Speculative question about Nathan Rahl

[Raven Rahl]

This is a very good thread. Many great points have been brought up that have wonderful possibilities. Personally, I think it could be either A) he was the second son of the Lord Rahl and as was previously stated, sent away, or B)Went willingly after he was older to as was said (live forever), but the sister's didn't tell him the whole truth that his stay would be as a prisoner.  

[Draconous07]

Britainian_Knight

Here's the way I've come to see it.

For starters the house of Rahl has been spelled so that every Lord Rahl will come to have a gifted heir, regardless of the declining trend of the gifted bearing gifted offspring. Any gifted has the chance to bear a gifted offspring, which while becoming increasingly rare does still occur. The Lord Rahl at the time bore two gifted sons, one from the spell and one from his own gift, hence Nathan.

Historically Noble or Royal houses with multiple sons would often send one away so as not to cause a division in the family. Such a division often occurred in the late king or lord dying without choosing his heir, an ensuing break could spark a civil war in the kingdom and lead to it's own downfall. This is where the famous saying "a house divided cannot stand" originally came from.

Putting history with fiction would result in his father the Lord Rahl at the time sending off his second son to protect both the sons and his kingdom from potential disaster. This decision, though difficult made the Lord Rahl give up his son to the Sisters of the Light(Most likely come by his own command) to take Nathan across the barrier to be trained in his gift, and training the brother to become the next Lord Rahl himself.

And yes this is very simplified and boiled down, so if anything doesn't make sense let me know and I'll be sure to clarify.

The problem with this theory is that "The Rahl Curse" allows the lord Rahl to have one, and only one son with the gift. All other children are prestinly ungiften childen and therefore can not have the gift. Therefore any brothers or sisters that Nathan would have had would have been Prestinely ungifted. And as we discovered from the books the Rahls kill Prestinely ungifted children in their line.

Otherwise this would have been an acceptable Theory, but as we know there is no cheating magic, so because of the Rahl curse no lord Rahl after Alric, could have ever birthed two sons with the gift.  

[Raven Rahl]

Draconous07

Britainian_Knight

Here's the way I've come to see it.

For starters the house of Rahl has been spelled so that every Lord Rahl will come to have a gifted heir, regardless of the declining trend of the gifted bearing gifted offspring. Any gifted has the chance to bear a gifted offspring, which while becoming increasingly rare does still occur. The Lord Rahl at the time bore two gifted sons, one from the spell and one from his own gift, hence Nathan.

Historically Noble or Royal houses with multiple sons would often send one away so as not to cause a division in the family. Such a division often occurred in the late king or lord dying without choosing his heir, an ensuing break could spark a civil war in the kingdom and lead to it's own downfall. This is where the famous saying "a house divided cannot stand" originally came from.

Putting history with fiction would result in his father the Lord Rahl at the time sending off his second son to protect both the sons and his kingdom from potential disaster. This decision, though difficult made the Lord Rahl give up his son to the Sisters of the Light(Most likely come by his own command) to take Nathan across the barrier to be trained in his gift, and training the brother to become the next Lord Rahl himself.

And yes this is very simplified and boiled down, so if anything doesn't make sense let me know and I'll be sure to clarify.

The problem with this theory is that "The Rahl Curse" allows the lord Rahl to have one, and only one son with the gift. All other children are prestinly ungiften childen and therefore can not have the gift. Therefore any brothers or sisters that Nathan would have had would have been Prestinely ungifted. And as we discovered from the books the Rahls kill Prestinely ungifted children in their line.

Otherwise this would have been an acceptable Theory, but as we know there is no cheating magic, so because of the Rahl curse no lord Rahl after Alric, could have ever birthed two sons with the gift.

That's not true. Not ALL other children were pristinely ungifted, look at Drefan. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, they said at least one gifted Rahl offspring, not only one.  

[Draconous07]

Lord Raven Rahl

Draconous07

Britainian_Knight

Here's the way I've come to see it.

For starters the house of Rahl has been spelled so that every Lord Rahl will come to have a gifted heir, regardless of the declining trend of the gifted bearing gifted offspring. Any gifted has the chance to bear a gifted offspring, which while becoming increasingly rare does still occur. The Lord Rahl at the time bore two gifted sons, one from the spell and one from his own gift, hence Nathan.

Historically Noble or Royal houses with multiple sons would often send one away so as not to cause a division in the family. Such a division often occurred in the late king or lord dying without choosing his heir, an ensuing break could spark a civil war in the kingdom and lead to it's own downfall. This is where the famous saying "a house divided cannot stand" originally came from.

Putting history with fiction would result in his father the Lord Rahl at the time sending off his second son to protect both the sons and his kingdom from potential disaster. This decision, though difficult made the Lord Rahl give up his son to the Sisters of the Light(Most likely come by his own command) to take Nathan across the barrier to be trained in his gift, and training the brother to become the next Lord Rahl himself.

And yes this is very simplified and boiled down, so if anything doesn't make sense let me know and I'll be sure to clarify.

The problem with this theory is that "The Rahl Curse" allows the lord Rahl to have one, and only one son with the gift. All other children are prestinly ungiften childen and therefore can not have the gift. Therefore any brothers or sisters that Nathan would have had would have been Prestinely ungifted. And as we discovered from the books the Rahls kill Prestinely ungifted children in their line.

Otherwise this would have been an acceptable Theory, but as we know there is no cheating magic, so because of the Rahl curse no lord Rahl after Alric, could have ever birthed two sons with the gift.

That's not true. Not ALL other children were pristinely ungifted, look at Drefan. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, they said at least one gifted Rahl offspring, not only one.

