Rand's Other Question

[Mr Ares]

not sure of the exact question, but when i think of elaida's foretelling of the house of andor - the importance of the house trakand (wasn't it)

The foretelling was in regards to the Royal House of Andor, but at the time it was made that House was Mantear. Rand is the son of Tigraine Mantear. That's why the a popular view is that it refers to Rand.

 

i dont have the books anymore

Blasphemy!!!

 

and i'll be the first to admit i missed some plots from the books.

Anyone who doesn't admit to having missed some details is a liar.

 

maybe i missed something but he went from trying to distance himself from her to going all out to have her crowned monarch of andor and cairhein.  (suddenly attacking rhavin, giving elayne throne of cairhein etc.)

He attacked Rhavin (IIRC) because he knew where he was, and he thought Sammael was a trap (it was, but I'm not sure if Rand worked out it was). He wants to give Elayne Andor because it is hers. He is keeping the throne vacant in Elayne's absence, because he doesn't want to steal his girlfriends throne (not a good step in most relationships) and he doesn't want anyone else to take it (same reason) and it's previous occupant was rather forcibly removed from it - the choice is Rand, Elayne or someone else, probably Dyelin, and he doesn't want to steal his girlfriends throne, or give it away to someone else, so he keeps it for Elayne. He wants to give her Cairhien because she is his girlfriend, and she has a claim. Simple. The one problem is that if he starts trying to woo girls by giving them kingdoms then he'll eventually run out of kingdoms, and the girls will get used to rather over-elaborate gifts. "Last year you got me a city, this year you only got me mansion and a necklace." "But the mansion has very pretty views..." "I don't want excuses, I want another city" "Yes, dear".

 

or maybe im not giving Rand enough credit - but i dont think that he has the mental prowess to have come up with this by himself.

You are certainly not giving Rand enough credit. He's no genius, but he is far form an idiot (usually), and this is hardly rocket science.

[Paviel]

We can only infer his questions based on the two answers that we know:

 

1. "To live, you must die."

 

2. "The north and the east must be united. The south and the west must be united."

 

The question to answer 1 may be "How do I survive Tarmon Gaidon?", and I would guess that it is.

 

Not sure what question Rand would ask to get answer 2, though. Maybe "How do I avoid breaking the world again?"

[professorskar]

I'm pretty sure it's been documented (or at least pretty well puzzled out) that two of the three questions were how does Rand survive the last battle, and how to go about cleansing the Taint.  As for the third, I doubt it would be anything specifically mentioning the Dark One, since we know the Aelfinn (or the Eelfinn, for that matter) don't take too kindly to talking about him.

[Paviel]

I'm pretty sure it's been documented (or at least pretty well puzzled out) that two of the three questions were how does Rand survive the last battle, and how to go about cleansing the Taint.  As for the third, I doubt it would be anything specifically mentioning the Dark One, since we know the Aelfinn (or the Eelfinn, for that matter) don't take too kindly to talking about him.

 

To make the Aelfinn talk about uniting various countries, one of the questions had to have something to do with either politics or geography or both.

[Cybertrolloc]

We can only infer his questions based on the two answers that we know:

 

1. "To live, you must die."

 

2. "The north and the east must be united. The south and the west must be united."

 

The question to answer 1 may be "How do I survive Tarmon Gaidon?", and I would guess that it is.

 

Not sure what question Rand would ask to get answer 2, though. Maybe "How do I avoid breaking the world again?"

Actually they're both answers to the same question (survive TG). It goes something like "The North and East must be as one. The South and West must be as one. The two must be as one. To live, you must die." Personally I'm thinking the two must be as one refers to Rand and LTT in some way.

 

We never hear what the answer was that led to the Cleansing and don't have anything solid on the other question.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Rand's first question regarded the cleansing saidin.  The Aelfinn responded with a riddle, which he shared with Herid Fel, and Herid Fel said that it "stated sound principles in both high philosophy and natural philosophy." (see TPoD ch 14)

 

Rand's second question was, "How can I win the Last Battle and survive?"

 

The Aelfinn responded, "The north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one. The two must be as one. If you would live, you must die."

 

The north and the east being as one, and the west and the south being as one, almost certainly refer to Rand and the Seanchan unifying the nations under their control.  If you draw a diagonal line across the Wetlands, from Falme to Ebou Dar, the Seanchan rule everything "west and south".  Most of what is "north and east", with the notable exception of the Borderlands, is ruled either by Rand personally or his open allies.

 

So, the answer basically means that Rand needs his treaty with the Seanchan to win the battle portion of Tarmon Gai'don. 

 

The second part of the answer (still to question number two), is that to live, Rand must die.  Exactly how he will accomplish that is unknown, and the subject of much debate.

 

(The actual text of the second question and answer is in KoD, ch 18 )

 

The third question is unknown.  The only thing that is know for sure is that it did not mention Rhuidean (unless Rand lied to Mat, which he had no reason to do).

[Tyrell]

heh, how about this.

 

Come' date=' lady, die to live[/quote']