Strange things/objects in WoT

[Dewairah]

In WoT we come across some strange objects/things/people that dont seem to be related to the light or the dark one... or the one power..... yet they do strange things.

 

It seems that under the hood, theres actually a world within the WoT. A world of other "magic" etc... outside of channeling and the general light/dark paradigm we get shown throught he book.

 

Heres a brief list of items/people/things - that exist and effect the world yet arent necessarily OP related or light/dark related:

 

 

1. Horn of Valere - we're never told its a terangreal although it does amazing things (calls back dead heros). What do we know of it other than it was creatd in a very old age..?

 

 

2. Another i can think of is the dagger that the darkfriend tried to stab mat with in the barn... it pierced the wood and made it smoke. What was that? thankandar blade? power-wrought? Do we know anything about where this "magic" knife came from?

 

 

4. Mordeth....... he's an evil of sorts .. can do arguably "magical" things... yet he's not of the dark one and not of the light... and, AFAIK, not a channeler. Same with mashadar - presumably mashadar is also related to mordeth in some respect.

 

5. The wolfkin ability is another one - not channeling related, not really light and arguably not necessarily dark... even though wolves hate the shadow.

 

6. The Finns ...

 

What do we know about the above and their relationship with the world given that they're not of the OP or light/dark?

 

Can anyone think of any others? There seems to be a world actually riddled with these items/peoples/etc.

 

Which ones can we tihnk of and what do we know about them?

 

 

Dewairah

[FarShainMael]

A few more:

 

The Dragon Banner, found at the Eye (TEotW52). The description is quite curious:

 

The whole thing seemed of a piece, neither woven, nor dyed, nor painted.. The stirring of the banner made [the dragon] seem to move, scales glittering like precious metals and gems, alive, and he almost thought he could hear it roar defiance.

 

My first thought was plastic sheet, but that tends to be quite stiff.

 

Darlin took it down in Tear. Where is it now, I wonder?

 

Fancloth. Used to make warders' cloaks, it is made using a ter'angreal in the WT (TPoD2). Reminds me of the elven-cloaks given to Frodo and Sam (think I'll mention that on the other thread!)

 

Streith, mood-sensitive cloth made during the AoL.

 

There's a lot of one-offs: glowbulbs; shocklances (AoL tazers??); sofars, apparently a flying device of some kind; choss.. you haul that apparently. Possibly night-soil.

[Alric]

Most of these items are from the AoL where they simply had practical purposes. Like Sammael's exchanger which is a portable air conditioner, or the glowbulbs.

 

The ones that fascinate me the most are those seemingly older than the AoL, like the Horn or the Portal Stones.

 

 

[Dewairah]

hmmmmn i'm not sure those are what i'm getting at.

 

I'm thinking more of the "magic" things in the world... which arent based on the one power or crated by it - and dont really fit in to the light/dark concept either.

 

e.g i dont thik we've any clue that the horn of valere is a terangreal or OP based - .. yet it does do magic (brings back the heroes)... but as far as we know, not by the one power. It also serves whoever blows it - whether they're with the light or dark.

 

We seem to get the impression that much of the WoT is either magic resulting from the OP or from the dark one and possibly the creator. There seems to be a magic world-within-world outside of that though.

[FarShainMael]

One thing that stands out to me is Avendesora. It's obviously important to Randland, but it is apparently the last of its kind and has been hidden away in Rhuidean for centuries. I'd like to know what its significance is. It may be RJ's nod to the 'World Tree', which turns up in a lot of cultural mythology besides the Judao-Christian Eden and its own 'Tree of Life'. It's certainly very long-lived, the Green Man says he hasn't seen it for 2000 years.

 

And then, of course, there's the Ogier. They can't channel, but their stedding are OP-free zones. They have a Book of Translation to move between humanity's world/universe and their own. (I wonder if they can reach finnland..)

[cmsnaith]

How about:

 

The Voice/Singing

Min's viewings

Mat's luck

Ta'veren

Tel'aran'rhiod

Dreamwalking

The ability to recognize a ta'veren on sight (Loial can do this)

The ability to recognize the purpose of a ter'angreal through touch (only related to the OP in that it has to do with ter'angreal, Aviendha can do this)

[rand4747]

the creator and therefore the true source are probably a source of all the power for these other magics. Perhaps there is more then just the one power available for magic, perhaps its something to do with whats affecting Rand in ToM. Thats more than just the One power.

[FarShainMael]

Hurin the sniffer!

 

It's a recently acquired ability, it seems:

 

I'm a sniffer, you see. Been one four years this Sunday. I never heard of such a thing before then, but I hear there's a few others like me. It started slow, catching bad smells where nobody else smelled anything, and it grew. Took a whole year before I realized what it was. I could smell violence, the killing and the hurting. Smell where it happened. Smell the trail of those who did it...

 

There was one in Cairhien once - Brown Ajah, but I swear I thought she was Red before she let me go - she kept me a month trying to find out how I do it. She didn't like not knowing. She kept muttering, 'Is it old come again, or new?'

 

(Verin, I'll bet!)

 

Then Rand thinks to himself, remembering Moiraine: 'Old barriers weaken. There is something of dissolution and change about our time. Old things walk again, and new things are born. We may live to see the end of an Age.'

[Dewairah]

Ahh some good examples people! excellent, thankyou :)

[FarShainMael]

I'll keep my eyes open for more oddities on my readthrough!

 

I've just realised that this is actually only the second time I've read books 1-3.. but then I've only been reading the entire series for just the last two years..