I ran into a series by Tad Williams the other weekend at Half Priced Books I hadn't seen and decided to try it out.  It is the Shadowmarch series, with 3 of 4 books published, and the 4th on its way.  Per his work it takes a while to really understand what is going on, as he seems to prefer to slowly reveal his world and structures to you over the course of the books, but having just finished the 3rd book last night I think it is worth the read.  I always enjoy his characters (I read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn what seems like a decade ago, it might have actually been a decade) he does a great job of fleshing out people who aren't even major players, so you get a feel of how they are as people.  My only issue with his writing style is that I tend to feel really lost and have to reread sections when I start one of his series to keep up with who/what is doing things.

I was always confused as to how she claims to not look much like the royal family, the only explanation I could come up with is that she doesn't share a father with her siblings, and it is from him that she gets her dark complexion.

Yeah, he promptly took it apart, and got a new hilt that was far less gaudy and more functional as I recall as well.

My thought on that is that power wrought swords aren't exactly falling out of the woodwork, so having ANY power wrought sword is a very good thing.  On top of that, a good, non-flamboyant tactician doesn't need a heron marked sword to feel better about himself.  A top notch soldier/general/king would know that having a power wrought sword at all is a huge blessing, and that he doesn't need one with special marking on it.

Now as to the why, every nation ever (gonna totally go out on that limb) has started from a pool of people.  If you trace the nobility of that nation far enough back, you will find a non-noble person.  What am I saying here?  Lan's sword is the sword of the Malkieri kings.  Whoever was the first in the line to have that sword, had one without herons.  When something that special is passed down generations, you don't just replace it with one that looks cooler.

Can someone please explain to me how it works with Travelling, and the requirement of knowing the area you are Travelling to or whatever? Ive never grasped that exactly, it felt the wrong way round in a sense, I think I just got muddled up with it. Like, when Nynaeve notes that trick Rand did about weaving a gateway specifically to learn the area or whatever... How did that work exactly???

To Travel somewhere you need to sufficiently know where you are Traveling FROM to open a gateway.  Rand's trick is that you can Travel a very short distance w/o knowing the spot you are.  Also, Traveling TO somewhere instantly lets you know that place well enough to Travel FROM it.

So.  Rand Traveled a small distance (he can do it w/o knowing the area) which lets him learn where he ends up well enough to Travel FROM that area to anywhere.

Kinda odd I know, but it works okay if it is reasoned out.

Thanks guys that actually makes sence (the whole differnt way to make things that do the same thing) don't think i would have figures that out my self.

 

Wonder if thires many instances that happens in the series and how it effects stuff? Theres the differnt ways people use compulsion but there has to be others that may have slipped under the radar.

 

Then again knowing this site they have been pointed out and i just havent read it ;D

There was a sister that commented she could tell who had taught people how to weave certain things with the power by how they did it and if they used certain hand movements. 

I also had the impression that Hammar was older.