Setalle Anan's role in AMoL

[Master of the Blades]

There has been much speculation about Setalle Anan and her role. Some have suggested she could act as a go between between the Seanchan and Aes Sedai because of the respect Tuon has for her. Others have suggested that she will reunite with Cadsuane and become part of her coterie.

 

KOD has revealed much about Setalle Anan. We now know that she was an Aes Sedai which strengthens the hypothesis she is Martine Janata who was burned out while investigating ter'angreal. First she recognizes that Mat has a ter'angreal that diffuses the weaves of saidar, she is also aware that Cadsuane has a ter'angreal that detects channeling (KOD A Cold Medallion). She is also fascinated by that prospect she asks Mat to see the foxhead medallion. She also admits being Aes Sedai once when questionned by Mat.(KOD A Short Path)

 

Assuming that Setalle Annan and Martine Janata are one and the same person what role could she fulfill that would be most helpful?

 

If she can be restored as a chaneller and that is a big if. She would be most useful in Caemlyn with Elayne. She is the leading authority on ter'angreal and Elayne is the only known Aes Sedai capable of reproducing ter'angreal. We also know that Aviendha has a talent for identifying the uses of ter'angreal. Working together they could identify all the ter'angreal in their possession, the ones stored in Tear, the ones Rand has stashed in Cairhien and the ones in the White Tower. Most importantly if they could borrow the medallion from Mat, Elayne could replicate it making all Aes Sedai, Ashaman, Wise Ones, Kin and Windfinders immune from an attack with the One Power. Furthermore is would neutralize the gholam since it is the only thing known to deter it.

 

This would be validate Elaida's foretelling that the Black Tower would be rent in blood. It would assure that Logain's faction would win since they are all trained as swordsmen and could easily overcome Taim's smaller faction.

 

Any attack by Black sisters would be futile as their weaves would dissipate leaving them defenseless.

 

Any attack by the Forsaken would be fruitless except maybe from Moridin since he is the only one channeling the True Power and we do not know how the medallion would react to it. Shaidar Haran seems able to neutralize the One Power as well. Even so this would severely hamper the efforts of the Dark side.

 

The Forces of the Light would be on the offensive rather than on the defensive as they were in the War of Power.

 

Both Mat and Perrin have had death sentences imposed by Moridin. Having the medallions would eliminate the One Power as a threat.

 

This all hinges on burning out being healed. The only clue we have is that both Damer Flynn and Nynaeve al Meara both believe that anything under the sun can be healed, save death. Both have successfully healed Stilling and Gentling. Flynn and Nynaeve have shown healing talents that no other Aes Sedai has mastered save maybe for Sumeko of the Kin. Maybe it will require the two working together could heal what cannot be healed. We know from the BWB that the greatest accomplishments with the One Power were achieved by having men and women working together.

 

Why would Mat give up the Medallion?

Well it might be a trade off with Rand to have him Commandeer the beel founders to make Aludra's Dragon's. Mat trusts Setalle Annan so he might be willing to part with it temporarily.

 

What could convince Rand to allow Setalle to be healed?

Well it might be a trade off with Cadsuane to teach Alivia to channel the One Power other than death weaves.

 

 

 

So this is how I see Setalle Anan contibuting to the storyline. It ties together Elayne's ability to make angreal and ter'angreal, Aviendha's talent for identifying the uses of existing ter'angreal and Martine Janata's expertise with them. It neutralizes the Dark Side's ability to use Saidar and Saidin as a weapon against channelers, eviscerates the threat of the gholam, and gives the Forces of the Light an advantage it did not have in the War of Power.

[Void EXILE]

Cool theory, realy ties alot of threads together. But im not sure that an AS or an AM could even channle while wearing the fox head, so far the only AS to so much as touch it was Setall Anan and she's burnt out, I've always thought it basicly gives the wearer a portable steading minus the calming effect of a real steading.

[Luckers]

I don't really see this being the case... for starters we have seen it is not easy to make ter'angreal even if you understand them. It took Elayne months to make those dream ter'angreal and most never worked to any great degree. She has as yet to produce a ter'angreal aside from the a'dam that works perfectly, and by all accounts the a'dam is relatively simple as ter'angreal go. The diffusing ter'angreal would likely by much, much harder to make, and the time it would take her to make... what... 15,000 of them...?

 

I dont really see the key to the last battle being in discovering a ter'angreal of some form... its too... deus ex machina. Oh im sure Aviendha's talent will play some further role, but overall the effect will be relatively minor.

