Actually useful talents

[trakand_01]

So, Aviendha can unpick weaves, Nynaeve can heal severed channelers and Elayne can... stamp her feet.

 

But I've been thinking for a while now that there are some 'talents' that would be really, really useful. Perhaps they would have made the story less interesting though, less intrigue etc?

 

By talents I dont mean just strong in one area, I mean actually be able to do something - a skill, if you like, that others dont have.

 

Things like, someone who can 'read a soul' to tell if the person is darkfriend or not, a woman who can see a man's weaves, and vice versa, things like that.

 

Or would that strip the story of the intrigue and frustration?

[Guest Dreadlord]

There are many Talents that make channelers more three dimensional.

 

For example, Logain and Suian can both see Ta'veren. Im not sure if Nicola has this ability as well, but it makes you seen a blazing aura around the Ta'veren, like the Saidar aura but on a bigger scale I imagine.

 

Nynaeves ability isnt the ability to Heal the severed, thats a weave. What she has, along with Damer Flynn, is the Talent for Healing, which means they can Heal a significant ammount more than the average person. Healing teh severed and the new type of Healing using all five elements of the Power were both discoveries made by nynaeve, yet Damer Flynn also made those discoveries on his own.

 

Nynaeves "weather sense" is another good one, because it isnt actually the weather she senses. I dont know if its specifically danger or just something significant she can feel, like Mats rolling dice, but she is aware when things are about to happen, and she experiences this as if it were the weather she senses.

 

Egwene, along with many Wise Ones, are Dreamwalkers, which enables them to control their dreams and the dreams of others. Egwene also has the Dreamer Talent, not necessarily linked, which allows her to dream things of the present and the future. I would say that Perrin is as close to a Dreamwalker as non-channelers come, along with Slayer, but thats questionable.

 

Foretelling. This makes you speak words that dictate the future. Nicola and laida are the only ones that I can remember with this. I compare this to Mins viewings, although the viewings Min has are specific to an individual whereas Foretellings can be re a person, event or place

 

Then theres Elaynes ability to make angreal and such, which is a tad more useful than stomping her feet but not necessarily better than sticking her nose up. Hard to see with your head tilted back all the time like that. Gives you neck ache an'all.

 

Thats just to name a few. Theres are others nagging at my head but I cant think of them at the mo, Im distracted by not letting my boss see me on the internet hehe.

 

PS You know what would be great??? If Rand turned out to have a Talent that lets him control his Ta'veren twists. Too overpowered? I think not

[RAND AL THOR]

It's important for the writer to limit the powers of his characters. Giving a character 'super powers' so to speak would quickly make the book boring. It makes sense for there to be more useful talents, but they'd make the book much more dull so RJ likely left them out.

 

A very useful talent would be the ability to block channeling in a specific area around said character. Wouldn't that be nice?

[SoulCollector]

True, sort of like the haitians' ability on the show Heroes. He can erase people's memories AND he blacks people's abilities when he is around.

[mb]

All of the channeling based Talents can be read here::

http://encyclopaedia-wot.org:8008/main/true_source/weaves.html

A number of the descriptions tell who has the Talent.

 

A few of them are actually not connected to the One Power or with the ability to channel. Dreaming/Dreamwalking and Foretelling are some; Seeing Taveren I think might be another.

 

All of the Talents I think are useful.

 

 

By talents I dont mean just strong in one area, I mean actually be able to do something - a skill, if you like, that others dont have.

 

Actually be able to do something, that is too broad.

Skills no one else has, from what I read so far all skills/abilities/talents/etc have at least two characters that can do it.

 

[Ndshacker]

What about aviendhias, terangreal reading Talent?

[Guest Dreadlord]

Elaynes is almost the same but one step further. She will be able to read Ter'angreal as well I reckon

[Luckers]

So, Aviendha can unpick weaves,

 

That's not a talent, thats a trained skill that anyone can learn. And there isn't even any indication that some would be better than others, as with say Healing (which is what affords it the name of a Talent).

 

Elaynes is almost the same but one step further. She will be able to read Ter'angreal as well I reckon

 

 

There is no indication she has that ability. She has been handling ter'angreal for nearly two years now, specifically focussing on them, and has failed--whereas Aviendha's manifestation clearly seems instinctual. Even Nynaeve manifested her 'sensing emotions in objects' with those ter'angreal pretty much straight away. Were Elayne to have that Talent it would have manifested.

 

[Guest Dreadlord]

I suppose Elayne will need Aviendha to figure out what something does before she can make it.

