The Fearless DM

So, I was wrong.

I had suggested to some guys earlier that the Robe of Eyes was probably based on Argos (the many eyed giant servant of Hera, the greek myth about peacock feathers, etc).

Instead, it’s actually an item that appears in The Dying Earth, by Jack Vance.

I have been reading a lot of Jack Vance lately, and to explain the item I have to kind of explain that the Dying Earth is a bit unlike the other two books in the “trilogy” of Cugels Saga and Rhialto the Marvelous. It is an earlier effort, and it is rougher.. I’ve been reading Jack Vance books since college, but I had never found the Dying Earth (it’s a 1950 novel) until recently. Two things I never realized: the “Dying Earth” really is supposed to be a reference to earth, like, our earth. I assumed the world of the dying earth was it’s own sort of fantasy world. Second, the cover of the book shows a massive space station floating over the planet. Oh, I never thought of it this way.

It has the same PG Wodehousian dialogue- the comedy of manners is probably my favorite detail of Vance’s prose.

However, the Dying Earth is unique in several ways- especially n the way it skips around from character to character. It was written much more like the way Lyonesse (a later series by the same author) was written the way it follows a tale for a while, then drops it, then picks it up again later.

In this particular tale, there’s a particularly detestable character called Liane the Wayfarer- he’s a murdering amoral scum, but he has beautiful golden eyes. He’s not amoral or scoundrelly in a fun way (like Cugel). No, he’s an ass.. I literally hated him by the second page he appeared. Anyhow, Liane wants to possess (I think a fancy word for rape) a beautiful witch named Lith, but she defends herself and says instead that if he can go get the second half of a magic tapestry, she will willingly be with him. So Liane sets off, and (murdering a few people along the way) eventually finds the tapestry which is guarded by Chun the unavoidable. He tries to use his magic ring and his trickery to get it, long story short.. Chun is wearing a Robe of Eyes, and kills Liane.

And here’s the brilliant part: Chun shows up at the witchs door and gives her two threads for her tapestry to account for Liane’s eyes.

So the implied story is that Lith sends victims to Chun, who takes their eyes, and  in return he gradually supplies threads from his golden tapestry to Lith. 

I was blown away by this story, and I was really impressed by the style of it all.