Souls have to be eternal in the WoT:

Otherwise, if Channeler A balefired Channeler B, only for Channeler C to then balefire Channeler A, how would the Pattern reconstitute Channeler B's soul?

I don't think RJ and BS tried to do away with the lifespan idea at all,

There was constant conversation between Egwene and her closest intimates, once they learned the Oaths were shortening Aes Sedai lifespans. 

Don't get me started on literally NO ONE bringing up the ridiculous situation the 2nd Oath has become, though. Hundreds of intelligent, capable, strong-willed women, and they're all swearing away 10% of their lifespans to Prohibit them from doing something NONE of them have known how to do since sometime early in the Trolloc Wars!

Elayne kept taking the position that the Oaths don't accomplish their intended function, and that's fair, they don't. The existence of the 1st Oath has literally made the Aes Sedai the most famous deceivers on the continent. A common saying being: "The truth an Aes Sedai tells, is not necessarily the truth you believe you hear."

The 3rd Oath is conditional enough, that any Aes Sedai in an atypical neurological state can apparently convince themselves to see a target as belonging to a group they're allowed to weaponize the power against. Elaida's famous beating of Egwene being Exhibit A. 

Egwene finally decides that "Because Tradition" is the deciding factor on keeping the Oaths as-are. Something which really disappointed me at the time. 

The musical Amyrlins was another place Jordan commented on the Aes Sedai lifespan. The reader learns all those Amyrlins were murdered by the Black (Or the Red, manipulated by the Black), but the canniest, most experienced Aes Sedai enmeshed in White Tower politics apparently found nothing amiss with four women not even a century and a half old all died suddenly due to natural causes. (I guess the White Tower doesn't have a ranking Yellow doing frequent fitness-Delvings on the Amyrlin, the way we do Presidents med. exams.)

Even in a Memory of Light, Rand brought it up to Aviendha, while shower-weaving the both of them. That they used the power for so many things people would consider frivolous in the 3rd Age, because the long peace gave anyone interested the time to turn their hand to acquiring whatever knowledge they desired. He thinks to himself that Lews Therin was very much one of those people. He'd learn how to do something just to know how, then not actually use a specific bit of knowledge for decades. 

Elayne did bring up the point to Egwene that the Wise Ones and Windfinders weren't going to be binding themselves any time soon. That's when Egwene started putting forward her "Well, maybe sisters could retire into the Kin, and be freed from the Oaths."

I don't know how THAT would be supposed to work, since as recent as twenty years ago the White Tower destroyed the Channeler Coterie a couple Accepted began. (The Daughters of Silence). How women with Aes Sedai training, who would go merrily on outliving the women "Still in harness" would continue to see women a third their age as their nominal organizational superiors strikes me as a bit...problematic. 

Again, to say nothing of the men. We're clearly meant to think the male channelers have a significant future going forward. Min's Viewings of Logain, the Prophecies declaring Jahar Narishma the one to "Follow After the Dragon" etc etc. The saved refugees assuring Logain they'll send their sons to the Black Tower to be tested "To see if they have the gift."

It wasn't an issue swept under the rug, so much as left a little out of focus.  

I agree completely (About the Asha'man becoming more risk averse, in a post-LB world),

I just don't think people give the lifespan differences enough weight.

Checking the Companion, I discovered I was WAY OFF on maximum, not-subject-to-Binder-Oaths potential lifespans for strong channelers. 

Logain can be expected to live 825 years, with 850-875 being our equivalent of being in one's late eighties/early nineties, and 900 being like living to be 100-103.

Despite the overall strength difference, women near or at the female maximum, like Alivia, Talaan, Nyneave, or Sharina Maloy can be expected to live a bit longer than male channelers (IF Unbound/Not-Oathbound).

The WoT Companion also has hard data on the effects of the Oaths. Information that's posted on the Wiki. 

(1st Oath) Chops an Aes Sedai's lifespan in half. If she would have lived 650yrs (Reasonable for an Elayne/Egwene-strength female channeler), death would likely arrive at 325yrs. EXCEPT:

(2nd Oath) Reduces lifespan by a further 10%, and:

(3rd Oath) Reduces lifespan by a final 10%,

An Egwene-strength Aes Sedai who could "naturally" expect to live 650 years, will, subject to the Three Oaths, live to be about 263, or about what we see for the strongest Aes Sedai in the series. (Romanda, Lelaine, Cadsuane)

Look at the way Cadsuane looks at everyone around her like they're children. The Pattern being balance, it would seem they have a dose of that medicine coming to them, from still-vigorous 550-600 year old Asha'man. 