[DemandredFO]

I agree with Luckers in so far as that seems to anti-climactic and also Deus Ex Machina. If Satelle Is healed she might be able to help make a bigger weapon out of quicksilver. I know the medallion works on the gholam but I don't believe it can kill it. However, the theory does seem interesting to show how channeling dies out but I donot believe it will happen until long after Tarmon Gaidon.

[Master of the Blades]

I dont really see the key to the last battle being in discovering a ter'angreal of some form... its too... deus ex machina. Oh im sure Aviendha's talent will play some further role, but overall the effect will be relatively minor.

 

 

Luckers you are overreaching. Nothing in my post intimated that Setalle Anan is the key to the Last Battle. I doubt that Jordan devoted a whole chapter to Aviendha's talent i the penultimate book to have only a minor effect. It is a link to Elayne's talent for making angreal. And Setalle Anan is the leading authority on angreal in the world. None of the Forsaken or their cronies have such knowledge. At least there is no information to be gleaned from the books to that effect.

 

Positing that working together they could acelerate the learning curve. In simpler terms "two minds are better than one." The knowledge that Setalle Anan possesses would speed up the process.

 

As to the quantity of ter'angreal 15000 is at best a hyperbole. Only those Sisters and Ashaman near Rand or in the White Tower are in imminent danger of an attack by the Forsaken. That would mean no more than three hundred.

 

Why is the foxhead medallion any more complex to make than any other angreal? What evidence do you have to support that statement?

 

All this idea posits is that the Forces of Light would gain a tactical advantage in fighting those channelers who follow the Dark One. Tactical advantage and the element of surprise are most often determining factors in battles paricularly when the One Power is involved. It is no different that the tactical advantage gained because Mat has learned the history of all the major battles he has

stored in his memory. It is the same tactical advantage that will be gained through Aludra's discovery of Dragon. Are you prepared to dismiss the last two as well and state that they will have relatively minor impacts on the storyline.

 

You are jumping to conclusions or overreaching beyond what the thread posits which is the role of Setalle Anan in AMoL.

[Thor]

Well that might be true but I really ope that RJ doesn't go that route. We have enough to go about without suddenly increasing the importance of a so far minor character.

 

Ofcourse, maybe that's the whole point? Would be lousy though.

[Nelm]

I think the emphasis of Mat knowing the secret and Setalle's growing and close friendship with Tuon is the key to this plot line. Satalle will be the one that convinces Tuon that channelers are human.

 

Why?

 

Satalle had the unique position to befriend Tuon while she couldn't channel with the eventual ability to channel again. Just like Tuon.

 

Mat is the only one to know the secret and we all know how he runs on with his mouth when he gets upset.

 

Even the Tuon POV expresses how much she will miss "her talks" with Setalle.

 

Setalle took an extreme interest in Tuon and Mat so she is likely to return with Mat. Remember she wants to give Mat a fighting chance at Tuon.

 

My theory of what will happen:

 

Setalle will be with or near Mat shortly after him and Tuon are reunited. Mat and Tuon will have a fight about Tuon being able to channel and how Aes Sedi are not dogs but people. He will start mouthing off "Burn me... Bloody Satelle is Aes Sedi" or something similar. This will shock Tuon hard enough for her to begin to consider the possibiltiy.

 

Satelle "might" have a slight side plot line to help with Ter Angreal but this will only occur as something she does while Mat goes to rescue Morainne.

[algspkr]

Why is the foxhead medallion any more complex to make than any other angreal? What evidence do you have to support that statement?

Elayne channelled into the other ter'angreal to figure out how they were made and how they worked. She cannot do that with the foxhead.

 

And Luckers Elayne has made a cloaking ter'angreal that works perfectly, although she made four useless versions of it. Also all the dream ter'angreal she made which require channelling work, but those which don't either don't work as well as the original if at all.

[cloglord]

At the risk of reopening a can of wormsI said would stay closed. It is worth mentioning that Setalle Anan's husband is in Illian with all his fishing boats. I would think there is a pretty high likelyhood that she will end up in Illian. If you operate under the assumption that Setallae has a part to play with Mat and the Seanchan, then Illian would not be a bad place for her to do it.

 

Then again I can scarcely think of a reason for Mat to go to Illian before the end of the books. :)

[Thor]

Let's see, Mat has to rescue Moiraine and build some cannons before the end of the next book as well as get back to Rand.

 

I think that is quite enough already.

