I would shy away from calling myself a writer as I have never managed anything outside of Nanowrimo, but I came across a program called yWriter. It is just a word processor more or less but it has some nice touches like allowing you to put the point of view, characters, setting, outline and such per scene or chapter. So you can for example check that your main character's pov has more words than a secondary character, and you can generate an outline by only showing each chapter's, etc, and it is just useful to have all that info without having it in a separate document or in the main narrative either. Each chunk is separate so you can move them about while looking at the higher info, such as pov and word count. It is free to use and it is an author who just shares the tool that he uses. It is still being kept uptodate and may have more features now as I haven't used it in years and years. You can find it here if you think it sounds interesting yWriter8 by Spacejock Software

I am prone to towering rages myself, but for me I find that rage is a destructive and unhappy emotion. At least it is in me. It is the negation of all the things I hold dear and cherish - kindness, empathy, reason, logic, love, self-sacrifice, humour... perhaps you can control your emotions better than I can. Now mad fancies I can get more behind.

I'm sorry but... what exactly is the question?

Welcome to Dragonmount, Zev! It is a story that grabs you and doesn't let go, burn my bones to ash if it doesn't. Even my aged Grandmother says so 🙂 As for how to contribute - you could start a re-read thread so as to share your personal experience as you go along, browse through the years and years of book discussions, and we have Social Groups where you can hang out and have fun with other users and even a role play section for creative writing set in the Westlands and beyond that is going through something of a restart at the moment. Pretty much how ever you would like to engage. There is also a Discord channel if that is more your thing where people engage more in the wider WoT world of content creators, rewotch different series and films, and whatever those fine people actually get up to. Appears to feature heavily in memes, from where I am sitting. Hope you enjoy your time here and have fun with your reread 🙂

Welcome to Dragonmount, Coursouvra 🙂 Always great to meet a fellow fan 🙂 I hope you enjoy your time here. The role playing section is at the bottom of the forum list and is currently going through something of a restart. It would be great to see you there.

Actually I've just remembered the bit I was thinking about the Wisdom being elected was actually Nynaeve's arches where the Wisdom had convinced the women to convince their husbands to vote for Cenn for Mayor. Was it Cenn? Hmm. I was misremembering that that was how the evil Wisdom was elected, but actually it was her controlling who was Mayor. My bad. Anyway, maybe I'm misremembering that the Wisdom is elected. But as that may be, she still has rightful authority.

I see. I had not realised that they would have let them burn down the inn if they had insisted. Obviously I misunderstood. I'm pretty sure the Wisdom is elected by the Women's Circle. You aren't suggesting that isn't democratic, are you? Nor are you commenting on all the corporal punishment of children and women. Yes in real life physical violence is terrible. This is a story. A story where Nymaeve's character is displayed partly by her propensity to hit people with a stick for not obeying her authority which is entirely in keeping with their societal norms. Indeed one can say she is only noticeable because she is a woman hitting men. And if people in Emond's Field didn't want hit, they only had to not disrespect her, more or less. If you want to call that victim blaming, be my guest.

Of course not. What I am saying is that she had an important function and deserved respect that she wasn't given. Because that respect was necessary for her to perform her role. What I am saying is that they share some of the blame for it being necessary. Now obviously in real life, I would be looking at this differently, but in a world that among other things is choc-a-block full of corporal punishment, and has a literal personification of evil - I'm quite happy saying they should be respecting her democratically elected authority without the need of a stick. I seem to remember that the Mayor was not above threatening people with Master Luhan's muscles if they did not behave. I don't see this, in the context of the story, as anything different - especially as it is more about character building than justifying physical bullying - which is kind of a thing throughout the story, especially for young women.

And indeed, if you look at how many people were only respecting her in as much as they didn't want whacked with her stick rather than respecting her authority it is difficult to lay the blame entirely on her.

I think for me (though I admit I've not thought about this a lot so maybe I'm being a bit hasty) but the issue often is not that each story arc needs an obstacle, it is more that the story due to its scale (or Jordan's preference perhaps) resists overcoming the obstacles so the arcs seem to often hit dead ends when they come up against something that cannot be solved until the last battle or is an important story element like the machinations of a particular forsaken, for example. Like for example how Couladin is fairly quickly dealt with but the Shaido linger for quite some time as they are needed for the general plot of chaos being wrought across the Westlands. Or how some nations continue through rebellion/forsaken control/Rand-skepticism for so long, because if Rand too quickly gets their support the story runs out of obstacles for the main narrative.

