Just checking in to see if anyone has heard anything?  I know it is a slow process but I am curious to see what stage they are at, if pre-production has started, etc.

I think (vaguely recall) Rand taking the Stone is one of the things needed to prove to the Aiel who he was. Without that they would have killed him or left him to die in the Waste (a dream, not prophecy though)

 

I think it's also possible that Couladin fitted into the remnant of a remnant prophecy they had, very unsure on that though

 

Also fighting Couladin ended up forming the band of the red hand

 

I know all this could have happened some other way, but there's also a ~standard build in terms of the strength of the enemy. The Aiel were the first battles the main characters really participated in directly (weird out of body experience in eye excepted, great hunt was more a duel than a battle (with horn heroes thrown in), etc.

 

I guess the progression as is makes sense to me

Yes, he was using the Dragon Reborn Prophesy as a checklist which Moraine sort of warned him was the wrong thing to do, that if he was the Dragon he would accomplish these things without setting out to deliberately do each one.  She also warned that the prophesy wasn't always what one thought it meant.

I don't remember the name of the village that Ingtar and the party reach in TGH, but the scene where Rand walks into the home and finds the interrupted meal, he seems to get caught in a time loop.  We know that Lanfear was following them, but has it ever been revealed as to what was happening?  Was that a trap that Fain created, or was it something that Lanfear did to him?  We know that Uno and his sharp eye spots her in a window but she traveled away either that village or another.

I think it would have been easier to move them out of the blight to the north than from Ogier stedding, but it is possible.  It is also possible Sammael used the portal stone outside of Rhudian and the trollocs followed the Aiel from a distance, but perhaps more than one method was used as Rand and the Aiel came across the stand that had been raided by trollocs ahead of them.  So from waygates, as that was the method RJ used early on in the books, and some coming down from the north?  The Draghkar certainly came out of the north.

Perrin was viewed as an emissary of the DR, though oddly enough Nynaeve was treated far better without all the suspicion and attempts to kill her Perrin endured.  It is curious. 

It was only slightly different than a regular bond which Aes Sedai can do, and the Ashamen have their own version for bonding their wives so they know everything is fine with them when they were gone recruiting or doing Taim's or Rand's bidding.

Tairen is from Tear, so you don't mean the Domani being protective, right?

 

Also did Jordan give any real details of horses' bodies besides the razor Mat inspected?

That's what happens when you go back and edit out a lot of stuff and then start over.  

My first instinct would be to say Green, but then thinking on it for a time Blue was close to the Green and I like mysteries and adventure.  However the lure of the research and discoveries the Browns pursued is highly tempting, but in the end it would be blue and I'd probably be really friendly with a bunch of greens and browns and learn their tricks and secrets.

Mesaana. I know Sylvie is often thought as Lanfear, but Sylvie's behaviaur always seemed beyond Lanfear. She was more arrogant. I then thought it Graendal, as much as I would attribute everything female Graendal, she has her interest in the west. I can't believe a major theory wasn't she wasn't Mesaana. It's just her. Of course she wasn't introduced yet, but she could do it. And she ended up ruling the tower.

Sylvie was Lanfear.  She prided herself in her looks, true, but that was a weakness she used as a strength from time to time, like when she posed as the fat merchant woman traveling the waste with Kadere and his wagons.  We really didn't know enough about Mesaana at the time and Graendal wouldn't have posed as an old woman, she was always very touchy about every little detail like we see when she and Sammael approach the Aiel with the fool boxes.  Moggy operated from the shadows where she likes to hide, and Semi was too busy in Seanchan.  Lanfear several times appeared to Rand and Perrin and even Mat to feel them out and tempt them and to amuse herself in helping them.

 

 

Sorry if I'm being dim, but I've seen it mentioned once or twice, but never any actual explaination - does it mean Faile's in line for the throne of Saldaea or something? (I'd assume she is as she's Tenobia's cousin...) Or is it something to do with Malkier?

 

The crown of Saldaea is the Broken Crown. I believe it's mentioned in the BWB, or one of the glossaries.

 

Tenobia has no heirs of her body.

 

Davram is her closest relative, and therefore her heir.

