specs on the true power

[Mr Ares]

I'm just nitpicking you here, because I feel nitpicky today, but they knew about circles in the AoL, and in fact, that's how they created most of their greatest works. They did not know about the Warder bond though, and the rest of what you say is correct.  :)

There was something mentioned about circles , but it is involuntary links, rather than just linking, that is new.

[balefireruinssteaks]

sorry I did mean involuntary links, although I'm really not quite sure what that means.  Are they talking about the adam forcing a damane into a link with the suldam?  I think it was one of the Aes Sedai at the Bowl of Winds who said flat out that a person could not be pulled into a link, but they had to surrender themselves to it - whereas the adam forces them immediately into the link.

 

I guess that's what they meant - the Forsaken would have known about the adam through their own dealings with the Seanchan.

[Mr Ares]

sorry I did mean involuntary links, although I'm really not quite sure what that means.  Are they talking about the adam forcing a damane into a link with the suldam?  I think it was one of the Aes Sedai at the Bowl of Winds who said flat out that a person could not be pulled into a link, but they had to surrender themselves to it - whereas the adam forces them immediately into the link.

 

I guess that's what they meant - the Forsaken would have known about the adam through their own dealings with the Seanchan.

I think the BA also have a way of forcing someone into a circle against her will. They use it for punishments, IIRC.

[Durinax]

just a quick note on the involuntary link, with the seanchan if you have a full circle of aes sedai and they had enough adams and other channelers could they link?

plus in the AoL they knew of bonding that is why semirhage (I think) went to the shadow

[Carteeg_Struve]

sorry I did mean involuntary links, although I'm really not quite sure what that means.  Are they talking about the adam forcing a damane into a link with the suldam?

 

That is exactly what it is referring to. The a'dam was a Third Age creation, and the Suldam-Damane relation is exactly what you say: a forcing of a damane into a link with the suldam.

[Majsju]

 

plus in the AoL they knew of bonding that is why semirhage (I think) went to the shadow

 

That would be bound, as in having a Binder used on you.

Bonding is a completely different thing, Aes Sedai bond their Warders, and that was not known in the AOL.

[zanotam]

Well, we can GUESS a few things, but assume very little. The only things we really know are that the TP is not very nice to the pattern, kinda like the TP is to Saidin what Saidin is to Saidar. We however can guess that being able to wield the TP requires a certain link to the DO and that the link also protects one from the Taint (since we know that at one point all the chosen could wield the TP, and so presumably a certain chosen would have used the TP to escape instead of become Rand Al'Thor's teacher), but if the protection from the taint is removed, the severing of the connection to the DO also severs the connection to the TP. The name TRUE POWER seems similar to the TRUE SOURCE, but it was described as a NEW SOURCE of power and so any connection there could be coincidence. It comes from the DO and can only be touched if he allows it. Power in the TP =/= power in the OP, but only those gifted with the Spark that allows them to touch the True Source can channel the TP. TP weaves are basically inverted, only visible to those who channeled them. The TP is addictive, more so than the OP and if it is overused the fate is worse than Severing. Things done with the TP are presumably similar enough to things done with Saidin to make the learning curve relatively small (since the Female Forsaken are known to have almost never used it and none are shown using it from their POV, we can't be sure about Saidar).

 

Basically, with our given facts we can draw that the TP works in a manner more destructive than Saidin, far more so than Saidar presumably, that it requires a link to the DO like being protected from the Taint yet protection from the Taint does not give access to the TP necessarily, and that well, not really much.

 

I'd guess that the taint of Saidin and the TP are related, Rand even has black Saa like specks in his eyes at one point (possible related to his mysterious connection to Moridin), that the TP could possibly be the opposing force to the OP (since balance is a big thing), but it could be somehow drawing directly about the True Source with the aid of the DO or possible something like the True Source 'filtered' by the Do. Really we don't know much and I'm just drawing conjectures.

[Majsju]

Rand even has black Saa like specks in his eyes at one point (possible related to his mysterious connection to Moridin

 

No, he does not.

[Mr Ares]

I'd guess that the taint of Saidin and the TP are related, Rand even has black Saa like specks in his eyes at one point (possible related to his mysterious connection to Moridin)

Rand has a fireball explode at arms length. Something that could quite resonably cause black specks, without any need for TP or the taint.