How Many Currently-Living *BladeMasters* Are There? - I Thiiink *4* - Right?

[sheikh chilli]

reading the books, i think gawyn is the most dangerous swordsman after lan.

[Vulgir]

Gawyn is redikalous i agree, may even be better than Lan, but gotta remeber he was a blademaster before Galad was, now thats impressive.

[Red2111]

^ i still think that given a battle between them, galad would come out the winner because gaywn is way to emotional.

 

it's really hard to say how many blade masters there are.  i think someone mentioned the Senchan,  but also ther eis the unkown Sahara as well were i'm sure there are blade masters.

 

also, i'm not sure that you need to kill a blade master inorder to be called one; maybe just "besting them" several times in a row while sparing would classify as enough skill to be called a blade master and earn a heron marked blade.  that said, gaywn and galad could be considered blade masters before leaving the tower and before the split

 

if that is so, and seeing as the Warders were trained at one point by a blade master, i'm guessing there is a far share of warders who are blade masters wandering around the country side.

 

 

[Dert]

 

As to how good Gaywn an Galad are, well remeber Mat gave them both a good beating <bk 3 I think>.

 

Sparring doesn't count I think.  Its ethier to the death in fair combat, or voted on by a council of 5 blademasters.

[Vulgir]

  I have been really rallying for Gawyn as better master than Galad, the emotional part i find irrelivant since everyone trained with the sword that is any good is a master of the Oneness, flame and the void, Koi dye ( horrible spelling i know.

[Red2111]

^ even though they practice the "oneness" emotions would still play a part.  gaywn woudl become irritated or angery during the battle; while galad would maintain his cool no matter what.  especailly if the fight involved something to do with egwene. 

 

 

yes i do remember that in tDR.  and Harram(sp) recounts a tell he had heard long ago of a farmer doing the same

 

 

but it wasn't because of their lack of skill, it was because of their arrogance that they lost.   had they not thought the Staff was such a primative and useless weapon, now the Matt being in a semi weakand state meant they shoudl go easy at first; chances are they would have won.

 

besides, that fight was unfair to begin with.  Matt's "luck" came into play.  he's one dude you don't want to do any sort of battle against.

[Mr Ares]

i mean if you need a council of 5 blademasters, that implies there are definitely more than just the named character blademasters that we know.

There are almost certainly many more than the mere handful among the named characters, but that doesn't mean that there are hundreds. Gathering five baldemasters, and getting the unanimous approval of all five might not be that easy. Let's say you want to be a blademaster. Joe the baldemaster is passing through, so you ask him to be one of the panel that judges you. He says fine. You then have to find another four. Is Joe going to sit there waiting indefinitely? He might get bored and leave. He might expect you to cover his bills while he waits. You might try out and Joe's having a bad day, so he says no for reasons other than your skill with a blade.

plus there are millions of soldiers in randland.

But the average footsoldier doesn't need to be a blademaster. Archers, pikemen, etc., wouldn't need that sort of skill, nor cavalrymen. There are more important battlefield skills than blademastery.

 

and if you become a blademaster if you kill a blademaster...

I think there's more to it than just killing one. After all, if I killed you with a bow and arrow, that hardly shows me as worthy of being a blademaster, does it?

assuming that blademasters live by the sword/die by the sword

I don't think that's a reasonable assumption. Many of them would have done it via the 5 people route, and need not have any experience of battle. Many could die on the field, of disease, of wounds taken while duelling, and thus die without passing on their status. I think it's actually quite hard to become a blademaster. After all, they're supposed to be an elite group. They hardly want to let any Thom, Dick or Harry in, do they?

 

When I have the time, I promise I will find the book and page numbers, but, there ***IS*** a part later in the series where this is mentioned about it no longer possibly being bound.

Well, SL is destroyed at the end of Book 9, and Mashadar with it. There is no mention in subsequent books at all - it hasn't been mentioned in any book since ACoS. It has been put forward by people online, but there is nothing in the books to indicate it is no longer bound.

