How important will the Sea Folk be in AMoL?

[Elwinn Taron]

I've got to agree with Charlz on this.  Other than seed pearls, jewelry, collars, cuffs, and slashes of: choose your color, RJ rarely wastes his words.  Maybe that's why he tries to side-track us with so many descriptions.  To quote Moiraine, the Windfinders are much more "dangerous" than they had been before Ebou Dar and Aes Sedai teaching--also more arrogant, but that's another story.

 

I find it hard to believe that it will turn out that Mat went through all the personal angst he fought in Ebou Dar, about whether or not to free the Windfinder Damane--and the guilt, while he was with Luca--for no pay-off in AMol.

 

I think the Windfinders will be v-e-r-y important, and as I've stated before, it will be because they will rally to Mat Cauthon, "a good and great man" who made "The Escape" possible, and not because of The Bargain with the Cooramore.

 

As I learned to my chagrin, I never state anything here as fact, so as I always say, this is just my humble opinion!

[Davram]

I have to say I think the Sea Folk will be important with their Windfinders.  They probably will stand united against the DO and will be an important part  in TG

[Charlz Guybon]

I've got to agree with Charlz on this.  Other than seed pearls, jewelry, collars, cuffs, and slashes of: choose your color, RJ rarely wastes his words.  Maybe that's why he tries to side-track us with so many descriptions.  To quote Moiraine, the Windfinders are much more "dangerous" than they had been before Ebou Dar and Aes Sedai teaching--also more arrogant, but that's another story.

 

I find it hard to believe that it will turn out that Mat went through all the personal angst he fought in Ebou Dar, about whether or not to free the Windfinder Damane--and the guilt, while he was with Luca--for no pay-off in AMol.

 

I think the Windfinders will be v-e-r-y important, and as I've stated before, it will be because they will rally to Mat Cauthon, "a good and great man" who made "The Escape" possible, and not because of The Bargain with the Cooramore.

 

As I learned to my chagrin, I never state anything here as fact, so as I always say, this is just my humble opinion!

 

We'll see the windfinders again when the Seanchan fleet reaches Arad Doman. Most of the Black Tower is there, so they might be involved in the final showdown between Taim and Logain's factions.

[Guest cwestervelt]

The Windfinders have probably already played their major role, and struck a major blow against the Dark One at the same time.  Without them, the Bowl of Winds would never have been used successfully as no Aes Sedai we have seen knows enough about weather.  We might see some limited involvement from them in the final book, but I don't expect it will be anything major. 

[walkerhound]

I

I think the Windfinders will be v-e-r-y important, and as I've stated before, it will be because they will rally to Mat Cauthon, "a good and great man" who made "The Escape" possible, and not because of The Bargain with the Cooramore.

 

 

ya know i hadn't thought of this but it certainly makes a good amount of since.  once the story of the survivors escape from ebu dare get's out among the sea folk Mat's stock among them should go up considerably (add this to his rep as a slick/tavern negotiator).   

 

wonder what leader of the band of the red hand could do with a credible navel force?  especially if he can get that bell founder thing worked out ;). 

 

[GrandpaG]

I still like the comment that was made about post TG.  If the channellers are all blown to bits by one another, the rakers will indeed be valuable for restocking the world's stores.

 

Do I remember one of Mat's ancient memories being about the sea folk?  I almost think that one or more of his old characters dealt with them in the past.  Did he know an ancient salutation of some sort?  Can't quite bring it back into memory (but I'm not old yet).

[Charlz Guybon]

I still like the comment that was made about post TG.  If the channellers are all blown to bits by one another, the rakers will indeed be valuable for restocking the world's stores.

 

Do I remember one of Mat's ancient memories being about the sea folk?  I almost think that one or more of his old characters dealt with them in the past.  Did he know an ancient salutation of some sort?  Can't quite bring it back into memory (but I'm not old yet).

He remembers dancing with a clan Wavemistress in the Court of Shaemal, the capital of storied Coremanda, a few weeks before the beginning of the Trolloc Wars. Since Coremanda was as far inland as modern Andor, the Sea Folk must have been far better known then.

[GrandpaG]

Might be neat to see how this plays out between Mat and the Sea Folk in AMoL.  Yet another thing that I never considered by just reading the books.

 

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A bad day at DM is better than a good day at work...

GrandpaG, 2007 A.D., Fifth Age

[Guest cwestervelt]

I still like the comment that was made about post TG.  If the channellers are all blown to bits by one another, the rakers will indeed be valuable for restocking the world's stores.

 

Do I remember one of Mat's ancient memories being about the sea folk?  I almost think that one or more of his old characters dealt with them in the past.  Did he know an ancient salutation of some sort?  Can't quite bring it back into memory (but I'm not old yet).

 

Well, I suppose you could call it a salutation.  Just not in the normal sense. ;D

 

He called either a high ranking Windfinder or other Atha'an Miere big wig  a "Daughter of the Sands" to her face.  That was about as insulting as he could get.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Well, I suppose you could call it a salutation.  Just not in the normal sense.

 

 

;D Indeed.

 

All Sea Folk are born on ships.  Even those that inhabit the Sea Folk Islands (the ones who governed the Amayar and handled ship building, etc) go out in a boat to have children, even a rowboat if they have to.  Any woman who has given birth will probably be happy to attest, that anything that gets a woman in labor to get into a rowboat is very, very important.

 

So, you can see how being a son or daughter of the sands would be highly insulting.

 

It may be too much to attribute to Mat's luck (although maybe not) but the woman who he insulted that way, Renaile din Calon Blue Star, who was, at that time, the highest ranking Windfinder among the Sea Folk, has since (with the death of the late Mistress of the Ships, Nesta din Reas Two Moons) been demoted to the lowest possible rank of Windfinder.

[DonDew]

  After reading what has been said since my last post on this subject,I find I have to agree with Charlz,(I haven't figured out how to do the quote thing yet),that the Sea Folk-especially Windfinders-will play a part in TG definitely connected to Mat.

  In a recent re-read I noticed that during Mat & Cos. escape from Ebou Dar (CoT CH1) Mat's "dice" start when he enters the gate tunnel and stop when the Windfinders started "The Escape".He cursed because they started early, then was wondering why the dice stopped right then.

  I've read this a good number of times and never realized the significance of thisuntil after reading this thread,although I still think that the Sea Folk will also be of extreme importance post TG (which we probably won't see in AMoL).

[ShiftedInsights]

This makes me curious about the number of ships the sea folk have, which can relate to their potential importance both militarily and as a logistics system.  The Mistress of Ship is picked the first 12 clan wavemistresses, who is in turn chosen by the first 12 sailmistresses of her respective clan.  So far then;  M.o.S (1) + 12*12=145 ships are in the voting leadership structure of the Seafolk.  Now, these are the first 12 clans, and from that one can gather that there must be more than 12, and that there must be a great deal more than 12, because it would be irrational to pick a First 12 out of 20 or something like that because the infrastructure is too hop heavy.  If there were only 20 clans, a first 5 would be more proportional, for example.  Just to have something to quantify, I think that one superior clan would have to represent at least 4 or 5 lesser onces for such a large number to be used as their council, and I think that ratio would apply to the ships with in the clans in respect to the first 12 sailmistresses within as well.  So now we have 1+(12*12)*4*4 as a low estimate, and 1+(12*12)*5*5 for a high estimate, so not accounting for deviation in the sizes of the clans (as the first 12 could be chosen on grounds of largest ship, most prosperous clan, etc) this puts a ship estimate between 2305 and 3601 ships of various sizes from Raker to fishing boat :), I don't think we could get much closer than that without more solid information about clan sizes and numbers.