Elayne's tight rope

[Kodam]

I have just recently finished the series up to KoD and earlier today I was pondering WoT stuff because I'm a nerd and I just do that.  Anyway, I started thinking about how people use the one power, then I started to think about how Elayne used Air to create a platform to walk across when she was a tight rope walker in Luca's circus. (If I remembered that correctly, I have only read the series once) So my question is......how did she use Air to do that?  And if that can be done why can't you fly with the power?  I understand you cannot use the power on yourself, but you can make a bridge of air to walk on?

 

Sorry if I overlooked something or if someone has already asked this but I didn't see it.  Be kind with me =(

[midnightwolf]

It is explained earlier in the series(can't remember which one right now) that flight is not possible b/c it would be impossible to see all the weaves necessary to fly yourself along, and walking a bridge of Air still constitutes walking and/or riding on it. People would tend to notice that quite quickly. Also, Elayne is part of a select group of women in one of the most recent groups that is truly gifted and powerful, not just gifted with the ability to use Saidar (sp?). She actually has enough power to stand up to one of the lesser Forsaken, when properly trained. Most Aes Sedai do not have that much power available to them, so building the bridges would be more than a small task for them. Most likely, it would involve at least 6 Sisters linked, maybe more depending on their strength.

 

And don't worry, we won't lambaste you too much about the questions. If you don't ask question, you'll never get any answers.

[BrainFireBob]

Flying isn't possible because there's nowhere to anchor the weaves- you cannot weave on yourself, as per the question of the week. You can weave around yourself, but that doesn't make you fly.

 

Elayne did the same thing Rand did when he met the Sea Folk- she made a "bridge" of Air- anchored at two separate points, which actually bear the weight. There are limitations on such a bridge- Asmodean explained them, and Rand reflects on them.

[Rufae]

Not only do you need anchor points, but it is mentioned in the series that the higher you lift someone with a bridge or platform, the more strain it is physically.

 

When Egwene is made Amyrlin, the Aes Sedai made steps for her to stand "in mid-air".

 

As for flying, the Aes Sedai in the books say that it would be equivilant to trying to pick yourself up with your arms. It can't be done.

 

 

 

 

[aevogt]

The word we're looking for is leverage.  Reach down, grab your legs behind your knees and try to raise your feet off the floor. You're not going to move any time soon.  Grab a bar above your head and you can easily lift your feet off the floor.  The flows of air are really no different from your arms in this example. 

 

Conversely, a strong enough channeler could seize someone with air and flip them all over, giveing the appearance that they are flying.  You'd have to be pretty strong. 

 

I am certain that there was an ancient Talent called flying.  Earlier in the series, when the wondergirls were still training in the Tower I think, a reference is made to a novice who jumped from the Tower, insisting she had, (mistakenly, D'oh!) rediscovered how to fly.  If I remember correctly, there was a strong indication there that flying was a lost talent.  I'm not due for a reread until next summer so I'm not sure who related the story or when.

 

It could be that machines in the A.O.L. used the power to actually fly (as we assumed the Sho-Wings did in Rands little sojurn), or there was a weave that allowed someone to to it on their own.  I tend to lean towards the latter.  Think of warm air rising (Air and Fire).  The weave for that shouldn't have been too difficult for someone who could, oh I don't know, say, bore a hole in a prison sealed for millennia.  Flying, using the One Power simply hasn't been rediscovered.

 

But seriously, unless you really had to show off, or make an example by dropping someone from a great height, why bother flying, why not just skim.  Point A to Point B with out needing to know your point of origin.

 

 

[CUBAREY]

Quote" It could be that machines in the A.O.L. used the power to actually fly (as we assumed the Sho-Wings did in Rands little sojurn),

 

Are you postulating that Sho-Wings were not flying machines?

 

Warm air rising? well they might float if warm air was encapsulated underdeath them but unless they had a second power source to move (engine in an airplane) they would just float or at best be unable to control the direction of movement (like a balloon).

 

 

[BrainFireBob]

I seem to recall there's an interview quote about it- Aes Sedai did fly by using the power- by powering machines with the Power.

 

For instance, pumping a standing Air weave into a jet turbine.

 

I can't recall the details, though. Anyone have a good database?

[Davian93]

She actually has enough power to stand up to one of the lesser Forsaken, when properly trained.

 

Elayne is not of Forsaken strength, even when properly trained.  She is below it by a couple of steps.  Nynaeve is of Forsaken strength and that is probably what you are thinking of.  Elayne/Egwene and Avi all fall in that gap between Nynaeve and Caddy. 

