I would say the effects of isolation vary from person to person. Regardless Elyas seemed to be a very awkward person to me who was not totally comfortable with interacting with these people. He also does not seem to be THAT isolated, the Tinkers know him well in that caravan, and what are the odds that is the only caravan he knows anyone at?

It is probably a reference to this: Interview: Jan 16th, 2003 COT Signing Report - Tim Kington (Paraphrased) Question (inaudible) Robert Jordan Yes, the Champion of the Light has gone over in the past. This is a game you have to win every time. Or rather, that you can only lose once—you can stay in if you get a draw. Think of a tournament with single elimination. If you lose once, that's it. In the past, when the Champion of the Light has gone over to the Shadow, the result has been a draw. Which doesn't really mean the Dark one won though.

I don't think Wiccanism was what RJ had in mind. In this case it was probably Masonic.

I don't think it is true that one cannot discover the dangers of tabac. In the seventeenth century people said tobacco was bad for you. It's just that people didn't really listen. I agree with the general topic of the thread, I see no reason why tabac would be any less unhealthy than tobacco, or for that matter why it would be any different. It's life kaf, it's just a vaguely different name for something we already have.

He should have gone with Lanfear. Obvs.

I forgot darkhounds had wolf souls. That said, I think it was firmly stated that Fades don't actually have souls.

I think they'd have to be human souls, the Nym had human souls after all. Jordan said they had souls, though something to the effect that their souls were so pathetic you could scarcely still call them that. Which calls into question where they come from - if they are human souls are they just the souls of Darkfriends? Possible, but then Trolloc numbers would be dependent on dead DFs. And how come Ishamael can expect to be reborn a human via natural causes? But DF souls do apparently go the Pit of Dhoom. Where they probably wouldn't be reborn - I was always expecting some sort of Harrowing of Hell scenario at the end but it never happened.

I don't think RJ necessarily meant that the more shadowy worlds were less plausible possibilities as BS seems to think. I think the ones that seemed more shadowy and phantomlike were simply further away from "our" universe - our Randland probably seemed the same way to them. IIRC Jordan also answered Brandon's question re: "What happens if the DO wins in a mirror world" - He has to win in all worlds, simultaneously - or he wins in no worlds, which is kind of paradoxical. At the absolute minimum they would not be different worlds with a different Dark One - the DO, like the Creator exists outside the Pattern - although whether he could destroy or remake mirror worlds is an interesting question.

What do people think of the Ashaman pins from Badali jewelry? Does anyone own one? http://badalijewelry.com/Wheel-of-Time/asha-man-dragon-pin-8482-24k-gold-plated-bronze.html Also, what do people think of the enameled versions? I don't have the books with me any longer and so can't check but I want to ensure they are accurate before I ever buy one. I'd always envisioned them as essentially enameled little versions of the dragon on the Dragonbanner - but these look rather different. Thoughts? Is a pin that looks like the dragonbanner available somewhere else? I do quite like their Dedicated pins - and I am really quite irked that every flipping ring in Wheel of Time is gold since I could afford their silver jewelry but, what's the point of having them if they aren't accurate?

My understanding is that Jordan already had a contract for 6 books? He still expected to finish the series in 3 but his publisher gave him 6 just in case (and if Wheel could be finished in 3 then he could start a different trilogy). Is that not accurate?

That theory actually makes a great deal of sense. It doesn't explain why they created it in the first place though, as Jordan said it wasn't used for the purpose it was intended for. That said, I suppose it would have been very handy for Rand to have clean Saidin when he was starting out. This made me think of a more literary question - should Jordan have killed off two of the chosen at the beginning of the series? It kind of undermined their status right from the start to die from an untrained farmer and a damaged plant creature. Might it have been better for Someshta to have wounded Balthamel and then Rand caught them by surprise by securing the Eye - then they retreat? I think the ending would still have been fairly dramatic and it wouldn't really change anything about the long term arc of the series (neither character really needed to be doing anything for the next few books, they could just carry out some schemes off screen, finding artefacts etc. until they get better bodies) - but it may have built more tension to avoid the death of any of the Chosen until book 3. Thoughts?

What do people think of the Ashaman pins from Badali jewelry? Does anyone own one? http://badalijewelry.com/Wheel-of-Time/asha-man-dragon-pin-8482-24k-gold-plated-bronze.html Also, what do people think of the enameled versions? I don't have the books with me any longer and so can't check but I want to ensure they are accurate before I ever buy one. I'd always envisioned them as essentially enameled little versions of the dragon on the Dragonbanner - but these look rather different. Thoughts? Is a pin that looks like the dragonbanner available somewhere else? I do quite like their Dedicated pins - and I am really quite irked that every flipping ring in Wheel of Time is gold since I could afford their silver jewelry but, what's the point of having them if they aren't accurate?

I have no idea who to go with for the main characters, given that they should probably all be unknowns anyway, but I have been thinking for a couple years that Emilia Clarke could make a good Moiraine. She looks fairly close to how I imagined Moiraine (given that my editions had Moiraine with blue eyes more often than not) and she can certainly pull off cold and distant characters. I don't think her career is such that she would lack interest in the role (unlike say, Natalie Portman as some have suggested which is flatly impossible - that said, ten years ago I would have said Portman would have made a good Nyneave in terms of looks, though even then career wise I can't see it). Mark Ryder from Borgia could make a good Moridin I'd think.