 

What pisses me off is we dont see any bad guys having these abilities. A bad guy with the Foretelling!!! And not someone like Elaida, who interprets it wrong! A Darkfriend Ashaman needs to discover how to make angreal. There needs to be a breakthrough on the channeling side for the Darkfriends, on top of the Black Tower infestation, that'd be immense.

 

Also, there isnt anyone who is superstrong with one element. I reckon if there were people who were mega strong in Fire, or Water, or whatever, it would add even more color to channelers. Imagine a channeler with such an affinity with Fire that he couldnt be harmed it! Or a guy who was gifted in Spirit, who could do things NOBODY else could.

[MsDanya]

What pisses me off is we dont see any bad guys having these abilities. A bad guy with the Foretelling!!! And not someone like Elaida, who interprets it wrong! A Darkfriend Ashaman needs to discover how to make angreal. There needs to be a breakthrough on the channeling side for the Darkfriends, on top of the Black Tower infestation, that'd be immense.

 

We dont really know that now do we? We dont know the bad guys personally as we do with the good guys. We've hardly had any chapters with them channeling anything special at all. For all we know, some of them can be awesome with Healing too, but its not very likely that we'll see it cause they spend all their time working on weapon weaves anyways.

 

Then there's the Forsaken who'd hardly call the Talents the present day AS have for Talents at all. They are alot more powerful and knowing than any of them, at least thats what you'd think, tho they have been laaame so far.

[Tyrell]

Ishmael and Lanfear can find Ta'veren.

Semirhage is the most gifted healer ever.

Lanfear and Moghedian are dreamers.

Aginor can make constructs with the power (all shadowspawn).

[mb]

Lanfear and Moghedian are dreamers.

 

Dreamwalkers is more accurate.  The only ones that had dreams that tell the future have been Egwene, Aiel Wise Ones, and Perrin.

 

[42Bonzo88]

    Don't forget the oringinal Black Ajah that left the tower and all their abilities.

 

    The thing with Elayne and Aviendah with the Terangreal that I would like to see is both of them needing to work together and have them join a circle with Rand or an Ashaman and have them start creating things as powerful as things in the Age of Legends.

 

    I do agree with Dreadlord. What ever happens on the light, the dark side needs something similar to keep things interesting.

[Hybrid]

Lanfear and Moghedian are dreamers.

 

Dreamwalkers is more accurate.  The only ones that had dreams that tell the future have been Egwene, Aiel Wise Ones, and Perrin.

 

 

I just want to add that all the Forsaken have shown themselves to be adept in the World of Dreams.  Moghedien and Lanfear are the masters though.  Ishamael seemed pretty good too, though no one has stated that he had a talent there.

[Luckers]

What pisses me off is we dont see any bad guys having these abilities. A bad guy with the Foretelling!!! And not someone like Elaida, who interprets it wrong! A Darkfriend Ashaman needs to discover how to make angreal. There needs to be a breakthrough on the channeling side for the Darkfriends, on top of the Black Tower infestation, that'd be immense.

 

That'd actually be a pretty clever way to deal with the difference in channeling numbers between Light and Shadow--my one problem would be that it would be awful convenient--if RJ had foreshadowed it with a little scene with an Asha'men considering a ter'angreal or something a few books back it'd be great--now it'd have to be done very carefully.

 

I just want to add that all the Forsaken have shown themselves to be adept in the World of Dreams.  Moghedien and Lanfear are the masters though.  Ishamael seemed pretty good too, though no one has stated that he had a talent there.

 

That's not a Talent--we know that during the Age of Legends all Aes Sedai were trained to one degree or another in the dream using ter'angreal (like the ones the Hall currently use). We can suspect that Demandred at the very least has no talent in the dream as he had to enter TAR physically, and Aran'gar states that she has only a very weak ability which was why she had to sleep in Egwene's tent with her in order to blunt her dreaming.

 

But as for badies having Talents--we've even seen one amongst the non-Forsaken channelers--Chesmal Emry was the best healer the Tower had turned out in centuries prior to Nynaeve's arrival.

[Charlz Guybon]

So, Aviendha can unpick weaves, Nynaeve can heal severed channelers and Elayne can... stamp her feet.

 

 

Elayne can make ter'angreal.

[Charlz Guybon]

I suppose Elayne will need Aviendha to figure out what something does before she can make it.