My intended and I recently began a re-listening of the entire WoT series on Audible, and I found this part extremely compelling. I remember there was some confusion, as to what exactly the Whitecloak contingent said to Perrin & Egwene, when one of the Whitecloaks spotted them hiding in the broken stone hand from Artur Hawkwing's statue, so here's the precise wording.

"You up there, COME DOWN! You will not be harmed, if you walk in the light."

(Perrin & Egwene neither move or respond, hoping against hope that the WCs aren't 100% sure someone IS up there, and Perrin's PoV makes clear his certainty that trying to run will just get them run down by men on horses. He looks at the lances the WC's torchlight is glinting off of, and imagines them being used on the two of them, should they try to flee.)

There's another couple second pause, then, and with nothing else said beforehand, "Throw down any weapons you have and SURRENDER, or you will be killed!" (In fairness, this second statement wasn't made with obvious audible malice, but it was shouted as an obvious escalation of the Whitecloak position, in response to Perrin & Egwene not budging from their now-revealed hiding spot. 

Not trying to carry out the entire debate again, but I remembered this thread when I listened to this part again.

That would be an extremely convenient way for a ter'angreal designed to control some of the worst people in AoL society to work. 

I think it more likely that time spent "Under Oath" is time where your "Extra Channeler Lifespan Years" are essentially running faster, while under Oath. Being released would cause a visible surge in vitality, as your lifespan essentially re-slows to your benefit. 

I also think it likely that there's a cost, hidden or overt, to serial re-use of a Binder. The ter'angreal was meant as one of the most serious possible recourses for a Channeler's crime (The Binding Chair being the same for non-channelers.) The idea was that being under one Oath would be a rare thing. We don't even have mention related to criminal not-yet-Forsaken ever being threatened with more than one Oath to control a single type of criminal behavior. 

Besides this, we have the physical experience to go by. The taking of an Oath immediately causes an oppressive "tightness," which increases to actual pain with the second Oath taken in rapid succession, and the tightness ratcheting "tighter," with the pain growing more intense with the 3rd Oath in rapid succession. The Ferrets (Rebel Spies sent into the WT to undermine Elaida) get all their Oaths removed by the Black Ajah Hunters, then all of the Three Oaths, plus a Fourth Obedience Oath bound to them at once. The PoV characters literally had to use the Obedience Oath to keep the Ferrets from howling due to the pain of going beyond Three Oaths. 

The intensification of pain as you increase strain on a human body in one specific way is generally accepted (with exceptions, obviously) as a sign that something bad is happening. 

How would you have even gone about testing what a Binder used to Bind a Channeler to multiple Oaths simultaneously would do to a channeler in the AoL, ethically, I mean? 

Cynically, if the AoL government did have means to determine what being subjected to multiple Oaths at once would do, would that government have even been interested in safeguarding the long-term survivability of people so viciously inhuman, it takes multiple simultaneous Oaths to render them safe for society to interact with? 

My intended has an interesting theory,

She thinks that the Stedding (suddenly or incrementally) expand from their present points radially, until they cover the entire surface of the Earth. (During those Ages where channeling seems to not be a thing.)

If you think about it, something like that makes a lot of sense. The power source of the very Wheel isn't liable to just "vanish" for millennia at a time, but if it effectively became unavailable from the perspective of all channelers, what would anyone who lived far enough from the point where the Stedding did their expanding think of the phenomena? 

Her theory would also explain why the Ogier even have a "Book of Translation" that apparently allows them to travel away from Earth to some other interdimensional location. If the Stedding are fulfilling a different function in other Ages, they may well not be fit habitations for the Ogier. The Ogier travel away from Earth, experience a reduction in population as the Longing kills off a bunch of them. The survivors breed, and eventually you have a population who have forgotten ever being dependent on the Stedding, who eventually are spurred in some way to use the Book of Translation to return (In their minds journey to) to Earth. Beginning the cycle anew for the Ogier. 

As to what goes on in other Ages. We know that one of the Wheel's most powerful ta'veren aside from the Dragon is Ameratsu, who appears in ages where a powerful feminine presence is needed as a counterbalance (There's a quote to that effect in a Memory of Light, as the various Heroes are being named, once Olver sounds the Horn.) 

