Test Your Knowledge of Heraldic Gifts! Quiz

Answer: Mindspeech

A lot of Heralds have Mindspeech, even if it's very weak. Animal mindspeech, the ability to talk to animals, is rare. Firestarting appears mostly when it's needed for war, and even then, only in a few Heralds. Foresight is rare, also, and tends to cause a lot of trouble for the Herald in question!

Answer: Fetching

In Arrows of the Queen, Kris and Dirk are credited with discovering this, when their mentor, who was rather absent-minded, left a ring at an inn. They worked together and found that they could bring it back! Afterwards, this discovery helped greatly, from bringing back Ylsa's hollow arrows with documents inside to bringing back the most important thing of all - Talia! Shame on you if you put 'Finding' - this isn't even a gift!

Answer: Music

Discovered by Medren, Stephen's roommate, this became very important when the King was in serious pain but still needed to perform his duties without appearing crippled. (Last Herald-Mage Series) And shame on you if you put 'riding his Companion' - Stephen is not a Herald, he's a Bard! (Last Herald-Mage Series)

Answer: Mage

Vanyel was the last Herald-Mage for hundreds of years, until Elspeth came along. He put in place a way to protect the Kingdom from any mage. (Last Herald-Mage Series)

Answer: Projecting

We see this with Neave, a boy who grew up on the lawless border. Neave had memories and rape and abuse, and when he first arrived at the Collegium, he was giving the Trainees horrible nightmares before they figured out what his Gift was and shielded him. (Arrows of the Queen Series)

Answer: Vanyel

My favorite Herald! Vanyel was linked with Tylendel to provide him with energy for a Gate, and Vanyel was caught in the backlash, making his Gift channels blast open. (Last Herald-Mage Series)

Answer: Dirk, farsight

Did I catch you on this one? Savil says that Vanyel did indeed have Firestarting, enough that he'd never have to carry tinder around. Talia clearly has Empathy, and Elspeth's life centered around bringing the Mage-Gift back to Valdemar.

Answer: open new gift channels

We can see the Companions' abilities most clearly with Lavan and Talia. With Talia, Rolan often added his strength to enhance her Gift, and when she was going to be rescued, Rolan helped. Lavan needed his Gift blocked and controlled, which Kalira did for him.

Answer: 2-3

Most Heralds actually have one strong Gift, and one weak one. Vanyel was extremely rare in having them all. To be a Herald, you have to have at least one weak gift, so '0' is definitely out!

Answer: mage gift and fetching

Tylendel says that he and Savil were not able to work out a way to have a 'fit' in training. Apparently, he had to go mad to have one. As far as we know, no one has ever had experiences that extreme for that long of a time. One of Tylendel's fits broke Vanyel's nose and destroyed their grove of pine trees.