Questions of Balefire...

[Jedimuppet]

so what defines it' date=' ultimately? The channelers's mindset? It can't be the force, because even small bf's have erased people.[/quote']

 

The amount of power used determines how far back the thread burns, so theoretically a small enough use of the power would result in no loss. I admit I'm not sure how it would still maintain damaging power, but RJ's quote indicates that he thinks it's possible.

J

[Bob T Dwarf]

"The shaft of light struck the blade of Callandor - and parted on its edge' date=' forking to stream past on either side. [b']He felt his coat singe from its near passage,[/b] smelled the wool beginning to burn. Behind him, the two prongs of frozen fire, of liquid light, struck huge redstone columns; where they struck, stone ceased to exist, and the burning bars bored through to other columns,

serving those instantaneously as well."

 

Note my added emphasis. Rand's coat is only singed because the balefire does not actually touch it; it merely passes very close by.

 

This tells us that balefire is physically hot as well as bright; that whatever it touches is destroyed; whatever it passes near that is flammable may burn.

[Jedimuppet]

"The shaft of light struck the blade of Callandor - and parted on its edge' date=' forking to stream past on either side. [b']He felt his coat singe from its near passage,[/b] smelled the wool beginning to burn. Behind him, the two prongs of frozen fire, of liquid light, struck huge redstone columns; where they struck, stone ceased to exist, and the burning bars bored through to other columns,

serving those instantaneously as well."

 

Note my added emphasis. Rand's coat is only singed because the balefire does not actually touch it; it merely passes very close by.

 

This tells us that balefire is physically hot as well as bright; that whatever it touches is destroyed; whatever it passes near that is flammable may burn.

 

Again, though, what's the relevance of the point? Who said balefire wasn't hot?

J

[Bob T Dwarf]

It seemed Shai-tan was saying that because Rand's coat was only singed, that balefire does not destroy everything it touches. Point being, it didn't actually touch his coat.

 

It also seems he thinks that the pillars were totally destroyed. Despite the typo, the pillars were only severed. The parts that balefire actually touched ceased to exist, but the parts both above and below that remained intact. Holes the size of the bar of balefire get bored through walls, the whole wall does not cease to exist, etc.

 

The point here is that a certain basic strength of balefire is required to both kill a person and consume all of anything that is touching him.

 

From the descriptions of its use that we have, weak as Moiraines blast was, it consumed not merely Bel'al but his clothes and equipment as well. Tiny as Rand's blasts into the massed Trollocs and Myrddraal were, they consumed both them and their equipment, armor, and weapons.

 

So it seems that there is a threshold level for balefire. In order for the weave to function at all, the result must be strong enough not only to kill the person, but also to consume their clothing and equipment.

[Jedimuppet]

It seemed Shai-tan was saying that because Rand's coat was only singed' date=' that balefire does not destroy everything it touches. Point being, it didn't actually touch his coat.

 

It also seems he thinks that the pillars were totally destroyed. Despite the typo, the pillars were only severed. The parts that balefire actually touched ceased to exist, but the parts both above and below that remained intact. Holes the size of the bar of balefire get bored through walls, the whole wall does not cease to exist, etc.

 

The point here is that a certain basic strength of balefire is required to both kill a person and consume all of anything that is touching him.

 

From the descriptions of its use that we have, weak as Moiraines blast was, it consumed not merely Bel'al but his clothes and equipment as well. Tiny as Rand's blasts into the massed Trollocs and Myrddraal were, they consumed both them and their equipment, armor, and weapons.

 

So it seems that there is a threshold level for balefire. In order for the weave to function the result must be strong enough not only to kill the person, but also to consume their clothing and equipment.[/quote']

 

I think part of it is also that if you burn someone's thread back to before they were there, their clothes wont' be there as well. They may very well be sitting in a drawer at the person's home...

J

[Bob T Dwarf]

:lol:

 

Visions of happy Mrs. Myrddraal, tenderly folding Mr. Myrddral's undies and putting them in his underwear drawer.