 

Faile is Davram's heir. If Saldaean law does not allow for male succession, Faile herself is Tenobia's heir.

 

We know that Fail has sisters, but I don't think we've heard about any brothers. We also know that Tenobia succeeded her father.

 

We know this because Muad Cheade was the Marshal General of Saldaea under Tenobia's father.

 

Thus, at the strictest, Saldaea has a male-preference cognatic primogeniture succession. However, my personal feeling is that eldest child inherits, making it absolute (aka equal) primogeniture.

 

Because Ethenielle is queen of Kandor, and her son, the one not killed in New Spring because he was in the south with his mother *because he was heir*, I think that the Borderlands, in order to prevent succession crises use absolute primogeniture, because the nature of the Blightborder is such that the heir needs to be trained from birth far more than any other country's heir.

 

This excludes Malkier, which seems to resemble the succession for the Holy Roman Empire, since it's elective - because the highest lords have to cast their votes - but with a preference in favor of the child of the previous monarch, since everyone basically acknowledges Lan even in New Spring when the lords or at least their heirs are still around. It's unclear whether Malkier ever had a queen regnant, as opposed to a co-ruler.

 

She has brothers.  She ran away from home because her two older brothers supposed to inherit the estates both died, and her younger brother was only 9 or so and Davram took him to the blight and she felt slighted so she ran off to become a hunter for the horn.

Ok I get the problem now. not so much how they got there but how they stayed hidden. 

 

I think that trollocs and shadowspawn in general are just really good at keeping themselves off the radar and tracking, because as Im sure you remember from the second book, They managed to sneak up on Fal Dara, and completely infest the place for some time before anyone even noticed there were freaking trollocs everywhere. It just seems unlikely since he always describes them as snarling beasts, but they seem to be pretty stealthy, and the Fades seem to be actually pretty intelligent. There are a few other situations where them having this skill makes sense (in the two rivers in book 4 for one), so I think if they wanted to tail rands group at a distance until striking at night I think they could have done it.

 

It seems like a real stretch since most of that group were Aeil, who are badasses and love killing shadowspawn, but I think thats just what we have to accept IMO.

I agree, the attack on Fal Dara was suspect, but we have indications that darkfriends had tried to saw through the hinges of a dog gate.  One of the borderlanders mentions it, about how the masses tore them to pieces when they were discovered.  However, the Keep was inside the city, and Rand identified in The Great Hunt there was no way in unguarded when he tried to escape the keep.  So they had to infiltrate the city, and then the keep grounds, moat, and outer wall, then the keep itself.  Of course Fain was caught trying to scale the wall, so...I believe that it was a little convenient all the attacks where shadowspawn are suddenly there attacking.  I chalk it up to early book-isms where RJ hadn't solidified his gateway physics yet of constructs dying if they passed through.  It made for a good book series though, and there were believable attempts to legitimize their appearance.  Darkfriends were also everywhere so they had to let them into the keep.  It is just a long stretch to believe a heavily fortified city and a keep both could be breached that easily without an alarm raised. 

Hey all!! I'm needing some assistance with a wedding ring. I'm getting married July 14th, and I had my plans for the rings fall through. So I want to make a 110% unique ring for her that is WoT themed. I wanna write on the inside "Shade of my Heart". I just want cool designs that would look good on a ring with sapphires.

 

Thanks for the help!

Call around to some of the small jewelers in your area, don't bother with any of the big name places who will just refer you out anyways or send out of house for a custom job.  They will get their middleman cut.  One of the smaller places might be able to help make the ring as a lot of their businesses do custom work in order to compete with the big name stores, or since they are in the business, they will probably know someone that can do the work and refer you to someone who does that type of custom work, especially someone that does Fantasy jewelry.  If you are on a budget, sit down with a reputable artist like maybe a tattoo artist that does fantasy ink and talk about what you want and see if they can provide the artwork/design sketches so you have something to show to the jeweler and go from there. It might cost you $50-$100 to sit down with them for half an hour or so, but that only gives you more bragging rights when it comes to having a true custom ring, especially if the artist is someone that has won a lot of awards.  Be prepared to pay for a custom ring though, the good ones are not cheap.

