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"Under the Dust" question


schneb

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In Lord of Chaos, in the chapter "Under the Dust", when Nynaeve and Elayne are using the need trick to find something to help Rand they first get taken to the White Tower in Tar Valon.  Nynaeve assumes that it is some kind of Ter'angreal, angreal, or Sa'angreal that they were getting to, but this isn't supported by anything else in the books.

 

Are there any theories out there as to what was in the tower that would have filled the need so well that it drew the super girls there first?  Something that would be kept either behind some barracks or a guardroom in what appears to be a cell?

 

I've got one theory, but it's not based on anything concrete.  Is it possible that the real Mazrim Taim is being held in that cell while somebody is impersonating him in the Black Tower?  Any other thoughts as to what could be in that cell?

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Were'nt they searching for something to help the weather in that book? I never thought twice on the first jump being in the tower,  I just always assumeed they had some other Ter'Angreal in the tower that could also fix the weather. And they certianly could not get anything in the tower at that time, so the jump took them someplace that they could get to.

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They didn't even think of fixing the weather until after they found the bowl of winds and Elayne guessed that it had something to do with weather working.  Their original goal was to find something to convince the Salidar AS to tie themselves to Rand.  This is why Elayne lied later in the book and said she thought that the bowl required both men and women to make the bowl work properly.

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Well, The Horn certainly would have interested Rand and opened a line of communication with the Salidar Aes Sedai...mutual need would have made that certain.

But I reckon Rand could have managed to piss them off fairly quickly without much effort knowing him. Also, unless they held the Horn back from Rand I don't see how it would tie them together and holding it back would just piss off Rand. At best it could be used as a bargaining chip.

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Just to throw out another possibility, since we don't have nearly enough to know for sure, it could have been something that would have exposed the fact that Mesaana (or at least one of the Forsaken) was in (and controlling) the Tower.  I'm not sure exactly what could have done that, but if there was some kind of evidence like that, it probably would have driven the Salidar Sisters right into Rand's arms.

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Great question schneb.

 

I always thought that it was a ter'angreal that did the same thing as the Bowl of the Winds, but they had to find a second choice, because they could not get to it.  I never considered that it was something else that would tie the Aes Sedai to Rand.  Something more important, since it took them to it first.  I don't have an answer, but you really got me thinking.

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I think we can rule out anything beyond a Ter'angreal.  They specifically discuss that it's a storeroom with lots of random stuff on shelfs and that's it's fronted by a barracks.  They also discuss how it's one of the storerooms for Ter'angreal with unknown uses.

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  • 10 years later...

It’s revealed in the next scene. Egwene was stalking through the Tower - and Nynaeve and Elayne appeared from nowhere and almost saw her until she jumped away. They didn’t find a ter’angreal - they found an Amyrlin. What was the true need for the Salidar AS?  Egwene. 

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It was another Ter'angreal for the weather.  Their second jump took them to another repository of ter'angreal and such, but one not under the WT's control.  In the comments above someone mentioned a device that needed men and women to work it to bring the two towers to working together (eventially when there was a black tower), but that wasn't the need.  The main need was as important as the Horn of Valere.  Despite the corrective effort we see eventually when the Bowl of the Winds was used to fix the weather, it was even more important during the Last Battle.  Without it and the Windfinders using it constantly to the point of exhaustion, the weather would have killed everyone there at Shayol Ghul.  About the men and women coming together mentioned above, the Bowl of the Winds needed Saidin and Saidar in order to work, luckily the Bowl could pull from the other half when Saidar was used with it, without the aid of male channelers.  I think the Wheel knew that there was too much distrust and too few male channelers for another device to be used.  The best #1 choice was the ter'angreal in the tower, the next best option was the BOW in Ebou Dar.

 

I think people really overlooked the importance of the Bowl and the Windfinders at the Last Battle.  I know I did until I came across this old post and its recent activity.  Maybe the Bowl is part of BS's recent comments about something we all missed.

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