The Three Oaths specifically forbid and prevent using the One Power as a weapon. Liandrin could act so because she was a Black Sister, not because she was Red. The story certainly has no shortage of unpleasant female characters. But "toxic masculinity" is a much misused term. It does not apply to anything masculine that is toxic or implies that masculinity is toxic in and of itself, but is a term from the Mythopoetic Man's Movement, which sounds, er, interesting. It refers to masculinity that is damaging to the man himself in particular and men in general more than to other people, as I understand it at least. Perhaps you more meant misogyny and misandry where definitely among the Black/Red Sisters there is a healthy (that is, vigorous - slipping into Scots English - not positive in anyway) hatred of men apparent in all their shapes and flavours.

That is not true, Caelan. All that is needed is a concept of the greater good that can justify any lesser evils. Nationalism and patriotism provide that, but so do things like "protecting children", unfortunately people are amazingly good at justifying horrors and religion is far from the only culprit. If I may be so bold as to touch back upon the Wheel of Time (off topic as that is, lol), it is the rejection of the greater good by Rand that so impresses Ingtar. Yet at other points, Rand brings war and destruction for the greater good of peace. It is a complex issue, but can be far too easily abused.

I don't think Jordan ever tried to create a matriarchy (except in Far Madding of course). He is quoted as trying to make all his societies as balanced as possible, and was shocked that others saw something different. There is no reason to think that Jordan was trying to counter balance any sort of real world religion. He was writing a novel, not making a comment on religion or trying to push back in any way. So I'm afraid I would have to disagree that Jordan was making his books matriarchal or that they were in any way some kind of counter point to anything in the real world, much less religions.

As far as I remember from Verin's explanation, not only is TAR not like the portal stone realities, it is a constant in all these "trouser legs of time". Along with the imprisoned Dark One, the only constants. Which makes no sense really. Why does Egwene or Perrin ever meet their infinite portal stone doppelgangers? Why isn't it neck deep in wolves? What would happen if a Shadow-aligned ta'veren got into TAR? If each reality has its own TAR - how does Verin call that a constant? Very loose with their terminology, these Browns. You can tell she isn't a White.

Moggie also survives. She is a survivor that one.

I have to agree I'm amazed at how much has survived rather than how little. The only issue I have with the Brown Ajah is that their raison d'etre doesn't relate to channelers at all. Also the Whites. While the Gray Ajah can draw on the authority of the White Tower, their personal power and the Three Oaths, the only thing that I can think of that helps is their longevity, giving time to really become experts. While of course this doesn't stop Aes Sedai being the librarians and researchers of the world, where are the muggles that are helping them? Why is there not a whole infrastructure of scribes and researchers and investigators, etc., to support the Brown Ajah in their mission? Sadly I can think of only two answers, one, they are only interested in knowledge that will be bound to the Tower, not knowledge for it's own sake. Two, the whole concept of balance. The more they have their... er, stuff together, the worse things like Hawkwing's siege and the Trolloc Wars have to be to balance it out. The greater the order they preserve, the greater the damage wrought by the Lord of Chaos must be.

While you could argue that the sisters are too worried about leaving the Tower as that might affect their Ajah's influence, we never really see it that bad. There are no democratic votes or force of arms needed in general. In the early books we hear about "the Warders" scouting and keeping an eye on the Blight. But that doesn't really seem to be carried forward in any meaningful way. It seems strange that the Aes Sedai would not be more involved in the Blight border. Agelmar even says one Aes Sedai is worth a thousand troops. Indeed it is kind of weird that no one helps the Borderlanders at all to the extent that most of the people they are protecting don't even believe in the Blight or Shadowspawn.

