Has Androl's ability with traveling ever been explained?

[Dagon Thyne]

I'm rereading the series and have been thinking about Androl.  He's considered weak in the power but hasban uncanny ability to create gateways larger than people much more powerful.  How is he able to do this.  

 

 

Two possibilities come to mind.

 

The first is a block.  A block which feeds off of his love of travel, which prevents him from accessing ant significant amount of power unless traveling is involved.

 

The second is that he is actually very powerful but is somehow restricted to a single talent, traveling.  So is isn't able to channel effectively in other talents.  

[Harldin]

2 hours ago, Dagon Thyne said:

I'm rereading the series and have been thinking about Androl.  He's considered weak in the power but hasban uncanny ability to create gateways larger than people much more powerful.  How is he able to do this.  

 

 

Two possibilities come to mind.

 

The first is a block.  A block which feeds off of his love of travel, which prevents him from accessing ant significant amount of power unless traveling is involved.

 

The second is that he is actually very powerful but is somehow restricted to a single talent, traveling.  So is isn't able to channel effectively in other talents.  

Androl is probably the only Channeler in the books that has been set up to be so strong in just one discipline and so week in all others, so hard to really know but we do have some very strong Channelers who are very week in some area’s, 

You could possibly have a point about the Block, one thing that is never explained is why are some people stronger Channelers than others? Is this a mental block? Is it a case that some people simply can’t open themselves enough to fully utilise Channeling? 
I think the Books only really scratch the surface in regards to what is possible with the Channeling, and i think a visit to the Black Tower 100.years into the future would be a fascinating tour to begin to see whats possible.
You mentioned how large a Gateway Androl could create, but what i found even more incredible was his ability to create minute ones at will and the speed he created them. He freed Logain by using Gatewys to open his chains and then another to get him to safety in a matter of a few seconds.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Harldin

[Fox]

I don't think it was every really explained in the books, but I always took it as just a talent in that area. Like how some people are really good at math and the sciences, but struggle in the creative arts. Or a person who has perfect pitch and can't play a musical instrument. He was the one guy who broke convention with what was considered normal in the One Power strength. Andol was the guy who helped me realize I might know something but not everything, because we limit ourselves as much as we limit others. 

[Jsbrads2]

Androl’s speed is unexplained. Androl can open a gateway while under attack. Every gateway even by Forsaken take time and the gateway rotates into an opening. 

[wotfan4472]

Androl has a Talent for gateways. It is how he makes them despite his weak strength.

 

There exist two others that have the same talent; Rand al'Thor, because Lews Therin had it and Demandred. 

 

It is this talent that allow Rand to hold open both Asmodean's gateway at the Rhuidean battle, and Aveindha's gateway, and that feat was something Asmodean commented on when he said he thought only Demandred could do what Rand just did to Aviendha's.

 

Demandred, meanwhile, revealed it in A Memory Of Light when a channeler opened a gateway and it shut immediately when trying to escape him, because Demandred seized the weave and actually reversed it. 

[Thrasymachus]

As said above, it's a Talent, which seems to have deeper connotations than being merely extraordinarily skilled or innately knowledgeable.  He's not the only one with a Talent that produces outsized effects from weaves they shouldn't otherwise be strong enough to produce.  There's a Kin woman who's name escapes me that can weave Shields that can hold Nynaeve with ease, and it's stated any of the Forsaken too, in spite of also being relatively weak overall.

[Agitel]

To join the chorus, I understood it to be a Talent.

[Dagon Thyne]

On 5/27/2020 at 5:44 PM, Fox said:

I don't think it was every really explained in the books, but I always took it as just a talent in that area. Like how some people are really good at math and the sciences, but struggle in the creative arts. Or a person who has perfect pitch and can't play a musical instrument. He was the one guy who broke convention with what was considered normal in the One Power strength. Andol was the guy who helped me realize I might know something but not everything, because we limit ourselves as much as we limit others. 

That doesn't really explain why he is so weak and all other aspects of channeling.  even someone who is extremely strong and healing can still create a fireball usually.

 

and raw is so weak in the pattern in general that he shouldn't have even been able to create gateway.  And yet he is able to create gateway's in ways that it's done most very powerful Channelors.  

 

so it's not that he is simply very talented and traveling it's literally that he can only travel and that's it.  The most he can do in other ways is a very small trickle of the power.  

 

if he had been a woman he would be even weaker than Morgause, who wasn't powerful enough to be an accepted.  

 

and I don't remember any other examples of people who are only powerful in one particular talent and are extremely weak and all other aspects of channeling. 

 

 

[Dagon Thyne]

The only thing I can think of is that he is actually one of the most powerful Channeler's in the world, but that he is extremely limited in what he can use that power in.

 

but he is unique in that he is so weak in the power in other talents that he can barely use it.  Most people who are like him and very strong a single talent at least have some power and other talents.  He can barely even do anything with the power and less he's traveling.  

[Dagon Thyne]

Saying it's a talent still doesn't explain fully.  people with strong talents in healing can still use the power in other ways.  Andro is literally the only person in the entire series who is extremely weak in all but one aspects of the power.  

[Thrasymachus]

He's nowhere near as weak as Morgase.  Morgase has a hard time even sensing the One Power, and the most she can manage to do once she finds it is make a bit of cloth stand out against its weight and the wind, for a few seconds at a time.  Androl has no trouble seizing the Source, and while he's about as weak as a Solider gets (any weaker, and they get sent off to be in Bashere's army) that's still comparable with the weakest Aes Sedai.  He's able to show the new guys how to cut and compact the sides of the canal they were building, and while he may have trouble with exploding rocks, he can still break them and it's never said that he has any particular trouble with the sorts of low-power weaves nearly everybody can do, like creating light or starting fires.  He also weaves the Ashaman warder bond quickly, and without visible effort.  

 

As far as Talents go, Androl's is comparable with Berowin.  Berowin is weaker than nearly every Aes Sedai, but is able to shield both Nynaeve and Elayne, and hold both of their shields without effort.  Where Nynaeve is only a couple of steps down from being as strong in the Power as it is possible to be, and Elayne being stronger than any Aes Sedai in a thousand years.  You're exaggerating how weak Androl is, and ignoring established prior examples of just the kind of Talent Androl exhibits.

[Harldin]

I don’t think you can look at what is and isn’t possible with Channeling using what is described in the books.  It is very skewed towards the Aes Sedai way of channeling and thinking.
For 3000 years no one channeled in the Westlands without permission from Tar Valon. And the Aes Sedai judge you solely on how strong you are, you may get a Novice who is weak in the power but has a strong talent but when they are not even allowed to channel without at least an Accepted present they may simply not get the opportunities to develop their talent. It is a way of trg that does not support a weak Channeler. 
Compare that to how Androl was trained, as a new Soldier, he was expected to do everything using Saidin, as Taim once told Rand, the Soldiers eat cold until they can heat the food themselves. 
The Westlands has gone from having one Base of power for Channeling to now having 5 including one that has both Men and Women. All using different Trg methods and look at Channelers and Channeling differently from outright Slavery(Seanchan) to great respect and deference(Aiel). As i said above to have a much better idea of what is truly possible with Channeling you need to come back in a hundred years or so or go back 4000 years.