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如果你一直在看《探索者传说》，即便你不知道原著《真理之剑》，也会注意到巫师佐德一路上都在 “高谈阔论” 他的 “巫师守则”。他所说的那些 “守则” 或许是他胡编的，但原著《真理之剑》中的 “巫师守则” 则是真真切切的－－让我们来见识一下真正的 “巫师十一守则” 吧！

 

 

 

 

 

 

 巫师第一守则
在《巫师第一守则》一卷中揭示：

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

众人愚昧；只要被赋予适当的动机，几乎任何人都会相信任何事。因为众人愚昧，谎言他们也会信以为真，只要他们觉得那是真理，或者害怕那可能成真。人们的头脑中塞满了知识、事实以及信仰，而其中大部分都是妄言，然而他们信以为真。众人愚昧；他们总是难以辨清真实与谎言的差别，而他们反倒自以为可以，由此更趋愚蠢。

巫师第二守则
在《泪之石》一卷中揭示：

好心往往办成坏事。
书中作了如下解释：” 这听起来似乎自相矛盾，然而良好的意图也可成为一条通向毁灭的诡道。有时候做一件看起来正确的事情其实是错误的，而且会造成有害的后果。唯一的应对之道就是知识、智慧、深谋远虑以及理解第一守则。即便如此，也往往不够……对其的破坏将会招致不安、疾病与死亡。”

巫师第三守则
在《血之盟》一卷中揭示：

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

激情统治了理性。
书中作了如下解释：”让你的激情控制了理智，将会让你和身边的人都陷入麻烦。”

巫师第四守则
在《风之神殿》一卷中揭示：

 

诚挚的宽容自有其治愈的魔力。多多给予他人宽容，你得到的宽容会更多。
书中作了如下解释：”原谅和被原谅对于医治人的灵魂来说都是强大的助力。对他人的原谅来自于予他人以宽容，正是这样，一个人才能通过宽恕他人而摆脱愤怒从而必然得到自我的净化。”

巫师第五守则
在《火之灵魂》一卷中揭示：

 

 

 

 

注意人们在做什么，而不仅仅是他们说了什么，因为行为会暴露谎言。
书中作了如下解释：”人们会为了掩饰他们真正的所为而对你撒谎。观察他们的行为将会证实他们的真实意图”

巫师第六守则
在《堕落之誓》一卷中揭示：

 

你只应该允许理智来做你的君王。
书中作了如下解释：”第六守则是所有守则的转化中心。它不仅仅是最重要的一条守则，也是最简单的。尽管如此，它却是最常被无视和违反的守则之一，而且是最被鄙视的。它必须在不绝的怨恨以及咆哮邪恶的抗议中的得以运用。痛苦、不公与绝对的毁灭都潜伏在日光之下的阴影中，这种真假掺杂的东西对忠诚、感情深厚而由无私的信徒来说有如陷阱一般。信仰与情感好似邪恶的温床。与理性不同，信仰与情感对错觉与妄想作出限制。它们是剧毒的毒药，使得道德约束力对于每一种，哪怕尚未成形的恶习都形同虚设。对于理性之光，信仰和情感就是黑暗。理性的实质就在于真相本身。生命的荣耀完全得自理性，得自此条守则。视守则与理性如无物的人将拥抱死亡。”

巫师第七守则
在《创造之柱》一卷中揭示：

 

 

活在未来，而非过去。
书中作了如下解释：”过去能够借由经验来教导我们，如何在未来达成所愿，用珍爱的回忆来安慰我们，为那些已经达成的事情提供基础。但是唯有未来才能掌握人生。一个人活在过去是拥抱了死物。为了过一个完满的人生，每一天都应该有所创造。理智的来讲，对事物的思考我们必须用自己的理解力而非对前事的盲目照搬，去做出明智的抉择。”

巫师第八守则
在《赤裸帝国》一卷中揭示：

 

 

胜利理所应得。（译自高等德哈拉语”Talga Vassternich”）
书中作了如下解释：”在你判决时保持公正。绝对忠诚。主动博取你想要的和需要的，切勿等待别人来给予。”

巫师第九守则
在《炼火》一卷中揭示：

 

矛盾实际上并不存在。非止部分，也非全部。
书中作了如下解释：”信仰的矛盾就是当你放弃了对世间万物所存的信念，转而拥抱一种打击你幻想的动机–料想某事物是真实的仅仅是因为你希望它是真的。事物所现，不脱本质。其中并无矛盾。实际上，矛盾并不存在。为了相信这些你必须抛弃你具有的最重要的东西：你的理性思维。这个赌局所需的赌注就是你的性命。在这个交易里，你总是会在危险中失去一些东西。”

巫师第十守则
在《幽灵》一卷中揭示：

 

罔顾事实任性而为之人会自食其果。
书中作了如下解释：”无论如何都无视事实的人们会对事实抱持强烈的敌意，并对其进行理直气壮的指责。他们总是对那些胆敢指出事实真相的人进行恶毒的攻击……在这些人中寻求真相，其关键简单说来就是，理性、自身利益在于永久寻求真相的观点。真相毕竟立足于事实，而非自以为是。”

巫师第十一守则
这条在《忏悔者》一卷中出现的守则是一条未写明的守则。

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

其理由，佐德向理查德解释道：
守则中的守则，未写明的守则。这守则自有史以来从未宣之于口……但是Barracus要你知道那是关于如何使用战斗法师的力量。表述它的唯一方法，一定要领会他将要告诉你的，就是给予你一本象征着不成文守则的不成文的书。