The hour of my death thing is, how can I put it?, dumb. Yes, it gives an "aaaah" moment to the reader, but it doesn't really make sense. Especially where a Black Ajah member could realistically expect to be executed if caught, that the Oaths would stop working for the hour before their inevitable, inescapable and alloted execution makes no sense. It isn't a "no one could ever have thought of this" moment, it is only a "I bet a reader never thought of this" mechanic. But not terrible. One can assume no real darkfriend would try, and no one but darkfriends would be admitted to the Black. But still... Why even gave Oaths if it is so unimportant? But yeah, Verin is awesome. She is troubling from the start. How she pushes her way into Mother's secret confidence, how she destroys knowledge about the world of dreams and dreamers, and obviously isn't playing straight when she gives the Wonder Girls info that points straight to Ebou Dat as if it was random nonsense. She uses compulsion on those loyal to the Tower (or only darkfriends?), and she is on Rand's side all the time a way few are. She is great, but the denouement was a little lacking. Inescapable Oaths should not be so easy to get around, imho.

There is the point that his swelling form was an illusion. The details are slightly hazy to me at the moment, but I think the boys slash at him but hit nothing. He though is trapped there, losing his temper and killing them (even if that form can do so) does not help him at all. Mat escaping with the dagger was a way out, and even if Mat had for example dropped it, them surviving to tell tales of a crazy guy offering roomfulls of gold to travellers could easily entice more greedy less clever people there to infect. So it would be actually in his interest to protect them from Mashadar, not feed them to it. Though... How did the stupid and greedy Trollocs not free him? Why did he not trick them? I guess Mashadar could not resist attacking the evil it was created to combat. Or something...

Which video game is that?

I think they were more concerned with politics. And hopefully good politics. Like when Suian chewed up Byrne so that he would leave a Murundian noble alone who would hopefully unite the country, which would stop them all squabbling and wasting their resources fighting. And I can imagine they might work against "bad" rulers. But I would guess their focus would more be on unity and strength against the Shadow, rather than straight forward social justice. Though maybe they noticed that keeping populaces happy was a good way to stop people turning to the Shadow. But I don't remember any evidence they worked against the High Lords of Tear despite their abuses of their subjects, for example, though of course they were antagonistic to the Tower and were important to the Prophecies. But most of the Ajahs are a bit dodgy when you look too closely at them.

I think the Red are given an unfair press. I think given their obvious opposition and trepidation to Rand, Jordan plays them a bit heavily into the villain category. I get their distaste for Warders, as it plays so nicely into opposition with the Green, but it is a little strange as they would need someone watching their back. I guess you could say that Warders are protecting from mundane sources of danger, where the Reds need protection from the One Power more so need help from Sisters. They also are manipulated by the Black rather easily with Elaida and the illegal gentling of men around Rand's birth (the discontinued Thom's nephew story line). Which I suppose is both a criticism and a softening circumstance. They shouldn't have been that easy to manipulate and they were not really that bad of their own accord. Pevara was a welcome addition to the Reds. And Silvianna, to be fair, to make them more relatable. Though one of the worse criticisms of the Reds for me is that Cadsuanne was the most successful male channeler hunter. Why have an Ajah dedicated to that purpose if a bored and insufferable Green is going to be more successful singlehandedly?

It wasn't a list on merit 🙂 Mehmet is something of a hero to me. I was a huge fan of Alan Savage as a young man (a pseudonym of Christophe Nicole iirc) with such titles as Ottoman, the Eight Banners and Moghul, and while his books centre on English imports into the narrative I think they are fairly historically accurate. Don't think I have Ottoman in my collection (was a library kid) but have picked up a few since. And I'm sure there is a whole bunch of interesting historical figures I haven't touched on. My brain was obviously busy with Japan if you look at my examples. Not that there is anything wrong with that, the Sedoku Jidai is a fascinating period of history, but there are many many many such eras around the world. Sadly. When you think about it.

Hawking is one of the many many Arthur references. Based on a lot. Caesar still was instrumental in the creation of the Principet. So his legacy lived on, not least in the Kaiser, Tsar, etc. Alexander's empire collapsed, thanks a great deal to Alexander allegedly (to the strongest). So that rings true here. But there are many. Sun Tzu. Takeda Shingen. Oda Nobunaga. Charlemagne, Alphonso of Portugal, Mehmed II of the Ottomans, Tokugawa Ieyesu, the Zulu commanders Napoleon, etc.

I have never heard of him, the poor bloke.