What uses for the power can you think of, that aren't being explored in the books so far?

[Durinax]

You could make the plate armor arbitrarily thin, like foil thin. In fact, it doesn't even need to be plate at all. You could weave the shape of a breastplate or helmet with a thin iron wire and mold it around a form, then flash the whole thing into one piece of cuendillar and tie it on like a normal plate or stuff it with padding like a normal helmet. It doesn't need to deform to absorb force because all the force put into hitting it just makes it stronger, not being transmitted to the soldier wearing it. And even if it is incapable of deformation to absorb some of the force of a blow, it's also incapable of shattering, breaking or bending in any way, like a sheet of metal could.

even if you do the foil thin thing and put a good amount of padding under it, it wouldnt even matter that much if the force got transmitted through the material, it would be spread out thin and disippated through to body

[LazyMonk]

There was a thread about this a while back... most channelers in WOT are appaligly unimaginative.

here's a short list:

• Illusion disguises of the oppsite sex = Stroll right though Seanchan chackpoints without fear, or get a job as a cleaner in the WT novice quarters bathrooms.
  
• Eavesdropping wards around your feet = Sneak in full armor.
  
• Eavesdropping wards around a cannon = Silenced artilery
  
• Eavesdropping ward around person's head = No one can hear you scream (MWHAHAHA!!).
  
• High altitude Waygates = Who needs raken?
  
• Low altitude Waygates = Scout a safe location to open your Waygate on site instead of a safe walking distance (I always thought it was idiotic that Elayne's party Traveled to a location so far from Caemlyn when fleeing Ebou-dar, there was no reasonable excuse for that).
  
• Invisible horizontal Waygate = The perfect trap in the road.
  
• Medium height observation Waygate = There was no need for Elayne to be ON the city wall to observe the battle. Nor was there need to carry her in a bed to the display of the Dragons.
  
• Tiny Waygates = Eavesdropping from the other side of the world.
  
• Skimming gate = Ultimate garbage disposal.
  
• Battle barriers = There was a very impressive barrier displayed in Dumai's wells, why isn't it used again? Rand didn't need to loose his hand.
  

[Blackhoof]

• Battle barriers = There was a very impressive barrier displayed in Dumai's wells, why isn't it used again? Rand didn't need to loose his hand.
  

 

using the power as a shield is hardly new or innovative, and Rand didnt have the time to raise a shield, what with the complete shock of seeing semirhage shooting a fireball at him and all

[Tyzack]

Most channelers in WOT are appaligly unimaginative.

 

Yes, that, basically. The thread on "Aes Sedai, a study in stupidity" is enlightening.

[LazyMonk]

Battle barriers = There was a very impressive barrier displayed in Dumai's wells, why isn't it used again? Rand didn't need to loose his hand.

Rand didnt have the time to raise a shield, what with the complete shock of seeing semirhage shooting a fireball at him and all.

That's a very weak excuse.

The possiblity of a double-cross in the meeting was very high in the first place, everyone else were against such a dangerous move. if you go ahead into a possible ambush, at the very least you should go prepared. meaning, have the shield in place beforehand or have another channeler with the single task of shielding you.

[Blackhoof]

fair enough, but Rand WAS being insufferably arrogant at the time, and likely believed that he would be able to raise a shield in time.

[Smittyphi]

Forest battles. Send in some AS early. Make some medium sized waygates parallel to the attacking army. Once the army is in the middle, have the AS start to pick them apart and then let them go. Boom!

 

Horizontal Waygates - neck high of your enemy. Hehe.

[Nightstrike]

Once the army is in the middle, have the AS start to pick them apart and then let them go. Boom!

Someone said that wasn't guaranteed to work the same way. It falls into something unpredictable. They got slippery threads, they could burn themselves out, burn other people out, or even kill people. Elayne got lucky. It could have resulted in something other than an explosion as well.

[Smittyphi]

Once the army is in the middle, have the AS start to pick them apart and then let them go. Boom!

Someone said that wasn't guaranteed to work the same way. It falls into something unpredictable. They got slippery threads, they could burn themselves out, burn other people out, or even kill people. Elayne got lucky. It could have resulted in something other than an explosion as well.

And Aes Sedai are always right. The Aiel Wise Ones teach their channelers how to pick apart weaves and Aviendha never reported a casualty or burn out. It doesn't need to be average person height sized. Just a smaller one that isn't as much of a danger as a larger one.

[Nightstrike]

From Encyclopaedia Wot:

Her horse, Lioness, is dead. Birgitte's own horse is gone, running fit to win the Wreath of Megairil.⁴ Neither Elayne nor Aviendha can Heal well. Elayne thinks they have new weapon but Aviendha says anything can happen, explosion, light, or nothing. Elayne and Aviendha agree to become first-sisters.

So it was Aviendha who said anything could have happened. Elayne got so impressed that she said they got become first-sisters right away (knowing that Aviendha chose to stay with her). I think Aviendha is probably lots more skilled with Unweaving. Gateways are probably very difficult to take apart.

