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The Sword of Truth is a fantasy series written by Terry Goodkind. Thus far, it consists of the following books:
Each of the books is themed around a Wizard's Rule.
The most recent book, Chainfire, will be the first book of a trilogy that will conclude the entire Sword of Truth series [1] (http://www.tor.com/Goodkind/).
Terry Goodkind has stated that the books draw upon Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy.
The 2001 Legends anthology, edited by Robert Silverberg, features a short story, "Debt of Bones," set a few decades before the events in the main series. Later the same year, it was published as a stand-alone novella.
World and geography
The action primarily takes place in two continents, the New World (where the early books take place) and the much, much larger Old World (which is introduced in the later books). The New World consists of three regions; from west to east, they are the Westland, the Midlands, and D'Hara; they are separated from each other by barriers called the Boundary. At the beginning of the series, in contrast to the other two regions, the Westland is a region without any magic. The Midlands consists of many nations. D'Hara has always been ruled by the Rahls, the royal wizards of D'Hara.
Magic
There are two 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 power of additive magic.
There are four general types of magic-users:
- wizards
- sorcerers
- sorceresses
- witches
Wizards are found in both the New World and Old World. They cast spells called webs. They are able to draw upon wizard's fire. Wizard's fire is extremely hot and can only be produced by a wizard, as the name implies. It cannot be put out by water and kills anyone it touches. When a wizard is killed by Wizard's fire he leaves behind hints of himself. If he died with a secret that he has managed to keep, or died willingly, this is known as wizard's life fire and the burns will taste sweet. If he died and did not keep his secret or died as an evil wizard then the scorch marks will taste salty and sour.
Sorcerers are found in the Old World, in the service of Emperor Jagang.
Many of the sorceresses are officially the 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 who's 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". There are several sorceresses who are not Sisters, but who at one point went to Tanimura to study with them.
Currently there is only one witch in the sereies, a woman named Shota. She is talked about as being a very powerful woman, but as yet we are unclear as to all 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 has proved a threat more than once.
In addition, other groups, such as Confessors, dreamwalkers, sliphs, and Slides were created via magical means and have magical powers but are not themselves magic-wielders in the same sense as the four groups listed above.
Sword and Seeker of Truth
In the series, the Sword of Truth is the magical weapon of the Seeker of Truth. It has dual parts to its magic. It contains both the power of anger, hate, and rage (subtractive magic) as well as the power of love (additive magic). 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 the current wielder can call upon the blade techniques used by earlier Seekers. 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 will be given the Sword.
Characters
The current Seeker is the main character of the series, Richard Cypher. Other important characters include Kahlan, Zedd, Darken Rahl, and Emperor Jagang.
External links
In the more recent books, main characters includ the previous as well as Cara and Nicci. Darken Rahl is no longer a main character.
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