There is a .... in the Blight...

[Morden]

Anyone else think that this is a massive red herring?

 

 

I wouldnt be surprised if there was this Inn there that served the best trolloc meat pies in the world. who knows maybe people will taste one and think... Trollocs could be the knew delicacy throughout Randland. Bit of tit for tat as they've eaten humans for millennia.

 

Okay all jokes aside, To my knowledge everyone seems to think its a City, a portal stone, an Aiel clan. But what if it isnt really anything that we could make a guess about as we've not been given the right sort of clues?

[thisguy]

Everybody seems to think what is a city, portal stone or Aiel clan?

[snooze1128]

I really wanna see one of those Worms kick some tail. I don't think I'd mind too much if one just leaped out of the Earth and swallowed Elayne whole :P

[JakeBarnes]

That could happen. She could live inside it like jabu jabu and her babies would still be born healthy.

[Vardar]

It would pretty much have to be city. I mean, it's the only thing that no one would expect not to be in the blight. We know there are waygates there,and stedding, and should have portal stones (Since they are pre AOL and were scattered around the world). What else could be in the blight, which is just a part of their world so in theory has all the normal things uninhabited land would have, that no one would expect? A human city. Especially considering it would have to be completely isolated and protected somehow (By the DO himself I'd assume), because no warder has ever seen it? Or seen it and lived to tell of it.

[FarShainMael]

I'm wondering if it's another portal to 'finnland. Mat saw three spires (TSR15) in Aelfinnland, and in ToM they find themselves in one of those spires after apparently leaving the Tower, a spire that seems to be in Eelfinnland. So if there's one portal per spire, where is the third?

 

And who are those red-veiled 'aiel'?

[Vardar]

I'm wondering if it's another portal to 'finnland. Mat saw three spires (TSR15) in Aelfinnland, and in ToM they find themselves in one of those spires after apparently leaving the Tower, a spire that seems to be in Eelfinnland. So if there's one portal per spire, where is the third?

 

And who are those red-veiled 'aiel'?

 

Why is there just one spire on the RL though. And

 

good point, that's pretty valid. But I think their story is finished.

[XoMeltdownoX]

I think it's the nightclub The Bore. Featuring resident dj, Ishy-Ice spinning his greatest hits, Last Chance, Lord of Night and Red on Black. Thursday is ladies night and has the dance troop Demmy and Disco Devas. The cover charge is pretty steep if you value your soul, but Narg the bouncer isn't too bright, so there is always the chance of slipping in with a fake ID.

[shortkut]

if there was another doorway, why would ishy need to use the one in tear and break it?

[slatanic1]

Everybody seems to think what is a city, portal stone or Aiel clan?

This explains it pretty well.

[FarShainMael]

@Vardamus: What's 'RL'?

 

@Xo Meltdown oX:

 

@shortkut: To prevent anyone else from getting in. The Blight's a good barrier in itself.

[Vardar]

@Vardamus: What's 'RL'?

 

@Xo Meltdown oX:

 

@shortkut: To prevent anyone else from getting in. The Blight's a good barrier in itself.

 

Randland. Non-Blight. Sorry that wasn't clear.

[Tiberius]

I think it's a good possibility it's a Clan in the Blight. Sanderson said it would be something hinted at in ToM. The "Red Veils" are a good indication this might be correct. They would know how to survive there, if anyone human could. Only other likely thing is a Fortress, IMO. That's been shown also. It has to be a plot-crucial thing. Those two make the most sense and would be important to the story line.

[thisguy]

I wish I were up to the last book to look for hints. I don't remember any talk of giants. The Aiel are a decent guess, you have all of those young men who are too "wild" and go up there to die in the blight. Aside from them, I don't know what else there could be that would be alive. Also, everything else seems sort of mundane: a fortress - whatever, portal stones - probably, whatever.... you'd think it would be something exciting. I read something.... can't remember what now - in book 4 or 5 that seemed like foreshadowing of Perrin going into space.... hahaha... maybe it's a rocket shit or space craft - he could be Air Wolf.

[Zorlon]

I think it is a nation.

 

This would also explain how so many trollocs are kept fed.

 

As for the red veiled people at the end of ToM, veils alone do not make one Aiel, and once they were seen up close they didn't look anything like Aiel.

 

I think they're just blighlanders who wear veils for utility.

 

Further, at at one point RJ said there might be a trip to the Island of Madmen, but the things he was considering doing there could just as easily be done elsewhere. I'm guessing he was talking about the Darkside's surprise nation of Darkfriends.

[Tiberius]

Well, doesn't Moridin at one point look out a tower window into the blight, with farmland and what not? Was that in the book or did I read it here? Sometimes it gets blurry in my mind :-/

[Suttree]

Well, doesn't Moridin at one point look out a tower window into the blight, with farmland and what not? Was that in the book or did I read it here? Sometimes it gets blurry in my mind :-/

 

Yes there are blight resistant crops and that transplanted village Perrin comes across could be a hint as well.

 

In terms of how trollocs are fed...

 

Interview: Jan 6th, 2004

 

USA Today Interview (Verbatim)

Holland

 

What do Trollocs eat and how do they get enough food in the Blight to sustain all those Trollocs?