[Smittyphi]

From Encyclopaedia Wot:

Her horse, Lioness, is dead. Birgitte's own horse is gone, running fit to win the Wreath of Megairil.⁴ Neither Elayne nor Aviendha can Heal well. Elayne thinks they have new weapon but Aviendha says anything can happen, explosion, light, or nothing. Elayne and Aviendha agree to become first-sisters.

So it was Aviendha who said anything could have happened. Elayne got so impressed that she said they got become first-sisters right away (knowing that Aviendha chose to stay with her). I think Aviendha is probably lots more skilled with Unweaving. Gateways are probably very difficult to take apart.

 

Yes, but didn't Aviendha start unweaving with relatively small weaves? Those cause non-life threatning side effects. Conjecture here but medium sized ones may not cause a severe backlash onto the channeler. Plus it seems like whatever happens originates at the sight of the weave. As long as they are far enough away, it might not be a problem.

 

I'm not saying to take apart a Gateway, start it and let go. Elayne couldn't hold onto the threads to unravel them so I'm just thinking along the same lines.

[michellem]

cuendillar can't bend

 

Neither does steal, yet knights wore platemail...

 

I've always wondered why channelers don't just maintain a constant shield of solid air in any combat situation, given the description of how powerful most of them are it shouldn't be a problem, and then they could just sit back and blast away at any non-channeling enemies with impunity.

 

I think a shield like that keeps in as well as keeps out.

 

 

I did like the idea of the mailboxes though.

 

Again, no more than steel. You don't take platemail off by bending it, it's tied up with straps and knots.

 

And there's always chainmail.

 

 

Not sure why you are talking about steel? I was answering to the Air-shields-part.

[Plato]

Add small 1mm x 1mm barriers of air to the edges of gateways so that the edges are not so dangerous.

 

Aes Sedai charging fees and allowing regular merchants the right to use gateways between cities. Hello Economic explosion!

 

Using air and water to create miscroscope-type viewing for medical use.

 

Using Cuandillar (sp?) to reinforce stone work.

 

Terraforming the waste...

 

EDIT: Terraforming the waste: such as creating a weave to filter salt and other crap from salt water. Have a weave to trasport that salt through a gateway into a storage units within cities. Then onto those weaves, open a gateway into the ocean and let the pure water flow! Once enough pure water has entered the soil, moisture will enter the air, creating cloud and rain cycles and a whole weather pattern within the waste.

 

Also any sort of manual labor is 100x more efficiant with the power...

[Alric]

Considering the gateway ideas, can you even open one up in the air? You have to memorize the ground, don't you?

[kght22]

Considering the gateway ideas, can you even open one up in the air? You have to memorize the ground, don't you?

well you can open a gateway above the ground if that is what you are talking about, that is how logain boards the seanchan ship without damaging it.

[Thrasymachus]

Nobody can lift things off the ground much more than a few paces with the One Power, so I'd reckon the same limitations apply to gateways. Some limitation has to apply to gateways, or it's gonna get real silly real fast. They're already the most effective wartime weapon ever devised, and there's only one dreamspike left to limit their use.

[Soraz]

Some very good ideas here. I especially like the stealth army. With the new talents thats been discovered, they could make a few thousand ter'angreal boots in short order.

 

As to channeling to the sun, maybe thats what brought the breaking on in the first place.

 

Also, how about using air to simply lock your enemys weapon in its scabbard. Only works in one-on-one I guess, but still. The slighest weave of air could effectively make it impossible for your enemy to draw his sword.

 

Since we know shadowspawn are not fond of light, why not open a gateway to the side of the earth where the sun is at mid day, and let it shine blindingly into the ranks of the enemy? You'd always have the sun at your back, and the enemy always looking straight into it.

[mandersen]

You could make a time bomb of sorts by tying off a weave of fire and air. By burning up all the oxygen inside a bubble of air, once the weave dissipates (assuming you're one who can tie off weaves in a way that they dissolve after a specific amount of time) air rushes in to fill the void of burned up oxygen. even though there's no fire inside because there was no oxygen, the tied off fire weave has continued making heat, so the incoming air ignites and explodes. Like Backdraft.

[Datakim]

fair enough, but Rand WAS being insufferably arrogant at the time, and likely believed that he would be able to raise a shield in time.

 

Err, no. You might want to reread that entire section.

 

Rand was afraid to even embrace saidin at the time, since the last time he did so LTT took over and nearly killed them both (and Min and everyone else) by creating another Dragonmount. We saw the same effect several times prior, when he did not create a shield against rain after the trolloc attack, and when he asked Logain to get rid of the flies rather than doing it himself. LTT could only take hold of saidin if Rand first gave him the chance, so Rand avoided taking the risk. That is why he went into the meeting without already holding the power. Once he recognized Semirhage, he did try to embrace Saidin to protect himself and fight her, but it says that LTT was also trying to draw on the power, and this prevented either from accessing the power or weaving anything at all (it says each "jostled" the other aside from reaching Saidin). If Rand had been already holding the power, or even if LTT had not blocked him from it for the critical moment, Rand could certainly have easily defended himself from Semirhages very basic attack.

