What would you do if you were a male channeler in WoT?

[Hagazussa]

That's not to say I agree with the person who stated that they'd hunt down AS with balefire. Two wrongs and so forth. But, reading between the lines, it is obvious being captured, gentled, then (at best) released is not a walk in the park for the men. Which is stupid, in my opinion. If the AS treated male channelers with a bit of care and decency, some men might be willing to come to them as soon as they learn to channel, rather than run off.

 

I agree that using balefire on Aes Sedai is not acceptable, I do not it is right to go around and kill them either, killing in self defense to not get caught yes, but killing for general revenge no. However I do understand why a male channeler would hate Aes Sedai. I also agree that the way Aes Sedai teat the male channelers are stupid and that if the men where treated with more care and decency to give them the best chance of survival then there is a chance that some would think okey my fate if I continue to channel I will go mad and die in a few years, but with proper care even if gentling will suck royally I might live ten or twenty years, long enough to see my kids grow up and so on, I think quite a few men would have chosen that option then and come to the Aes Sedai willingly. Gentling is always traumatic and painful and always leave the man with a terrible sense of loss, but we do know that how well a man is treated and whatever or not he is given something to live for will have a huge impact on his life expectancy afterwards and probably also his quality of life.

[Suttree]

If the AS treated male channelers with a bit of care and decency, some men might be willing to come to them as soon as they learn to channel, rather than run off.

Yeah too bad they didn't all follow Cadsuane's method that we know to be fairly successful...

[Hagazussa]

Yeah too bad they didn't all follow Cadsuane's method that we know to be fairly successful...

 

That at least we can agree on.

[MasterAblar]

I don't see any reason to go to the WT. It's basically a death sentence. Worse in fact, unless you get lucky and happen to know about Cadsuane. Of course seeing as she's never at the WT anyway you probably have as much chance of running into her as of being the DR. So all things considered, I'd spare myself the long gloomy trip to Tar Valon, and just do the deed myself.

 

The bonus will be that I won't give the satisfaction to the red ajah, or at least the bad ones amongst them, which seems to be every one we've met apart from Pevara, and maybe Teslyn. Not to mention Aes Sedai from other ajah like Magla, Faiselle, Varilin, Saroiya and Takima.

[avernite]

Well...

I don't know what Taim did. But rotting away, possibly dieing anyway while learning channelling...

 

I'd be sorely tempted to choose eternal life serving the Shadow. 300 years (i.e. till the dragon comes around) seems like a nice deal. Though I don't know how I would get to them, I suppose.

[JavnaGolina]

Even with the taint cleansed, it must truly be a miserable life for a male chaneller. You are likely to burn yourself out if not trained, and the only training is the black tower run by dark friends. And eitherway tarmon gaidon is coming.

Anyway I suppose in the year 700 I'd try and find those like myself. Then off to the blight. At least some good would come out of it.

[Suttree]

I love all these people saying they would go to the blight ;) Look forward to revisiting that one.

 

As for the BT it's obviously not all DF's. I believe Mastar Ablar has the percentages worked out but Taim and his cronies are a smaller slice of the overall Ashaman than most seem to think.

[fuzz1717]

I love all these people saying they would go to the blight ;) Look forward to revisiting that one.

Haha... too bad this isn't on the other board. 

 

I think i'd pull a Mr. Ares and live life to the fullest while I can. Moral, immoral, what difference does it make if I know that I'm going to die insane? Praying for Cadsuane (how old was she in the year 700? she must have been really young) is impractical, going to the WT is suicidal, becoming the DR would suck, and going to the Blight wouldn't accomplish much. If I'm going to die insane and alone, I mind as well enjoy life while i can.

[Whizbang]

In order for "going to the Blight" to be an effective option for the population, there needs to be incentive. In the Aiel society, honor is a large motivator, of course, but the unspoken motivator is that they will be killed by their friends and family if they do not go.

