It was basically killing two birds with one stone. Semirhage really pissed Moridin off with the hand thing, so he got his revenge on her by using her to provoke Rand into using the True Power, knowing she wouldn't be able to resist playing with him as soon as she got the opportunity.

A question about this LIGHT power: It's been repeated many times that Dragon is channeling some new kind of power

Nope, it's still saidin. If it was something else, the Asha'man would not have been able to see his flows at Maradon.

How many of Logains followers are still in the Black Tower?

We don't know, but Pevara commented on the bonded Aes Sedai, so presumably quite a few of them are there.

Has Naeff reported back to Rand yet about his visit to the BT?

No.

Did Rand show Naeff how to disguise himself?

Yes, though I dislike the way Brandon wrote that.

why does cats in the tworivers has six toes?

Radiation. From when Eldrene ay Ellan ay Carlan melted the city of Manetheren.

The implication is supposed to be that there is a whole hell of a lot of inbreeding in the Two Rivers, which causes deformities. I think we hashed this out on Theoryland some years ago, though, and I seem to remember someone saying that the idea wasn't genetically accurate?

you don't think there's any possibility that it's a nod to hemingway? cause polydactyls are widely known in the US as hemingway cats. and, you know, for a man as well read as RJ, it seems like a mega coincidence that he chooses robert jordan for a pseudonym. and for someone as into cats as he seems to be from his books, it would seem an even bigger stretch not to have some knowledge of and respect for the hemingway cats (which have taught us a good deal about cat society that we never knew before). and which are considered lucky and appear to be somewhat more evolved than ordinary non-opposable-thumb types.

Well, RJ said Hemingway had nothing to do with his choice of pseudonym, and you get the impression that he liked Hemingway, but that Hemingway was not one of his favorites. So I think the inbreeding thing is the more likely explanation; since the Two Rivers is so isolated, it makes sense.

@Randommer - Probably Ishamael, but we're not sure.

This may seem like a silly question, but why did Rhuarc call Rand a "meegerling" at the beginning of TOM? I thought Rand came back enlightened and wiser?

Because he went to battle without the Aiel, and also because of his increasingly bad treatment of them. In other words, they know he has changed, but they still hold him responsible for what he did before.

Who had Herid Fel killed? How did they know he found something?

Who ordered the killing of Herid Fel? As far as I am aware, the books do not tell; the most likely candidates would be any of the Forsaken.

The most likely candidate is Sammael, as he was known to have had access to the gholam. Dominic at rafo.com suggested that Sammael believed that Fel was Asmodean in disguise.

Zombiepost, since no one ever answered this one properly:

why does cats in the tworivers has six toes?

Radiation. From when Eldrene ay Ellan ay Carlan melted the city of Manetheren.

The implication is supposed to be that there is a whole hell of a lot of inbreeding in the Two Rivers, which causes deformities. I think we hashed this out on Theoryland some years ago, though, and I seem to remember someone saying that the idea wasn't genetically accurate?

I'm curious, who were the Darkhounds that Perrin found the tracks of in CoT after?

Fain.

Can balefire destroy Fain/Mordeth/Mashadar? Balefire burns you from pattern. It's not fire or energy that destroy body. It erases you from pattern. So how do you attack someone outside the pattern with balefire?

Fain isn't outside the Pattern. He has just sidestepped it in some ways. We don't know what those ways are, but RJ would not have said 'in some ways' if Fain was actually outside the Pattern.

RJ confirmed in the QotW that Rand warded the Cairhien stash from Rhuidean, and that it's still in Cairhien.

I know we haven't seen Demandred's alter-ego through KoD. i always figured he was with the borderlanders that came south to find Rand.

 

Has Brandon or team Jordan confirmed that we still haven't seen Demandred's alter-ego through ToM?

In, but not through. In other words, TGS has not been ruled out (though it's unlikely his alter ego was seen on screen there either). In any case, all four rulers were seen on screen in TPOD. See my FAQ sig link; there's an article on Demandred that has all the pertinent quotes.

I saw it mentioned earlier in a thread that the Bowl of Winds taped into the standing flows. I know that Mesaana in CoT? was of the opinion that these were no longer available for use. Do we know anything else about how this would have been possible. Wouldn't the forsaken know how to find them if they were still operational?

