The Sword of Light

[Arawn Telamon]

I was re-reading EotW and during the ending fight between Ishamael and Rand. In this sequence Rand summons a sword, The Sword of the Light.

 

"His sword was in his hand. Not the heron-mark blade, but a blade of light, a blade of the Light. Even as he raised it, a fiery white bolt shot from the point, as if the blade itself reached out."

Against The Shadow, Pg 762

 

I was wondering whether Rand will use this again? I have been trying to remember if he has used it in any of the other books but he hasn't. The only other 2 swords that come close is the fire-wrought sword that Rand summons and Callandor. It isn't the fire-wrought sword as there is a difference of the sword being fiery red and the Sword of the Light being a blade of light. And Callandor, Rand hadn't even thought of touching that.

 

What i am getting to is the point of... Will Rand use this in the Last Battle or was the first use a one time only. Why have Rand use a sword called "The Sword of the Light" if it is a one time only? It seems pretty significant to me.

 

One more thing. There have been threads where people have been discussing the point of since the Shadow has

"The True Power", shouldn't the light have a power divined by the Creator?

Could this be the power that everyone has been looking for? Could this be the power that destroys the Dark One?

 

What are your thoughts?

[Bob T Dwarf]

You make some good points. I'm not sure we'll ever know about this sword or many other things.

 

The Wheel of Time was originally supposed to be a Trilogy. Things were supposed to happen a lot faster and in a more condensed timeframe than we find 10 going on 11 books later. Original ideas have been modified. Original storylines have morphed. What we have now is a very different story from what Jordan started telling us.

 

This sword and the Voice that speaks in Rand's head at Tarwin's Gap may simply be ideas that were abandoned along the way. We won't really know until and unless we get the final book.

[Shai-tan]

I must admit RJ has done a good job to transform the first 3 to match the more than a trilogy it is now. Scimmed TGH and TDR tonight and seen a few odd bits which dont really match but I find EoTW the oddest in the part where Rand battles Ishy. I also found that the story gives me a hole new feeling once I get passed TDR.....

[Jellybelly]

Things were not "supposed to happen faster" or in a more "condensed timeframe". It just turned out that there was more story to tell than originally anticipated.

 

Other than that, I think that the ending of tEotW is one big mystery. I think that the wording chosen is due to Rand's being confused and not really clear in his head as he really channels for the first time. The narrative point of view seems intoxicated, and this is why I think some descriptions are weird. Myself, I do not think there is something special with this sword, other than the fact that it is wrought from the power. The "Sword of the Light thing is due to Rand's near delirious state.

[SinisterDeath]

Maybe it was just his fire wrought sword, and he shot balefire from it?

[Luckers]

Yeah i think it was just a fire wrought sword, a thing created from the power that Rand named the sword of the light... it was his first time conciously channeling after all.

[Siswaiaman]

and it wasn't really consciously anyway, he didn't even feel the power.

 

And as to the blade of light, it was a blade of air made to glow. No biggie i suppose.

[Fryn]

It wasn't the fire sword, at least imo. Mainly because Ishmael gave it a special meaning, saying you can't wield that yet (and after Rand had been channeling, so I doubt it was a reference to the fact that he wanted to turn rand and teach him how to channel). We might see it again, kinda a rafo though. It might simply be only availible once because it was channeled from tEotW.

[Luckers]

Actually i rather suspect this has something to do with channeling having changed in the later books. For instance in the first books travelling was instantaneous, not through a gateway. Moiraine did something drop the earth out and create sticky fire rather then trying to shield, and why didn't aginor just slice her weaves rather then struggling against it? Additionally there are stages were women sense men channeling... i.e. ny and aginor, verin saying the damane would sense rand. And then theres Suine saying that Nynaeve or the BA could use Callandor, when later on it seems common knowledge that it can only be used by men.

[Siswaiaman]

a switch from the 3-book to the 12-book set-up?

[SinisterDeath]

Umm, I think when verin said that the ba could use callandor, was more along the lines of, they could have used it against the dr. Ie giving it to ishmale. :P but then, I havent read that part of the books for a while....

[Guest cwestervelt]

The BA could also use it the same was as Elza "uses" it in Winter's Heart. Link with a man and have him wield Callandor.

[Guest cwestervelt]

Concerning Verin's statement about Damane sensing Rand: It is a part of basic self-preservation to assume your enemy can do something even if you can't. Besides, it is quite possible that they could do so indirectly. There are ways mentioned, that allow female channellers to detect what a man has done. Also, in many ways, the Seanchan are more advanced that the Tower Aes Sedai. The could still do Ter'angreal as proven by the A'dam, the have more experience working with metals. They have there "sky lights" or whatever it is called. Not all Damane are living weapons.