Regarding the Asha'man, I think the most telling point, with respect to their interactions with Aes Sedai, remains the lifespan difference. If one organization regularly has people living four hundred and fifty to six-fifty/seven hundred, and the other organization's Methusalah-figure dies at 280-300, there is eventually going to be an absolutely mindblowing disparity of skill & power. 

Imagine someone with Logain's strength, and half-again as old as Lews Therin lived to be. 

There's also the Asha'man being innately much less conservative/risk averse. The WT has entire rooms full of devices they don't even allow anyone in the same room with. Whereas fatal training accidents are just a thing in the BT. 

Even accounting for far more casualties weakening the BT, some of those risks are going to pan out over time. How many Traveling-scale breakthrough rediscoveries do you need that are known how they can be performed with saidin, but not saidar, before the influence disparity reaches the level of the power/skill disparity? 

(Don't even get me started on the Aes Sedai not creating mobile Anti-Balefire fortifications out of sheets of once-iron/now-cuendillar as thin as could be reasonably smithed, prior to transmutation.)

OK,

I'm interested in tracing the evolution of how the One Power being some kind of immunizing agent against Compulsion was incrementally revealed. 

Any idea where you came by the information that lead you to that conclusion, @wotfan4472?

Not trying to be anal and expect a Book/Chapter/Page. A brief mention of the scene/conversation would be fine. I'm willing to do the legwork myself. 

Thanks in advance 🙂

The story about the Red Ajah setting up False Dragons.

That would have had a significant impact among that body of Sisters who were neither initially Loyalists or Rebels.

No one knows how an Aes Sedai can make the truth sit up and beg like another Aes Sedai, but by the same token, a Sister knows that when another Sister makes a cut-and-dried statement of fact in an unequivocal manner, there's none of the normal doubting a person might experience, because of the First Oath.

Remember that only a very few Aes Sedai caught wise to the fact Siuan and Leanne had been freed of the Oaths by their Stilling. Siuan took a great deal of pleasure in telling damaging lies about Elaida she knew others were taking for truth because they believed her bound by the First Oath. 

If the members of other Ajahs accept the proposition that Logain was induced to declare himself a False Dragon by the Red Ajah, and they seemed to take the charge seriously, given how they questioned him in such detail not only about his own experiences as a False Dragon, but about what Logain allegedly heard Reds say about this practice of setting up False Dragons being a long-running plot of the Red Ajah, well...

It becomes not merely a specific instance of the Reds betraying the Tower, but a historical series of centuries-long betrayals. 

That's the kind of thing that has Sister's asking, "Did we really only have to cope with the War of the Second Dragon, Hawkwing's pogrom, and then the Hundred Years War because the Red Ajah has been regularly stabbing us in the back over the past thousand years?"

The same period where the two times Red Sisters did ascend to the Amyrlin Seat, calamity followed.

Edit: Finally, remember the Red Ajah had just recently (In the view of time of Aes Sedai) been caught engaging in a conspiracy to Gentle men who could channel, without returning them to Tar Valon for trial first, as Tower Law demanded. 

A conspiracy that reached from the Highest of the Red Ajah, to their Sitters, and down to dozens of the Ajah's members that either participated in "The Vileness" personally, or became accessories (Like Elaida) due to their willful blindness. 

An Ajah that will flout Tower Law en masse about the reason for their Ajah to exist, may break the Law in any # of ways, might have gone the thinking.

Was listening to The Shadow Rising again on Audible, when I noticed this,

The scene in the tavern where the innkeeper comes in and tells Elayne & Nyneave a handsome, middle-aged woman gave their descriptions and asked if they were present. Elayne & Nyneave were attacked by would-be kidnappers in the previous scene, and fearing the inquiring woman might be one of the Black Ajah members they're hunting in Tanchico, Elayne embraces Saidar prior to the woman entering the common room.

Note that as the woman is entering, Elayne is actively channeling flows of the Power in preparation for the possibility of conflict. Moghedien enters the room, the glow of Saidar visibly surrounds here, then Elayne releases the power, and both she and Nyneave are all agreeable smiles. 

Compulsion in use, obviously. Moghedien outright says as much. 

Problem: We are told in Chapter 6 of Lord of Chaos that, "Holding the Power prevents one from being subjected to Compulsion."

The WoT Wiki cites a number of additional places where this "fact" is reiterated. 

What I'm wondering is if this early display of Compulsion in use precedes Jordan's visualizing the complete bounds of this weave, or if it simply slipped his mind. It was something of a reveal as to how Moghedien handles herself, so I wonder if he got so caught up in bringing into the light something that had been firmly handled offscreen up to this point, that it simply didn't occur to RJ that, by the rules he would later have more than one character announce as a metaphysical absolute, Moghedien's weave should have bounced right off Elayne. 

