Angreal

[Luckers]

Just had a thought. Although it does seem that you can only make Angreal for the opposite gender, is it really possible considering a man channels Saidin and a woman channels Saidar? If a man was to make an angreal for a woman surely there would need to be a way for him to convert Saidin to Saidar in some way, otherwise it would be Saidin in tthe Angreal making it for men only? Iv only just thought of that now

 

Unless its not about the power drawn, but about containing that power. It's like... in order to contain something you need to surround it with something that it can't push through or force. So to contain saidin, you need saidar and vice versa--otherwise saidar would simply leak into itself and the Angreal would at best be useless, and at worse be dangerous.

 

This may explain the distinction between angreal and sa'angreal. Maybe sa'angreal involved linked circles making the containment, so it would allow for more power to be involved in creating the containtment--but within limits--specifically you can only limit the amount of the second power involved to a degree, after which the containment starts having holes in it, and the sa'angreal becomes dangerous.

 

I'm not explaining this well. Specifically here i am thinking of Callandor--which is not properly buffered. RJ stated declines in manufacturing standards as the cause--but that could be this, not properly limiting the amount of saidin that went into making it.

 

It also would explain why the discovery of the method of using Access ter'angreal was nessasary in the use of the Choedan Kal, and why such things had never before been made. If, as i suspect, the Access Key ter'angreal are in effect a form of buffering the individual seperately, it would allow for sa'angreal to be created at the greatest possible strength, a circle of 72, which would account for the Choedan Kal, and also for the inherent danger of using them without the Access Keys--indeed, witness Rand in tGH... is that not very very similar to the effects of the unbuffered Callandor on him in tSR and tPoD?

[benr]

I have long thought that the AoL AS were actually hampered by their advanced society; it was almost a case of "industrial revolution".  The Third Age channelers have fewer "advantages" in their lives, and tend to use the power on a more personal, basic level.  It is not surprising to me that much more powerful channelers are appearing from the Third Age.  While the AoL (Forsaken) channelers disdain these untrained Third Agers, they are continuously surprised at their strengths and abilities.  It alomost goes back to the "need" scenes when Nynaeve and Elayne find the Bowl. Our major characters became such because they are incredibly strong in the power, at a time of incredible need.  Remember, all of our Two Rivers folk, as well as Elayne, are still very young. They haven't come close to full development of their potential.  They are more open to new ideas than the Forsaken; they don't know what they "can't" do.  As a side note, I think Egwene will need less help in Tar Valon than is generally supposed.