 

I seem to recall there's an interview quote about it- Aes Sedai did fly by using the power- by powering machines with the Power.

 

There is somewhere.  It may have been during the KoD book tour or Dragoncon in 05 or even one of the Questions of the Week.  I'm not sure off hand but I do recall hearing it.

 

[elmis]

I've never heard of it.. would love to see the quote! Though, when Rand makes the bridge onto the Sea Folk deck, doesn't he think back on his training with Asmodean, where he learned that flying (just a channeler) was not an option at all?

 

I think you'd have to have some contraption in order to make something fly, like a ter'angreal jet pack. :)

[Shard]

I thought I read that Flying WAS possible just not with Air and that it had something to do with Spirit but it had made no sense at the time to who ever read it (Eggy or Elyane I don't remember which it was).

[aevogt]

 

 

Are you postulating that Sho-Wings were not flying machines?

 

 

My understanding was that they were flying machines.  I assumed they used to power for lift and propulsion.  When the DO broke free they started falling out of the sky.  It seemed like a direct response to that event.

[CUBAREY]

Quote:

 

 

 

I assumed they used to power for lift and propulsion.  When the DO broke free they started falling out of the sky.  It seemed like a direct response to that event

 

My understanding was that as the War that resulted from the bore being drilled went on, civilization began to devolve(shock lances to swords) and at the end ( the time of Rand's oldest remembrence through the eyes of his ancestors) the technalogy surrounding Sho-wings and Go-cars had been lost.

 

[BrainFireBob]

Well, the tech doesn't need to have been lost- just the infrastructure that created and maintained the tech.

 

If you can't manufacture spare parts, engine breakdown will eliminate machines.

[Rufae]

Here is Dragonmount's response to this question in the FAQ for the book The Dragon Reborn ...

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/Faq/index.php?sid=2110597&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=13&id=354&artlang=en

 

The Story » The Dragon Reborn

ID #1073

If it's not possible to use the One Power to fly then why did Moiraine say Rand could have rediscovered Flying?

It's not possible to fly in the sense that one cannot levitate oneself with the One Power, but in the Age of Legends Aes Sedai used the One Power to run flying machines, e.g., turn the propellers on a plane or force air through a jet engine. Mechanically powered vehicles are unknown in the current Age so the Aes Sedai of the present are left with a conundrum.

[aevogt]

No offense to the Commander ot the City Watch, ;) but to me, the capital F denotes a talent.  Talents are specific actions performed with the power that one person can do better than they do anything else, including outperforming a stronger channeler at that particular action.

 

Traveling

Delving

Healing

Shielding (like the Kinswoman who nabs Nynaeve in Ebou Dar)

 

I think that means there was once a way to fly using only the OP.

 

If a seafolk Windfinder can weave a web that covers the sky to the horizon and gets a ship from tear to Tanchico in 10 days, getting one stupid person off the ground can't have been that much more difficult.

 

Did RJ ever come right out and say in an interview that capital "F" flying wasn't possible? 

 

Seeing a quote from the Creator himself that there was an error in the statement, (i.e. Moraine was supposed to have said Rand had discovered 'Traveling' rather than 'Flying') would shut me right up.

 

I could get into moving trains with magnets but this is a fantasy series.

[Davian93]

No offense to the Commander ot the City Watch,  but to me, the capital F denotes a talent.

 

You're missing the point of it though.  The whole point is that this is an early sign from RJ letting us know that AS may think they know everything but that they really dont and that just because they believe something to be true doesn't necessarily mean that it is.  AS know that the Power was used for flying in the AoL, they've simply forgotten what else was involved.

[BrainFireBob]

Did RJ ever come right out and say in an interview that capital "F" flying wasn't possible? 

 

Seeing a quote from the Creator himself that there was an error in the statement, (i.e. Moraine was supposed to have said Rand had discovered 'Traveling' rather than 'Flying') would shut me right up.

 

I could get into moving trains with magnets but this is a fantasy series.

 

Not only that, but "Shielding" isn't a recognized Talent. The Kinswoman in Ebou Dar commented it was "almost" a Talent with her.

 

Moving trains with magnets still anchor the force involved. Flying doesn't. A Windfider sets up a weave that "grabs" existing air currents and moves them- something that doesn't necessarily take a lot of strength if you understand meteorology very, very well.