DRAGONMOUNT

For our special holiday edition of Gleeman's Tales, I bring to you a delightfully morbid rendition of Winter Wonderland, written by Semirhage and Ishamael:     Happy Holidays everyone! The Light illumine you!

Today's funny feature is brought to you by the blog incorrect-wot-quotes, which combines quotes from various media and applies it to corresponding events or characters in the Wheel of Time.   First, a couple Game of Thrones crossovers:         For anyone who is a fan of the NBC show Parks and Recreation:     Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:   Of course, some Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit:         And a few random ones that I just had to include:           That's all for now! Again, all of these quotes are from the blog incorrect-wot-quote. I hope you've enjoyed; Happy Holidays!

Welcome back to another edition of Dragonmount's Theory Blog, "WoT If?".  We're continuing our reread of The Eye of the World, with chapters 37 and 38.   Synopsis, taken from Encyclopaedia-WoT:   Chapter 37, "The Long Chase" After several days on the Caemlyn Road, Moiraine, Lan and Nynaeve head north following the remaining token. One evening, Moiraine senses the token is gone. A few hours later it is back. One night, Lan returns from scouting and says he found them in a Whitecloak camp. There are wolves around. There is dim moonlight from the waning moon. Nynaeve enters the camp to steal two extra horses and finds Bela. Nynaeve feels certain they will need the extra horse. After cutting the picket lines, lightning flashes causing the horses to scatter. She sees a wolf helping to panic the horses. She rides Bela and leads another horse out of the camp.   Chapter 38, "Rescue" Perrin and Egwene are prisoners of the Whitecloaks. It is nighttime and they are in a tent. Jaret Byar enters and offers them a chance to escape. Perrin thinks it is a trap. Before he can do anything, Dapple tells them that help is coming. He also gets an image that Elyas is wounded, but alive. Lan enters the tent and knocks out Jaret Byar. They reach Moiraine, but Nynaeve has not returned. Lan almost goes after Nynaeve despite Moiraine's orders. Moiraine says that Lan is "al'Lan Mandragoran, Lord of the Seven Towers" and mentions the "oath of a Diademed Battle Lord of the Malkieri." Nynaeve returns with Bela and another horse. They ride for several hours, then make camp. Nynaeve notices Perrin's yellow eyes. She rubs ointment into his bruises and they heal remarkably fast. Moiraine knows what it is, but will not comment further. Lan, who also knows of wolves, asks Perrin if there was an intermediary. Lan knows Elyas. He says that Elyas Machera was a Warder and his teacher before his change happened. He implies that the Red Ajah tried to gentle Elyas Machera. There is a slivered moon. It is a few hard days to Caemlyn.   My take:   We're back to Perrin.  I was so caught up in Rand's affairs that I forgot about poor Perrin and his Whitecloak friends.    The first chapter is from Nynaeve's point of view, and a few things about her character clicked for me while reading it.  First is her budding feelings for Lan (and his returned feelings in the next chapter).  But more importantly is how she deals with fear.  Look at this quote from when she was cutting the Whitecloaks' horse lines:     Notice how she handles the fear.  It's the fear that calms her.  Just think of how much terror she had inside her if it's what causes her to act normal.  How often would she be terrified back home in the Two Rivers, where the women don't respect her because she's too young, and the men don't respect her because she's pretty?  That amount of fear would be staggering.  And it's only logical to conclude that that fear would lead to anger (as wise Yoda once said).     When you view her like this, it's almost impossible to not pity Nynaeve.  And it's no surprise she had a hard time surrendering to saidar.  In fact, I think the first time she was able to come to terms with her fear was when she felt responsible for Birgette being ripped from Tel'aran'rhiod.  It completely broke her, and she had to confront her fear and realize how much it dominated her life.  Once she recuperated from that traumatic event, she really matured as a character.  Yes, she was still angry most of the time, but not to cover fear—just because she has a surly personality.     I also like how she realizes the One Power is inside her no matter what she does.  As I said in an earlier blog, it's so heart wrenching to see how much the One Power is misunderstood and feared, and to see it from Nynaeve's point of view, finding out first hand what that horror feels like.  But then, when we find out Rand can channel just a few chapters later, it's even more shocking.  