Now, I can already hear someone object, "Wait! Elayne released Saidar, THEN the Spider sauntered over and began interrogating her and Nyneave. Surely this means that Elayne rendered herself vulnerable?" 

I would respond by asking the immediate context of Elayne's thoughts and actions in the moment literally prior to her releasing Saidar. She was literally in mid-weave of "great, cable-thick strands of Air and Spirit." She was preparing to act the split-second the woman entering made a wrong move. I think it's therefore incontrovertible that Elayne was induced to release Saidar, by Moghedien. 

Thoughts?

On 12/31/2021 at 5:36 PM, Rogue One said:

 Is a turning where the DO wins possible / do we think it has happened?

 

Thanks to anyone who’ll take the time to read / respond!

On 12/31/2021 at 5:36 PM, Rogue One said:

This question is at the heart of Elan Tedronai's/Ishamael's/Moridin's motivation for turning to the Shadow.

 

Alone among the Forsaken, Elan didn't go over to the Dark One for the sake of ambition or a desire to smash the status quo for prohibiting his desired behavior. Instead, it was due to his being the preeminent scholar of metaphysics during his Age. Ishamael reasoned that in an infinite number of turnings on the part of the Wheel, the Dark One was bound to eventually escape. Essentially, one victory by the Dark One would be an eternal victory for the Shadow, whereas a victory for the Light just reset the clock, and gave the DO another chance to escape once the Age of Legends came round again.

 

The critical detail that Moridin missed, the one that Rand finally grasped atop Dragonmount, as the world's doom hung by a fraying thread, is that every possible permutation of concrete cause and effect had already been played out between the Light and the Shadow. The only thing that EVER changes, is how the reincarnated people think, feel, and act in the role that they play within their turning. 

 

The Wheel turns to give everyone a chance to correct past mistakes, and come closer to becoming their perfected self. That's why Rand could be absolutely confident in making the blanket statement to Shai'tan "So long as humanity does not kneel to you, we will always win. That's why you try to break us, rather than simply killing us when the opportunity presents itself. You need us to give up, and we never will. You lose, Shai'tan." 

 

I was paraphrasing there, but that's the gist. Elan looked into Eternity, and saw nothing but inevitability. Rand looked into the infinite, and he eventually zeroed in on the blessing afforded by cyclical reincarnation. Even the lowest wretch of one turning would always be given the opportunity to be a hero/heroine in the next. That's why the DO claims the souls of his minions. Their ruin is the closest thing to victory he'll ever know. 
 

 

Apologies,

First version of this reply didn't add much to the discussion.

I think one reason the "Clinging guilt over the WC deaths" issue gets under my skin so much, is the whole thing gets used as part of the vehicle to rehabilitate the WCs.

When I first read the WoT, I was really hoping the payoff of Galad's experiences with people who seemed on the surface to believe the "everyone should wholly be concerned with doing what is right/moral/proper at all times" ethos he was all about would be his finally realizing that life isn't and can't be black and white.

Not that his "Inner Righteousness" would apparently be so awesomely inspiring as to turn an organization of mass-murdering terrorists into Shining Warriors of Good. 

Galad's arc with the Whitecloaks felt like the absolute worst kind of SI-type Sue-ness, and the moment Perrin's lingering past with the WCs allowed the hands-down-worst element of the entire series to "Infect" Perrin's arc, I was so genuinely dismayed, I seriously considered not finishing the series. 

My suspicion is that Sanderson was given an almost entirely free hand with the resolution of the WCs, as applied to the approaching Last Battle, because RJ described the Whitecloaks as "A Spanish Inquisition analogue." I certainly never had the sense until ToM that anything but a bad end was intended for them.

It still bothers me, 

If you behave like a bandit, you get cut down like a bandit. A ruling like Morgase's means literally anyone can set themselves up as vigilantes wherever a ruler's guards-people are not, so resisting the demands of men who might do anything to unarmed captives becomes unlawful.

To say Perrin was guilty, is to say that the actions of the Whitecloaks were not inherently unlawful. 

It's a ruling that declares "The lawful course of action was to surrender yourself and the attractive young woman with you to the armed vigilantes. If you are beyond the claimed territory of a ruler, legal authority belongs to the largest, most well-armed band that happens to be passing through." 

