Without the taint's madness, would Rand have been able to cope with another man suddenly appearing in his head? I believe the taint shielded him from even greater madness.

 

Firstly, the taint is not a madness, the taint causes madness. It basically works as a catalyst--this is why we see so many different types of madness, and why we see different time frames in their manifestation. So natural forms of insanity--of which the manifestation of a past life voice is--occur due to exposure to the Taint.

 

The answer to your question is no, there would have been no difference between what occured to Rand under the Taint than if Lews Therin had manifested naturally. Except that Lews Therin probably wouldn't have maifested naturally without the Taint any more than Morr would have had a reversion to childhood without the Taint.

I didnt mean to say the taint=madness, i meant the madness the taint caused. Sorry, I am not very good at articulating my thoughts, as you probably have learned from the posts i have contributed.

Remembering his previous incarnations isn't what makes the Dragon Reborn special. In other words, Rand's remembering being Lews Therin, and the intermediary steps where he has sporadic access to Lews Therin's memories and experiences Lews Therin's voice, aren't an essential aspect of being the Dragon Reborn. Rand's access of those memories and his experience of hearing the voice of Lews Therin, culminating in his reintegration in Veins of Gold, are manifestations of the Taint. Without the Taint, Rand would not have had the memories, would not have gone mad from the experience of Lews Therin's voice and memories, and would not have the particular epiphany of reintegration with those memories that produced Rand Sedai. He may (and probably would) have required some other kind of epiphany that may have resulted in a personality very like Rand Sedai, but without the memory of all the previous lives he's lived.

 

In Randland, souls live multiple lives, technically, an infinite number of them. There's plenty of evidence that memories from previous lives "bleed through" to the currently lived one. Typically, these result in feelings of deja vu or spontaneous exclamations with no understanding of the meaning behind them. Occasionally, more robust memories surface, and are sufficiently vivid, compelling and contrary to current experience as to break the mind of the person suffering from them, resulting in multiple personalities or hearing voices. It is this kind of madness the Taint has induced in Rand. Birgitte is the only person to have full awareness of even one of the previous lives lived without having a mental break as a result, and this is because she was thrown untimely from the waiting room for special souls. Souls reborn normally are not supposed to remember their previous lives, even very special souls.

 

Rand didn't become fully the Dragon Reborn after his epiphany on Dragonmount. He was fully the Dragon Reborn on the day he was born on the slopes of Dragonmount, and has been every day since then. He has always been Lews Therin, and Lews Therin was always Rand. Rand didn't become more "Dragon Rebornish" when he realized this. He just stopped battling with himself. Possessing the memories of the previous Dragon isn't what makes someone the Dragon Reborn, even accepting those memories as one's own isn't what does it. If Rand used some ter'angreal that worked like the Aiel's glass columns and transferred his Lews Therin memories to Moridin, that wouldn't make Moridin the Dragon Reborn, even if Moridin had some sort of identity crisis as a result and integrated the Lews Therin memories with his own personality as a previously lived life.

 

In short, without the Taint, Rand wouldn't have had Lews Therin's memories and wouldn't have experienced Lews Therin's voice. He wouldn't have needed the particular epiphany of reintegrating those memories with his own personality, but he may still have required some kind of epiphany in order to do the Dragon Reborn's job of resealing the Dark One. But even without the Taint, the memories, the voice and the results of the reintegration, Rand is still, and always has been, the Dragon Reborn.

I believe this.

Without the taint's madness, would Rand have been able to cope with another man suddenly appearing in his head? I believe the taint shielded him from even greater madness.

meteor trails leave the same kind of streak

It was referenced by one of the forsaken as the crudest battle healing, or something like it.

The seanchan have only been isolated since the time of hawkwing. Shara and IoM have been separated much longer and as previously mentioned, shara acted like it had a different language. Additionally, there was not enough off screen time to learn the language proficiently enough. If you could imagine them learning at least one language proficiently in a few months with being really busy with other things then you can easily imagine everyone using the same language. It actually takes less suspension of disbelief.