It's like Nynaeve's predicament, but a hundred times worse.    I think that makes us, as readers, instantly supportive of Rand.  I think that's why we forgive him so many of his sins.  I think that's why we loved him even when he approached the darkness and madness.  It seems like, with Nynaeve, Robert Jordan was showing us a really sad, pitiful example of a person being wronged.  Then, with Rand, we're shown that those same hurts all over again, except we add rubbing salt and lemon juice on his open wounds.  It makes everything worse.   But when we move onto Perrin's point of view in Chapter 38, we're shown a different kind of pity.  Nynaeve is fighting her destiny tooth and nail, while Perrin has just surrendered almost from the start.  Or, appears to surrender.  His struggles with his wolfbrother abilities surpass Nynaeve's inability to grasp saidar, but Perrin goes about it in such a different way.  But that's beside the point right now.   Perrin is defeated in this scene.  He's so afraid for himself and Egwene that he can't even sleep despite his exhaustion.  And he's probably more scared for Egwene than himself; that's just the kind of person he is.  He understands the hopelessness of their situation, knowing he'd "probably confess to anything just to make the Questioners stop."   I love Perrin so much in this book.  Despite what you think he becomes later, it's very difficult to deny how perfect he is during these few scenes.  He's discovered things about himself that scare him, but he pushes on.  He feels responsible for Egwene, so he does his best to protect her—even to the point of taking her life rather than let her be eaten by Shadowspawn ravens.  His pain just clenches my stomach.   And now that I look at that, this is also something that prepares us for how horrible things get for Rand.  Yes, Perrin's wolfbrother abilities—and his rejection of them—is similar to Rand's own rejection of saidin.  But I think it goes deeper than that.  Perrin claims to have accepted his fate, claims he won't fight against it.  Rand does that same thing, saying he'll go and die at Shayol Ghul, that he'll be the sacrifice the world needs.     It seems to me that every character's hardest challenges are reflected on Rand—that Rand overcomes everyone else's worst situations:   He deals with the fear of the ability to channel, like Nynaeve.   He deals with the burden of leadership, like Perrin.   He deals with past memories in his head, like Mat.   He deals with being made captive, like Egwene.   Everyone's suffering is combined into what Rand al'Thor must face.  He really does confront the burdens of the entire world.   Again, this is why we love and forgive him so easily, I think.  Mr. Jordan did such a beautiful job of making him suffer, and we know it, and pity him.     Well, that got me a bit sidetracked.  There's a few other points I'd like to make on Chapter 38.  One being the changes in Jaret Byar after this encounter with Perrin.  One of the things Perrin is so disgusted by is Byar's lack of emotions:     Byar does not care if Perrin and Egwene lived or died.  But after this, Byar is filled with a vengeance to see Perrin dead.  This vengeance is multiplied when Bornhald is killed at the end of The Great Hunt.  So why would this simple prisoner, and his escape, cause Byar to lose his mind so spectacularly?  Bubble of evil, is my opinion.  Something must have come along the Pattern, drawn by Perrin's ta'veren thread, and landed on Byar.  So many of the plots of the Whitecloaks in the later books are due to Byar—who was poisoned by this evil—poisoning Dain Bornhald's mind.   And we're back to Nynaeve and Lan.  Here's another quote (one of my favorites in this book), from when Moiraine is telling Lan that Nynaeve's not back from the horse lines yet.     And even after all this, Lan still doesn't move.  He is determined to go save Nynaeve, even after Moiraine calls him out on his oaths.  He's obviously very much in love with her already.  It gives me shivers, thinking of him being so defiant to Moiraine, willing to forsake his oaths, just to save Nynaeve.  And when Nynaeve does return, he grabs her by the arm, staring at her.    This is the most emotion we've seen out of the man so far.  And since he is showing emotions, we have to know that they are very strong.   And I like that Nynaeve laughs when he releases her.  She knows she got through his thick wall of faked indifference.  Good for her.   And with that little lapse in Lan's iron-clad emotions, he's almost fond in his discussion with Perrin later.  He really does care about the Two Rivers folk, even if he tires to deny it at first.     I think we'll end at that.  We'll continue with the next few chapters, and Rand's unfortunate fall off the palace walls, next time.  Thanks for reading!