[Luckers]

Firstly the comment about Callandor was made by Suine Sanche, not verin, and she said something along the lines of "You must not let them have that. With that in your hands you got shatter the walls of tar valon with one blow." to nynaeve. It's not that it can't potentiall be explained, its the way she said it, to me it shows a different, hazzier idea of how the power works.

 

The Seanchan know weaves for destruction, and very little else, as proved by Alivia. That being said, its not the Seanchans ability that was in question but Verin's statement. You know the contempt Aes Sedai have for non-Aes sedai, particularily in the early books, why would Verin assignate an ability to a non-Aes Sedai that she doesn't. Some have said that she was trying to manipulate Rand for some reason, though to what purpose no one knows.

 

Many of these mistakes... most, in fact, can be explained away and thats, like, whatever. Not my point. My point is that taken together they paint a picture of mind that is writting the story with a much looser definition of the one power.

[Fryn]

Verin has been trying to manipulate events the whole series without seeming to (My favorite was her asking when Perrin would give up the ax). Verin knew that only four would return, while that doesn't seem to have anything to do with Rand channeling or not it might have. What would have happened if Ingtar knew that Rand could channel, would he still stay behind? ("A man," Ingtar snorted. "Verin Sedai, why add problems? We have enough already without supposing men channeling."). To me it doesn't sound like he would have.

 

I would put those comments down to Verin not knowing if the Damane could sense his channeling (she knew they couldn't sense him if he didn't), or manipulating events again. Verin is one of the few aes sedai that isn't hugely contemptuous of non Aes Sedai channelers. She also mentions, unless care was taken to keep the channeling small she or a man "might" be detected. Since Rand had told her that when saidin comes things just happened, she might have been right that they could. How could Verin know if the damane could sense the after affects of that much saidin usage, since Aes Sedai had found men that channeled by sensing the after affects themselves.

 

If I recall correctly Suian was simply talking about how strong the sword was as an angrel. She mentioned that it was tuned to a man, and I don't recall any of the few Aes Sedai that knew it was a Sa' Angrel mention that it was usable by a female, most that even mentioned it at all mentioned it was only usable by men. Suian was saying that the BA could hand it to a male forsaken and it was only safe until Rand touched it.

 

I think the way the power is explained in the books works well. When the main character didn't know how to channel it was explained as something happening, but later as they learned what was happening it was explained more. There have been a few changes to the power, though if you take it as a non channeler trying to explain what was happening they are very minor, and could be taken as an error on the observers part.

[Luckers]

I said they could be rationalized, and that that wasn't my point, but thank you for proving it.

 

>>If I recall correctly Suian was simply talking about how strong the sword was as an angrel. She mentioned that it was tuned to a man, and I don't recall any of the few Aes Sedai that knew it was a Sa' Angrel mention that it was usable by a female, most that even mentioned it at all mentioned it was only usable by men. Suian was saying that the BA could hand it to a male forsaken and it was only safe until Rand touched it.

 

She did not, and they did not. She said that the Black Ajah must not get there hands on Callandor, because with that in your hands you could shatter the walls of Tar Valon with one blow. The second followed the first conontatively as the reason the Black Ajah must not get their hands on Callandor.

 

But again, that is not my point. My point is that despite what you said throughout the first books there are time and again uses of the power that are inconsistent with later explanations. Travelling changes, modes of fight between channelers change, male/female channeling interelations change. It makes sense. The full ability would have been developed as RJ went no matter how much he prepared before the series... In any case it was an observation that in no real way is significant. Someone asked about the sword of light rand made, and i offered this as a likely explanation.

[Slayer]

Verin does indeed seem strange. My question is this: What if she is from another age, or maybe a portal stone world where Rand failed, and she is trying to make sure that he wins this time (Compulsion on the sisters, etc.)?

[Duggadugga]

Verin saw herself through many lives and choices when the Dragon used the portal stone to Toman Head. She knew he was the Dragon and she knew that she would do what in her power to make sure he won. That would explain her knowledge of upcoming events in the future books after The Great Hunt.

 

But the "over seventy years of work" line she used leaves much to be explained though.

 

I honestly dont have an educated guess on that.

[BetrayerofHope]

One more thing. There have been threads where people have been discussing the point of since the Shadow has

"The True Power"' date=' shouldn't the light have a power divined by the Creator?

Could this be the power that everyone has been looking for? Could this be the power that destroys the Dark One?

 

What are your thoughts?[/quote']

 

It is my personal belief that using the One Power is directly taping into the power of the creator. True, it can be used for evil, and becoming a darkfriend does not diminish one's ability to channel - but many great things in our world can be used for either good or evil.

 

I think this is one of the reasons that Ishamael never uses the one power, his heart is so devoted to the GL.

 

It just makes sense to me that the power that drives the wheel is not some great deposit the creator left along the way as he planted his worlds, but instead his actual connection to those worlds.

[Kaznen]

One more thing. There have been threads where people have been discussing the point of since the Shadow has

"The True Power"' date=' shouldn't the light have a power divined by the Creator?

