The Great Hunt 2011

[Sid]

tried:

 

traveling circus personnel

Valan Luca's traveling circus

Luca's traveling circus

people from Luca's circus

circus folk

[a_lily_in_winter]

tried:

 

traveling circus personnel

Valan Luca's traveling circus

Luca's traveling circus

people from Luca's circus

circus folk

 

I tried similar stuff before I found out they have been tried. I think that any list will be either of performers or acts. There are so many variants, though; this is especially true since it was mentioned that a lot of the titles were formatted strangely. There are just so many varieties such as "Circus, Valan Luca's: performers in" Unfortunately, I have to wait an hour.

[Terez]

This may be helpful. The code contains the word 'circus'.

INTERVIEW: Apr 8th, 2001

Elf Fantasy Fair - Aan'allein

QUESTION

[Question about reading, research, sources, influences.]

ROBERT JORDAN

It's hard really for a figure that I've been researching for the Wheel of Time. I see things, I notice things. I realize, "I can use this." An example I've used to you before, but it's a good one, is that [after leaving Tanchico, Nynaeve and Elayne needed] traveling companions. I wanted them to travel with some people, rather than by themselves. I wasn't too sure exactly what sort of group I was going to use. And I happened to go to the circus.

And the circus happened to have a lot of acts that... (were) from Asia. I don't know why they seemed to have such a disproportionate number of acts from Asia. They were much different than most European circus acts and American circus acts, which are very similar to European circus acts. And when I went to my desk the next morning, I realized I knew exactly how Elayne and Nynaeve were going to travel. With Valan Luca's show.

I have read for close on to fifty years, everything I could get my hands on. Various bits and pieces have been stuck in my head. And I use them. And sometimes...and if I see anything that's interesting, and a lot of things interest me, cultural anthropology, development of cities, how a windmill works, how does a waterwheel work? these things interest me, as much as how a modern day skyscraper is built, or how do you go about building a base on the moon?, or how do you go about building an industrial facility in an L5-point? Sometimes I do research and then... Well, I know nothing about blacksmithing really...[followed by that story you've heard before] No matter what you know, if you're an expert blacksmith, I want you to read right past that blacksmith scene, and believe it. And of course very few people will be expert blacksmiths, but that's fine. Because no matter what the scene is, I want you to believe it. No matter what your own knowledge is.

INTERVIEW: Sep, 2005

Radio Dead Air Interview

ROSS

What sort of influences do you find—not just in fiction and things like that—but, as you do your research, what sort of things influence what you write?

ROBERT JORDAN

All sorts of things. Quite fascinating, I read a book called Salt, which was an actual history of salt. Fascinating book; a subject that I would not have thought would have been fascinating, but it was interesting enough that I picked up the book and read it in a night and a half, and a salt town appeared in one of the books. It was interesting enough that I said, "I'm going to have this salt town, and this next town you come to is going to be that."

ROSS

Isn't that in book ten?

ROBERT JORDAN

Yes. Crossroads of Twilight includes a visit to a town where salt is produced. And other things pop in. I needed a way for some characters to get from one place to another sort of stealthily; I wanted them to be able to move without being noticed much. And I just happened to go to a thing called the Circus Flora, which was a recreation of a 19th Century American traveling circus, a small one-ring circus. And I was fascinated by it, and as a result of going to that show, Valan Luca's traveling show appeared, the original version, which was in effect a small-time circus. It became something much larger later as he earned money and built it up, but in the start, it was a small-time circus with a few acts and a few animals, and it was a way for these characters to be able to move from one place to another because nobody noticed them; they were looking at the show.

ROSS

I do like it when influences like that make their way in. And can you point to it and say, "Oh, maybe it's squeezed out of history," or something like that, or you see something similar in a favorite author, and it's like, "Oh, that's very cool to see that sort of thing brought in."

[Southpaw89]

wait are you sure circus is the word he was talking about? We know it's one of the words in the code but how is that related to magic?

[thepaperstones]

Here is my discussion with Brandon on twitter:

 

 

 

@BrandSanderson circus?

 

 

BrandSanderson Brandon Sanderson

@

@thepaperstones You are a very smart person. Now you need some more words to go with your guess. Input them on my site.

[Terez]

wait are you sure circus is the word he was talking about? We know it's one of the words in the code but how is that related to magic?

It's not related to magic. That was just an example of a word that doesn't actually appear in the series (like circus).

[Terez]

Doing a voice thing with Spencer of 4th Age.

 

http://t.co/bUczXYQP

[StefanR]

Update from Brandon's signing in Vancouver -

 

He said he'd given the two hints out so far, but gave me a hint about one - "One of the codes is about aes sedai.

 

if that helps at all?

