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

[bobarose]

boil eggs without water.bacon scented trollocs so you wont get warnings when they attack.mmmmmm bacon;).........

[jsbrads]

I don't think Nym is a construct, I don't know what he is, but I don't think that.

I always encouraged openess about flight, but most people responded that if the characters say it can't be done, then it can't be done (rediculous attitude, but there it is)

Of course now I'm gonna tell you it is impossible for a weave or a terangreal to give channeling to a person who never had the ability (I won't include anyone who has been severed or burnt out, which I always thought was the same thing, but I digress). Ultimately it boils down to some core parts of what it takes to channel: Gaining access to the Saidin and/or Saidar, seeing the weaves so you can manipulate them and being able to push against them with your mind. A terangreal may give you the first, but beyond that...

Detecting the Shadow, I'm gonna say no can do, it seems to be one of Rand's Mystical Powers, not a channeling physics effect.

[Datakim]

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.

 

This is a thread about ways that would be cool to see the OP used, which aren't used very much or at all. The fact that "most channelers don't know how to hide their weaves" isn't a reason to say that (the suggestion for them to do so) is a dumb one.

 

In hindsight I think I might have misunderstood this idea. I thought the idea was that a female channeler would avoid the Seanchan by disguising themselves as the opposite sex (male), which obviously would not work since any Seanchan outpost would see the weaves due to the rarity of ability to hide them. I mean any important Seanchan checkpoint would surely have a sul'dam/damane pair in it. However I think the original post might have meant for males (such as Asha'man) to masquerade as females instead and avoid Seanchan detection and enter the anti-male White Tower that way for instance. Sul'dam/Aes Sedai obviously cannot sense or see male channelers directly.

 

Ofcourse I don't really see it being usefull this way either. The seanchan won't stop males, so a a different set of clothes would work just as well for an Asha'man. And the White Tower has ways to find male channelers in disguise these days, even if they cannot directly sense their channeling. There are ter'angreal, ways to check if a male channeled (thats how they found the killings by "Halima") and the new discovery which can actually detect male weaves themselves. It would not surprise me if the White Tower already has a couple of Aes Sedai with that weave running all the time, checking everyone that walks in.

 

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.

 

You're saying channelers don't know cannons exist yet- but you're forgetting that Elayne, who is commissioning these things to be built, and controls them in her army, is a channeler, a Queen, and an Aes Sedai. She is having them made, but you say that channelers don't need them. Why is she doing so then? perhaps because they're needed?

 

Err, I think the point is that cannons give the ability for NON-channelers to deal destruction, leaving channelers to deal destruction elsewhere or spend their strength making gateways to move armies around. But in order to hide the sound of cannons with OP, you obviously need channelers around. And if you have them, the cannons become less important.

 

Unless its possible for a channeler to place a permanent and non-decaying ward on a cannon when its made, and have that ward last even when the channeler is no longer around. That would work I guess.

 

Here's my list of possible uses of the OP, or cool things to be done that haven't been done much- or at all- yet.

1. A way to undo the 13x13 conversion to the dark side- or go even farther and turn any darkfriend to the light. but not using Myrddraall...

 

I would not be surprised if Nynave does that. Or maybe Rands new mystical anti-dark powers can "exorcise" the Myrddraal out of em. As for forcibly turning people to light, I doubt thats possible. You could obviously already fake it with compulsion, but most good people obviously believe that this is evil. Free will seems to be a thing the light cares and believes is important, and thats one of the many things which separate them from the shadow that happily uses compulsion and forced conversion like this.

 

2. Flying with the OP. I would think they'd use weaves of Air

 

Impossible. Its been established that there are inherent rules in the OP physics that make it impossible to raise yourself to the air. You can build bridges of air to a point (and according to Rand, women of even weaker strength can make longer bridges due to some property of Saidar), but at some point when you go too far, you fall to the ground. True flight is apparently against how OP works and no amount of skill can get by that.

 

3. Healing Rand's wound, Healing could be a way for my first point to work... Healing Death would be cool- Nyn has done almost everything else formerly thought impossible

 

I think maybe a cross-gendered link of say Nynave and Flinn would have a decent chance of healing Rands wound. It was made with True Power which is a corruptive and destructive power that does not need the cooperative aspect of both sexes working together. I think for OP to match TP in this, both saidn and saidar would have to be used. I wonder why Nynaeve never tried this. Especially after it became clear that to clear the Dark Ones taint from Saidin required both sides, and the wound on Rand (one of them anyway) is a taint of evil from Ishy/DO.

