Lost Again Talents

[TalonSpiritCat]

What cool/neat/useful talents or weaves have we only seen once? Why aren't they being used more?

 

 

Case in point -- the Strike of Death Rand used in the Stone of Tear. Storm and lightning bolts hunting the corridors for Trollocs and Fades. A most useful tool and i see no reason it can't be used outdoors as well. So why has Rand only used it once?

[Kaznen]

He used Callador in the Stone. Hasn't had a sa'angreal since then when he fought trollocs.

[buckeyebull64]

Im not sure it would be that much help outside. That thing seemed meant specifically for snaking down the hallways of a fortress. Against an amry of bad guys, like at the manor in tear, what LTT did was likely the most effective way of fighting, save for a big ol' bar of balefire

[Ozzie_aiel]

Wolfbrother

 

Give us more Wolfbrothers!!!!!!!!!

[Kidicaris]

I'm always confused by talent and Talent. There seems to be the former case, where someone is just more skilled with a weave than most--like Healing, where practice can help out. Then there are Talents like Foretelling, which you either have, or do not have.

 

It's probably just that the AS don't realize some of what they thought to be Talents are just lost weaves--like Traveling.

 

One of the most spectacular weaves was actually one Moiraine did early in EotW, some kind of ward that threw off the shadow spawn tracking them right before they took refuge in Shadar Logoth. In retrospect it might have been as simple as wind blowing their scent trail away, but at the time I imagined it doing so much more, including laying false trails etc. This was back in the day when channeling still felt like tradition magic found in other fantasy novels.

[Kidicaris]

I've been thinking of Traveling. I find it highly unlikely that such a weave could have been forgotten at all by the Aes Sedai for a couple reason, not the least being its usefulness. It seems that the weave was only limited by the strength threshold for activation. The rules to make it work are simple, and the weave itself is easy enough for all the characters who know it to learn it on spec. It has never been described as being overly complicated, just potentially deadly.

 

How could the Aes Sedai have ever lost the simple weave for Traveling? The only likely reason is that the Tower went through a window in time at least two to three hundred years where no sister was strong enough to make the weave work? But... even then there's no reason for the generation of weak sisters to not be taught the weave for preservation sake. Also, the fact that you have to be strong enough to make it work doesn't mean you have to be SUPER strong... plus AS can link, so there really is no reason to have forgotten the weave?

 

There is another possibility... That sometime during the Breaking all the real female AS died--ALL AT ONCE, leaving only the novices behind who were not yet taught many advanced weaves. This ridiculous event would explain so much about why the AS today are the way they are... jk

 

Haha, look at me trying to rationalize this stuff. Its clear this was an arbitrary author's choice kind of thing.

[Taura-Tierno]

I've been thinking of Traveling. I find it highly unlikely that such a weave could have been forgotten at all by the Aes Sedai for a couple reason, not the least being its usefulness. It seems that the weave was only limited by the strength threshold for activation. The rules to make it work are simple, and the weave itself is easy enough for all the characters who know it to learn it on spec. It has never been described as being overly complicated, just potentially deadly.

 

How could the Aes Sedai have ever lost the simple weave for Traveling? The only likely reason is that the Tower went through a window in time at least two to three hundred years where no sister was strong enough to make the weave work? But... even then there's no reason for the generation of weak sisters to not be taught the weave for preservation sake. Also, the fact that you have to be strong enough to make it work doesn't mean you have to be SUPER strong... plus AS can link, so there really is no reason to have forgotten the weave?

 

There is another possibility... That sometime during the Breaking all the real female AS died--ALL AT ONCE, leaving only the novices behind who were not yet taught many advanced weaves. This ridiculous event would explain so much about why the AS today are the way they are... jk

 

Haha, look at me trying to rationalize this stuff. Its clear this was an arbitrary author's choice kind of thing.

 

I think it was a matter of faulty training during the Breaking. The Aes Sedai who lived at the beginning of it wouldn't have had nearly enough time to teach their students every weave. Aside from the basics, what's more important? Instant travelling, or being able to sever flows and shield other channelers? Being able to Heal wounded? Creating wards?

 

I believe that Traveling had a low priority during the Breaking, because it was probably pretty much useless, except for Traveling to another point in sight. The world was literally changing, mountains were created and destroyed, landmasses sunk into the ocean ... which means that, if you opened a gateway to another place, there would be NO WAY AT ALL to know whether it would open into an open landscape, or if it'd open underwater or in a flood of lava or something. So, Traveling could have meant instant death, and was probably considered too useless to teach, when there were so many other important weaves to teach, that could actually be very, very helpful during the chaotic climate.

 

It is of course also possible that some did pass it on, while others chose not to. These groups might have died out, though. At the beginning of the new Aes Sedai order, various groups that refused to cooperate were hunted down and stilled. It's possible that these groups possessed knowledge of things such as Traveling and real Healing, but obviously those would then have been lost. Why reveal something like that to the enemy?

 

So it's not so strange that Traveling was lost, really.

[Seafolk Sedai]

I think it was a matter of faulty training during the Breaking. The Aes Sedai who lived at the beginning of it wouldn't have had nearly enough time to teach their students every weave. Aside from the basics, what's more important? Instant travelling, or being able to sever flows and shield other channelers? Being able to Heal wounded? Creating wards?

 

I believe that Traveling had a low priority during the Breaking, because it was probably pretty much useless, except for Traveling to another point in sight. The world was literally changing, mountains were created and destroyed, landmasses sunk into the ocean ... which means that, if you opened a gateway to another place, there would be NO WAY AT ALL to know whether it would open into an open landscape, or if it'd open underwater or in a flood of lava or something. So, Traveling could have meant instant death, and was probably considered too useless to teach, when there were so many other important weaves to teach, that could actually be very, very helpful during the chaotic climate.

 

It is of course also possible that some did pass it on, while others chose not to. These groups might have died out, though. At the beginning of the new Aes Sedai order, various groups that refused to cooperate were hunted down and stilled. It's possible that these groups possessed knowledge of things such as Traveling and real Healing, but obviously those would then have been lost. Why reveal something like that to the enemy?

 

So it's not so strange that Traveling was lost, really.

 

 

All of this...the Breaking making Travelling unreliable (I don't think anyone could have stayed still long enough to learn a place well enough to Travel from it, and with the world changing they couldn't trust Skimming), plus the disorganization amongst Aes Sedai.

 

Also...there was no way of knowing who was trustworthy. Remember, Aes Sedai didn't start taking most of the Oaths until the Trolloc Wars, about a thousand years after the Breaking. This, I think, is the largest part of why the White Tower is the way it is, why there are so many secrets even amongst themselves. When anyone you know can be a darkfriend, including people you had been close friends with, how can you trust anyone? Sealing the Bore didn't get rid of all the channelling darkfriends, just the ones who were close to the Bore when it happened. Most likely, Aes Sedai living during that time didn't trust -anyone-, and distrust became a habit passed down...because the reason for the distrust never really went away, even when the White Tower was built, and even when the Oaths were implemented. For three thousand plus years Aes Sedai have had to live in a world where anyone can turn the things you teach them against you.