Robert Jordan

 

Trollocs eat almost anything, including other Trollocs. They are omnivores with a tendency toward being carnivores.

[Zorlon]

Well, doesn't Moridin at one point look out a tower window into the blight, with farmland and what not? Was that in the book or did I read it here? Sometimes it gets blurry in my mind :-/

 

Yes there are blight resistant crops and that transplanted village Perrin comes across could be a hint as well.

 

In terms of how trollocs are fed...

 

Interview: Jan 6th, 2004

 

USA Today Interview (Verbatim)

Holland

 

What do Trollocs eat and how do they get enough food in the Blight to sustain all those Trollocs?

Robert Jordan

 

Trollocs eat almost anything, including other Trollocs. They are omnivores with a tendency toward being carnivores.

People are also omnivores, you cannot support a large number of people without organized agriculture. Even if everyone was willing to eat bugs and poop

 

And certainly not by cannibalism.

 

And Trollocs are a lot larger than people/

 

Without a food source they'd have picked the Blight clean in short order.

 

Either RJ didn't give a hoot for logistics, or they have an organized source of food.

[Suttree]

Well, doesn't Moridin at one point look out a tower window into the blight, with farmland and what not? Was that in the book or did I read it here? Sometimes it gets blurry in my mind :-/

 

Yes there are blight resistant crops and that transplanted village Perrin comes across could be a hint as well.

 

In terms of how trollocs are fed...

 

Interview: Jan 6th, 2004

 

USA Today Interview (Verbatim)

Holland

 

What do Trollocs eat and how do they get enough food in the Blight to sustain all those Trollocs?

Robert Jordan

 

Trollocs eat almost anything, including other Trollocs. They are omnivores with a tendency toward being carnivores.

People are also omnivores, you cannot support a large number of people without organized agriculture. Even if everyone was willing to eat bugs and poop

 

And certainly not by cannibalism.

 

And Trollocs are a lot larger than people/

 

Without a food source they'd have picked the Blight clean in short order.

 

Either RJ didn't give a hoot for logistics, or they have an organized source of food.

 

Hence the blight resistant crops we see being farmed...

[Zorlon]

Hence the blight resistant crops we see being farmed...

Well yes, I agree with this. I imagine that was part of the Blightland nation.

 

But from the Jordan quote you posted I had the impression you were arguing the Trollocs just lived off the land and they don't need to gt their food from anywhere. Sorry for the confusion.

[Tiberius]

So then the blank in the blight could very well be a structure of some sort. Castlevania+FarmVille somewhere near SG/pit o' doom. Why wouldn't the cavern be protected by a fortress?

[Barid Bel Medar]

So then the blank in the blight could very well be a structure of some sort. Castlevania+FarmVille somewhere near SG/pit o' doom. Why wouldn't the cavern be protected by a fortress?

 

what kind of madman would be willing to live at Shayol Ghul?

 

Besides, the DO doesn't trust people, not even the Forsaken would be allowed to spend any unnecessary time at Shayol Ghul.

 

Also re: Blight and Trollocs, even with a nation or what not, there are still far too many Trollocs to be sustained in the Blight. Brandon has said that they are getting their food from another source.

 

INTERVIEW: Dec 5th, 2009

TGS Signing Report - kavorka (Paraphrased)

 

QUESTION

Trollocs. Question was how many Trollocs did the Dark One have access to?

 

BRANDON SANDERSON

He stated definitively that there are lots and lots of Trollocs. The Dark One has access to either "orders of magnitudes more" or "an order of magnitude" more Trollocs that can be supported in the Blights (I can't remember whether there was an "s" there. Sorry). He wouldn't comment on how or where, but was very clear that there was going to be a big, big Trolloc army.

[Tiberius]

What kind of madman? The Moridin kind, of course. I'm not saying there's a whole agri-system designed to support all of trollockdom, they obviously ravage and pillage in the borderlands. But that doesn't preclude a self sustaining fortress. A fortress filled with madmen wearing red veils. A fortress that ties into the plot by obstructing the armies of light from just waltzing, traveling I mean, to a convienient point near the pit. Maybe there's even a Bridge of Death with an old man asking questions like "what's your favorite colour" before you get to on in...

 

Edit grammar

[Barid Bel Medar]

Moridin's fortress is in the North-eastern Blight.

 

There could indeed be some kind of fortifications in the Blight (in fact it is likely), but not in close proximity to Shayol Ghul itself. Depends what you would call close proximity though, I suppose. I could see a fortress or something in the High Passes, but not actually on the mountain itself.

 

Edit: I am not against a city or something in the Blight, I agree it is most likely, just replying to the "why isn't there a defence at Shayol Ghul".

[Morden]

 

Edit: I am not against a city or something in the Blight, I agree it is most likely, just replying to the "why isn't there a defence at Shayol Ghul".

 

Why would he need defence? he can touch the pattern there, so pretty much do and control what he likes. If he can alter the fabric of the landscape like he does to show the forsaken their place, cut them off from the source and such...

 

Then theres the fact that the very landscape is hazardous such as the thakandar river which is toxic just by touching it..