Alanna's Bond

[aevogt]

Was Alanna's bond was the only thing that kept Rand alive after being slashed by Fain with the Shadar Logoth Dagger?

 

We've seen it's effects on at least three other people, two of whom can channel.

 

Seanchan guard #1 "alias ensign deadmeat"  Died in seconds.

White Tower accepted Verine - Dies in seconds

Raefar Kisman - starts to turn black, dead before he can run more tahn a few steps.

 

The dagger kills, hard and quickly.

 

If Rand had not had the extra regenerative properties a Warder gains from the bond, he would have been dead before Samitsu had a chance to heal him.

 

Yes, Cadsuane tried to heal and thinks that was the difference but I'm not so sure.

 

It's not a very important point but it may keep her from being birched once her crime is revealed to Egwene, the new definition of hardass.

[Corbett]

Intreasting thought. I never even thought about the other effects of Alanna's bond until you mentioned it. It is possible that alot of the seeming super human stuff that Rand goes through he is assisted by the bond even though he doesnt know it. This is a great point.

[Guest The Thin Inn Keeper]

Interesting.

 

Given that he's also bonded to his harem, does he get the benefits of being bonded 4 times...? Does being bonded to 3 channelers, 2 of whom are exceptionally strong, give him extra Warder-like abilities/make what he has even more powerful?

[Orange Fescue]

I'd always thought Rand survived the dagger wound because the slash was on top of the stab wound that Ba'alzamon or Ishamael or whoever gave him. At one point, he was being healed to the extent possible by that ashaman whose name I can't recall. The ashaman said the two wounds seemed to be fighting each other.

[Majsju]

Interesting.

 

Given that he's also bonded to his harem, does he get the benefits of being bonded 4 times...? Does being bonded to 3 channelers, 2 of whom are exceptionally strong, give him extra Warder-like abilities/make what he has even more powerful?

 

No, the bonus effects stay the same whether you are bonded to one or ten people.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Do we know that for sure, Maj?

 

I believe we've been told that an AS can have many Warders, and each of those Warders gets the same benefit from the Bond as a single Warder would. 

 

But, so far as I know, Rand is the first Warder to have been Bonded by multiple channelers.  AFAIK, that is something unique.  No other Warder in the history of the Bond has ever been Bonded by more than a single AS until now.  Seems probable the effect of being Bonded by multiple channelers might be unique, too.

[bearit]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but doesn't the daggers slash incident occur in a Crown of Swords or a Path of Daggers (one of those two, I can't remember which)before Winters Heart where Rand is bonded by the three girls.

Regardless I think he survived more because he is a channeler himself.  I've always guessed that the reason the warders got those benefits was there exposure to large amounts on the one power, and we know that Channeler's live much longer then the normal person, so my theory is that his being a channeler helped him survive.

[Thor]

I'm sure he survived because:

 

1: ishy's wound dampened the damage

2: alanna's bond helped him survive the remaining damage long enough for a heal.

[Majsju]

Blog, Oct 05

For Matrimoni Cauthon, Rand gets only the same benefits as he got from being bonded to one Aes Sedai.  It neither multiplies nor divides.  Each of a Green’s Warders get the same amount of benefits as the single Warder of another sister.

 

[Bob T Dwarf]

OK, thanks.

[Safia al-Maaz]

I believe the reason he survived was because the slash was right across Ishy's wound, mainly because somewhere in this insanely long but wonderful book series it said that the evils from shadar logoth and shayol ghul are opposite.  Therefore they fight each other rather than Rand.  I think that's what Damer Flinn said when he healed Rand as well.  And Flinn also said that's why he sealed the wounds away from Rand, since they would fight each other instead of Rand. 

[Generic Aelfinn #2]

hm, i was always under the impression the the SL and DO wounds were fighting each other BECAUSE of what flinn did

[Nethran Thaimal]

Right, quote time. :D

 

Flinn shrugged his shoulders regretfully. "Not much.  I couldn't really touch what was wrong. I sort of sealed them away from him, for a time, anyhow.  It won't last.  They're fighting each other, now.  Maybe they'll kill off each other, while he heals himself the rest of the way. ..."

 

So they didn't start fighting each other until Flinn sealed them away from Rand, according to what Flinn is saying, so it couldn't have been their polarities that kept him alive that long.

 

 

Also, his ability to channel doesn't matter.  Kisman could channel and had spent a good deal of time around Aes Sedai, damane, and other Asha'man. He still died fairly quickly.

 

I think we can safely assume that his resistance to the effects of Fain's dagger was either a product of Alanna's bond or something to do with him being who and what he is. Being that the idea of it being Alanna's bond to him is easier to grasp, I'm going with that.

[Guest Dreadlord]

Actually guys, Damer Flynn weaves Saidin around the wound after Fain cuts Rand, which he says should stop the evil from spreading. He also comments that the evil of Padan Fains dagger fights the evil of Ishamaels wound. I would wager that the majority of the protection from Padan Fains dagger Rand benefits from is down to Flynn, with a scrap of help from the bonds and even from the Ishamael wound.

[Safia al-Maaz]

Yes but the series indicated that there was something fundamentally different between Shadar Logoth's evil and Shayol Ghul's evi.  I forget what it was, it's been a while since I read them, but I think it had something to do with the purpose of motive of the evil. 

[Rahlian]

Basiclly, SL evil is to destroy SG evil. Simple as that

[aevogt]

Aridhol committed evil in the name of the Light.  The Shadow commits evil in the name of The Shadow, so, for all intents and purposes, they are two opposing "brands" of evil, which explains why Rand's wounds throb counbter to one another.

 

Kind of like American Airlines and United.  Both are evil, just in exactly opposite ways.

[Nethran Thaimal]

Couldn't have said it better myself, aevogt. As evidence, refer to the last chapter of Winter's Heart. Rand notices that instead of throbbing in time with one another, the two wounds he has are throbbing against one another.  The exact words Jordan used were:

The slash given by Padan Fain's dagger, the dagger that had come from Shadar Logoth, did not beat in time with the larger wound it cut across, but rather against it, alternating.

 

So they beat at the exact opposite times, indicating that they are opposite themselves, though no less evil for it.