Another cost-saver is if you have some 14k jewelry lying around, some chains or an old ring the jeweler can use the gold in the casting of the new ring.  Or something sentimental like a grandmother's old ring that is too worn to repair to give it new life and really give your new ring some meaning.  If it helps, Royals used to recycle old defunct crowns and jewelry to reuse the gold and the jewels.   I would caution you against using someone on the internet as this type of a ring needs to be seen to in person, from the design to finished delivery phase so you don't lose time mailing items back and forth if something isn't right, which happens from time to time. What is in your head isn't always an identical vision, as the debates here have proven.  Hope this helps!

I always felt that Rand made that happen.  It felt like Rand seized that moment and rubbed it in the DO's face.  There was a spark of life left in Lan and Rand wove creation, possibly the first that had an effect on the real world and maybe gave Lan the strength to live, to rise and hold up D's head.  I mean...warder bond and all of Lan's badassery aside he'd just rammed himself onto a sword.  That's got to take the wind out of someone's sails.  The second instance of Rand weaving creation itself was when he lit his pipe which left the big question of where that came from and what it means.  

Of course another explanation might be his mild awareness of Nynaeve, and seeing her not showing any sign of feeling Lan die which meant the thread of their bond wasn't severed.

And I agree, Narg, that would have been a more fitting ending.  The cliche "horse gets struck with an arrow" was old back when Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves came out.  It was obvious it was a forced death.  The wonderful thing about being human is the ability to right that wrong in our own heads.

The trollocs were smuggled in by grain barge left covered and untended at the dock which one of the DF high lords ordered.  After the attack Thom brings these points up as a means to undermine the peasants' support of the highlords and make them start to think for themselves.  Lanfear's came in the back of covered wagons that were supposed to be another high lord's baggage train from his estate.  Her trollocs attacked the others.

Those attacks in the Waste by the shadowspawn are a little suspect, as you have identified.  They cannot pass through gateways, and the scouts would have seen a force shadowing them.  That leaves the ways, which we know large numbers cannot pass without immediately drawing the black wind, or one of the forsaken using portal stones in the area.  Given that we see them used later, and that the forsaken know how to hide their ability as well as how to invert their weaves to avoid detection, this seems likely.  We do see that on their way back from the golden bowl that the one stand had been raided, and the defenders were all gone, so there is a plausibility that the trollocs were coming down out of the blight, however one of the forsaken had to be driving the fades to make them force the trollocs south into "the dying land."  As to the scouts, perhaps darkfriends among the Aiel were volunteering in droves to scout to hide the presence of a bunch of hungry trollocs.  We do know that the darkfriends in the group attacking probably arrived through gateway for the attacks.

Just my thoughts on some of the breeds as I read and listened to the books.

Piebald=Paint, Appaloosa, or Spotted Saddle Horse

Tairen stock=Arabians.  I imagine these as the bloodlines are so protected by the Domani like in RL they were treated like royalty by Middle Eastern tribes.

Razor=The description put a zebra in my mind from the description of the sharpness of the cuts.  A fantasy created by Mr. Jordan with a Zebra in mind.  Paints were already taken as piebalds in my mind.

Ebou Dar stock=Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses for the races.

Bela= Gypsy Horse, a very shaggy cute one

Pips= Until I read the horse's description I actually thought pips was spotted black on white like dice.  But a nondescript brown horse could be one of many breeds.  A Warlander, or a Spanish-Norman or some other destrier or charger breed as Mat was a cavalryman and Pips could go through his paces and keep up with the best of them.

Grays=Calicos

Bela isn't a draft/clydesdale. In some years-ago thread someone pointed out that there are only two people in Emond's Field that actually owned draft horses.

 

Also yea.. RJ definitely stated a razor (a horse from Arad Doman, not Seanchan) was not a zebra... So I think the most accurate picture would be an American Paint with stripes instead of patches.

I'm not so sure.  The description of a pie-bald in my mind had a paint fit in perfectly.  If this wasn't the case then piebalds were appaloosas maybe? 