 

Infact, given Moridins orders that Rand was not to be harmed, we can pretty much assume that Semirhage expected Rand to do just that. If she had been serious, she would have used balefire or something else major, rather than a basic fireball. She probably just hoped to create a chance for escape rather than to actually hurt Rand. She would not have had any way of knowing that LTTs unique presence would prevent Rand from doing anything to defend himself, and as a woman without detection ter'angreal, she would have had no way of knowing that Rand was not already bursting with saidin. If she had, she probably would not have attacked him at all in order to avoid angering Moridin who was Nae'blis at the time. And infact Moridin IS pissed with her in the next book for Rands injury, which is likely one of the reasons why she is so easily sacrificed.

[Datakim]

There was a thread about this a while back... most channelers in WOT are appaligly unimaginative.

here's a short list:

 

Illusion disguises of the oppsite sex = Stroll right though Seanchan chackpoints without fear, or get a job as a cleaner in the WT novice quarters bathrooms.

 

This would not really work, since most channelers don't know how to hide their weaves, so they would be visible to opposing channelers. And once the knowledge becomes common, so will countermeasures such as an attempt to shield/disrupt everyone passing by. Illusions are used a couple of times in the series such as when Rand goes to meet Nynaeve. He disguises himself as an incredibly ugly man for some reason.

 

Eavesdropping wards around your feet = Sneak in full armor.

 

Channelers don't generally need armor, and if they do they can create defenses far superiour to armor (Rand could create a barrier around himself capable of keeping out anything except balefire)

 

Eavesdropping wards around a cannon = Silenced artilery

 

True, though channelers don't even know cannons exist yet. And if you have channelers, you don't actually need artillerary since a skilled channeler could do far more damage.

 

Eavesdropping ward around person's head = No one can hear you scream (MWHAHAHA!!).

 

A gag of air is far easier and has been used repeatedly so we know it works well. I think Semirhage might actually have used a silencing ward on the Aes Sedai she tortured though so this actually might have been used. :)

 

High altitude Waygates = Who needs raken?

 

Gateways are grossly underused in the series. It would be nice to see Rand use gateways in more clever ways in the final book now that he has all of LTT's knowledge.

 

Low altitude Waygates = Scout a safe location to open your Waygate on site instead of a safe walking distance (I always thought it was idiotic that Elayne's party Traveled to a location so far from Caemlyn when fleeing Ebou-dar, there was no reasonable excuse for that).

 

Yep. Though there may be some way of doing this without. Rand easily opened gateways into Mat's tent at one point and I presume he would not have risked cutting Mat in two by accident. There is also a scene where one of the forsaken somehow transmits a sound to another location prior to opening a gateway (a permission request) and it is mentioned that this used to be common courtesy in AoL. It is probably possible somehow to "sense" if your target gateway is going to kill anyone (and transmit the sound asking if its ok to open the gateway), before you actually open it fully. Elayne just lacked the knowledge and the skill.

 

Invisible horizontal Waygate = The perfect trap in the road.

 

A simple weave of air will do this more easily. We saw Asmodean actually use air this way in Rhuidean and nearly kill Rand.

 

Medium height observation Waygate = There was no need for Elayne to be ON the city wall to observe the battle. Nor was there need to carry her in a bed to the display of the Dragons.

 

Yep. Gateways could do a lot of cool stuff.

 

Tiny Waygates = Eavesdropping from the other side of the world.

 

Yep.

 

Skimming gate = Ultimate garbage disposal.

 

Yep, though with OP you could probably find easier ways such as just incinerating garbage with extreme heat. Since the skimming world is poorly understood, its probably wiser to avoid dumping huge quantities of stuff in there. Who knows what might happen if you start throwing matter into what is basically another strange reality. :)

 

Battle barriers = There was a very impressive barrier displayed in Dumai's wells, why isn't it used again? Rand didn't need to loose his hand.

 

They are used occasionally. Rand uses a superiour one when he is attacked by "Dashiva" (cannot remember which 'gar that was again). Like I said in another post, Rand lost his hand because he was afraid to even touch the power at all, thanks to LTT. Often its more effective though to just cut the weaves of the enemy attacker and disrupt their attack. The asha'man used a barrier since they were being attacked by multiple opponents from multiple directions at once, and I seem to recall it took many of them to create the barrier, with each forming just one section.

[Dagon Thyne]

When I used to play the WOT RPG, I had an idea for a weave that allows someone to absorb a person's ability and strength with the power.

[Durinax]

OP powered recycling facilities

[Niel an' Tyomn]

Ok that's a good point about chainmail, but yeah as you said, plate should still be doable.

 

is it possible to get chain mail and do what Egwene did and just turn it to cuendillar????

[master]

why not normal shields out of cuendillar. or if there is a problem with cusioning blows with armour every once in a while channelers could tie off weaves of air around the the armour,

 

personally, I think channeler battle tactics are very simple. cause as much destruction a possible. thats it. why not use gateways for hit and run attacks. or inverted illusiions to feint at the enemy. or if there is time to prepare turn the ground to mud. [it wasnt just longbows that won at agincourt].

[csnyder]

Could someone potentially weave a Traveling-shield so that everything that came at them was deflected?

BTW, would balefire be able to pierce an open gateway?