The Seanchan have been isolated from the breaking, and the only contact between them and the continent was when Hawkwing's armies first made contact. The Seanchan are a culture that existed before the armies arrived, and were conquered. The "Consolidation"(or something like that) where all lands on that side of the ocean were conquered, happened a mere 200 years ago. Some of Hawkwing's beliefs have been assimilated into the culture, but it has all been twisted into the new Seanchan culture.

I haven't done any looking around for this answer, but I wanted to see if anyone had any answers before I tried to dig it out.

 

I was wondering, what are the advantages of Moiraine's method of healing? The original way of healing, before Nyneave rediscovered the way of healing with all 5 powers?

It was simpler, and thus easier for the everyday AS to use.

In the world of WoT they developed really heavy accents that make it hard to understand each other. That is close enough to new languages without needing books devoted to people learning languages. I know some people love RJ's descriptions but wanting that is as rediculous as complaining that a world that revolves around magic, alternate worlds, and rebirth does not follow every law of physics that we have.

The main problem is the Seanchan. They have plenty of off-screen time to learn the language, and are completely isolated from the continent. It wouldn't require more than maybe three lines scattered throughout the books. Heavy accents are not enough to compensate for thousands of years of isolation, culture merging, and a complete language transition.

Okay. I guess id need to find out what Shara spoke, and if the lands beyond the ocean spoke different languages before I call the Language the single worst part of the world.

I mean, if a language like latin can develop into 3 distinct languages (French, Italian, and Spanish), in extreme proximity to each other. then the old tongue should have developed into several different languages given the extreme isolation of some groups.

Okay, a new(maybe) question. The Old Tongue, when did it go out of style, and how did it happen that it developed into the same language across oceans and mountain ranges.

EDIT: I am assuming that it was the commonly spoken language sometime within this age.

*sound of flushing toilet

 

So the entire male a'dam wouldn't be cuendillar then, considering the necklace was destroyed - but not by balefire.

 

However if in the case the entire a'dam were cuendillar, it makes the case that TP can destroy cuendillar...

 

But TP balefire can't do the same, when the cuendillar in question is against the skin of someone just balefired, yet everything else they were wearing is vaped along with them - and not by like a hair of balefire, a bar of it burst from rand's hand *glances at area/diameter of own palm, i think the wording was similar to that?

 

Then again it makes Nynaeve, et al, look pretty dumb, if only the bracelets were cuendillar, and she could have destroyed the necklace, back in the day, when it was all sitting nice and neat in front of her.

 

Go figure, chalk it up as an eyeroller.

1) Im sure Rand attacked what was binding him, the neck was destroyed. He did not directly attack the bracelets, but their bearers, so the bracelets were unharmed.

2) Even if it wasnt Cuen, Ter' angreal are notoriously hard to destroy, so the wondergirls not destroying it is perfectly reasonable.

Any mentions in BWB or elsewhere of the Forsaken having children?

Good question! That would be interesting, wouldn't it?

 

I don't remember that it specifically states one way or another, but I imagine that in AoL, no one reproduces unless they want to(with advanced science and OP use being what it is). If the Forsaken are anything, they're selfish. Since parenting is an unselfish act involving sacrifice and dedication, I don't think any of the Forsaken would have even considered it.

Actually, even parents can be selfish.

Not sure about the ones that want to being the only ones that reproduced in Age of Legends.

 

I guess the poster was asking whether any of the Forsaken gave birth to children. There might have been some chance for each of them; either before they turned to the Shadow.

Slight chance of any of them raising the children (after turning to the Shadow). Tough Mesaana might have been most likely of the females; and Ishamael of the males.

balthamel is most likely of the male, he was the womanizer, accidents do happen.

Not in the AoL.