[Songstress]

More failed guesses:

 

Luca's Circus

Luca's_Circus

"Valan Luca's Circus"

Circus, Valan Luca's

Circus Acts and Animals

[Terez]

Update from Brandon's signing in Vancouver -

 

He said he'd given the two hints out so far, but gave me a hint about one - "One of the codes is about aes sedai.

 

if that helps at all?

Yes!

 

Also...

 

Rachel Zmak

Saw @BrandSanderson today at the Vancouver book signing and gave me the hint that RJ wrote out books by BK10 (or w/e number)....

Rachel Zmak...instead of the full title of the books, and that some of the codes will contain this! :D

 

 

[garry1209]

more failed guesses..

 

circus acts

Circus Flora

American traveling circus

one-ring circus

small-time circus

[Chesus]

tried:

 

three ring circus

circus freak show

family circus

[Eht Slat Meit]

Some things to consider when running guesses...

 

In light of the references to Valan Luca's circus, it would appear that Cadsuane was at the Calling of the Hunt at the same time as Luca. She expressed an interest in taking the Oath, but was prohibited by the Council (book references on Enc-wot). This would also have been at the same time she was hunting Logain, and might have used Mat and Nynaeve's method of traveling incognito with the circus to infiltrate Logain's army and capture him. They'd have had to take the Silver Road between Lugard (Murandian capital) and Illian.

 

This would also explain the Wild Hunt clue and quite possibly the references to darkfriends in the Cadsuane document.

[Orderofolde]

Lots of minds are thinking the same.

 

Tried:

Cirque de Soliel

Cirque du Soliel

Cirque du Freak

 

Lots of names of the first American Circus people, H. Bailey, Barnum, one ring circus, no dice though. I only need 3-4 more code reveals before I can finish decoding the entire document. Most of what I've gotten is right on with what is on the google doc, I think I have a few more words as I've been working bottom to top here and there but am too tired to check again, will do it tomorrow after some sleep.

[Rose]

Tried:

Cirque de Soliel

Cirque du Soliel

In case you'd like to try more variations of this, the right spelling is actually "Cirque du Soleil" (ei, not ie).

[Terez]

Also, Brandon said the word is 'circus'. The circus that inspired RJ was called Circus Flora. This has already been tried.

[FarShainMael]

In the last paragraph: 'not even the Dark One himself'

[Tomp]

more failed

 

TRAVELLING CIRCUS

THE TRAVELLING CIRCUS

[kght22]

well regardless of anything else, so far i see dark one in the last section, and darkfriend's + darkfriends in the second to last section. thats all i've been able to read out of it so far.

[Terez]

Anyone here live near Minneapolis? Brandon just dropped a code at the Gate 15 bookstore (Simply Books) at MSP airport.

In the last paragraph: 'not even the Dark One himself'

We had that, but we're trying to figure out what comes after it.

 

 

 

[Songstress]

More failed codes:

 

The-Circus

The_Circus

Bonded Aes Sedai

Aes Sedai Bonded

Asha'man

[Random Man]

In the last paragraph: 'not even the Dark One himself'

 

FSM, if you're interested, check out the ongoing decoding project. Peter's said some of it's been hilariously wrong, but other parts are pretty good. There's pretty much always one of us there as an editor to look over anything that occurs to you.

[FarShainMael]

In the last paragraph: 'not even the Dark One himself'

 

FSM, if you're interested, check out the ongoing decoding project. Peter's said some of it's been hilariously wrong, but other parts are pretty good. There's pretty much always one of us there as an editor to look over anything that occurs to you.

 

I look at it regularly, but AIUI only selected people are allowed to actually edit it - which is perfectly reasonable. Also, I'm in the UK, so there's a considerable time delay between my making suggestions and things happening on that site. That said, I did check before I posted here, and the word 'himself' was not there at that time.

[Terez]

In the last paragraph: 'not even the Dark One himself'

 

FSM, if you're interested, check out the ongoing decoding project. Peter's said some of it's been hilariously wrong, but other parts are pretty good. There's pretty much always one of us there as an editor to look over anything that occurs to you.

 

I look at it regularly, but AIUI only selected people are allowed to actually edit it - which is perfectly reasonable. Also, I'm in the UK, so there's a considerable time delay between my making suggestions and things happening on that site. That said, I did check before I posted here, and the word 'himself' was not there at that time.

You can leave comments on it, though - we can take those into account when we're looking it over. Anyone can leave comments or join the chat (click on the number of users to join). If you send me your email I can give you explicit access so you don't show up as anonymous. And finally, there are people in there at all hours. Most of us on the other side of the pond are night people.

[FarShainMael]

For some odd reason the chat panel doesn't show up - must be something in my settings, it's a non-Microsoft system. I'll see how I get on, get back to you.