Pretty sure it was only possible through this particular ter'angreal, though I suppose there might be others that can do the same. But the fact remains that they channeled saidin without a man. I think the standing flows were a matter of infrastructure.

Everyone thinks that because supposedly RJ verified it, but I don't trust that signing report because it appears as though they had the assumption that it was Lanfear and that RJ might not have said that at all. I always thought it was Mesaana playing Else; it seems to fit better for many reasons (and Lanfear was spying on Mesaana).

Have we ever seen examples of the supposed side effects of entering TAR in the flesh?

Nothing definitive.

The only possible example i see would be Slayer (I assume he's entering in the flesh) and perrin doesn't think he smells human.

Slayer can only enter in the flesh, but his inhuman smell is more likely a result of what was done to him at Shayol Ghul.

why did the one power felt weird around ebou dar in TPOD?

Did the bowl of wind really do any good?

You answered your own question, sort of. And yes, the Bowl did some good; it changed the weather which has been acting mostly normal since then. It was a victory against the Dark One because they manage to fix what he had altered.

why did the one power felt weird around ebou dar in TPOD?

That was due to the massive amounts of saidin and saidar that was used with some (a sort of residue) still lingering around the area from the use of the Bowl of the Winds.

Specifically, it was because they used the Bowl beyond its capacity:

Something Madic had said caught his ear. "The weather, Madic?" The shadows of the palace spires had barely lengthened from their bases, but there was not a cloud to shield the baking city.

 

"Yes, Great Master. It is called the Bowl of the Winds."

 

The name meant nothing to him. But... a ter’angreal to control the weather... In his own Age, weather had been carefully regulated with the use of ter’angreal. One of the surprises of this Age – one of the smaller, it had seemed – was that there were those who could manipulate weather to a degree that should have required one of those ter’angreal. One such device should not be enough to affect even a large part of a single continent. But what could these women do with it? What? If they used a ring?

The Path of Daggers book tour 21 November 1998, VA - John Novak reporting

 

The Bowl: Someone asked him whether, if men had helped the Aes Sedai and Windfinders and Kin channel through the Bowl, the One Power would still have been screwed up. His implicit assumption was that the Bowl screwed things up....He went into a relatively detailed explanation to the effect that the Bowl was stressed far, far beyond its original design parameters because of the advanced knowledge of the Windfinders. It was affecting a global pattern, when it was designed for only a small region. Men helping would not have changed anything, and the effects linger most strongly near Ebou Dar, but also along the "spokes" which radiated from that place.

And RJ is basically just repeating what he had Moridin thinking about in the book (which had just come out). Also worth noting is that they forced the Bowl to tap into the standing flows, which have supposedly dissipated according to Mesaana. Women should not be able to use saidin without even one man to provide the link to saidin - the Bowl is the only ter'angreal known to have done that - but they did it.

Yes, but it seems weird to dream about the 6 towers (6 foresaken left) and then one becomes useless soon after. I would've thought that her dream might indicate the tower representing Messana cracking or having useless defenses or something. anyways, i guess sometimes a dream is just a dream.

Dreams don't tell you everything. It was showing her how the Forsaken stood at that moment, not what would happen to them in the future. The next dream goes on to show her Mesaana, one of the six, infiltrating the Tower. It warned her of the danger, and because of that assurance - the rare occurrence of that feeling that lets her know what a dream means - she was able to bring Mesaana down. Dreams show possibilities more than certainties; the Seanchan attack, for example, was bound to happen, but Egwene could have prevented most of the damage if anyone had acknowledged her warnings or her authority in general. Mesaana was an example of what Egwene can do when she is free to act.

i have noticed this a couple of times in the forum, but whats the deal with Bela?

It's just a long running (and extremely played out) joke. Bela is the creator, Bela is the Dark One, Bela is the greatest fighter in the world, Bela will turn out to be the real Dragon reborn, etc. I'm not sure what started it but it's just meant to be an inside joke. Hopefully an inside joke that soon dies.