[Shai-tan]

Well the main point I have been trying to prove is that Balefire can cause living things and pillars to disappear :P Maybe nothing else can disappear but it seems those pillars have to watch out

[Bob T Dwarf]

Pillars, wall hangings, walls that are meant to keep out the weather, furniture, decorations, people, clothing, equipment, armor weapons.

 

Balefire has it in for everything. When it's around, ya'll better duck. It is one mean mofo.

 

:D

[elmindreda]

i wonder if you could use a very small amount of balefire and use it to cut peoples hair it would be a quick way of getting a trim

 

be a bit scary though

[mercurial67]

This is another case where Jordan seems to have contradicted himself.

I can easily see it as not being a contradiction. In the BWB (which I haven't read) it could be said based on the quote provided that the people discovered what it did & in their discovery thought it completely destroyed the soul. While RJ himself (as the master of the world) says it all but completely destroys the soul & it takes a long time for any hint to show up again.

 

Personally I think it was supposed to completely remove the thread & destroy the soul until RJ needed to use someone for the DO which he realized had been balefired.

[elmindreda]

This is another case where Jordan seems to have contradicted himself.

I can easily see it as not being a contradiction. In the BWB (which I haven't read) it could be said based on the quote provided that the people discovered what it did & in their discovery thought it completely destroyed the soul.

 

what does BWB stand for?- sorry Im new and dont understand some of the abreviations

[Jedimuppet]

This is another case where Jordan seems to have contradicted himself.

I can easily see it as not being a contradiction. In the BWB (which I haven't read) it could be said based on the quote provided that the people discovered what it did & in their discovery thought it completely destroyed the soul.

 

what does BWB stand for?- sorry Im new and dont understand some of the abreviations

 

Big White Book - it's like the illustrated guide to WoT. Pretty good read; very informative.

J

[elmindreda]

oh ok thanks

 

i was reading a robert jordan interview the other day and it kept saying RAFO what does that mean?

[Jedimuppet]

oh ok thanks

 

i was reading a robert jordan interview the other day and it kept saying RAFO what does that mean?

 

Read and find out. Usually it means he doesn't want to give an answer because he's going to use that concept somehow, but sometimes I think he just likes to frustrate people.

 

J

[elmindreda]

thanx and i think he does it for suspense but it is frustrating

[loki redfern]

does any one think that if you wove a balefire weave with a gateway one you could travel through time that would be kind of cool

[elmindreda]

no i think you would either

destroy the gateway

kill anyone in a hundred mile radius of both gateays

or cause a mutant gateway that spouts balefire hahaha

[Sweet 666]

I don't think part of balefire's weave is to actually make stuff back in time vanish. I belive that it is just an unexpected side effect of a very deadly weave. Kind of like the hunger u experience after the old way of healing. :o

[Zyrshnikashnu]

It occurs to me that balefire is much like antimatter. When antimatter collides with matter, they are both converted to energy. They effectively cease to exist. That's similar to what balefire does. It removes whatever it touches from existence.

[Narg]

To bring some back with balefire this is probably the only way.

 

Balefire whoever killed them. if they broke their neck on a stool., find whoever made that stol and balefire him realy hard so he never made that stool.

[Thom Merrilin]

What I wonder is, what would happen if a person balefired their father? Would nothing happen, or would they both disappear? :?

[Bob T Dwarf]

Unless you're using a blast that is strong enough to balefire Dad back to before when you were conceived, only Dad disappears.

 

Technically, thereafter, you become mad, because you have memories of your interaction with your father that never happened, because he was already dead by the time they occured.

[Beowolf]

How exactly did a Balefire thread pop up without my knowledge? :D Anyway:

On the dead body thing: A dead body is effectively inanimate, for the purposes of balefire. you can no longer burn the thread, because the thread doesn't exist anymore; it's been cut off.

On the father thing: I agree with Bob, what he said makes perfect sense. :D