Ask A Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer (No AMoL Spoilers)

[Sephie913]

I haven't seen the question before, so I'll pose it.

 

I know that as far as we are aware, Graendal has almost always used Compulsion to get her way. But that surprises me, in some ways. She has to know (if not as well as Semirhage did) that she can control people by "training" them with doses of pain and pleasure. Is there specifically any instance where she intentionally broke someone with pleasure?

 

It just seems to be a very Graendal thing to do... I kinda pegged Moggy to be the heavy-handed Compusion-er (just if you look at the psych profiles.)

[yoniy0]

No, Graendal doesn't show any facility with Semirhage's methods. Which is not to say that she can't, but we haven't seen her do so.

Edited May 6, 2012 by yoniy0

[Sephie913]

Interesting. I figured Graendal would be highly intersted in that sort of thing. (Semirhage and Graendal both seem more set on psychology than the others)

 

I have another question. (I have the feeling I should know this, but I'm drawing a blank) Whatever happened to the Seanchan Seeker of Truth? the one who investigated Egeanin. What's going on with him? I don't remember when we last saw him, what he did last, if he's dead or alive. Anyone who could help me out, I'd be grateful. He was(is)such a cool character.

[Terez]

Last we heard of him, he was telling Karede all about general Thom Merrilin. (COT 4, The Tale of a Doll)

[Luckers]

He may well be a candidate for will spill the beans on the sul'dam secret. He's been there for most that arc (albeit on the sidelines).

[mgns]

Did Birgitte spend any of her previous incarnations in Seanchan? Mat having his memories transplanted from visitors to the Tower Of Genji would explain why it's all from this side of the Aryth Ocean. But in Birgitte's case it would seem that souls are recycled on a per-continent basis, which is kind of... odd.

[Terez]

Well, the oddity goes a lot further than that. Just the fact that nearly all the important people were born on the Randland continent is odd. And the fact that the other lands don't really factor into the story at all, beyond Seanchan, which is really a bunch of Randlanders returning from a long vacation.

[Twiggy]

Thanks for the answer - don't know why but I always saw it as a link/conduit between the two.

 

Another question - Whst are Uno and the other Sheinerians with the Rebels doing now? I remember them agreeing to help Bryne train the troops in cavalry but nothing since they jumped to Tar Valon... Or got taken into the Tower fold

 

Ta :)

[Terez]

Last we heard, they're still hanging out in Egwene's army.

[MasterAblar]

Another question - Whst are Uno and the other Sheinerians with the Rebels doing now? I remember them agreeing to help Bryne train the troops in cavalry but nothing since they jumped to Tar Valon... Or got taken into the Tower fold

 

Ta :)

 

We haven't heard from them since tPoD. Presumably they're still with the WT's army. Sort of ironic since they've already sworn allegiance to Rand.

[Tyzack]

In the fight with Ravin Rand is quiet liberal in his use of balefire - both in the waking world and tel'an'riod - aside from "restoring" the aiel raiding party, were there any documented encounters with balescream? Did they happen off-camera?

[Sheepherder]

In the fight with Ravin Rand is quiet liberal in his use of balefire - both in the waking world and tel'an'riod - aside from "restoring" the aiel raiding party, were there any documented encounters with balescream? Did they happen off-camera?

 

Don't recall there being any mention of them and I doubt there would have been any noticeable balescreams from that event. There was a lot of balefire being tossed around but, if I recall corrctly, it was mainly just parts of the palace getting erased. Ravin is the only person who gets killed by it and, from what I understand, it takes a decent number of people getting erased from the pattern to cause a balescream. I don't think Ravin on his own would create one, atleast not a noticeable one.

[Ludo]

After Mat left Ebou Dar, I think Karede mentions something about the rats in The Wandering Woman, and that there wouldn't have been as many if Mistress Anan was still running it.

Do we know if the rats were sent out searching for Tuon by Semi, or is it just a comment on the new owner?

[Terez]

I think it's just meant to be a commentary on her exemplary innkeeping. She ran a tight shop.

[RandA lThor]

Do we have any confirmed information on the woman that Aviendha met on her way to the Aiel waste?

[Suttree]

Do we have any confirmed information on the woman that Aviendha met on her way to the Aiel waste?

 

Nope, whole bunch of threads on it however...

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/52985-nakomi/page__hl__%20nakomi

[Twiggy]

I might be getting my people/facts mixed up here do bare with me :)

 

Ishameal (sp?) was able to enter the world periodically and create mischief because he was closer to the edge/surface? If that's so how is the surface area of the seal determined? Like is it a physical distance thing? Meaning he was out back taking a wizz when the companions struck making him further from the center?

Or is it something along the lines of he partially resisted the effect?

 

Also, when he did go galavanting about, how did he keep winding up back in the prison/sealant when he was done?

 

Thanks :)

[Barid Bel Medar]

I might be getting my people/facts mixed up here do bare with me :)

 

Ishameal (sp?) was able to enter the world periodically and create mischief because he was closer to the edge/surface? If that's so how is the surface area of the seal determined? Like is it a physical distance thing? Meaning he was out back taking a wizz when the companions struck making him further from the center?

Or is it something along the lines of he partially resisted the effect?

