The Ways...

[The Dragon Reborn]

Whoops! We did kinda hi-jack the topic. To get back toward the point. At this stage it's well established that the ways will not be cleansed, however could they be re-grown using The Talisman of Growing?

 

I suppose you could look at it 4 ways:

 

1. It would be like trying to 'overwrite' something that can't be deleted.

2. It follows Skimming rules: The 2 Versions of the Ways can lead to the same place, without taking you via the same route.

3. You can only add onto the currently existing Ways.

4. To create an entirely new version of the Ways channelers would be required again to start things off.

[TurboZ]

 I believe you are in sever error to believe the Ways were created "DURING" the Breaking,,, they Ways were created well before the Breaking but after the DO's Strike against the Source and the subsequent Tainting of Saiden; at a time when it appeared that the War against the DO had been won and peice and prosperity were soon to return, with an ongoing seek and destroy being conducted by the good guys against the DO's twisted minions,,, I believe that there was a period of about 100 years after the Taint and before the Breaking,,, it is during that time that the Ways were constructed...

 

Maybe I'm trippin' but I thought that the Breaking was right after the strike at Shayol Ghul, as the 100 companions went instantly insane. I also thought that the ways were created toward the end of the Breaking to help the Ogier find their way to the stedding.

[The Dragon Reborn]

TurboZ is right the ways were created during the Breaking. There was no time of peace after The Strike at Shayol Ghul the 68 survivors of the 100 Companions went mad on the spot and began the Breaking. They soon had quite a few more insane Companions to join them and they set about wrecking havoc. After everybody figured out what was happening, some men took shelter in the Steadings, hoping to avoid their fate. Eventually they could no longer go on without channeling and left the Steadings, leaving the Ways as a gift for the Ogier for their hospitality (so to speak.) Remember that the Breaking lasted quite a long time, so the Ogier had already lost their Steadings and re-found them while the Men were wrecking the joint.

Some reckon that by letting the men stay, the Ogier lengthened the Breaking, while others contend that if all those male channeler had been loose at once, the Breaking may have been complete.

[elmis]

If the quote actually said "thousands of Trollocs" and "hundreds of Myrdraal", then I would guess that RJ meant somewhat less than 10,000 Trollocs and somewhat less than a thousand Myrdraal--otherwise he would have used bigger figures.  There is just no way that 100,000 could attack a single manor house all at once in any case.

 

I agree Wayhey.

 

From KoD, chapter 3 - At the Gardens (p 147, hc):

 

Moridin's jaw tightened. "I don't know," he said at last, reluctantly. He never liked saying that. "But they sent a hundred Myrddraal and thousands of Trollocs into the Ways."

 

It says one hundred Myrddraal, and thousands of Trollocs. Not tens of thousands, which would be the 'right term' for a host nearing 100 000.

 

[Davian93]

It says one hundred Myrddraal, and thousands of Trollocs. Not tens of thousands, which would be the 'right term' for a host nearing 100 000.

 

Fades are known to be the equivalent of a company commander and usually command around 100-200 Trollocs each.  So to do the math 100 X 100/200 gives us a range 10,000-20,000 total trollocs. Also, it would be more difficult for the Fades to control Trollocs in the Ways so it should be at the lower end of that spectrum.  However, I believe (without having access to my books) that Rand and Co. believe it to be a much higher number than that. 

 

~shrugs~

[Luckers]

Firstly by Loial.

 

Trollocs, thousands of them in black, spiked mail, pouring out of the trees at a run with scythes swords raised, shaking their spiked spears. Trollocs as far as he could see to the left and the right. Not thousands, tens of thousands. [KoD: Vows - pg407]

 

Then we leave Loial before the flood out of the trees even stops. He never sees them all and still described them as tens of thousands.

 

And then we have Rand speaking of the burning of the Trollocs.

 

With fewer than twenty Aes Sedai, fewer than a dozen Asha'men, and maybe one hundred thousand Trollocs, it was going to be a very long job indeed. [KoD: The Golden Crane - 417]

 

So, even with the thousands lost through deathgates and the innevitable amount that fled, there is still roughly a hundred thousand dead and dying trollocs and Myrdraal.

 

 

 

                                                                   

[RobertAlexWillis]

Guys ... its possible that Moridin only had reports of 10,000-30,000 at the time of the meeting, but that by the time of the actual attack (about 6 days later) alot more had gone through the Ways (especially if whoever was sending them [*cough* Taim *cough*] either knew Machin Shin had changed somehow, or had a way to block it), resulting in the approx. 100,000 that Rand saw. 

 

Understand, too ... Rand's estimate was a very rough one ... even with the memories of an experienced military commander, it takes a long, long time to count 100,000 of anything.  It could have been anywhere from 75,000 to 125,000.