Does that mean I have four daggers now? *hugs Lily* *stab* *stab* *stab* *stab*

*stabs with his other hand*

There is indeed a "my" in there! Now, can you guess what the rest may be? _A__ UP MY _O_Y _EN Letters guessed so far: A E I K M N O P R S T U W Y Still 6 notches.

*stabs wildly*

"Y" is a good choice, the two other letters not so much. Only three more notches to go! 🤭 _A__ UP _Y _O_Y _EN Letters guessed so far: A E I K N O P R S T U W Y 6 notches

"P" is a good choice, as "S" was already guessed. There is a "P" in the phrase. I'll start keeping a list of already guessed letters in my post, to make it easier for people to participate. _A__ UP __ _O__ _EN Letters guessed so far: A E I N O P R S T U There are 4 notches in the coffin

Ryrin already guessed T a while ago. Do you want to change your guess?

Aye, there's a "U" _A__ U_ __ _O__ _EN

There is an "O" and "N", but no "S". We are up to 4 notches. _A__ __ __ _O__ _EN

There's an "A", but no "T" or "R". My, but you are ratcheting up those notches quickly. 3 notches. _A__ __ __ ____ _E_

There's one "E" but no "I". That's one notch. ____ __ __ ____ _E_

I feel the comparison Siuan made to her uncle, who said he was no hero but died trying to save some kids from a burning house is just a perfect parallell to Mat. I feel he had it in him even then, but kinda grew more into it throughout the series.

For sure! The rules will be as stated in the OP, a phrase of up to five words in the Old Tongue or English, one guess per person between each update by me, and if you guess wrong nine times I'll slaughter you all. The phrase to guess is: ____ __ __ ____ ___

This is from the website of a big supermarket chain, you can basically buy it at most supermarkets here in those small 250 ml cartons. I like the fattier coconut cream over the less fatty coconut milk, but I think both would work.

I definitely agree with this. I am currently listening to the audiobooks, and at the end of them there is an interview with Robert Jordan where he basically says the same as you do in your penultimate paragraph about reluctant heroes. I looked around for a transcription of that interview, and what he says is: "And then finally there was the thought about something that happens in Tolkien and a lot of other places. The wise old wizard shows up in a country village and says, "You must follow me to save the world." And the villagers say, "Right then, guv, off we go!" Well, I did a lot of growing up in the country, and I've always thought that what those country folk would say is, "Oh, is that so? Look here, have another beer. Have two, on me. I'll be right back. I will, really." And then slip out the back door." Which I find kinda hilarious. I think there is a lot of understated humour in how he presents some of the characters and their conflicts, though perhaps sometimes he takes it a bit far or exaggerates their differences too much. And some of the conflicts are just terrible. Yes, I am looking at you Perrin and Faile... I think the biggest issues I had / have with the books are not the characters, which I for the most part really like, but that the plot just grew too big and sprawling. I kinda get that it was necessary in order to create the big epic tale, but in my opinion there were just too many threads in the end, and no good way to get them all resolved.

Nah, I read the books for the first time in the 90's and have reread most of them several times, especially the earlier ones! I did give the TV show a try, but it didn't really resonate with me and I quit watching after the 4th or 5th episode... As for your other questions, it's a bit more tricky. Well, the last one is not that tricky - the Black Tower is all about awesome wizards, ofc it is interesting! Hmm, what stood out for me as different about the Black Tower in the books... I guess it was somewhere which was quite brutal - they needed to train those Asha'man in time for the last battle, and damn the consequences. It also explored some interesting sides of how the cooperation between men and women should happen, even though I seem to recall there were some icky sides to that as well as part of the bonds created were more or less compulsion? Tbh, some of the details elude me, as it's been several years since I last read those books, and I am not quite up to that part in my current audiobook journey. I don't really know what it could do to distinguish itself from the other social groups. As it is I don't really see *that* big of a difference between the other ones either, except that Shayol Gul is all about stabbings, the Kin seems to be have one chit-chat thread which has a lot of food-talk this season, and the White Tower has a ton of sub-groups which all seems to be pretty into RP lite? What I did notice when I clicked into the Black Tower forum was that the latest non-stickied post was from ~6 months ago, which makes me think there is probably not much point in trying to engage with this group. So pretty much any activity will help. Maybe just a simple forum game like the hangman like thing which was set up in Shayol Gul last week, which creates an easy way for new members to interact with the community. I'm sorry I don't have any more concrete ideas, I'll try to think on it a bit more, but I don't think there are any really easy solutions... Oh, and to make a quick reply to the first point in your post - I don't feel like anyone should feel bad for not participating enough, or doing their part. I assume the whole point of creating the different social groups is to create a fun community, and part of that is not making participation stressful or a chore which needs to be done. Just my 2 coppers.