I distinctly recall reading Jordan responding to the question about whether Tam had served in the Whitecloak War as being something along the lines of "I guess, probably. I don't have notes for things that aren't relevant to the book."

We do get a respectable amount of Rand in Knife of Dreams though more in comparison to the preceding novel. There is also a fair bit of Rand in two out of three of the Sanderson trilogy.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Although the Ways make travel faster they are not instantaneous by any means, you could have a number of cities who are as close to reach conventionally as you via ways and yet you don't see these sorts of effects. I'm also not clear that people enjoyed totally free access to them - and the Ogier don't seem that interested in technology. On the other hand, you do see the continent developing a common language which could be attributed to the influence of these closer connections. Also, I think it was more like 2,000 years of use, I think the Ways did not become essentially unusable until the War of the Hundred Years (maybe a little after) although I think different versions of the Eye of the World may have said different things.

The Stedding seem to clearly exist apart from our world. They existed in the Age of Legends, I presume they are sort of like reserves, presumably they are territories that the Ogier were able to lay claim to when they first came to Earth? I'm not sure, but they endure even after the Ogier and trees etc are gone (did the stedding in the Eye of the World even have a Waygate or was it abandoned early in the Age of Legends?) we do know that there are many more stedding in Seanchan than in Randland (which is why those Ogier never had to worry about the Longing). One would think there was a reason that there are more stedding there than in Randland - though it could be related to where points in the Pattern are closer to the Ogier universe or weaker (similar to why Shayol Ghul exists in a specific location, or the Tower of Ghenjei).

I just think it's a weird effect - it's strange to have a world/universe where the power of the Creator can't reach. In terms of a multiverse, well that's kind of the thing, the Ogier, because of the stedding, are very different from the denizens of other worlds, the Seanchan exotics don't need a stedding equivalent for instance (though they don't do super well in our world). It just almost makes it seem like the Ogier come from outside the universe the Creator made - they need to return to places where He can't touch them lest they be worn down by existing in that world. Which I'm not really sure RJ was thinking of, but the Ogier have seemed weirder the longer I've thought of them. I originally presumed they were just from an alternate universe like the Seanchan exotics, but it seems they actually must be from a different dimension entirely, like Sindhol, but apparently distinct from Sindhol given that Sindhol continues to channel (and is understood to exist in terms of how it fits into the cosmology of the world, but a universe without channeling is not even considered by philosophers). I don't think Jordan necessarily thought the existence of multiple deities in his cosmology (although I was admittedly rather hopeful that it would turn out that Shadar Logoth was the Big Unnoticed Thing that could prove to originate from some ancient being associated with the eyes in the World of Dreams) but I find the Stedding perplexing.

This is actually an interesting question - it's really weird that the world of the Ogier is a world where channeling can't occur and they brought that to our world when they invaded. The One Power is, from what I understand, sort of the essence of the Creator (TP vice versa) it is strange that Ogier are apparently outside that - even other dimensions like Sindhol have channeling, so what dimension did the Ogier come from that they do not? It is strange, I think it is clear that they are from some separate dimension rather than just another planet, but why do they stand outside of the One Power/True Power dichotomy like that? I can't recall if the Encyclopedia ever said anything about Ogier but they seem to come from a place even stranger in its way than Sindhol.

There were several ways to destroy Cuendillar. The True Power was one of them - they were not immune to the essence of the Dark One.

They say Kari died of a fever, but of course they do. He never married another woman, was it because he loved her so much, or because he could never really trust a woman again? She sold her soul to Ba'alzomon, and I find it unlikely that she did so after her death, that doesn't seem to tie in well with what we know of the afterlife, and it also would not be as interesting to write a novel about. Tam needs conflict in his prequel novel, and I suspect that is what RJ would have gone with. Ishy does kind of imply that post mortem conversion to Shadow can happen "better for you" but he was trying to scare them and when he's a bit more sane those sorts of ideas don't crop up. One would think Cyndane or someone else who had actually tasted death would have said something about it but they don't. As to Laman, I think it is quite clear that Tam didn't kill him and his sword was certainly acquired from someone else.

I've always been far more interested in finishing the prequel trilogy. I want to see Tam as a youngish man, and how he killed Kari and could never trust a woman again. Regardless, we won't be seeing any of them, there are not sufficient notes.

That isn't quite how it worked though, it was made fairly clear that his/her dysphoria was short lived because, I cannot recall the quotation but "the body will adapt to the mind, and the mind will adapt to the body'. Lanfear was the only one of the characters who didn't quite accept her new form.

Easton Press or Folio Society would be far better choices for this. Make sure to demand a profusely illustrated version, as there is no reason that covers, including alternative covers, cannot be incorporated as book plates, and, with all of the From the Two Rivers bonus material in Eye of the World!

I remain suspicious of the idea that Kari fell to the Dark One in the afterlife. It makes more sense that she was a Darkfriend. How did she die I wonder? I am a little confused about the statement regarding making them appear as ghosts, I didn't get the impression the Dark One was making souls appear as ghosts in the later books, rather that was just an aspect of the Pattern unraveling, I didn't think they were really souls or even really existent, they were just visions of times past. Or are you referring to something else like Gode or Kari in TEOTW?