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Richard Rahl (also known as Richard Cypher) is the protagonist in The Sword of Truth fantasy series by Terry Goodkind. He is the adopted son of George Cypher and the younger adopted brother of Michael Cypher. He grew up as a woods guide in Westland and as a friend of the wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. In his youth he learned the Book of Counted Shadows by heart and burned it.
The character is portrayed by Australian actor Craig Horner in the TV series Legend of the Seeker in which a considerable amount of his history is different from that developed by the book.
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Physical description
Richard Rahl is a young man with thick, coarse, dark brown hair, a hawk-like brow, gray eyes and powerful muscles. He is described as bigger than most men, with broad shoulders. He starts the series in his early-twenties. His eyes are gray and piercing, and the color is used as an identification of him several times later in the series. He wears earth tones at the start of the series, with dark greens and browns. However, later, he acquires the outfit of Baraccus, the First Wizard during the Great War. He wears a golden cloak and black tunic, with silver wristbands carved with runic symbols. At his waist are pouches containing various items, most notably is white sorcerer's sand and black sorcerer's sand. He wears the Sword of Truth at his hip, inlaid with the word truth in gold on the sword's hilt. He often checks if it is free in its scabbard. Around his neck is, among other things, a gold medallion with a large ruby in the center and Denna's agiel.
General characteristics
Richard has always had a hunger to learn and was named "Seeker of Truth" by his grandfather, Zedd the First Wizard. He always insists on knowing the truth of things. He does not fear the truth, nor, in spite of his title, does he always tell the truth. His earliest skills were an intimate knowledge of plants and herbalism as well as tracking, carving, and archery. Richard was born with the ability to ask questions that fill people's minds with pictures that make them answer, even when they had no intention to do so and even when this is not Richard's intention. Richard sometimes thinks of it as a curse. Zedd is like a second father to him. Richard has never wanted power and prefers to be left alone.
Despite being a Seeker of Truth, Richard has always hated riddles, such as those inherent in most prophecies. He considers them an insult to honesty and ignores them as a matter of principle. He solves riddles of life, not words, although he has often had to solve those as well, despite his reluctance.
As the series progresses, Richard discovers that he has powers of magic beyond that of most wizards: the subtractive side of magic; his official title is a 'War Wizard'. This power is supposedly the source of his proficiency of many crafts, most notably his mastery of any form of blade, whether it be fighting or carving.
History
Richard Rahl (first named Richard Cypher) was born and raised in the town of Hartland in Westland. As a young man, Richard rarely got into trouble. Because his mother died as a result of anger, Richard never allowed himself to lose his temper, and could usually turn scowls to smiles with his easy manner. If talk failed, he was quick enough and strong enough to stop threats before anyone was hurt, and if need be would simply walk away. Once he became the Seeker of Truth, he learned to channel his rage using the Sword of Truth, given to him by the wizard Zedd, who is later revealed to be his grandfather. The Sword of Truth channels Richard's anger into great strength and power, but he can only use the blade to harm those he believes to be truly evil. He also learns to channel forgiveness into the Sword. When he does, he can kill anyone, innocent or not - he hates that fact more than anything. This enabled Richard to kill Denna, a Mord-Sith, who tortured him.
Mother's death
Richard's mother died of a fire while Richard was still very young, which left him with a feeling of abandonment revived by his father's death. Before his mother died, Richard and his brother Michael would play together in the dirt, building houses and forts with sticks, or playing swordplay with wooden swords.
One night, a man came to the house, angry at Richard's father for allegedly cheating him. He lost his temper and knocked a lamp off the table as Richard and his brother slept in the back bedroom. The fallen lamp set the house on fire. While the man dragged his father outside, beating him, his mother pulled Richard and his brother from the burning house, then ran back inside to save something and was burned alive. Her screams brought the man to his senses, and he and their father tried to save her, but couldn't. Filled with guilt and revulsion at what he had caused, the man ran off crying and yelling his apologies.
That, Richard's father had told him, was the result of a man losing his temper. Michael shrugged it off, whereas Richard took it to heart. It had instilled in him a dread of his own anger, and whenever the anger threatened to come out, he choked it off.
Richard later finds out that his mother went back into the house to save Ghazi, a night wisp that none in the family but she had known was there.
Early life
Richard spent most of his early life in the woods, becoming intimate with the knowledge of local plants, if not by name then by sight, as well as the main and hidden trails throughout Hartland Woods and even Ven Forest, which became like a second home to him, although he rarely went close to the "boundary", a magical barrier that cordoned his home land from the realms of Midland and D'Hara. When Richard was very small his friend Zedd would take him hunting for special herbs, showing him which ones to seek as well as where they grew and why. Zedd would put names to everything they saw. From a young age, Richard enjoyed spending time with Zedd while his father was away searching for exotic or rare artifacts, and especially enjoyed his rambling lectures, which were always laced with trinkets of wisdom.
One day, after his father returned from one of his adventures, when Richard was just reaching his teen years, George Cypher asked Richard to be the guardian and keeper of a secret book, the Book of Counted Shadows, which he had him commit to memory before they destroyed it more than 3 years later. The destruction of the Book of Counted Shadows by Richard and his father marked the end of Richard's childhood and left him burdened with the responsibility to keep it always in his memory, which he saw as an honor. Along with the book, Richard's father gave him a triangular-shaped tooth, three fingers wide. This tooth represented proof to the true owner of the book that the book was not stolen but rescued for safekeeping. To lose it would make his father a thief. Richard strung a leather thong to it so he could wear it around his neck, which he did always. His knife, his backpack, his forest cloak, his books, and this tooth were some of his most prized possessions.
