The importance of Illian in AMoL

[benr]

What I'd LIKE to see after the Tower of Ghenji is Mat, Aludra, the Band, Moiraine, Thom, et al forced into the Two Rivers, where with the influx of talented immigrants they would help build the foundries necessary for building the "dragons", with the proximity of the Mountains of Mist furnishing the raw materials.  The Band could billet there, and Elayne would REALLY have something to worry about from Manetherin.  Individuals could head out to their prophesied or required tasks as necessary.  The cannons could be delivered where necessary by gateway.

[billoumm7]

illian is weak... no king since rand fled... no army since rand crushed it... and no pride since the samuael thing...

[aussie_ashaman123]

The prophecies do not link Illian to the Horn, but the stories do, the same that the Eye of the World was a Borderland adventure. Illian is the perfect rally point for the Light Forces for TG, with channelling involved. Its cosmopolitan, stable, has the best harbour available to Rand for his Sea Folk,  loyal enough to Rand to allow foriegn troops onto the soil (theyre outlanders, but hey, they follow OUR king!). With Gateways he can attack anywhere quickly and decisively.

[cloglord]

I was going to let this go, until I re-read the part where Mat and Aludra were talking about their plans for dragon making.  Two things popped at as important to me.

 

1.  The dice appear to have stopped when Aludra agreed to go with Mat to make dragons.  Since every instance of the dice stopping has meant some thing fateful for Mat Cauthon, personally, I take it to mean the the dragons will actually have a role to play in TG.  Of course it could be interepreted differently, but I think that this is the case here.

 

2.  Mat's original plan as it pertains to Aludra was to put her in touch with Rand, and if he wasn't interested he would pay to have hundreds cast himself.  In that context, the most likely place for Mat to get Aludra in touch with Rand is to send her on to Illian.

[Razor]

It might be important for her to accompany him to tower of Genji when he remembers the fire prohibition, having to cheat to win and takng strikers and grenades/fireworks with him.

[Majsju]

Since Aludra can not follow Mat and the others into the tower, she might just as well give him a box of strikers whenever they part ways. After all, she has to stay in one place for over a day in order to make new ones, and Mat should really start to speed up.