Could this be the power that everyone has been looking for? Could this be the power that destroys the Dark One?

 

What are your thoughts?[/quote']

 

It is my personal belief that using the One Power is directly taping into the power of the creator. True, it can be used for evil, and becoming a darkfriend does not diminish one's ability to channel - but many great things in our world can be used for either good or evil.

 

I think this is one of the reasons that Ishamael never uses the one power, his heart is so devoted to the GL.

 

It just makes sense to me that the power that drives the wheel is not some great deposit the creator left along the way as he planted his worlds, but instead his actual connection to those worlds.

 

No. the OP is neutral. It is the power that moves the Wheel of Time, which is neutral. The use of the OP is dependent on the will of the user. If Mordin decided to use the TP to Heal people (which is painful) the DO would take the right to use the power away. If Rnad gains the use of a Divine Power (DP) and started using it to murder people the Creator would likewise take the priviledge away.

[Smoosh]

No. the OP is neutral. It is the power that moves the Wheel of Time' date=' which is neutral. The use of the OP is dependent on the will of the user. If Mordin decided to use the TP to Heal people (which is painful) the DO would take the right to use the power away. If Rand gains the use of a Divine Power (DP) and started using it to murder people the Creator would likewise take the priviledge away.[/quote']

 

But Ishmael/Moridin did use the TP to Heal people. He healed LTT in the intro of the first book. I think its painful because its from the DO. The more that is healed, the greater the pain, i believe, and that suits the DO's psyche, so i think that healing is cool with him.

 

And as much as i think this Divine Power stuff is a good idea, I think its too late in the story for that. The DO has been messing with the pattern for a good 9 books or so. The Creator has been sittin on his thumbs, doing nothing. I doubt that in the last book, the Creator will pop in, give Rand some new powers, and then leave again. Besides, if we use the True Power as the basis for the Divine Power, the weaves for the True Power are different, and have different effects, i.e. the pain during Healing, and when Moridin created a gateway, he heard the Pattern scream.

[Kaznen]

But when Ishamael healed LTT he was doing so to serve the DO's need. He wanted to humilate LTT before he killed him, or recruit him.

 

I don't think the Creator has been sitting on his thumbs in the last however many books. I think the problem is Rand isn't really a "believer" it's hard to explain what I mean. But part of the reason is Rand has forgotten how to ride the peaks and valleys of emotion that is life.

 

He has been gradually hardening himself since he declared himself the DR. Now he's so overwhelmed by what he has to do that he has become emotionally dead.

[BetrayerofHope]

No. the OP is neutral. It is the power that moves the Wheel of Time, which is neutral. The use of the OP is dependent on the will of the user. If Mordin decided to use the TP to Heal people (which is painful) the DO would take the right to use the power away. If Rnad gains the use of a Divine Power (DP) and started using it to murder people the Creator would likewise take the priviledge away.

 

That may be your belife, but it is not exactly a true-or-false type answer. I still think that the One Power is a gift directly from the creator, and that is draws upon his power/essence. Think of all the evil that is done in the name of Christ, though I doubt any of us could claim he was anything but GOOD. I agree with you the power is neurral, but I think it is what the characters do with it that matters. I still however think that it comes directly from the creator. RJ does like to draw parallels to real life.

[Ashandarei]

BetrayerofHope, you put it perfectly, yeah the OP is from the creator, but isn't good/evil in and of itself.

 

In reference to some of the earlier comments about how the sword of light wasn't actually of light, but of fire or somesuch, i think it actually was of the pure one power. I mean, Rand was using the OP for the first time and all, but there is a definite distinction between "fire" and "light".

 

I really hope it comes back in the last book, cuz it's even more awesome the callandor, callandor is physically existent, the sword of the OP is pure and total OP.

[ShadowEternal]

rand never officialy named it the Sword of Light. Remember that at that point he wanted NOTHING to do with the Power.he was just channeling on his emotion. At that point he could'nt tell one kind of weave from another. Its the same like nynaeve's wisdom healing. Or whebn rand used callandor. He covered it in a sheath balefire, and split Ishy's balefire into 2. Or the Lightning Storh he called upon the trollocs in the Shadow Rising. As to the voice, i (and prolly everyone) has assumed that it was the creator's voice, or the Dark One playing a merry joke. Considering, that most one-dimensional (WHOLLY) evil entity's stuck in cramped mountains, get kinda grouchy after an eternity, i know which direction in which to throw my bet.

 

however as we can see. WOT was many times more successful than expected and jordan, went a head and began a more sublte and complex layout, which explains why the pace and genreal feel of the 1st three books is rather different from the rest.

Thus we never see rand or mat oe anyone else ever allude to the incident at the eye of the world. In fact the only other it is mentioned is when perrin refrains from telling the two-rivers people of anything that had happeneed there.