理查德经过艰苦的努力获得了一本古代的大巫师Baraccus留给他的一本书。这本名曰《战争巫师力量的奥秘》的书有助于他最终理解如何运用自己的天赋，因此其本质上是许多重大问题的解决之道。当他获得那本书时，书页中都是空白，他的祖父佐德提示他，Baraccus留下的空白就是为了阐明未写明的守则的意义。利用这些知识理查德推断出命令之盒的钥匙可能并非是《数影之书》，而实际上真理之剑才是利用orden的生命力量的唯一途径。Jagang和暗黑姐妹会为了获取蕴藏在《数影之书》中的知识作出了绝大的努力，在过去它会得到很好的保护，而当暗黑姐妹会最终使用它时所有的努力都化为虚无。至于所顾虑的书中的知识，其中一无所有，像极了理查德那本《战争巫师力量的奥秘》。真理之剑，正如其名，是生命的钥匙。

英文原版

Wizard’s First Rule
This volume reveals the Wizard’s First Rule:

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
-Chapter 36, p.397, U.S. hardcover edition
Wizard’s Second Rule
Stone of Tears reveals the Wizard’s Second Rule:

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
-Chapter 63, p. 634, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the book as follows: “It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough. [...] Violation can cause anything from discomfort, to disaster, to death.”

Wizard’s Third Rule
Blood of the Fold reveals the Wizard’s Third Rule:

Passion rules reason.
-Chapter 43, p. 360, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “Letting your emotions control your reason may cause trouble for yourself and those around you.”

Wizard’s Fourth Rule
Temple of the Winds gives the Wizard’s Fourth Rule:

There is magic in sincere forgiveness, the magic to heal. In forgiveness you grant, but more so, in forgiveness you receive.
-Chapter 41, p. 318, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “Forgiving and being forgiven are powerful elements of healing for the soul. Forgiving others grants by the giving of forgiveness but more so one receives self healing by the necessity of letting go of bitterness through forgiveness of others.”

Wizard’s Fifth Rule
The Wizard’s Fifth Rule, revealed in Soul of the Fire, is:

Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
-Chapter 28, p. 205, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “People will lie to deceive you from what they truly mean to do. Watching the actions they take will prove their true intentions.”

Wizard’s Sixth Rule
In Faith of the Fallen, the Wizard’s Sixth Rule is revealed to be:

[T]he only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
-Chapter 41, p. 319, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “The Sixth Rule is the hub upon which all rules turn. It is not only the most important rule, but the simplest. Nonetheless, it is the one most often ignored and violated, and by far the most despised. It must be wielded in spite of the ceaseless, howling protests of the wicked. Misery, iniquity, and utter destruction lurk in the shadows outside its full light, where half-truths snare the faithful disciples, the deeply feeling believers, the selfless followers. Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are a virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason, through this rule. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death.”
Wizard’s Seventh Rule
The Wizard’s Seventh Rule, revealed in The Pillars of Creation, is:

Life is the future, not the past.
-Chapter 60, p. 549, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew. As rational, thinking beings we must use our intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices.”

Wizard’s Eighth Rule
The Wizard’s Eighth Rule, revealed in Naked Empire, is:

Deserve victory. (Translated from “Talga Vassternich” in High D’Haran, a literary fictional language)
-Chapter 61, p.626, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “Be justified in your convictions. Be completely committed. Earn what you want and need rather than waiting for others to give you what you desire.”

Wizard’s Ninth Rule
The Wizard’s Ninth Rule, revealed in Chainfire, is:

A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.
-Chapter 48, p. 489, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “To believe in a contradiction is to abdicate your belief in the existence of the world around you and the nature of the things in it, to instead embrace any random impulse that strikes your fancy – to imagine something is real simply because you wish it were. A thing is what it is, it is itself. There can be no contradictions. In reality, contradictions cannot exist. To believe in them you must abandon the most important thing you possess: your rational mind. The wager for such a bargain is your life. In such an exchange, you always lose what you have at stake.”

The Wizard’s Tenth Rule, revealed in Phantom, is:

Wilfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one’s self.
-Chapter 12, p. 134, U.S. hardcover edition

It is explained in the novel as follows: “People who for whatever reason don’t want to see the truth can be acutely hostile to it and shrill in their denunciation of it. They frequently turn their venomous antagonism on whoever dares to point out that truth … To those seeking the truth, it’s a matter of simple, rational, self interest to always keep reality in view. Truth is rooted in reality, after all, not the imagination.”

The eleventh and final rule that appears in The Sword of Truth series is revealed in Confessor to be an unwritten rule. The reason is explained through the character Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander:

The rule of all rules. The rule unwritten. The rule unspoken since the dawn of history… But Barracus wanted you to know that it’s the secret to using a war wizard’s power. The only way to express it, to make sure that you would grasp what he was intending to tell you, was to give you a book unwritten to signify the rule unwritten.
-Chapter 65, p. 592, U.S. hardcover edition

Richard goes through great struggle to obtain a book left for him by Baraccus, a great wizard from the past. The book entitled Secrets to a War Wizard’s power is a means for him to finally understand how to use his gift and therefore in essence be the solution to major problems. Once he obtains the book however, its pages are blank and his grandfather Zedd informs him that Baraccus left it blank to illustrate the meaning of the rule unwritten. Using this knowledge Richard reasons that the Book of Counted Shadows could not possibly be the key to the boxes of Orden, and that in fact the Sword of Truth was the only way to harness Orden’s power of life itself. Incalculable effort had been put into obtaining the knowledge contained in the Book of Counted Shadows by Jagang and the sisters of the dark, and in the past that it was well protected, yet when the sisters of the dark finally used it that effort was all for nothing. As far as the knowledge within the book was concerned, there was “nothing in it”, much like Richard’s Secrets to a War Wizard’s Power. The Sword of Truth, representative of its namesake, was key to life.