 

If going to the Blight is to be an option for the society as a whole, then it needs to be enforced by everyone, or at least the majority. I am envisioning something like the Night's Watch in A Song of Ice and Fire. Male channelers are sent to the borderlands for training, both sword and channeling (very much like the current Black Tower). Once the channeler meets certain criteria, they become teachers themselves. Then after a set period of time, they are told to go to the Blight to blow things up, maybe in bands, maybe alone. If the channeler shows signs of madness before thier time, they are given the option of gentling, hanging, or the Blight. Also, men will be given the choice to be gentled at any time up until they leave for the Blight. To discourage channelers from sneaking back south after they go to the blight, or from the training areas, channelers will have to be marked in some way as soon as they are discovered, and society will have to agree to kill on sight, or at least report to the authorities. Anything less than this will lead to disaster when a man says "I choose the Blight", heads off, halfway there gets scared or goes mad, and decides to turn back or hide.

 

Without the above, "going to the Blight" is not an option, really. Aiel do it, sure, but they are crazy as loons by most people's standards. A clean death by beheading or hanging is much preferred to simply wandering around in the Blight, waiting for some twisted creature hunt you down and torture you before finally eating you alive. Maybe you'll get lucky and kill one or two before you die, but in the grand scheme of things, that makes no difference, and so your suffering and sacrafice has gained nothing. A quick death is best. Going to the Blight is crazy. So, unless there is serious training to make you an effective weapon against the Shadow, and you and a few good buddies head in together and generally lay waste to anything that moves, don't even bother heading north.

[Hagazussa]

Off course it would not work for society in general to send male channelers to the Blight, like you say for a untrained channeler who might be able to levitate a teacup they would only meet a terrible end without accomplishing anything, and off course you can not trust that someone who say they are going to the Blight will not get scared and turn back, go insane and head anywhere, it is not a viable solution in general. A system like the one Whizbang suggests could work and might be the most fair way possible to handle male channelers, giving them the choice between death, gentling, and going to the Blight with a system in place to enforce it.

 

When I say however that if I was a male channeler in Wheel of Time that I would try to live a normal life and then go to the Blight when I felt myself beginning to go insane I would go to the Blight then I am not talking about what would be a right solution for society, but what I with the attitudes and morality that I have would have chosen for myself if I had been a man in Wheel of Time who discovered he could channel. I would have chosen to live a "normal" life and try to keep my abilities hidden because I would be so terrified of gentling I would try to stay of the Red Ajah's radar as much as possible, just channeling in my private home and when I absolutely needed to and I would go to the Blight once I started to go insane for the simple reason that I would not want to harm anyone around me and also I think it would be worth it to have a terrible death if it meant my death could at least accomplish something whatever small rather than just slitting my wrist or jumping off a cliff.

 

Off course this is all just guessing, I am living in the real world and I am a woman so all I could do is speculate what I would do in such a situation, but yes I think the above would be my choice. If however I would sit and decide what to do with male channelers as for what would be best for the world then I would probably do something similar to the suggestion above, treat them with kindness and respect but give them the option of a quick death, gentling with the support and and needed to give them a chance for survival, or to be sent to the Blight with some system in place to make sure they could not just leave the Blight again and go back if that where their choice.

 

I'd be sorely tempted to choose eternal life serving the Shadow. 300 years (i.e. till the dragon comes around) seems like a nice deal. Though I don't know how I would get to them, I suppose.

 

Go to where you can find some Shadowspawn, take a few of them out with fireballs and find the nearest fade and say. "Hi go tell your boss I want to join up." And see if they want a channeler.

[shortkut]

Stedding for sure. Tranquility, no insanity, no one power temptation

[Suttree]

For the stedding route maybe it would be different if you got there soon enough but the odds from before don't look good...

 

BWB

Male Aes Sedai began to sequester themselves in stedding within a few years of the discovery of the taint and its effects. At first they came while they tried to reason out how to circumvent or remove the taint and simply to try to avoid going mad. The number increased once wholesale destruction began, as men attempted to avoid causing it, but even protected from all awareness of the True Source, the sense of loss in those who had felt its Power grew as time passed until it drove them back into danger. Some men slipped away in the hope that the taint had lessened, or so they claimed. Others admitted that they could no longer bear the inability not only to channel, but even to sense the Source. By the end of the Breaking, all the male Aes Sedai who had sought sanctuary in stedding had left, and all fell to the taint.

