Traveling into the Ways

[ferver]

Can a person open a gateway directly into the Ways?

 

I know there will be unresolved plot elements after AMoL, but leaving Machin Shin "alive" after the last battle seems wrong. How can "myth fade into legend" if there is something left in the world to remind us of the taint that had once been on Saidin?

 

Could Rand open a gateway into the Ways as a trap for Fain? Would they cancel each other out?

[MasterAblar]

Can a person open a gateway directly into the Ways?

 

I know there will be unresolved plot elements after AMoL, but leaving Machin Shin "alive" after the last battle seems wrong. How can "myth fade into legend" if there is something left in the world to remind us of the taint that had once been on Saidin?

 

Could Rand open a gateway into the Ways as a trap for Fain? Would they cancel each other out?

 

I don't know if you can open a gateway into the ways, but Fain has already met Machin Shin in tEoTW anyway. They're appear to be friends now.

[LeeM.Erickson]

If I had to put my money on it, I'd say you can't open a gateway into the Ways. My reasoning would be that the Ways are somewhat outside of time, or at least not wholly in the same dimension as the rest of the WoT world. Along the same lines, I'd also probably wager it's impossible to open a gateway to a mirror world, or the world of the Finns.

[DrunkenWarder]

I think you can't open a gateway in the Ways, because you can't see the environment in the Ways. And once you're outside the Ways you can't remember details of it and thus can't open a gateway.

[LemonPastie]

I would imagine it is possible to create a gateway of some sort into the ways. After all the waygates are exactly that. These gates are created with the Talisman of Growing which in turn use the OP to create the gateway.

 

If there is no way to create a gateway into the ways - how are there some in the real world?

[Alric]

I would guess that you could too. The Ways were bright once, and you could have learned a spot well enough to Travel then. If Traveling there works like that. But since the Waygates exist we know that you somehow can get there through a portal with the help of the OP. Since the Ways are not in this world, it might require different weaves. Also, I think the feeling of going through a Waygate is described as something distinct, while passing through a portal just doesn't feel special at all. So there seems to be a difference.

[DrunkenWarder]

Maybe the weaves for a gateway in the Ways would be twisted or corrupted or just couldn't work? I doubt it could work as in the outside world.

[rand4747]

if there is a way to do it then it should be possible for a channeler to do it themself, they should be able to replicate portal stones or waygates. It might require immense amounts of the power though or extreme difficulty but it could be done.

[csnyder]

Perhaps entrance via Portal Stone would be possible (although unlikely to correspond location-wise with the paths on the Ways as they were made post-Breaking), but Traveling there seems rather impossible as Traveling (as far as can be told) is only possible with the entry/exit-destination in the same dimension. Skimming does have that dark, other-wordly nature that the Ways appear to share (albeit they were bright as day at the time of their creation); however, (as we have not read anything from the Forsaken stating 'the darkened Skimming-dimension' or the like) it seems that the Ways are separate manmade constructs completely - I'd venture to say characteristically different in a separate dimensional sense as TAR is (if that makes sense).

That being said, I feel rand4747 is on the right track with the relationship between Portal Stones and Waygates - the Waygates being imperfect maybe due to the fact that saidin was tainted or perhaps the ter'angreal involved was created solely by one half of the True Source. I think that with the first dually created weapon of power (Mah'alleinir), we are going to see more of this lopsidedness (remember the Bowl of Winds syphoning saidin from an unknown source).

[LeeM.Erickson]

Maybe the weaves for a gateway in the Ways would be twisted or corrupted or just couldn't work? I doubt it could work as in the outside world.

 

That's a good point. Remember Moiraine in book one said that channeling inside the Ways was different than outside. Her Fire weaves had some weird properties when they were escaping from the Black Wind. I can't recall...is this because of the corruption inside the Ways or is it perhaps that the space inside the Ways has different properties than the outside world?