need one mage to control it. I think it would be more effective to have them blasting Sword of Truth with fire than spending all their time controlling jellyfish. Now, ants may work out if they could somehow gain control of their hive mind, but as I said before, they are not intelligent, and sending them off to eat may lead them to Alagaesia’s storehouses as well as the Imperial Order’s.

@ Darth Destro
Please name an instance from the books where a mage controls more than one animal. Even Eragon, when entering the minds of ants, did not understand the hive mind, he just entered the mind of several individual ants. Don’t you think if animals could be used as a weapon, they would have done so already? If the dwarves could control the animal from the Beor mountains, they would have brought them to war. I still argue that a mage can only enter one mind at once, so a hundred mages could only stop a hundred horses, while the other 2,900 descended upon them.

“What we really need to know is whether directing someone through their mind costs you energy or feeds off of him. I’m inclined to believe it would cost them energy, so the termite is getting tired, not Eragon. I guess it’s like Kahlan Amnell telling a confessed to do something. They don’t have a choice.”

The author mentioned in an interview once that “Telepathy takes very little energy” and it was quantified in the books that it would not be impossible for a strong spellcaster to reach out to a target on the other side of Alagaesia without exhausting themselves.

Of course, this might be a moot point, since Eragon and Oromis know the technique to feed off of the energy of other beings to keep themselves from being exhausted, and it’s possible than Galbatorix and Murtagh do as well. If Alagaesia is cooperating, they would probably share the secrets around.

“I still argue that a mage can only enter one mind at once, so a hundred mages could only stop a hundred horses, while the other 2,900 descended upon them.”

If a hundred mages faced 3,000 cavalry, they wouldn’t need to enter the horses’, just use a spell to break their legs like Eragon did with urgals in the first book. No danger from the cavalry then.

Here lies an impasse. I cannot prove that Galby could summon hoardes of animals, although it technically should work. However you can’t argue that just because something didn’t happen in the books makes it unable to happen. So until we get definitive proof, let’s just ignore the argument entirely.

I need to ask some questions on the nature of magic in the SoT. What does using magic cost? Energy, like in Inheritance? Mana? Chi? And how long could a reasonably skilled magician hold up a subtractive shield. Would the mage lose mana/energy/chi everytime the shield sends something into the underworld? Does it affect material objects, like arrows or spears. Could a shield big enough to encompass an army be fabricated? Can these shields be moved? What if someone inside the shield touches it?

And what exactly are the rules for universe battles? Does it mean a constant state of war, like SoT could not temporarily make peace to go and recover from their losses? If SoT pulls out, is Alagaesia required to pursue and take the fight to SoT?

@ AHEM
I meant without their dragons or any speical equipment, like Oromis’s energy store or anything like that.
I find Richard so unpredictable that its hard to judge how good a fighter he is compared to everyone else, even some in Sword of Truth. Without need or anger he cannot even summon wizard’s fire, but with enough need he can destroy hundreds of towers made by hundreds of ancient wizards in moments, and throw in a little cultivation of the land. Plus the guy is clever, crafty, and smart. He’s the Seeker of Truth! Maybe he could not beat Galbatorix or Murtagh in a straight on fight, but I wouldn’t be suprised if he dealt with them the same way he dealt with Darken Rahl….using his brains instead of brawn.

No contest. Richard basically is a God in his power, and he is the main character of SoT so you can’t really ignore him.

In Stone of Tears, he conjures lightning that instantly kills thousands of enemy soldiers all throughout a vast palace (“the size of a city”). In Pillars of Creation, he does the same, instantly killing thousands of enemy soldiers with a mix of normal lightning and “void lightning”.

But beyond these simple abilities, he could defeat his enemy more easily, as in Faith of the Fallen, where he carves a statue which converts the population of his enemy’s home city to his cause.

And, as a last resort, if all else fails, he can simply create an entire new universe and banish everyone he doesn’t like to it, as he did in Confessor.

@ Don Ice
Yes, Richard is powerful, but he is not god-level. If he was, he could have just challenged the Keeper in Stone of Tears and ended the fight right then and there. Or, in the later books, killed the entire Imperial Order by snapping his fingers. Richard is incredibly powerful, and could probably beat young Galbatrorix, but old Galbatorix, with his few hundred dragon hearts of hearts, would decimate Richard.

I wonder if Richard could lead a mission inside the castle to reclaim the dragon’s hearts of hearts, as Eragon will probably try to do in the fourth book. Take the Mother Confessor to get some info from the guards and a few Mord-Sith or Mriswrith to carry everything or quickly silence opposistion. Yes, there are probably death wards around them, but there is a small chance that Richard could walk through them like in Blood of the Fold and Temple of the Winds, or use his magic to destroy them. There is certainly enough need in this case! Once he has at least the majority of the dragon’s hearts of hearts, Galbatorix and Murtagh will be much more manageable. I think Richard could already beat Eragon as well. Its Oromis with his super-powered jewel that might get in the way…