The eleventh rule analysis is an interesting take. But I feel something is missing. I just can't put to words what I think is missing. Someone please give some suggestions. 206.248.176.32 19:39, February 7, 2010 (UTC) NXL
I agree with the comment above. I think something is missing. I think the eleventh rule has more to do with action and intention and the hatred or lack thereof behind the action or intent. The sword means cut and is also the key. Most of the other rules seem to be about how a wizard internally processes thoughts and decisions. I think the eleventh rule has to do with putting the rules to action - to cut. I also believe it has something to do with cutting with the white sword instead of cutting with the black sword. Of course, I'm sure there is some sort of objectivist philosphy in addition to this that has to deal with how nothing is greater than reason. Witcheight 11:49, July 12, 2010 (UTC)
I think there is a way to write the 11th rule and actually encompass its meaning, afterall, only a true war wizard and potential true seeker of the keenest mind can attain this rules wisdom. here is my attempt "Do not know the truth, seek it. For it is as everchanging as life itself" I say this because the eleventh rule is both rule and prophecy. only by seeking the truth throughout each novel was Richard able to grow and attain his true power. also truth has more power than any of the forces lord rahl has ever met. truth is more powerful than love or hate. However, truth can never be trusted as truth can easily change. an example, a man marries the girl he loves, vowing to honor and cherish her. 14 years down the road, he might be a drunken philanderer, a greedy workaholic with no time for love, or he might be a good husband and father, it all depends on his seeking the truth of his life. emotion can not be the key to wizards 11th rule, because if emotion entered the equation further than introducing the drive to think of the solution, it would then violate other of the 10 prior rules. Emotion is a good catalyst, but logic and reason are the fuel which can give the truth form shape and power, much as anger is merely a tool of the sword that makes its operation easier to withstand, and the true nature of its reaped souls a tool to aid in self reflection and realization. the interpretation i have given also shows the proof of free will and its ability to warp twist and change any prophecy. the evidence of which are the various prophecies within the series, majority of which are shaped by freewill to express their true meaning, and also, witheight is correct, it is tied directly in with the primary edict, cut from the lies to expose the truth, cut from the faith to expose reality, cut and show that truth cannot be cut, only covered with lies that must be cut away.69.67.111.102 08:44, November 6, 2010 (UTC)theunwrittenrule42
The final rule, more than anything, describes that truth isn't found in humans, nor is it dependent on them or what they think. The truth is the truth, no matter what anyone else tells you. Will you not get poisoned if you eat a poisonous mushroom, believing that it isn't poisonous, because someone else believes that and they told you that, and in turn you believed them? The only way to find the truth(the beginning of all *correct* reasoning), is to find it for yourself. Truth is the only way to see the world around you as it is, and to be able to make predictions.
In a certain sense, truth is also the beginning of all correct and worthy-to-believe prophecy. I personally think that the reason for Richard disliking prophecy as it comes to prophets and is written down, is that the entire process from truth to branches isn't told in a prophecy(just the results), and therefore he ignores it. That is again the core of the final rule; he has no valid reason to believe the prophecy, so he doesn't value it in any way. They are just empty words, empty words that anyone could have written down with any motive.
The "unwritten" rule also shows other forms of symbolism. Your life isn't written down; you write it yourself(hence the empty book). That hate only leads to betraying yourself has to be read with the notion that if you want to live your life to the fullest(and not waste it, before your time is up), you should spend your time not by fighting everything around you, as that can never be a goal in itself. If you kill everyone and destroy everything, what is left in the world to live for? In that light, hate can never be what you are given your one life for; if you want to live in emptiness, you might as well not bother to live at all. Therefore, harmony with things around you will lead to greater insights, and perhaps to a greater answer. Hate will only lead to nothingness, and thus a waste of your one life.
Obviously there are many lights and shades that spawn from each rule. Some of these things I had realised before reading the books, some I hadn't. Some things that I have realised are not in the books(there you go, not everything is in books, write your own life and it will be much fuller than when you JUST copy the books of others, even though that may be helpful ;-) ). The only thing that can be done in this article is to name the rules, and perhaps tell how the characters themselves(and thus Terry Goodkind) explains the rules in the books. These rules are supposed to be seeds of wisdom, and they can grow in directions that reach past the books. I think it's no use to speculate what the rules mean, in a deeper sense, in the books. That is for the readers themselves to judge. If the characters don't say it, don't speculate; stick with the facts when writing any Wikia article. OsirisGOLAD 15:30, November 6, 2010 (UTC)
I agree with the previous post except that I don't believe that an eleventh rule exists, or if it does then this isn't it. Zed calls it the Rule of all rules not the eleventh rule. Zed also says that it is the rule "unspoken" and "unwritten" since the dawn of history which would suggest that no one has ever known it except the one who created it. The book leads me to believe that it was created by Baraccus as a lesson specifically for richard to help him prevail against the enemies of life and the chainfire event. He started the legend of the Wizard's Eleventh rule to insure that the meaning of that lesson would reach richard. I believe the purpose of this lesson was to impart to richard that he already had everything he needed to persevere in the first ten rules, he need only apply them to the problem at hand. Which is exactly what richard did. He found a contradiction that allowed him to unravel the truth about Orden and the Sword of truth. Also the book in which the "rule" was written(or rather wasn't) was not called the Wizards Eleventh rule or the Rule of all rules, it was called "Secrets to a War Wizard's Power" which, along with the legend passed down about an unknown eleventh rule, implies that the secret to a war wizards power is tied to the wizard's rules. This makes sense as a War wizards power like the seeker's is tied to intent and intent is directly tied to a persons ability to reason, his logic and his compassion. To come full circle, I view reason, logic and compassion as the underlying themes of the wizards rules; therefore, the secrets to a war wizard's power are the wizard's rules or maybe their underlying themes themselves. I guess you could say the the name zed gives it is a literal definition...the rule of all rules. Meaning that the rule is literally all of the other rules. Technically you could call this a rule if you wanted but I don't think it qualifies. --75.72.222.42 17:54, December 9, 2014 (UTC)