[shortkut]

In the year 700 we would all be raised to fear men who could channel. Discovering I was one of them would drive me to find a stedding as soon as possible

[Hagazussa]

If you have channeled consciously the temptation is always there. For channelers the need to channel is described to be as strong as the need to breathe. You can do to a Stedding, the problem is that a channeler will not be able to force himself to stay.inside the Stedding for very long no matter how peaceful and nice it is in there, channelers need to channel it is as easy to that and no way around it, as long as they are able to channel they will not be able to resist the temptation, and if all they have to do to channel is to take hour hike to get out of the Stedding...well when that itch get to strong to bare even going insane will seam better than being without the Power any longer.

[Hagazussa]

Double post sorry.

[Azrayne]

We all like to think we'd make the honorable and heroic choice, but the sad reality of life is that most people don't. While I'd like to believe that I'd do the right thing and go north to blow up lots of shadowspawn til l die, the reality is that I'd probably, like most people would, first try and ignore it and pretend it isn't happening, then I'd try stave it off and avoid channeling, but find myself doing it anyway, going increasingly mad over time while trying to deny it until I'm dangerous enough to turn my whole town into a smoking pit or whatever. If there's anything people are good at, it's lying to themselves. Just like nobody lighting up their first cig decides then and there to become an addict and die of lung cancer, most people in that situation, I'd imagine, would be faced with a long series of small decisions which would ineveitably lead to a horrible end.

[Torome]

The Blight is a personal choice.  I could try to hide my channeling, but everyone knows that you WILL go insane.  When you are gentled, you won't become any more insane, but whatever crazy you have picked up you keep.  Cadsuane is only 300 years old at the time of the books so if we are talking about 700NE then she was unborn, an infant, or untrained.  Not a lot is known to the common people about saidin but during the breaking it is said that many male Aes Sedai sought sanctuary in the stedding, but the desire to channel grew so great that they inevitably left. 

 

Women who are stilled or burnt out can survive but usually do not, Setalle Anan is the best example since she was not healed; I believe she is mentioned in by Vandene in chpt 2 of PoD as Martine Janata since it happened 25 years before the books and Mistress Anan showed great interest in ter'angreal (she was burnt out studying them).  Men seem to suffer the same effects for the most part lose the will to live; it is one thing to say you will live life to the fullest and another to actually do it when your greatest joy is taken away.  I suppose the same could be said for going to the blight, it is one thing to say you would go and another to actually do it, but if you are going to go insane(which you will) and accept dying(which is what the Aiel do) then you go to the place where not only can you avoid hurting people you care about, but you do the most damage to the shadow.

[Suttree]

Men seem to suffer the same effects for the most part lose the will to live; it is one thing to say you will live life to the fullest and another to actually do it when your greatest joy is taken away.

As has been mentioned we know Cadsuane has a method that allows men to live longer and integrate back into a normal life. 

 

I suppose the same could be said for going to the blight, it is one thing to say you would go and another to actually do it, but if you are going to go insane(which you will) and accept dying(which is what the Aiel do) then you go to the place where not only can you avoid hurting people you care about, but you do the most damage to the shadow.

Love these blight comments. As for where that would get you...RAFO!

[Azrayne]

As has been mentioned we know Cadsuane has a method that allows men to live longer and integrate back into a normal life.

 

I'm not sure it's some super secret special method, I think she's just good at not taking any nonsense and kicking people into gear when they need it. Looking at Setalle, it's obvious that the post-severing depression can be defeated with either time or sufficiant motivation, maybe Cadsuane is the only one who bothered to make sure he stayed alive and to try and instill him with the determination to live. Did he ever actually integrate back into normal life? We know he survived 10 years, but we don't know what he did with them.

[Suttree]

We know she has done it for a number of people, not just one. I suspect you are right, a good deal has to do with her attitude and how much she cares to "help" people(one of her defining characteristics).

