True, that's why she and Nyneave apologized to him. Under the stern approval of Aviendha, I might add. Which just goes to show you how much more important the bonds between the three women are to their character development than their relationship with rand. Look how the other two women affected Elayne as a character. Min's viewing made her a reckless fool, that much EVERYONE tells her, but Min herself was angry at Elayne treating her life as secured because of it. It shows how much she trusted Min with her life. min, who in most fiction she would have hated as a romantic rival. Aviendha on the other hand grounds her and shows her to value other cultures and humbles her. On a final note, go easy on Elayne. She is reckless, true, and uppity but she grows out of those later on. She even trusts mat with the armies of her nations. After all, Elayne is no Mary Sue. She has flaws too. Like all the other people in the books. That being said, I love how human her thinking processes were when Aviendha confessed she had slept with Rand. She wanted to knife Aviendha, hahahaha. But in the end, her love for her future sister won out petty jealousy.

True. That meeting with Rahvin was so tense. 

I think the point of the three women was not for Rand to choose one of them, but for the the three women to choose each other over a man. In most fiction, if this happened, the would sabotage one another and squabble but I think it was very progressive of RJ to have the three sit down and agree that their sisterhood was just as important to them as their love for Rand. Its just icing on the cake that Rand loved all three of them as well. 

And besides, Sammael had travelling and inverted weave knowledge. Don't know if male channelers can mask their ability, but he could I think

20 hours ago, Zeustav said:

 

I figure opening the bore is their Large Hadron Collider, only gone horribly wrong.

 Or horribly right. Dun DUn DUN!

Well, not all of the defenders would die, since there are people in Aiel society who are exempt from combat, such as children. Not to mention, most Aiel prefer to take gaishain rather than kill outright, so those people have got to go back to the hold after a year and a day. So no, the four fifths left behind in an Aiel attack would be used by those exempt from combat and gaishain to rebuild, and eventually by any gaishain who are released after their time in service.

Which would actually make sense, because if Aiel went around killing everybody, they would never propagate enough to be hundreds of thousands strong.

I agree with the original poster,even though I love Ishamael and his existential angst.

I'd love to say Tar Valon, but its the Manhattan of Randland so the cost of living must be enormous, though Black Ajah aside its probably the safest city. I'd settle for living in one of its bridge towns though. One of the Eastern side towns, as there is probably a smaller chance of Whitecloaks making trouble. Also, just a mile away from Tar Valon.

20 hours ago, Illian Tear said:

 

 

 

OMFG, that is hilarious! And would totally not be out of place in Tar Valon. 

8 hours ago, solarz said:

Here's my take:

 

The lions sing and the hills take flight

The lions may refer to Andor, and the hills may refer to Cairhien. Remember that Cairhien was known as Al'cair'rahienallen, meaning "Hill of the Golden Dawn". This line may refer to Andor and Cairhien mobilizing for the Last Battle.

 

Another possibility is this refers to the Aiel invasion of Cairhien. The Aiel are known to sing when going to battle.

 

I like this alternate interpretation, but particularly your take on the first line. I never even thought of that, but may I add that I still think it's about male channelers, but this time in regards to Ashaman. Andor is where the Ashaman train and have their headquarters and when they first appear in Cairhien the literally move earth!

I would agree with the notion that its just standard end of days and chaos stuff, but none of the opening excerpts or snippets from literature in Randland at begin a book are that simplistic. They always reference or allude to something. 

1 minute ago, Mrs. Cindy Gill said:

If you google the quote you'll find a lot of discussion about it, lots of it at theoryland where they probably get more into it than here, and so,e here, such as this thread

 

https://dragonmount.com/forums/topic/18637-the-lions-sing-and-the-hills-take-flight/

 Thank you! Will check this out right away!

"The lions sing and the hills take flight

The moon by day and the sun by night

Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool

Let the Lord of Chaos rule" 

At first I thought this rhyme was just a cool way to insert the title. But then I got to thinking about the words used and such. So let me explain line by line what I think it means.

"The lions sing and the hills take flight"

For me, I think this alludes to male channelers and the Breaking. Note that RJ use the word lions instead of lionesses. Of course, lions is the word in general for these animals, but it is most perceived and understood as male. So male lions "singing". Now, saidin has often been described when wielded as " his blood sang with the One Power" or some such. Please tell if I am remembering this correctly. But mostly, its the Old Blood that is described as "singing" and Rand, male channeler number one, has that. The most salient reason for me believing that this line is about the breaking is the notion of landscape fleeing from male animals. 

"The moon by day and the sun by night" could represent the total upheaval of natural order and laws during the breaking, as even things as certain and day and night are thrown to the winds.