 

What pisses me off is we dont see any bad guys having these abilities. A bad guy with the Foretelling!!! And not someone like Elaida, who interprets it wrong! A Darkfriend Ashaman needs to discover how to make angreal. There needs to be a breakthrough on the channeling side for the Darkfriends, on top of the Black Tower infestation, that'd be immense.

 

 

Where do you think the Dark Prophecy comes from if not from a Darkfriend with the foretelling?

[Tel Janin]

Where do you think the Dark Prophecy comes from if not from a Darkfriend with the foretelling?

 

Hungover Myrdraal spouting bad poetry...  ;)

[Mr Ares]

A few of them are actually not connected to the One Power or with the ability to channel. Dreaming/Dreamwalking and Foretelling are some; Seeing Taveren I think might be another.

Week 16 Question: Is there any relationship between Foretelling and Min's viewings? Or is Foretelling a talent that only manifests in someone who can channel? Is Min's ability completely unique, or has it appeared in Ages past?

 

Robert Jordan Answers: There is no relationship whatsoever between Foretelling, which manifests only in someone who can channel, and Min's viewings. There have been versions of Min's viewings in some previous ages, though not exactly the same.

I think seeing ta'veren is also tied to the ability to channel.

[Hybrid]

Where do you think the Dark Prophecy comes from if not from a Darkfriend with the foretelling?

 

Hungover Myrdraal spouting bad poetry...  ;)

 

Now we know what really goes on in the super-secret meetings at Shayol Ghul.

[ksbsnowowl]

Hungover Myrdraal spouting bad poetry...  ;)

 

Now we know what really goes on in the super-secret meetings at Shayol Ghul.

Darkfriend pledges, a pair of stockings, and a goat-headed trolloc?

[Guest Dreadlord]

QUOTE

Where do you think the Dark Prophecy comes from if not from a Darkfriend with the foretelling?

UNQUOTE

 

Obviously I meant for it to be used more than once, and we dont know which Darkfriend Foretold that do we? And my whole point was...we dont see bad guys with these abilities

[GrandpaG]

Sure, Trakand 01, I'll try to address your original post.  ;)

 

 

There is SO MUCH that was lost at the Breaking.  The Aes Sedai just before the breaking had accumulated vast knowledge.  They could perform wondrous acts with the One Power (creation of the Nym, e.g.).  It's sad to think that all of that knowledge is lost forever.

 

But wait.

 

The Wheel will turn.  The Age of Legends will return again when the Wheel has made a full revolution!  There is light at the end of the tunnel.  (whew)  The world will once again know the glory of global peace.  People will eat sung food and live to be a couple hundred years old.  The Aiel will sing the Song.  I can hardly wait!  ;D

 

What?  Don't want to wait until the next Age of Legends?  You want to know how to do all of that stuff NOW?  :o  UUUuuuhhmmm...sorry.  :(

 

Sorry for the spam...you know how I am, I hope.  :-[

 

Anyway, new discoveries are being made that have lain dormant for the past 3,000 years.  Moggy showed the girls some really cool stuff.  LTT is teaching Rand some ass-kicking weaves.  Egwene will soon learn how to navigate TR just as good as any AoL AS.  Elayne and Avienda will soon discover how to make terangreal so that Matt's generals can communicate with each other at TG.  Great things are happening.  Maybe not everything all at once, but compare what those guys can do compared to what WE can do!  For crying out loud...I can't even figure out how to Travel to Australia for tea with Luckers!!!  ;D

[Lord Nik]

It's important for the writer to limit the powers of his characters. Giving a character 'super powers' so to speak would quickly make the book boring. It makes sense for there to be more useful talents, but they'd make the book much more dull so RJ likely left them out.

 

A very useful talent would be the ability to block channeling in a specific area around said character. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

I agree with rand. it would really suck if all of a sudden mat was say super man. he flys to the blight. breaks open the seals while punching every trolloc myddraal and forsaken in the face as he laser eyes the DO

i wouldnt see that coming but would be very displeased :P

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and hello again everyone most of you probabley dont remember me but ive been gobe for a long time (traveling europe) it was fun for anyone who cares annnnd ill be here in austria for a couple of months till i mosy back home so dont expect me to be to active!!

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cough so wot.... :P

[dubz]

Things like, someone who can 'read a soul' to tell if the person is darkfriend or not,

 

Hurin's sniffing could be considered comparable to this.  If the person is a really bad darkfriend he would be able to smell them.  I bet he would've smelled kadere's sister strangling, forehead mopping fat ass a league away.  I think that is one of my favorite talents.