At the end of ToM, LTT and Rand have merged, making him the same age as the Forsaken.

unanswered questions::

Rand tells Tuon that the main continent survived without the Seanchan's leashes for centuries.

Tuon begins "And you have--" then Rand interrupts her.

What was she going to say?

 

 

When meeting with Perrin & Faile, Elayne tells that Andor owes the Dragon Reborn a debt.

A debt for his removing of Rahvin or for something else? If for something else, exactly what?

The debt is most likely for his removal of Rahvin, possibly for keeping order in her absence. Tuan was probably going to make some comment on how fragmented and weak the continent is compared to Seanchan.

is it ever stated wich age Rand is in ToM

Dont forget they lost 6 months with the portal stone. But really, what does that matter when he is over 3000 years old :)

All I know about that for sure is that males can only judge max strength when it is being used, while females can "sense" the strength in other females. This is demonstrated when a women lets herself feel the strength of another, and when Rand has Taim seize as much Saidin as he can to judge his strength, and comments something about he is close to my strength, unless he is holding back.

I agree

I guess that makes sense, but they still have 4 other ages to cleanse it in. Also, do they know the seals will weaken, requiring the same bore to be resealed? Was it know that the patch was imperfect?

Ok I have a question.

 

I believe RJ said the Eye of the World was not used for its intended purpose. So do we know what it was used for?

 

Im convinced it was more significant than being just a pool of clean saidin placed on the Horn and banner. Aginor wanted the Eye, not the Horn. And the Dark One said he wanted to blind the Eye. Any ideas?

 

I think it unlocked Rands potential somehow. Like the memories, or the soul/thread recognition stuff.

 

Well, I can't say you are wrong, but if RJ said wasn't used for it's purpose, yet Rand got it anyway, wouldn't that be using it for its purpose?

 

Besides the nitpick on words, my best guess is that it was to be used to Seal the DO again. I am not sure how this works, but if they managed to get a pure pool of saidin, wouldn't that mean it was separated somehow form the rest?

 

So by using this pool, it could prevent the "other" saidin from being tainted again, and only the Eye saidin would be tainted. Or, since it would be used up, nothing would be tainted.

 

I don't know if that works though.

 

 

Re: Moggy v Lanfear.

 

I think that Moggy probably knows more about TAR, and can do more complex things there (like Birgitte ripped out) but Lanfear is stronger and better at doing things in TAR.

That is assuming they knew that Saidin would be cleansed in the first place.

On a side note, pretty much once every three pages rand thinks Saiden instead of Saidar in Lord of Chaos...

Since Randland is earth, the Old Tongue very well might be english or a related language

Thank you :)

Simple question: Forkroot and men. Same effect as with women?

Demmy is the POV char in the prologue of Lord of Chaos, so it is just referring to his cover identity.

Yes he did, as was said before. What's there to say warding one's mind needn't be kin to Compulsion? That would seem reasonable enough to me.

Except warding is always against something from the outside. This is to keep something in, not to keep something out.

Not so. Rand wards Asmo's tent during their time in the waste, to only keep Asmo in.

What happened to Birgitte's Hero-ness when she was ripped out of TAR? When she dies, will she still be a hero of the horn, or will she need to win her way back?

Oh, sorry then.

I think you guys are missing the "groaning every time she moves." It seems to me that Elayne put her there not that she went there without the bracelet being worn.

But a mistake by RJ is also likely.

Id like support on that claim. That means that every terangreal is corrupt that even had a male assist in its making that uses the power, since it is constantly in touch with the OP, and thus always drawing the taint...

 

No, theoretically it would just be any that were made AFTER the DO's counter stroke when LTT and the Hundred companions patched the Bore. In other words, during the Breaking.

Chances are there were very few if any made during the Breaking, at least not with male participation.

So there is source of untouched saiden that they have been drawing on since the tainting? Im referring to Ter that actually use the power, not ones that just are.

EDIT: I see that i worded my original post too rigidly, sorry. Not every ter'angreal.