Exciting news from Ta'veren Tees!  New items are available for preorder!     "Ta’veren Tees is extremely excited to announce the release of not one but TWO new products at www.TaverenTees.com: The Two Rivers Longbow Champion Tee and the 2015 The Wheel of Time Calendar.   Two Rivers Longbow Champion Tees: We know that no one can beat Tam al'Thor in the Emond's Field archery competition. We have faith that you, however, can come close.      In fact, becoming a Longbow Champ is easy. All you have to do is head to TaverenTees.com/longbow for the men's/unisex version and TaverenTees.com/longbowladies for the fitted women's style.   This tee is available for PREORDER. Preorders get 10% off the original price of $24 or $26! All preordered shirts will be shipped on November 18th when they are available. Other items purchased with this shirt will be held and shipped at the same time.   2015 The Wheel of Time Calendar: There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time... but you should still grab the official Wheel of Time calendar before 2015 at TaverenTees.com/15calendar.        This 2015 WoT calendar measures 12" x 12". It features thirteen memorable scenes from across the series (including A Memory of Light) drawn by officially licensed WoT artists Edsel Arnold, Paul Bielaczyc, Ariel Burgess, and Joe O'Hara. It runs from January 2015 through December 2015 and includes U.S. Holidays and significant WoT dates.   Orders of the 2015 calendar will receive a free 2014 calendar while supplies last (leftover 2014 calendars are very limited).    To keep up with even more upcoming product notifications and holiday sales, make sure to watch our Facebook page and keep an eye on TaverenTees.com!"

Welcome once again to Friday, and Fan Art!   Halloween--a time for things that go bump in the night. Creepy crawlies, scary stories, childhood nightmares.   Eye of the World, by Boros Szikszai   But not just these things. The modern version of Halloween has grown out of ancient festivals honoring the dead, and the ancestors. In the intermediate years, it has been seen as a time when the dead can walk the earth, because the barrier between the lands of the living and the dead was thinned or even gone. One well-known festival is Samhain, which is celebrated largely on the British Isles, but there are many, many others.   Of  course, not just ghosts were able to get through. Demons, fairies, and other hellish or ephemeral creatures walked the night as well.   Goat-horned Trolloc by T-biddy   Nowadays, of course, Halloween looks a little different. Children dress in costume and go door to door soliciting candy--a tradition which also has deep roots. There are still aspects of darkness in the holiday, though, despite it's seeming childishness.   Draghkar by Cadavis3   There are two holidays in The Wheel of Time world that correlate to our Halloween: Amaetheon and Shaoman.   Amaetheon is celebrated everywhere except the Borderlands and is a day of remembrance for the dead. Shaoman is a children's holiday, in which they are celebrated, given gifts, and in some places they go door to door singing songs--and are rewarded with sweets.   Nynaeve Birgitte Moghedien and Liandrin by Myed89   In celebration of the day, I've collected some of my favorite Wheel of Time creepy crawlies: Trollocs, Fades, Dragkhar, and yes, even Moghedien! (Personally, I find Semirhage to be scarier, but Moghedien was the one about whom stories were told to small children.)   What's the scariest character/creature in Wheel of Time to you?   Myrddraal by BloodRedFullMoon   Happy Halloween, and Blessed Samhain!