 

RJ

In truth, Cadsuane had "a nose" for men who can channel. She faced more of them than any other sister living; she herself said more than any two Reds, maybe more than any ten. That seems to indicate at least twenty of them by that time, maybe more. She brought more of them to Tar Valon than any other sister. Of these, she never had to kill one, either because she could not capture him or because he was trying to escape. These men have ranged over the years from farmboys to nobles to the king of Tarabon, but one and all, they made much better adjustments to their fate than is considered normal. They eventually died short of a normal span, but they lived considerably longer than usual

[Caliban]

Using my strength as a male channeler, I would prospect mineral veins for gold and extract them with weaves. Then I would melt down the gold ore into a mold so that I have a great many gold bars. Then, I would dump the immense amount of gold I had found onto the markets of several Rand-Land cities causing hyper-inflation and the destruction of the economies of the various nations which in turn would cause other economies to undergo severe economic turmoil due to the incredible muddle of exports and imports. Then, I would venture to Shayol Ghul, sell my soul for immortality, and then lead the Dark One's armies against the already destroyed nations.

[Caliban]

*Double Post*

[Torome]

Men seem to suffer the same effects for the most part lose the will to live; it is one thing to say you will live life to the fullest and another to actually do it when your greatest joy is taken away.

As has been mentioned we know Cadsuane has a method that allows men to live longer and integrate back into a normal life. 

 

As I had said though earlier in the post, Cadsuane was not around in 700NE which is when we are talking about, or are we talking about 700 years prior to the books, either way Cadsuane is not around.

[Suttree]

Yeah my bad, skimmed over that in both posts. Cads was born in 705NE although I really see no reason to go that far back for the purposes of discussion. Any time pre-cleansing would do.

[Hagazussa]

I'm not sure it's some super secret special method, I think she's just good at not taking any nonsense and kicking people into gear when they need it. Looking at Setalle, it's obvious that the post-severing depression can be defeated with either time or sufficiant motivation, maybe Cadsuane is the only one who bothered to make sure he stayed alive and to try and instill him with the determination to live. Did he ever actually integrate back into normal life? We know he survived 10 years, but we don't know what he did with them.

 

Time do not heal the post severing depressing but it is said that finding something to fill the hole left by the Power with can make someone survive so for Setalle to find a man to love, get children to raise and a inn to run have obviously been enough. It is said in the books that Cadsuane helped the men she captured to accept their fate and learn to live with it. Since none tried to escape probably she started long before they got the the Tower and continued after the gentling was done to get them to accept the situation and try to move on. We do not know if the men Cadsuane captured where integrated into normal society, just as we do not know about their quality of life, we know they did not live full lives but that they managed to survive rather long. What we do know however is that Emarin's brother was grateful to Cadsuane that she had helped Emarin live for 10 years after gentling and it is said that the two brothers where close so I think that it is rather safe to assume that Emarin was returned to his brother after the gentling and it is also a safe bet that he would have had a somewhat decent quality of life since his brother was grateful. Now we do not know what killed Emarin, he might have fallen off a ladder and broken his neck by accident, or it might be that the gentling eventually caught up with him like it did with Logain when he was out traveling with Siuan and the rest, my guess would be that the latter is what happened to him, but in either case he got ten god years, he might have been sad but he got good enough years for his brother to be grateful.

 

I do think that perhaps Cadsuane's no nonsense attitude might be a part of it. I can just imagine her marching up to some newly gentled man, shaking him until she get his attention and then asking him if he is still in pain and that if he is not to get his ass in motion for she have some task for him and the man just setting up a shocked what the hell I have just been...look and then five minutes later she have him training in the Warder's yard or whatever thing she think would be good or him with the threat of spanking him if he do not haul ass.

 

That being said, if I where a male channeler in Wheel of Time and I could choose between death then and there and gentling with the care of Cadsuane I would still choose death, like I said it is better to die whole than to live for another decade or two with that kind of loss even if one can handle it and with a part of one's soul missing.

 

Yeah my bad, skimmed over that in both posts. Cads was born in 705NE although I really see no reason to go that far back for the purposes of discussion. Any time pre-cleansing would do.

 

Yeah 700 was just an arbitrary number, my point was to avoid the I will just wait until the source is cleansed answers as they get to easy so the point was what would you do if there was no cleaning of saidin in sight and you discovered that you could channel and where a man living in the Wheel of Time World. That being said, most men who ends up gentled do not get helped by Cadsuane and then what it means is a painful process followed by a few years of extreme depression and then death and being hung or cut down with a sword is definitely better than that.