[bjclinton]

 

 

I'm wrong.

 

Really? Not sure if thats a spoiler, huh? maybe go back and reread the post that says "ABSOLUTELY NO POSTINGS ABOUT TGS" and STOP posting things like this for those of us who haven't started yet. if you're "not sure" then dont do it.

[Muad Cheade]

Really? Not sure if thats a spoiler, huh? maybe go back and reread the post that says "ABSOLUTELY NO POSTINGS ABOUT TGS" and STOP posting things like this for those of us who haven't started yet. if you're "not sure" then dont do it.

 

 

I edited my post so maybe you should remove that quote as it still has that information.

[WWWwombat]

 

 

I'm wrong.

 

Really? Not sure if thats a spoiler, huh? maybe go back and reread the post that says "ABSOLUTELY NO POSTINGS ABOUT TGS" and STOP posting things like this for those of us who haven't started yet. if you're "not sure" then dont do it.

 

Maybe you should chill out.

[Majsju]

Maybe you should go back to talking about the topic of the thread instead of yelling at eachother, and let us mods handle the spoilers. M'kay?

[Arath Faringal]

Haven't found it yet, but something about the scene I am thinking of is tickling my brain regarding the Ogier and specifically Elder Haman and maybe him being horrified at the mere thought of it.

 

The only thing I can think of similar to what you describe is when Machin Shin tried to get out of the ways when Rand was trying to follow Fain.  The Ogier were pretty horrified by that one.

[magnutz]

This is who I can think of that are currently living in the wake of Blademaster Eamon Valda's Death in Book 11 (Which Made a BladeMaster of Galad):

 

1 Galad Damodred

 

2 Lord Luc

 

3 Rand Al Thor

 

4 Lan Al Mandragoran

 

 

 

Am I missing any?

 

 

 

Fish

 

I think there are many blade masters. RJ gave Randland immense!!! quantitites of soldiers and generals and such. There are Blade Masters in Senchan (sp?) as well. I'd say it is impossible to answer how many there are. :)

[Agelmar]

^

yes i do remember that in tDR.  and Harram(sp) recounts a tell he had heard long ago of a farmer doing the same

 

but it wasn't because of their lack of skill, it was because of their arrogance that they lost.   had they not thought the Staff was such a primative and useless weapon, now the Matt being in a semi weakand state meant they shoudl go easy at first; chances are they would have won.

 

besides, that fight was unfair to begin with.  Matt's "luck" came into play.  he's one dude you don't want to do any sort of battle against.

 

Mat also killed Couladin and faced a gholam and lived to tell about it.  He's a bad, bad man.

[Muad Cheade]

I've been harboring a personal theory that Mat is secretly a blademaster or the equivalent of one due to the memories and skills of all the soldiers and adventurers in his head.

 

I've been hoping Jordan or Sanderson will give him a reason to pick up a sword and raise his awesome-ness level just a little bit.

[Eleint]

I don't see the need.  Who cares if he's a 'Blademaster' in the sense that he uses a sword?  If he kicks the butt of a Blademaster, it's just as good.  He just uses his staff-spear thing and not a sword.  He already beat Couladin, who was allegedly really really good, to the point where the Aiel were worried about Rand wanting to face him, so hey.

[Talmanes]

^

yes i do remember that in tDR.  and Harram(sp) recounts a tell he had heard long ago of a farmer doing the same

 

but it wasn't because of their lack of skill, it was because of their arrogance that they lost.   had they not thought the Staff was such a primative and useless weapon, now the Matt being in a semi weakand state meant they shoudl go easy at first; chances are they would have won.

 

besides, that fight was unfair to begin with.  Matt's "luck" came into play.  he's one dude you don't want to do any sort of battle against.

 

Mat also killed Couladin and faced a gholam and lived to tell about it.  He's a bad, bad man.

Although I agree, he did both of those things after the fight with Gaywn and Galad.