This will conclude our special edition of Dragonmount's Fantasy Review for Shadows Beneath, the short story anthology put together by the Writing Excuses podcast team: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Brandon Sanderson.  This review will be on Brandon's story "Sixth of the Dusk."   Synopsis Sixth of the Dusk is a trapper who lives and works on the island of Patji, an island more dangerous than any others in the Pantheon.  Even the smallest insects can kill.  During a routine visit to his home island, Dusk encounters Vathi, a scholar trained on the mainland; though she shares his heritage, she has never trained on the deadly islands.  Her team of explorers is there to gather information on the birds, the Aviar, of the Pantheon.  Each bird raised on the islands has a special power, depending on its breed.  The townsfolk on the mainland want to trade and expand their power with the Aviar as their bargaining chip.  But Dusk knows the islands secrets and is hesitant to share with Vathi, who may use it to their own downfall.   Pros This story was fantastic.  I had heard the podcast before reading, so I knew the general plotline of this story, and the secrets of the Aviar.  But even knowing all that, this story still shocked and surprised me.  There was so much more at stake than just the birds' secrets.  And Brandon spun that side of the tale like a master.    One of the major themes was the advance of technology versus the preservation of nature.  Vathi wanted to settle the island, tame it.  Dusk sought to keep the old ways alive, keep the island and the animal inhabitants wild.  They represented conflicting views on this issue.  And each one had a valid reason and motivation for feeling the way they did.  Their beliefs and their ultimate goals really defined the story.  There was a lot to think about after the story was finished.   I admired Dusk as a character because he had some difficult truths to face, but did it gracefully.  He could have easily struggled, making his fate more tragic.  But using logic, he could see the truth of the situation and acted the way he must, rather than the way he wanted.  And Vathi did this too.  Her decisions were just as difficult.  She could have taken the easy way, but after surviving on Patji with Dusk, she realized he was right about a lot of the situation as well.  It was a nice balance, a symmetrical alliance between the two sides.  It didn't feel forced, or overly wrapped-up.  It just fit.   Cons There aren't many cons with this story.  I may be biased, but I believe that Brandon's stories continue to improve.  I've read several of his short fiction stories, and they have been just as remarkable as his longer novels.  This tale is no different.  The shorter length may appeal to some who don't have a taste for his 100,000 word long novels.  At the same time, the shorter length may give the reader a glimpse of the world and characters, leaving them only wanting more.  One thing I will mention as a con is the humor.  Brandon's dialogue can be very witty, but sometimes it does feel a bit forced.  Vathi—like Shallan in The Way of Kings and Sarene in Elantris—makes comments that are funny, but seem so out of place within the story.  I've often compared it to the television show Gilmore Girls, where the main characters have all the right quips in all the right situations.  It's difficult for me to buy too much of that.  But, that's definitely a personal taste, and in no way takes away from the lasting effects and message of the story.   Conclusion Knowing the plot beforehand, and knowing how much I enjoyed Brandon's other works, I was expecting a lot from this story.  And I can honestly say that it was even better than I expected.  That's difficult to do when I had set the bar so high to begin with.  Anyone who admires Brandon should read this story because it's among the best I've read by him.   Rating 5 out of 5   If you're interested in listening to the Writing Excuses podcast pertaining to this story, check out the links below.   Brainstorming with Brandon Again Critiquing Sixth of Dusk Part 1 Critiquing Sixth of Dusk Part 2     And, of course, you can purchase this book from Dragonmount's eBook store here.  You can also purchase "Sixth of Dusk" on its own, without buy the rest of the anthology, here.

In the style of What Should We Call Me, matrim-notabloodylord-cauthon has brought us gif reactions of characters from the series. Everything below is verbatim from matrim-notabloodylord-cathon's blog.   Here's Asmodean every day after he gets captured:     Here's Nynaeve dealing with just about any problem ever:     Here's Talmanes listening to Mat ranting:     Here's Siuan searching for Black Ajah:     Here's Ishamael listening to people talk about how awesome Lews Therin is:     And that is certainly not all of them, I have only featured a few of the most popular ones. I hope you have enjoyed! The Light illumine you.