I also choke on it a bit, when she and Elayne then get so prickly as ruler and ex-ruler about their authority over territory not traditionally occupied or seen to by the Andoran crown. The hypocrisy rankles, because Perrin could simply say, "I'm only enacting your ruling on a larger scale, Morgase."

That's ridiculous,

It's a dark night. You and the woman relying on you for protection have been given cause to run and hide from men with deadly weapons in hand. Men with no authority you recognize, who, having discovered your hiding place, do not behave like guards, thief-catchers, or soldiers. 

These men immediately threaten torture for noncompliance to their demands for surrender. Let's take the supernatural element out, and say that Perrin & Egwene were traveling with a pair of trained guard-dogs. When it becomes clear the men with swords will not relent in their demands, Perrin sets the dogs on them to try and drive the men away. He's trained these dogs personally and at length, so he can be confident the dogs will not go beyond his orders to threaten life-threatening injury.

The men kill the dogs without hesitation, then turn back to repeat their threat, only Perrin attacks, because he is both outnumbered, and must prevent one of the men from running over to put a knife to Egwene's throat. 

In a "generic fantasy setting" that would be Random Encounter: Fought off Bandits. 

Furthermore, months later, you discover the men you killed belong to an organization that really does grab people at swordpoint, torture confessions out of them, then hang their victims on the basis of these coerced confessions. 

Finally, you even discover the very fellows of the men you killed have gone to your home village to do more kidnapping, torture, and murder. Providing all the proof you need to know the men you killed really did mean to see you tortured for your noncompliance, because you have seen the members of their organization do the same many times, and heard second-or-third hand accounts of far more acts of kidnapping and murder. 

The fact that Perrin had a personal motive for the killings that is not itself a justification for lethal force, does not automatically prove he didn't have such a basis, even if it was unknowingly. 

As for Morgase: We see a number of cases where Morgase's pragmatism trumps her devotion to the law. Her decision to not eject the WCs which were very much an active threat to good order in Caemlyn, for one thing. 

I'm not sure the text intends for us to accept Morgase's ruling as evidence she is a "reliable narrator" of Andoran law in this circumstance, or it wouldn't go to such pains to show us that Morgase seems to spend more time on thinking about Perrin's & Galad's likely reaction to her ruling, than the ruling itself. 

Galad is presented as someone who "Always does the right thing" yet here we see him doing what the Whitecloaks have been doing the whole series. Invading other countries to force the WC position on good and evil on the people of other nations.

The Trial took place in Ghealdan, and Alliandre was Perrin's liege-lady. By all rights, Alliandre had every right to say "I am queen, I say this man is not guilty of any crime. Should my liege-lord enter the territory of another nation, you are of course free to take this matter to the leadership of said nation, but here you will desist in your attempts to undermine my crown by usurping the crown's authority in matters of law."

The fact that this option wasn't taken, was that everyone knew Galad would have had the Whitecloaks attack anyways. 

OK,

For all the debates I have ever seen on this topic, there are a few points I notice always seem to be either absent or downplayed. 

1) Nowhere in the text is there ever even the haziest implication that the Whitecloaks even have permission to be in any country besides Amadicia, and even there, the fact the king of Amadicia was considered a puppet of the WCs implies their "authority" in that nation flowed from threat of main force. 

There is certainly no implication that the WCs possess any more authority outside Amadicia than any other group of bandits or sell-swords. During the early books, when there's a high concentration of WCs in Caemlyn, Morgase's PoV certainly frames the problem with ridding Andor of the WCs is one of fear of their violent retaliation, or their whipping up a frenzied mob in Caemlyn itself. 

I make this point, because when people talk about Perrin killing the two WCs after they killed Hopper and the other member of his pack, they always seem to jump to the point "You can't kill people because they killed wolves" or "You can't murder people simply because they threaten you."

The problem with this, is it skips over a very important point. "What right did the WCs have to demand ANYTHING, of ANYONE, and what gave them the right to take anyone prisoner? (That's the most generous interpretation of the WCs intentions, had Perrin and Egwene immediately surrendered themselves.) 

From my perspective, it doesn't matter that Perrin didn't know he was an Andoran. Neither does his personal motivation matter. From the moment the WCs chased and made demands of fellow travelers under threat of force, they were effectively acting as highwaymen. "Stand and deliver!" being the demand of highwaymen. 