[cloglord]

Don't forget he has to reunite the Band, find the horn of valere, blow the horn of valere, reunite with Perrin, take control of the seanchan armies, save egwene from a seanchan attack, lose an eye, and milk his Da's cows.

 

It is pretty silly to think that a major character like Mat will not be given the pages devoted to his storyline to tell the story.

[raydurz]

Can someone even be healed from being burned out? Is it the same as stilling? I thought they were different. Stilling is something that is done deliberately and burning out is something that is done on accident.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Can someone even be healed from being burned out? Is it the same as stilling?

 

They are two terms for the same result, different only in the cause, not the effect. One is accidental, the other intentional, but it's like getting your hand chopped off for being a thief, or cut off in an industrial accident, as far as Healing is concerned, the effect is the same.

[PerrinFtw]

I think this is a bit extreme mate...

 

Besides the practical side (in which elayne would have to meet Setalle and then make all of the things) it would eliminate SUCH a large part of the fighting!

 

It will give the Light such a huge advantage there is almost little point bothering with the LB tbh.

 

How imba will it be when the Light have approx 1500 or more channelers. All protected by the power. The DO's forces don't stand a CHANCE IN HELL!

 

You saw how 10k trollocs (still laugh at that word) can be taken out so easily by merely 25 or so strong channelers... So lets consider 100k trollocs, just 250-300 channelers. If the DO's forces can't use the power as a weapon the fighting in the LB is gonna take a huge twist.

 

Perrinftw

[rd2000]

I think Setalle might become Tuon's next truthspeaker. Hired instead of owned.

[cloglord]

Now that's an idea! I like it.

[Thorum]

Most importantly if they could borrow the medallion from Mat, Elayne could replicate it making all Aes Sedai, Ashaman, Wise Ones, Kin and Windfinders immune from an attack with the One Power.

 

Why hadn't I thought of that before????

 

And that could be the reason why RJ can't split the last book: once this has happened, the light has almost won, just like the Salidar Aes Sedai, ...

 

Wonderful idea

[vegetattack15]

I don't think being burned out and severed are at all the same thing. I have no evidence to back this up. But I imagine that being severed would be like having a string cut that can be fused together again (thanks to the recent discovery of Nyn.), but being burned out would be more like burning the string, there is now nothing to fuse together again. I could be and may be wrong. Please voice your thoughts on this, I would love to know why I'm wrong if I am.

[RobertAlexWillis]

You saw how 10k trollocs (still laugh at that word) can be taken out so easily by merely 25 or so strong channelers... So lets consider 100k trollocs, just 250-300 channelers.

 

For the record, Perrin, and making your point even stronger, it was 100k Trollocs that attacked Rand & co. at the farm, and were taken out by 25 or so very good channelers.

 

I don't think being burned out and severed are at all the same thing. I have no evidence to back this up.

 

We only have the evidence of the effect, which is identical. Until either Setalle Anan, or Moiraine (if she was burned out) is Healed, we won't know for certain. (Or if it turns out that Lanfear was indeed burned out and Healed ... if Moiraine turns out to have been burned out, this is almost certainly the case) However, since the observed effect is the same, it is my opinion that they are susceptible to the same Healing process.

 

However, if it is a slightly different weave, that may account for the difference in the proportion of Power lost by Siuan and Leane as compared with that lost by Lanfear.

[Mat is the Boss]

Forgive me if I`m wrong, I can`t remember it clearly, but didn`t Siuan feel Moghedien through the a`dam? Setalle couldn`t feel Joline when she tried an a`dam. This more then anything else convinced me that being burned out can`t be healed, but I could be wrong. At least there is a difference between the two injuries.

[RobertAlexWillis]

The a'dam used to link Joline and Setalle Anan (Winter's Heart, chapter 29 Another Plan) was a normal Seanchan a'dam. There is nothing mentioned about what Setalle Anan could or could not feel, only that when Joline tried to move more than two steps, the built in escape-punishment kicked in, because Joline was not actually linked. The a'dam used by Siuan and Leane (In Lord of Chaos, the Prologue, The First Message) was made without the leash, just as a necklace and bracelet. (As an odd side note, it was probably made from the silver arrow Birgitte brought with her out of Tel'aran'rhiod, the only thing made there that has come out solid, so far as we know). Since it had no leash, there was no escape-punishment built into it, and so we don't know whether the reaction to movement would have been the same with Siuan and Leane in a regular a'dam or not.

 

So, there isn't enough there to say that being "burned out" can't be Healed, at least in my opinion. The situations were too different for meaningful comparison.