 

Also, when he did go galavanting about, how did he keep winding up back in the prison/sealant when he was done?

 

Thanks :)

 

I am not sure we know exactly how or why this happened. I am pretty sure it isn't a physical distance though.

 

I would have no idea how he actually was sent back, but I suspect he kind of "faded". I don't think it was a physical thing, as mentioned. Because someone would have just killed the Forsaken as they were sleeping after the Bore had been sealed. I suspect they were trapped in some kind of Vacuole type space, and that Ishamael was "drawn back" into it whenever he was called back.

[Sharaman]

Ishamael was apparently never fully-held in the Bore and he seemed to have approx 40 year periods when he could wander around.

He was around post-sealing when he "Healed" LTT and watched him die,

He was definitely around on Earth during the Trolloc Wars and during Hawkwing's time and also just after the Aiel War.

But we don't have an explanatory mechanism for his ability to be physically outside the Bore and why he was dragged back inside (if he was held inside the Bore, at all).

Maybe he needed to be "refreshed and oiled and serviced" by the GLoD every so often when his machinery broke down through TP overdosing?

[mgns]

I think the most likely explanation is that Ishamael's probation periods fall under the domain of RJ handwaving it. Early on it seemed RJ was still deciding on metaphor versus metaphysics and so he threw a little bit of both in there.

 

Also, Aginor and Balthamel aged as they did because they were "trapped closer to the surface" and are consequently the first to be released when the seals weakened enough.

[Sheepherder]

I was wondering if balefire can erase the effects of balefire. To me it doesn't seem like you can erase the pattern being erased. For insance, if you balefired Rand right after natrim's burrow (not that I would of course) would that then rewaeve all those people into the pattern? To me, it seems the effects of balefire would be too permanent to be fixed even by balefire itself.

 

Not sure if this is the right place for this question but was just idle speculation and not sure it deserved it's own thread.

Edited May 10, 2012 by Sheepherder

[Thrasymachus]

Ah the temporal paradoxes of balefire. For instance, if a sufficiently powerful channeler wove a gateway which opened right behind themselves, then immediately balefired themselves through their own gateway, are they dead? If they are, then they never wove the gateway, so the balefire couldn't have traveled through it to kill them, which means they're not dead, but if they're not dead, then the gateway still exists, so the balefire will travel through it to kill the channeler. If they're dead, they're alive, and if they're alive, they're dead. Puzzling, no? Of course, the easy answer to that is to say that balefire can't travel through gateways, it'll just hit the gateway itself and destroy that, which would be a nasty little shock for the channeler in question, I'm sure, but avoids that possibility for paradox.

 

For the most part, I would have to say no, that balefire can't bring back the previously balefired, for the simple reason that balefire burns threads out of the pattern. It doesn't force the wheel to backtrack its weaving along one thread for a bit, cut that thread out, then re-weave until it catches back up. The balefired thread burns back, and the threads that were woven around it aren't rewoven, they rearrange themselves around the gap. Burn back the right thread far enough, or enough of them, and the Pattern itself might unravel. It doesn't seem like burning another thread would undo that.

[Barid Bel Medar]

I was wondering if balefire can erase the effects of balefire. To me it doesn't seem like you can erase the pattern being erased. For insance, if you balefired Rand right after natrim's burrow (not that I would of course) would that then rewaeve all those people into the pattern? To me, it seems the effects of balefire would be too permanent to be fixed even by balefire itself.

 

Not sure if this is the right place for this question but was just idle speculation and not sure it deserved it's own thread.

 

 

INTERVIEW: Oct 9th, 1996

ACOS Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)

 

QUESTION

What happens when two people balefire each other simultaneously?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

[disgusted look] A lot of confusion.

 

INTERVIEW: Mar, 2000

Letter to Paul Ward (Verbatim)

PAUL WARD

Possible questions: Does balefire affect itself? Can you balefire balefire? If you balefire another person, but then you get balefired, what happens to the person you balefired?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

The balefire weave exists wholly or partly outside time, which removes it from its own effect.

 

INTERVIEW: Sep 20th, 1999

Brisbane Signing Report - Willum (Paraphrased)

 

 

ROBERT JORDAN

Firstly, RJ explained that if person A were to balefire person B, and person C was to balefire person A, if that balefire was strong enough, person B would never have been balefired. This seems like common sense.

 

 

I like this one.

 

INTERVIEW: Feb 26th, 2003

tarvalon.net Q&A (Verbatim)

 

QUESTION

If I were to open a gateway in front of me that opened behind me, and I balefired myself, what would happen?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

Young lady, you are entirely too obsessed and have far too much time. You need to get some sort of life. I suggest you go have an intense love affair. Doesn't matter with who, be it man, woman, or German Shepherd.

[Sheepherder]

Thanks Barid. It was worth asking the question just to read that last answer, though his being ambivalent to that last relationship is slightly disturbing :-)

[Barid Bel Medar]

haha yeah, it was quite amusing, and a bit disturbing. One of the more...creative ways to avoid answering a question. Although I can't blame him really. I doubt he would have thought too much on the subject of balefiring yourself through a gateway. I am sure it wasn't a point he was going to explore