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog!   Obviously the greatest thing about Dragonmount is the opportunity to be a member of such an incredible community of Wheel of Time enthusiasts. Everyone here loves Robert Jordan's books, stories, characters, and world--be they new readers just starting out in the journey of following the adventures of Rand, Perrin, Mat and others, or long time readers who might be on their second or third re-read or more who can theorize and debate minute details of the plot.   Every so often, a member of the community here comes up with something that is really special, be that an idea or thought which sparks a truly interesting debate, or a contribution to the ever growing collection of resources which can be found across the internet for following and understanding the epic scale world which Jordan created. In recent weeks, that happened here on Dragonmount in our Wheel of Time Discussion section. Dragonmount member Dakaran created a topic on character mapping the various people a reader of the series meets along the way. As he explains in his opening post:    And here is the character map Dakaran created, and boy is it impressive!    (Click here to see the full scale image)   Let's hope he continues adding to it all the way to the end of the series and it becomes a real hit resource on the web. Personally, I think he is on to something with this.   That's all for now! Have fun!   Until next time, friends!

Welcome back to another special edition of Dragonmount's Fantasy Review—looking at the Writing Excuses podcast's anthology Shadows Beneath!  We've looked at Mary Robinette Kowal's "A Fire in the Heavens" and Dan Wells' "I.E.Demon."  Today's will be Howard Tayler's "An Honest Death."   Synopsis: Cole is the leader of a security team, working for Mr. Wollreich, the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company.  One day, Mr. Wollreich presses the panic button, springing Cole and his associates into action.  Once in the boss' office, though, there's no panic--besides Wollreich looking upset and disturbed.  But, when Cole gets him alone, the boss confesses: Death had visited his office. Pros: Howard is the cartoonist on Writing Excuses, which is a very different medium used for storytelling.  All the same key elements are there--plot, characters, setting--but the execution is not the same.  They've had that discussion on the podcast before.  So, seeing a novelette written by a cartoonist is something special, indeed. Naturally, his strong point is dialogue.  He's had years to perfect that.  But I was also surprised at how brisk the pace of the story was.  His words were to the point and focused, making it a breeze to read.  No wasted motion.  Just what was needed. Howard also did a spectacular job of making Cole authentic.  Cole knew his equipment; he knew his team.  He was a true professional.  The technology he used, and the skill needed to implement it, was impressive.  I would read more about this character without hesitation. Cons: Though I didn't see it as a con, the story was written in present tense--which isn't too common in genre fiction.  This could be a turn-off for some readers who aren't use to this format.  However, this style helped with the rapid pace of the story; reading sentences as they are happening gives the action a more emphasized role.   I thought it was refreshing, not a hindrance. Conclusion: This story had all the characteristics of an enjoyable tale.  The characters were realistic, the plot line fascinating, the conclusion thought-provoking.  For being one of the first few "stories" he's written, it's very impressive.  I'm looking forward to more by him. Rating: 4 out of 5     If you'd like to listen to the Writing Excuses podcasts for the episodes dealing with this story, the links are listed below.   Brainstorming with Howard Critiquing "An Honest Death"   And, of course, you can purchase Shadows Beneath from Dragonmount's eBook store, here.  Next week's story will be Brandon Sanderson's "Sixth of the Dusk."

You may have seen Dragonmount tweet this video back a few weeks ago, but if you didn't I feel the need to make sure as many people see it as possible. Somehow, this music video perfectly captures the experience of an obsessed fan, talking and thinking about nothing but     Without further adieu, the full video:     While we're on the topic of videos, I don't know if any you enjoy the art of YouTube Poop (yes, it's a real thing), but someone made one using the audio book of The Great Hunt. Prepare for a bizarre experience!     Finally, I wanted to share a gif-set that I made from the fan-made film Flight From Shadow. Take some time to watch the 30 minute film if you haven't yet, it is so well done. To pique your interest, here is the gif moment:     As you can probably guess, yes, that's Rand and Mat.   That's all folks! The Light illumine you.