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December Meme: Vanyel's Legend
My prompt for the 14th was: "What's your take on the whole Vanyel legend/story? What upsets you the most about it?" Thanks, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kowe!
There are really two parts to this prompt; Vanyel's legend, and Vanyel's story! In canon, these things definitely differ, so I shall try to address both.
Vanyel's story is told in three novels, comprising his life from teenager to 30something; in them, we see all the things that go into making anybody's story - his emotional ups and downs, his personal motivations, his failures, and above all (as I briefly mentioned in some comments on an earlier meme post) his maturation. Van starts out as a teenage kid with a broken arm, a hatred of his family situation, and a head full of questions: why am I different, why are adults unfair, could I choose another path, what would let me prove myself? His story unfolds from there, and the reader lives his confusion and excitement and growing wisdom right along with him.
Vanyel's legend is told through mentions within the later parts of his own story, comments dropped in novels set significantly after his death, and through several filks. The primary difference between story and legend is that the latter comes from an outsider's perspective; Vanyel's emotions and reasons are opaque to us (though we may be told what they are, the teller has no authority). In contrast to the story of Vanyel, comprising fifteen or twenty years and a series of events both large and small, the "legend" of Vanyel runs thus: there once was a powerful Herald-Mage who had several military victories in wars with our neighbours, then he died facing down an entire invading army and his ghost still protects the border there!
Vanyel's legend is a sort of highlight reel of Van's most politically appealing moments (he saved some farmers and made the enemy look bad, he outsmarted a foreign mage who was messing with our army, and he took on an entire invading barbarian horde) picked out from the context of his life like nuts from shells. It doesn't touch on anything that makes him a knowable, realistic person; it's designed to make young Heralds think with awe of what they might do for their country, not to comfort them when they have doubts or fears. No one who knows Vanyel only through the lens of Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashekevron would consider him a friend! (This is probably one reason I'm so intrigued by Herald Tantras, one of very few friends Van has in his later years, when his reputation has already spread widely. What made Tran different? What allowed him to slip through the cracks in the legend and get a piece of the real person, the story, instead?)
This isn't to say that I disapprove of Van's legend; it came first, I think, if I'm remembering the publication chronology correctly! (I could be wrong here, but I think that's how it went.) I'm ever so glad we did get Van's story, though, and I think the contrast between legend and person is something a lot of fantasy novels could stand to revisit - mystical references to past heroes are easy flavouring-text or worldbuilding shortcuts, but it's more fun to know the person behind them!
The one thing I remember being mad about, as a kid who was reading every Valdemar novel she could get her hands on, was that nobody seemed to realise exactly what Van did. It seemed grossly unfair to me that they thought Leareth killed him and then his ghost got revenge, instead of knowing that he chose his death deliberately and was, in fact, the one to initiate it via Final Strike. :D Now, of course, I think that was perhaps deliberate: for one, with no mages left to assess the battlefield, no one could have said for sure, and for another... well. History is written by the victors, but when you choose pyrrhic victory, you forfeit any editorial oversight. :D
kowe!There are really two parts to this prompt; Vanyel's legend, and Vanyel's story! In canon, these things definitely differ, so I shall try to address both.
Vanyel's story is told in three novels, comprising his life from teenager to 30something; in them, we see all the things that go into making anybody's story - his emotional ups and downs, his personal motivations, his failures, and above all (as I briefly mentioned in some comments on an earlier meme post) his maturation. Van starts out as a teenage kid with a broken arm, a hatred of his family situation, and a head full of questions: why am I different, why are adults unfair, could I choose another path, what would let me prove myself? His story unfolds from there, and the reader lives his confusion and excitement and growing wisdom right along with him.
Vanyel's legend is told through mentions within the later parts of his own story, comments dropped in novels set significantly after his death, and through several filks. The primary difference between story and legend is that the latter comes from an outsider's perspective; Vanyel's emotions and reasons are opaque to us (though we may be told what they are, the teller has no authority). In contrast to the story of Vanyel, comprising fifteen or twenty years and a series of events both large and small, the "legend" of Vanyel runs thus: there once was a powerful Herald-Mage who had several military victories in wars with our neighbours, then he died facing down an entire invading army and his ghost still protects the border there!
Vanyel's legend is a sort of highlight reel of Van's most politically appealing moments (he saved some farmers and made the enemy look bad, he outsmarted a foreign mage who was messing with our army, and he took on an entire invading barbarian horde) picked out from the context of his life like nuts from shells. It doesn't touch on anything that makes him a knowable, realistic person; it's designed to make young Heralds think with awe of what they might do for their country, not to comfort them when they have doubts or fears. No one who knows Vanyel only through the lens of Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashekevron would consider him a friend! (This is probably one reason I'm so intrigued by Herald Tantras, one of very few friends Van has in his later years, when his reputation has already spread widely. What made Tran different? What allowed him to slip through the cracks in the legend and get a piece of the real person, the story, instead?)
This isn't to say that I disapprove of Van's legend; it came first, I think, if I'm remembering the publication chronology correctly! (I could be wrong here, but I think that's how it went.) I'm ever so glad we did get Van's story, though, and I think the contrast between legend and person is something a lot of fantasy novels could stand to revisit - mystical references to past heroes are easy flavouring-text or worldbuilding shortcuts, but it's more fun to know the person behind them!
The one thing I remember being mad about, as a kid who was reading every Valdemar novel she could get her hands on, was that nobody seemed to realise exactly what Van did. It seemed grossly unfair to me that they thought Leareth killed him and then his ghost got revenge, instead of knowing that he chose his death deliberately and was, in fact, the one to initiate it via Final Strike. :D Now, of course, I think that was perhaps deliberate: for one, with no mages left to assess the battlefield, no one could have said for sure, and for another... well. History is written by the victors, but when you choose pyrrhic victory, you forfeit any editorial oversight. :D
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Yeah. First published books are the Arrows of the Queen ones, which open with Talia reading (and dreaming) about Vanyel.
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I remembered the Arrow books came first, but I couldn't remember whether Vanyel got mentioned in them, or not until later books - and I did remember that his were fairly early, so I wasn't sure but was too lazy to double check. :D
Talia was never a favourite of mine, so I haven't reread her trilogy in a very long time.
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The exception to this, however, is the Karsite border wars! I'd pay good money for a trilogy set there - maybe from the perspective of an "ordinary" Herald for whom Van is a mere background mention (Dear diary: led three charges today, pushed back the disputed zone a good six hundred yards! Benighted Karsite weathermages gave us rain and then hail; I hope their robes rot. HMs exhausted but still managed to hit a captain with mage-lightning. Two took injuries in turn & must be sent back to Haven. Hear HM Ashekevron arrived yesternight; hope he's good enough to replace Taverin and Shanders!) Or even set before Van's arrival - give me some regular Herald or Healer or resident watching the slow destruction of Valdemar's morale and the steady attrition among Herald-Mages, the growing desperation in the face of demonic nightstalkers and an enemy who practices child sacrifice ranged against a bunch of exhausted-looking Heralds who look muddier and more sleepless every time they come in for a supply run...
Ahem. Yeah! Gimme all the Karsite Border War stories, please?! But I secretly prefer Van's friendships remain nebulous enough for me to screw around with. :D
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I'm a little bit sad that we don't see more of them, but on the other hand I'm secretly happy, too, because it means I get to write lots and lots of fanfiction about them with no worries that canon will contradict me!