It came about because Bela is everywhere. She is the only horse aside from Mandarb or Aldieb that survives the Two Rivers and makes it to the Eye of the World, and along the way, she went with Perrin and Egwene through the Tinkers and the wolves and the Whitecloaks, and the Ways. She went with Egwene from Fal Dara to the Tower, and then to Falme (through the Ways again). She went back to the Tower with Egwene and Mat, and then left the Tower with Siuan and Min (which is how Gawyn noticed them - he saw 'her horse'). Ever since Bela has been Siuan's horse because Siuan can't handle any other, but Egwene rode Bela to the river to take Bode's place at the harbor chain (by that time RJ was probably just playing the crowd). In other words, she was the Dragon Reborn's horse first. Since then she's been the horse of two Amyrlins, one former and one future (but never the sitting Amyrlin aside from the harbor chain thing, or the sitting Dragon Reborn for that matter, though she was the object of Rand's first use of the Power). So obviously she is the Creator.

Anyways, just to clarify the Forsaken still around are:

 

Morridin

Demandred,

Graendal

Cyndane (Lanfear)

Moggy

A shell of Messana

 

Correct?

 

Are these the 6 remaining ToM in Egwene's dream? Messana isn't much of a tower in her current state.

The dream was before then.

I'm guessing that they did, and Moiraine followed Thom to the Two Rivers because of Min's viewing that they would marry.

That Viewing I guess appeared when they arrived with the Two Rivers folk.

That's what most people assume, but there's really no basis for assuming it.

When the 3 Taveren see Thom & Moiraine, there seems no indication of they meeting each other before coming to the village.

Thom obviously recognizes her for what she is, if not who she is. The point is, RJ left himself plenty of room to play with there. The fact that there is no evidence they had met before means nothing, because there is no evidence against.

So for Min to have seen Thom together with Moiraine before would be something completely improbable

It's not completely improbable at all. The comments Brandon has made on it indicate that there is a funny story about why Thom showed up in Emond's Field in the middle of the night that was intended to be put in the prequels, and while it might be unrelated, it seems more likely it had something to do with Moiraine. Min could have easily left the Stag and Lion; it's not a convent.

She is quite ready to tell Rand that she knows Moiraine and Lan and saw viewings about them yet she says nothing of the sort about Thom.

Don't you think Moiraine would have asked her to keep it a secret?

I'm guessing that they did, and Moiraine followed Thom to the Two Rivers because of Min's viewing that they would marry.

That Viewing I guess appeared when they arrived with the Two Rivers folk.

That's what most people assume, but there's really no basis for assuming it.

In eotw when Thom and Moiraine first meet each other: Do they know each other?

 

I guess Thom would know who she is. But her?

There does seem to be a hint that they might know each other, but they didn't say. I'm guessing that they did, and Moiraine followed Thom to the Two Rivers because of Min's viewing that they would marry. And thus by luck she ended up in the right place in the nick of time. I might write out the evidence for that on Theoryland.

Does Tam know about trollocs and fades?

Yes, though he says only from stories, that he's never fought them.

'Stormfather' is from TWOK. But yes, everyone thinks of the Dark One as male, and also the Creator.

yeah but don't you think Demandred would be using the whole Andor hate method with the Murandian soldiers?

Yeah, but I doubt they would have gated in. More likely they'll attack from the outside.

It's most likely the Shadowspawn coming through the Waygate, though some of the 'mercenaries' might have been involved, maybe Hanlon and his crew.

I don't remember any of Min's visions of Thom. Did she ever have any of him?

Yes:

The strongest images around the gleeman are a man – not him – juggling fire, and the White Tower, and that doesn't make any sense at all for a man.

We also know indirectly that she had one of Moiraine and Thom.

Is Min's vision of Lan as a baby the only time she has a vision of the past?

It's a vision of the future, probably using symbolism of the past. In other words, she probably saw the oath he was given as a baby, and its importance for his future.

Is it me or does the laps in time have you confused from TGS and ASOL between Rand and Perrin... Tam does not leave Perrin until like capter 30??? in AMOL...

 

Am i missing something?

Just that the timelines don't match up between Perrin and Rand - Perrin's story was put on hold in TGS while Rand was advanced, so in TOM Brandon had to catch Perrin up. (I assume that's what you meant; not sure what ASOL would be, unless it's A Storm of Light, which is the chapter where Rand went to Maradon, and AMOL isn't out yet.)

Also, from the discussion above - the prophecy about "The two must be as one" - does that need to have anything to do with geography?

Yes.

For the red-veiled Aiel, see the FAQ in my sig.