 

4. Gateways used in naval warfare- large ones ships could take through... for that matter, I'd like to see some large-scale naval warfare period.

 

You need very large circles to create gateways large enough for a big ship to pass through. The two people that use ships to any large extent are the Seanchan and the Sea Folk. Seanchan cannot form links at all, since the a'dam prevents it so this is impossible to them. The Sea Folk might do this though, but it would pretty much render ships pointless as transports (why not just open a gateway straight to the destination and send wagons/men through with the goods), and if they had a circle of 13 available, they could presumably just use it to blow up the Seanchan ship instantly, rather than having to rely on any real naval warfare.

 

5. Elayne figuring out how to make Angreal and Sa'angreal. Those would be handy.

 

Yeah. It would also totally ruin the books by making every single channeler a god and make ordinary armies totally obsolete and in the process make all the efforts on cannons and armies by Mat, Perrin and Rand totally meaningless. There is a good reason why power enhancers are so rare. In-world explanation is probably that they are extraordinarily difficult to make. If not, there would be more lying around everywhere from AoL.

 

6. A Ter'angreal that detects darkfriends and/or Forsaken and/or channelers converted to the shadow and/or animals used to spy for the shadow, etc. etc.

 

This would totally ruin the impact of Rands new mystic darkfriend detection power.

 

7. I'd like to see people study an area in the world of dreams, and use that to assist in Travelling while they're awake.

 

Few people skim these days, and that is the technique which requires knowing your destination I believe. Travelling requires you to know your point of origin, and if you can go there, you don't really need to study it in dreams. Rand also showed an easier trick of traveling from an unknown area in the latest book.

 

8. (A) Ter'angreal(s) that are designed to throw predestined weaves. Such as one that throws a shield (for non-channelers vs. channelers) or other destructive weaves (like the Balefire rod but different)

 

I believe these kinds of ter'angrael were actually in use in the AoL. And presumably not just for combat but for everything (OP hairdryers, OP microwaves and so on). However in order to be used by non-channelers, an OP network called "standing flows" was used to power them, so that non-channelers could use them without the help of channelers. With the Standing Flows destroyed, most ter'angreal require channeling to activate. Presumably making ter'angreal that draw OP on their own is very difficult (or the AoLers would never have made their version of electricity network with OP to power all the devices to begin with), so it would presumably be very difficult and time-consuming to create a shielding ter'angrael that worked without the SF.

 

9. A weave of the OP which gives the ability to channel to someone who originally never had the spark and couldn't be taught. like creating the ability in them with the OP

 

Impossible. It would make a joke of the entire system/world.

 

10. I'd like to see Constructs be made, like the Nym.

 

I think this is probably extremely difficult thing to do, and likely requires more than just channeling, such as advanced biology research labs and the like. Aginor made the trollocs and all shadowspawn back in AoL, but it was never even suggested that he could do anything like that in the current era, where all techology had been lost.

[Barid Bel Medar]

There are heaps of stuff the AoL Aes Sedai knew how to do. They did do some terraforming, and controlled the weather and lots of other crazy stuff (the Sharom for example). I think it is more to do with the views of the Aes Sedai in the present age rather than the "lack" of creativity. I don't think it is so much them being stupid, but them being over-cautious. All of the theoretical possibilities of channeling is all well and good typing it up on a computer, however, if we remember how dangerous the Power is to hold, with the risk of burning out and a whole list of other nasty effects, I can see why the channelers were hesitant.

 

For example, the whole thing about opening gateways into space and the sun etc... I mean, really, if you were the one who had to try and come up with a way to do that, would anyone actually risk their lives and try it? We are talking about the Power, just drawing from the Source is dangerous enough, as all novices at the White Tower know well.

 

Experimenting with the power is not simply saying "oh, lets try this." Remember, it isn't telepathic magic which translates your thoughts into action. Conjuring a fireball isn't simply thinking "throw fireball!" You have to weave the correct pattern and use the correct elements in unison.

 

Look at how complex it is to unravel a gateway, I am assuming it is just as complex to weave one in the first place, and before they knew and taught others the method, it had been sheer luck and instinct which lead to the re-discovery.

 

Actually trying to create a weave from scratch would certainly be very very dangerous and complex.

 

Having said that, it is true that the simpler innovative uses are neglected, like postal service or utilization of gateways (within reason). Again though, they don't exactly have much time to think up these things, which can already be achieved through normal means. I think alot of it is that attitude should be used with extreme caution and for higher purposes, not domestic and trivial things.