Angreal

[trakand_01]

OK, this is a question i havent asked before because i'm too embarrassed to admit i dont understand!!

 

What are the differences between Ter'Angreal, Sa'Angreal and pure Angreal, and are there more types? What are the Choeden Kal / the TAR ring / Rand's little fat man?

 

 

[krelianzg]

Ter'angreal: Objects created with the One Power that perform various functions. Some can only be used by channeling into them to activate them, while some can be used by anyone. Some examples include the Oath Rod, the rings at Rhuidean and Mat's medallion.

 

Angreal: Objects that allow channelers to draw on more of the OP than they could normally. They also act as a buffer to prevent being killed or burnt out by the extra power.

 

Sa'angreal: Immensely powerful angreal, like Callandor, the white rod in the Tower used to heal Mat, and the Choeden Kal.

 

The Choeden Kal are two sa'angreal created in the Age of Legends. One works for a man and the other for a woman. They are the most powerful sa'angreal ever created, and Lanfear went so far as to say that with them one could challenge the Dark One or the Creator. They were originally created to temporarily make a barrier around the Dark One during the War of Power, but they were never used. They are so powerful that they need special access key ter'angreal in order to be safely used.

 

I assume TAR ring refers to the dream ter'angreal used by Elayne and Nynaeve. It allows the user to enter tel'aran'rhiod, the world of dreams, even if that person is not a dreamwalker.

 

Rand's fat man is just an ordinary male angreal, though it's a fairly strong one.

[The Dragon Reborn]

ter'angreal = An item made with the power that is specially designed to perform some sort of useful function, like control the weather, enter the world of dreams etc, etc. Some ter'angreal need only saidin to work, others need saidar, others need both and other again need neither to work (anybody can use them).

 

angreal = Items made with the power that allow the channeler to safely draw more of the power than they could normally do unaided. The angreal works by providing a 'focus' for the channeler and rather than drawing the power directly (like would normally happen) they draw the power through the angreal.

 

sa'angreal = Is simply a really powerful version of an angreal (and works the same in principle as an angreal), allows to to channel oodles and oodles of the power, vastly more than you ever could unaided.

 

TAR Ring = A ter'angreal, needs contact with the skin to work that allows the user to enter TAR, as far as we know it'll work for anybody.

 

Choeden Kal = ter'angreal access keys. They allow the channeler to access one of the 2 most powerful sa'angreal ever created, safely. The actual sa'angreal themselves are located in Tremalking (The Sea Folk Island) and the second is near the Cairhienin town of Tremonsien. The 1st is the female one and the latter is the male one. Using these 2 sa'angreal directly is extremely dangerous as there is no buffer (whatever that means, leastways I think I remember something about a buffer...), hence the creation of the 2 'access keys'.

 

Rand's Fat Man = A plain old angreal.

[Tyrell]

An aside point is that the commonly accepted explaination for how angreal/sa'angreal work is that they multiply the ammount of power the channeler could hold by something, idunno what, maybe just a fixed multiplier, Idunno, but the point is that they multiply rather than just add a fixed ammount. I say commonly accepted because that's what I always thought they did before I found any online WoT communities and since I've seen them refered to that way, but I've no idea if this is a fact or anything y'know.

 

TDR, I would say that the Cheoden Kal are the actual Sa'Angreal rather than the Ter'Angreal access keys, which afaik are always just refered to as access keys or 'this' or 'these' as in "with this/these I/we can access the Cheoden Kal and and make their shiney orbs glow, oh and access lots of the one power, but it's really all about the glow"