The "Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool" to me are Latra Posae Decume, a woman too blind to see the need for the deaf man's, Lews Therin's, plan. The Dragon meanwhile was too deaf to heed the caution that Latra espoused. And so he is also the jackdaw fool who "Let the Lord of Chaos rule". And we all know who THAT is.

The fact that this poem is used by children as a street game to me means that either the Fourth Age is so peaceful that the memories of the Breaking are now nothing more than children's games, or that thy are hyper aware of the dangers posed by the breaking and instill this knowledge to children through rhymes, much like how fairy tales are moralistic lessons.

Any thoughts? I would love to discuss alternate interpretations with others!

7 minutes ago, Illian Tear said:

I wasn't talking about RPing, but ok

Hahaha, sorry. But even in the books, I preferred the White Tower. They have the best library in the known world. Nuff said. Plus, there are buildings nearby that are shaped like cats and fish. And they have a canteen. 

13 hours ago, Elgee said:

 

 

I would recommend the first "companion" book, which we all fondly call the Big White Book (BWB) for short. It's a bit wrong and outdated in places, but it's miles better than the 2nd one.

In terms of lore, is the BWB better than the Companion? I think I've also read that the illustrations are...wrong, except for the maps

Thank you everyone! Can anyone recommend great RPs going on? I think I am much suited to play an Aes Sedai than a male channeler, no offense. 

7 hours ago, Sabio said:

 

 

Well first the 200 feet per Aes Sedai is an assumption.  Also how do you know each Aes Sedai had space for three rooms?  The novices and accepted are in a palace out back and the most the staff probably lived in the city.  No mention of where the warders or trainees stayed. The picture in the BWB shows the WT with at least 18 floors (possibly 26).   

.

IIRC, the three rooms thing was from New Spring, when Moiraine first saw her new rooms. And yeah, maybe two hundred feet is a bit big, but I would assume that AS rooms are like pricey hotel rooms, at least a hundred feet of floor space. Bathrooms would not be needed, since either they have tubs brought up and chamber pots would do for waste. 

As for the ten thousand number, yeah that's an exaggeration, sorry. I would assume tho a permanent staff of at least a thousand. So maybe three thousand permanent residents, staff AS and novices and accepted included. 

I think the room sharing thing might be the best answer. Assuming the pricey hotel room space and the fact that your. AS roommate would prefer to be outside and adventuring, this would work out. I have no trouble believing the Tower can hold 1500 rooms for AS.

1 minute ago, Jagen Sedai said:

Welcome, Forshookt!

 

Hm, I think you flip through a physical copy of the Companion before buying, if you can, to make sure it is what you want. It depends on why you may wish o get it!

 

We also have a role-play side of DM, too, if you’re interested! :)

OMG i can't believe I didn't join this site the moment I knew I was hooked on the series seven years ago. Where is the rp side of the site? Also, I HAVE FOUND MY NEW HOME ON THE INTERNET

This has been bugging me for a while now and since I am neither an architect nor an engineer, I can't answer it by myself. Hopefully, either someone has already posited this question or a suitable answer can be given to me. My question involves this: how the heck can the White Tower, a six hundred foot building, fit in close to ten thousands people? 

Let me begin by saying that I imagined the WT roughly as a Pringles can on a shoebox. The rectangular bottom part would be about 100 feet tall, but, since these were the function rooms, meeting halls, and other public spaces, no one lives there. The bottom half may have also housed the staff, at least those that need to live in the tower and not go home to their Tar valon residences. The novices and accepted also populate this area sine this area is big, there is enough room for the one thousand novices and accepted that the place was built for, since novices sleep two to a room that I imagine was only about 20 to 25 feet square. 

I have no problems with the bottom part of the tower. it is the Aes Sedai quarters that tick me off.

Now, Versailles at the height of if use housed up to ten thousand people, but note that these numbers were fluctuating and perhaps only 3000 stayed there full time. So far so good, because the WT was built to house just that many AS. But the three thousand of Versailles were mainly staff that were packed even more tightly than the novices. 

EACH AES SEDAI HAS ENOUGH SPACE FOR AT LEAST THREE ROOMS. A sitting room, a dressing room and a bedroom. And that is being stingy with space, cause I assume AS have at least 200 feet of floor space. Even assuming that these are built like modern apartments for single people, there is, at least to me, no way that three thousand such apartments could be fitted into a 500 foot tube and still have room for hallways and ramps. Some may point out that there are only ever one thousand AS in residence at the WT, but it still has apartments for three thousand.

Can someone please theorise a way that this is possible with the White Tower? 

Hello everyone! I am a WoT fan from the Philippines and I just joined up. Two questions: are there any other fans from the same country that are users here and should I buy the Companion? Looking forward to communing with y'all!