Rand's Late Channeling

[Mr Ares]

Don't the Wise Ones take all the channeling women they can find to become Wise Ones? And yet Tigraine was a Maiden, not a Wise One. Presumably indicating that she wasn't a channeler, else she would be a WO.

 

So both genetics and the soul play a part, well, if that's the case, then we have figured out something big here. The discovery would imply something that I can't figure out, and that is why I ask you to figure out the bigger picture  ;D

What "something big" have we figured out?

[Cockta]

Not all Aiel Wise Ones have the abilty to channel, and we do know something important now, the fact that both genetics and the soul play a part of the channeling ability, as you would know, right?

[Swigaro]

Not all Wise Ones can channel, but every female Aiel who can channel becomes a wise one.  I can't recall if it is Avhienda, or one of the Wise Ones who makes this point, but it is clearly stated. 

 

As to what we can learn from the Soul/Genetic link, something occured to me while thinking about the Aran'gar situation.  If the soul represents a component of channeling ability, and Balthemels soul, recycled, still channels Saidin, regardless of the fact that he was placed in a female body, can we assume that a soul's gender is fixed.  For example, the Dragon is always male, Birgitte is always female.  It isn't, so far as I understand it, just the important souls that get reborn, it is everyone.   

[Auld Manriva]

CAN we really determine channeling is genetically linked? It wouldn't appear to matter if Tigraine could channel. The non mention of it would cause me to think she couldn't. Gender/Soul is pretty well determined to have a symbiosis, but recall how amazed Nynaeve or someone is at Caemlyn when the apprentice windfinder told of her mother, grandmother, aunt etc all being able to channel. The Atha'an Miere seem to be the greatest concentration of the ability passing from one generation to the next. Or maybe that young girls family is an anomaly among Sea Folk. I don't recall any familial relationships among Wise Ones either. Not specified at any rate.

 

Egwene had neither parent a channeler. Nor Nynaeve or anyone else I can think of off hand, except for Elayne. It's apparently in the blood, because of the great concentration of male and female channelers in the Two Rivers region. But evidently has the ability to pass over generation after generation making it definitely a recessive trait. 

 

I doesn't appear to me RJ thought much about it...

[Swigaro]

I believe that RJ stated that it is both genetic and based on the soul.  As far as Egwene and Nynaeve having no channelers in their ancestry, we can't really say.  There may have been no sparkers, but there could well have been numberous women in their familys who could be tought to channel.  Allana and Verin took all of the young ones, who knows who they could have left behind.

[Cockta]

They deliberately left some girls so the Tower could "milk" the TR for a longer period of time.

[Hybrid]

They deliberately left some girls so the Tower could "milk" the TR for a longer period of time.

 

Rather, they only took the girls within the novice age.  This was before Egwene's open novice book proclamation.  So the older ones are too old and will remain in the Two Rivers.  The younger ones will be picked up later.

[Cockta]

But they have accepted grandmothers as novices now, so I think that will change, the "too" old girls in the TR will be picked up as well, I believe.

[Mr Ares]

we do know something important now, the fact that both genetics and the soul play a part of the channeling ability, as you would know, right?

I do know that. And I knew it before this thread started. RJ said so. Even in this thread, Luckers said: "RJ directly stated that both genetics and the soul influence the channeling state." So how can we be said to have worked it out?

[Luckers]

But they have accepted grandmothers as novices now, so I think that will change, the "too" old girls in the TR will be picked up as well, I believe.

 

Mmm, though probably not any time soon. A silly oversight given the number of men Taim identified (according to Tam Al'thor somewhere around 400, though only 40 went to the Black Tower), but Aes Sedai can be routinely silly.

[Cockta]

we do know something important now, the fact that both genetics and the soul play a part of the channeling ability, as you would know, right?

I do know that. And I knew it before this thread started. RJ said so. Even in this thread, Luckers said: "RJ directly stated that both genetics and the soul influence the channeling state." So how can we be said to have worked it out?

 

My bad then.