About 5 years before the start of the series, Richard moved out of his father's house to live on his own, but often stopped by his father's home for a visit (in contrast to his older brother Michael). Richard often became frustrated by his brother's insistent nagging (which he largely ignored), but believed that it showed that his brother truly did care for him.
Richard made his living as a woods guide, leading travelers safely through the Hartland forests. Most were traveling dignitaries wanting the prestige of a local guide more than they wanted direction. As a guide, he would often play tracking games with the other guides in the Hartland Woods, seeing how far they could follow each other without being detected. Richard was very good at this game. To prevent himself from being followed, Richard would backtrack, or snap a circle, as he and the other guides called it, sneaking up on the one who followed him. Richard would often spend his nights in a wayward pine. He lived in a simple wooden weathered house in the woods, along a narrow path that was higher up from town past an open area of bare rock and away from the maples, oaks, and birches around the town to an area mostly consisting of spruce trees. Its back sat hard up against the woods with its door facing a clearing at the top of a hill. He often cooked for himself on the fireplace and sat in his favorite chair, which squeaked each time he sat in it. This noise gave the chair personality that he could not bring himself to alter.
Father's death
Three weeks before the beginning of the series, Richard's brother Michael told him of their father (George Cypher)'s murder. He warned Richard not to go back to the house where his father had lived and died, but Richard refused to listen. Wanting to spare him, the people at the house would not let him see the body, although he was shocked and pained at the sight of the puddles of his father's blood and the shattered condition of the home. The only untouched object was a blue jar he had created as a child that his father used to leave messages to him while he was away. Inside he found a sprig of a vine. Three weeks later, he would find the same species of vine living parasitically in the Ven Forest to the southeast and would discover it to be a snake vine. His father's death (as well as other strange occurrences) led to a number of rumors throughout the region of things coming out of the boundary and of magic.
Grief and depression overwhelmed Richard after the death of his father. Even though he still had a brother and was fully grown into manhood, he felt orphaned and alone. Richard did not take part in the search for his father's killer, due to Michael's intervention. Instead he went off alone every day searching the Hartland Woods for the mysterious vine he had found at his father's house, keeping it a secret from Michael and the others. Something in his mind teased him that he knew something of why his father had been murdered, but he attributed this to his grief. After 3 weeks of searching, against his better judgement, he traveled to the upper Ven Forest in search of the vine.
Introduction of Kahlan Amnell
While in the Ven Forest, Richard spotted and subsequently helped rescue Kahlan Amnell from a squad attempting to assassinate her. From the beginning Richard was smitten by her pride, integrity, intelligence, and overwhelming beauty. They soon became very close friends. Kahlan taught him of the history of the Midlands and of the threat of Darken Rahl and the Boxes of Orden. They traveled together to see Richard's good friend and mentor, Zedd, whom Richard discovered to be the First Wizard. Zedd appointed Richard as the Seeker of Truth. Richard, Zedd, Kahlan, and their friend, Chase, traveled to the Midlands through the King's Port to recover the last Box of Orden and protect it from the threat of Darken Rahl; however, he didn't find out about Kahlan's unusual powers until much later.
Overview
Richard Rahl, the child of Darken Rahl and of Zedd's daughter, is now the Seeker of Truth; Master Rahl, the ruler of D'Hara; and the first war wizard in 3000 years. He is a blademaster and a master sculptor. He is married to the Mother Confessor, Kahlan Amnell. As with all wizards, he must keep balance in his life. This was first thought to mean that he could not eat meat due to all the killing he had done. However, it was later found out that thinking he needed to balance his power by not eating these foods actually unbalanced him further, because he was essentially saying that to kill in the self defense of himself and those he loved was a bad thing. Richard realized that his gift did not need balance because his killing was justified. Soon after, readers see that he is able to eat meat again. He can also eat cheese. Richard cannot use his magic at will as it only comes in relation to his degree of need, or his emotions. For example when his personal guard, Mord-Sith, and close friend Cara was incurably close to death, Richard traveled into her mind unwittingly, following his instincts, took death into himself, and conquered it, bringing Cara back from the brink of the Underworld. Despite his harsh experiences, he remains unembittered.
Richard is fiercely loyal, often committing himself needlessly into combat to save his men, friends, or innocent people. He would die for anyone he deems deserving of life. In battle he is unparalleled, and is known to "Dance with Death"; i.e. commit himself to his feelings and call forth the knowledge of all those who wielded the Sword of Truth before him, his instincts and has resulted in his single handed defeat of 30 Baka Ban Mana Blade-Masters, or on another occasion 150 armed guards. The latter engagement was fought, not with the mighty Sword of Truth, but a simple short sword, proving that the Sword of Truth is a tool that the Seeker uses but does not make the Seeker in and of itself.
References
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007) |
Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind
Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind
Pilliars of Creation by Terry Goodkind
Smaller articles of information from The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind. Major information from the named books.
External links
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