2) The "Impartiality" of Morgase: I don't doubt that Morgase believed herself to be impartial, but there were two incredibly strong factors biasing her against Perrin. The first (lesser) bias being the knowledge that an acquittal would almost certainly lead to a battle, and in that battle, her stepson would almost certainly be killed. The second greater bias, was her fear of Perrin's growing authority breaking away a portion of Andor from Elayne. We see her worrying about this a great deal, and Perrin being conveniently disposed of by means of this trial would resolve this problem neatly. 

3) Galad is an imbecile. He literally became the leader of the WCs because corruption was so endemic, not one Whitecloak captain was willing to trust one other Captain to have authority over them and their legion. To then turn around and accept the guilt of a man on the basis of a drunk and a fanatic, with one of their accusations being immediately, provably wrong, can only be described as willful blindness. 

Finally, and this is just an opinion of mine. After all the fear, committed murders, and destruction Perrin's personally witnessed the Whitecloaks cause, the fact he keeps belaboring his guilt over killing two men who intended (at best) to turn him over to torturers on the basis of personal opinion, made this plot-point one of the weakest/most infuriating in the entire series for me.  The 11th hour attempt to rehabilitate the WCs by implausibly making Galad their leader also grated on me. It was like Sanderson (or RJ, if this was in his bequeathed notes) was simply whitewashing all the evils perpetrated by the WCs as a terrorist organization. 

Thoughts?

Pardon my lateness, 

The future of the BT is an issue near and dear to my heart, as I regularly write post-LB fanfiction. Here are a few points I've given a great deal of thought to.

1) Nothing about the Last Battle, or any of the events leading up to it, has altered Aes Sedai hypocrisy concerning men who can channel.

Egwene and Cadsuane (The Aes Sedai we see on point to be raised Amyrlin as MoL concludes) share a single PoV. They considered the bonding of Aes Sedai by Asha'man an "abomination," even when the Aes Sedai in question had been sent to kill not only ever man who could channel they found at the BT, but all of the other people residing there. Other than the text making clear to us they're familiar with the mission Elaida dispatched under Toveine, neither Aes Sedai so much as recognizes that the Aes Sedai who ended up bonded were intending to commit mass-murder on a scale otherwise seen only as the actions of Shadowspawn. 

2) Rand's influence, even if he was willing to reveal his survival to the Asha'man, is at best nil with the Asha'man. He too ignored the fact an Aes Sedai raiding party came to do mass-murder. Going even further by bartering away forty-seven men as if they were his chattel, to appease the Aes Sedai. Every surviving Asha'man is absolutely aware the Dragon knew they were being preyed on by the Shadow, and he did nothing to help them. I would not be surprised if one or more Asha'man attempted to do him harm, were he to dare show his face among men he has treated worse than the Seanchan treat damane. 

3) Nearly every living Asha'man can Travel. This being the case, there is literally no advantage for Logain and his men to remain in a kingdom ruled by an Aes Sedai. A new Black Tower could be set up in the Mountains of Mist or the Dragonspine Mountains, because lines of supply can be continent-long without issue. The cavernous gap where the Aes Sedai queen of Manetheran scorched away the ancient country's capitol could be a usable location, as can anywhere else sufficiently remote and all but inaccessible without Traveling. Setting up beyond the jurisdiction of any crown is the Asha'man's easiest path to enduring independence.

4) Asha'man don't lose a huge portion of their lifespan via swearing Oaths on the Binder. There is also the fact that the stronger you are in the Power, the longer your total lifespan. Now that all the high mortality-rate battles/war is over with, the clock has begun ticking down to the century where the elite of the BT are 500-600 year old channelers, while the Aes Sedai continue to lose their best and brightest before their third centuries in many cases. 

5) The Wheel is Balance. For an Age, the women have been the dominant force. Not simply the Aes Sedai, but a top-down social influence where women occupying positions of highest influence was in many cases the norm. It won't be a sudden change, but for equality to come to pass over time, logically there must be an (eventual) reduction in the authority/influence of the White Tower. 

Egwene scooping up hundreds and hundreds of women who became novices implies there are heretofore untapped pockets of potential channelers. It's therefore reasonable to expect the BT's recruitment efforts will continue to show exceptional results for some time to come. Saying nothing of men who can channel living to father children will have its own impact over time. 

Just a few thoughts as to why the future of the BT is likely a very bright one. With a leader like Logain, who's been rather shabbily treated by the Aes Sedai, I think the days of the Asha'man playing nice and treating Aes Sedai with kid gloves are definitively over. Especially with an old-school anachronism like Cadsuane in the Amyrlin Seat.