Lol, Yes Drefen does give the apparence of being a gifted child, but if you read back Drefen is tested as a child and to his mother horror he is declared a prestinely ungifted son of Darken Rahl. He is though how to manipulate other peoples auras, which is what gives him the apparence of having the gift. This ability was taught to him by the Raug'Moss healers that hios mother left him with when she killed herself.  

[Britainian_Knight]

Drefan was ungifted, yes. Pristinely? NO. please actually note that Pillars of Creation states that although being born with the gift is rare (even with the spell) Being born pristinely ungifted is still much more rare. The reason there was such a large problem was that every offspring of one of these Pillars of Creation was also born pristinely ungifted. If you don't believe me please feel free to reread pillars of creation.  

[Raven Rahl]

Ok, that statement on the SoT wiki is wrong and I'll edit it in a minute. I have proof that Drefan was not pristinely ungifted. Chapter 67 of Temple of the Winds where Richard faces Drefan states:

"Drefan drew the Sword of Truth. The ring of steel that Richard knew so well echoed around the stone room, a chime that seemed to awaken him into a nightmare. Richard could see the rage from the sword, the magic take Drefan's eyes."

If he were pristinely ungifted, he would've felt nothing as he held the sword.  

[Draconous07]

Well, i must ceede this debate for the moment. I may have mis-read the details of the Rahl curse, But see as i can not fin it at the present time, i can not prove evidence either way. However once i stumble upon it, i'll post it.

One other point, I do believe they talked about Drefen having a close relationship with the Keeper. True or false? (was not a huge fan of drefen so i'm going to need to re-read most of the parts with him in it before the next post about him.)

If it was true, who knows the limits of what the Keeper can do for a prestinely ungiften....  

[Ianus Diabolus]

I really like this thread.

My speculation. The whole, kill all else, save one heir, was something that started later, nearer to Panis' time, than Alric's.

What if Nathan, supposedly extremely gifted with prophecy, even at a young age, wasn't a mite crazy with untrained prophecy running through his head all the time. His parents sent him off to heal him maybe??
Or could the sisters of light have been hiding as midwives.
Maybe they stressed the importance to the Rahl monarch of that time.
Or Nathan saw his path having to go farther than a normal life to end some of the worst prophecies he lay witness to.

Also, he only took his Rada'han off after Zedd did it a few times. It is possible he knew he had to leave and that event unlocked his understanding, just feeling Zedd manipulate it, and he then knew the trick to it.

Or he just had to get some important things done at the palace of the prophets, like stopping the arrival of the child tyrant, then get out of the bloody prophet's rooms that were spelled against his type by the wizards of old. Remember, he only had additive. Strong additive, but only one side of the coin.  

[Raven Rahl]

Ianus Diabolus

I really like this thread.

My speculation. The whole, kill all else, save one heir, was something that started later, nearer to Panis' time, than Alric's.

What if Nathan, supposedly extremely gifted with prophecy, even at a young age, wasn't a mite crazy with untrained prophecy running through his head all the time. His parents sent him off to heal him maybe??
Or could the sisters of light have been hiding as midwives.
Maybe they stressed the importance to the Rahl monarch of that time.
Or Nathan saw his path having to go farther than a normal life to end some of the worst prophecies he lay witness to.

Also, he only took his Rada'han off after Zedd did it a few times. It is possible he knew he had to leave and that event unlocked his understanding, just feeling Zedd manipulate it, and he then knew the trick to it.

Or he just had to get some important things done at the palace of the prophets, like stopping the arrival of the child tyrant, then get out of the bloody prophet's rooms that were spelled against his type by the wizards of old. Remember, he only had additive. Strong additive, but only one side of the coin.

Technically Nathan got his Rada'han off before Zedd did. Remember Nathan used the destruction of the Palace of the Prophets to help get it off, or so they speculated. The first time Zedd took his collar off to show those tavern patrons was well after that, when Zedd and Ann were chasing him.  

[Ianus Diabolus]

Lord Raven Rahl

Ianus Diabolus

I really like this thread.

My speculation. The whole, kill all else, save one heir, was something that started later, nearer to Panis' time, than Alric's.

What if Nathan, supposedly extremely gifted with prophecy, even at a young age, wasn't a mite crazy with untrained prophecy running through his head all the time. His parents sent him off to heal him maybe??
Or could the sisters of light have been hiding as midwives.
Maybe they stressed the importance to the Rahl monarch of that time.
Or Nathan saw his path having to go farther than a normal life to end some of the worst prophecies he lay witness to.

Also, he only took his Rada'han off after Zedd did it a few times. It is possible he knew he had to leave and that event unlocked his understanding, just feeling Zedd manipulate it, and he then knew the trick to it.

Or he just had to get some important things done at the palace of the prophets, like stopping the arrival of the child tyrant, then get out of the bloody prophet's rooms that were spelled against his type by the wizards of old. Remember, he only had additive. Strong additive, but only one side of the coin.

Technically Nathan got his Rada'han off before Zedd did. Remember Nathan used the destruction of the Palace of the Prophets to help get it off, or so they speculated. The first time Zedd took his collar off to show those tavern patrons was well after that, when Zedd and Ann were chasing him.

That raises the question, since is was so easy for Zedd, did he have to take it off to weave the light web around the travel journal? Or did he just do it through it?  

[dot_hack_ver2]

he said it only took him a few days to take it off so yes he took it off to cast the light web as for my opinion on nathan what pepole are doing is misinterpreting the rahl curse not ALL children are pristinely ungifited only a very few are just over the years the rahl family killed any without the gift even the little spark of one so two heirs is not that implausible of an idea