Why cant they fly?

[Bob T Dwarf]

Since Aes Sedai can already make switches and cudgels and other seemingly solid objects from "Air", somebody could probably make a reasonably good living by climbing a pole and making stilts out of "Air" to go striding about in mid-air to the amazement of Valan Luca's circus patrons.

 

Imagine the crowds they'd gather if the stilt-walker led their procession through each new town.

[Blackmoore]

I'm sure that many of them could fly if they could only think about the problem correctly.  AS (just as everyone else) has no understanding of physics principles.

 

Siuan recognizes that she can't pick herself up off the ground; but she never thinks about changing her density or changing the gravitational constant, etc. 

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

You could just make the air immediately around her more dense, enabling her to float or swim through the sky, while maintaining a breathing tube of the OP that connects her lungs to the rest of the sky.

 

You could probably do all kinds of things to the human body that no one has thought of really. Some dignitary annoys you? Just make them wet their pants.

[Luckers]

Since Aes Sedai can already make switches and cudgels and other seemingly solid objects from "Air", somebody could probably make a reasonably good living by climbing a pole and making stilts out of "Air" to go striding about in mid-air to the amazement of Valan Luca's circus patrons.

 

I'm fairly sure people would realise it was channeling--which may or may not get a crowd. Aes Sedai are pretty feared.

 

 

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

For that matter, actually, you could do anything you wanted to without inhibition, and then, when reprimanded about it, you could simply dismiss it as "witchery." Perhaps. You couldn't put blame on a full Aes Sedai, since they've taken the 3 oaths, but anyone else is game...

[RAND AL THOR]

For that matter, actually, you could do anything you wanted to without inhibition, and then, when reprimanded about it, you could simply dismiss it as "witchery." Perhaps. You couldn't put blame on a full Aes Sedai, since they've taken the 3 oaths, but anyone else is game...

 

Most people hardly care about that, though. And once the BA becomes common knowledge,and if the public found out that Black sisters are not oath bound then all trust in AS would evaporate pretty fast.

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Ah, I don't know.  While Aes Sedai are feared and despised, at least their word is somewhat trusted. Everyone knows they can somewhat get around the oaths, but all the same... if someone accused one of the Aes Sedai of casting a spell on him, and she came out and said "I've never channeled on this man in my life," then, well, there's really no way around that.

 

I think the oaths are the only thing that keep Randland from experiencing something like what happened to Salem, Massachusetts. Take Seanchan as an example of what would happen without the 3 oaths. People would lose all trust for Aes Sedai, firstly (because of the ability to lie), and there would be infighting among the Aes Sedai (because of the ability to use the OP as a weapon).