Well, you fry the cauliflower for however long you want - the point is getting a bit of a maillard reaction going on it, instead of just having it boiled. I guess it can be somewhat tricky to get it completely soft without burning it, but I like my veggies a bit crunchy anyway 😁

Well, to give you the perspective of a newcomer, the reason I haven't made any posts on the Black Tower sub-forum is that it looks pretty dead, so it's a bit of a vicious circle I guess. That said there doesn't seem to be a ton of activity elsewhere either, so I guess it might just be a case of the forum population not being big enough to support the number of sub-groups which are currently active? I could be mistaken of course, I've only been a part of this forum for a very short time, but I feel the OP is probably right in it going to be quite a challenge bringing in new members given my overall impression of activity on the boards. Please feel free to remove this post if this is supposed to be a discussion mainly among the current members of the Black Tower.

Woohoo! I won! ... Does this mean I am the Dark One now? 🤔

If you people are still interested in more stew and soup recipes, I made one yesterday which I was really happy with. Maybe more of a curry, I'm not good at categorising one-pot meals. Ingredients: 400 g sweet potato (diced) 1 onion (diced) 1 tbsp shredded ginger 1 chili (cayenne) 2 cloves of garlic 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp turmeric 1 tbsp garam masala 2 tomatoes (roughly chopped) Juice of 1 lime 1 box of coconut cream (I think about 250 ml, but I can't quite recall) 1 box of chickpeas 1 bouillon cube (vegetable) 1 cauliflower Chopped cilantro Cashew nuts Directions: Fry the sweet potato and onion until it gets a bit of color, then add ginger, chili, garlic and the spices and fry for another minute Add the chopped tomato and lime juice and let it reduce a little Add the coconut cream, chickpeas, and stock cube and let it all simmer for 15 minutes While the pot simmers, chop the cauliflower into bouquets and fry them a little in the pan. Do the same with the cashews. Add the cauliflower to the stew, and serve with the roasted cashews and chopped cilantro as garnishes. You can serve it with a bit of rice or bread if you don't feel the stew in itself is filling enough. It's a bit of chopping and frying, but I was really happy with the result!

Ow! *stabs right back* Glad to be part of the group 😬

Ah, that does make sense. I was wondering if it was a certain book series or anything like that, and just couldn't wrap my head around it 🙂

Could you let me in please? Or will I have to pick the lock? 😈

Nah, I got throught it fine, although I must admit I just skimmed the parts I felt didn't apply to me - such as how to switch ajahs and so forth. One thing you may want to be aware is that the welcome post links to a locked thread about the rules - it seems you have created a new one, which was in the email I got from the Mistress of Novices, but it lead to me not signing off on having understood the rules until after having gotten the email. Ofc, just poking around the forums should have led me to the newer thread too, but it was similar enough to the old one that I thought I'd already read it... Anyway, just a little heads up! Welcome Sarah! I am in a pretty similar situation to you, I think I must have read the books for the first time in the late 90s too. One difference is that I was disappointed enough in the final books that I swore off Sanderson forever, but maybe his own series are better than the effort he made at writing tWoT? Maybe I'll have to reconsider reading some of his works... Also, what is FF an abbreviation for? I've been twisting my head trying to figure it out, but I just can't do it!

Thanks 😁