Yah, I meant the Aiel in that post.  My main point was for a people that are on the move all the time that don't approach towns or villages, where do they get their veggies for their endless supply of stew?  It was an attempt at humor.  But they do have old ones that tended the Chora cuttings, maybe they grow stuff in pots.

The thing is, we do not live in a world that males tore apart in the Breaking. The women here are this way because of the world as it was, and the mis trust between the genders that this event caused.

When we see Cadsuane enter the picture, it really puts the pettiness and bickering into perspective among the "younger" women and Aes Sedai.  She is stately and yet has her own quirks as she is somewhat of a bully and leads from a respect/fear balance.

Has anyone else noticed that although even though the Tower considered Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve to all be geniuses in things concerning the OP, Elayne seemed to be the least talented of the group? All three were remarkably strong and had different skills and weaknesses​, but somehow she had the short end of the stick when it came to practical application.

Nynaeve was the strongest, able to match Moghedien in raw strength and trying with a past Amrylin as the strongest woman to call herself Aes Sedai since the AoL, only had to be shown a weave once, and was unmatched as a Healer amongst female channelers. Egwene was an amazingly fast and dexterous weaver and was unmatched in her ability to innovate and create new weaves as needed (her ability in this area even amazed Elayne and Nynaeve), and also , like Nynaeve, was equally strong in all five Powers (something that was almost unheard of), and, due to being forced by the Seanchan, was gaining her strength that had never seen before.

 

Where does that leave Elayne? True, her potential matched Egwene's, but in actual strength Egwene haf far surpassed her. She was a quick weaver, but admitted that Moiraine probably could weave faster in her sleep. Egwene was supposedly only average at Healing (although she was good enough to impress the First Weaver of the Yellow Ajah), but Elayne could barely Heal a bruise. Other than her strength, her sole claim to fame was her ability to make ter'angreal, which admittedly​ hadn't been seen since the AoL, but the other girls each had done something that hadn't been since since the AoL. Is just me, or waz she kinda the 3rd wheel? Even Aviendha had some unusual abilities... Does anyone else agree?

She had amazing talents in both creating Ter'angreal and in figuring them out to a point.  Avhienda was far better at reading Ter'angreal and puzzling out their uses.  Perhaps she came across as lesser as you read because of her mannerisms and high airs from being highborn and the daughter heir of Andor?  All had their strengths as well as their quirks.  Elayne pushed the boundaries, became a great leader that her people needed, as well as had the foresight to realize that what Mat offered in the form of the Dragons would secure her seat of power for quite a while.  She was an incredible negotiator for one so young bringing the Kin into the fold, the Seafolk Windfinders, and had her part in correcting the weather.  Lots of other accomplishments once you get past all the bath scenes, lol.

Yeah, I never got that whole thing. Like did Nynaeve really get that messed up mentally by Aginor specifically that having to fight him was one of her worst fears? that didnt make a whole lot of sense. 

 

I just assumed that the "greatest fears" thing was just inaccurate, or maybe the ter'angreal reacted differently for Nynaeve than it usually did. 

 

Thats because I didnt see how the thing would be any good test to become Accepted if it did work as they described. Like you said, what would it prove just to have to face your fears? especially since the 3 trials end with you leaving. The whole great, meaningful part of the second two doors was that she had to leave to pass/survive, but leaving in both was psychologically hard for her. If you were facing your greatest fears, like, say, being in the Ocean alone surrounded by sharks, and you suddenly saw a door appear, any sane person, shawl worthy or not, would immediately go for it. It almost makes me think like there was some description of it that I missed, because facing your fears and then running from them is just dumb. Not to mention none of Egwenes trips through the arches had anything to do with actual fears. They were all situations like Nynaeves last two. Both great at proving your commitment to the White Tower, but both having nothing to do with "fears".

Her fear that resulted in facing Aginor stemmed from her desire to protect Egwene and the boys and to take them back home safely.  She was still battling with being the wisdom and in trying to become strong and skilled enough to make Moiraine "pay" for her part.  This leads to the second which mirrors LOTR when Frodo looks into the Elven bowl and sees the Shire burning.  She wants to protect her village and this fear shows her failure to do so.  The third vision with Lan builds on the previous two.  How can a wisdom protect her people, her village, and still marry?  She secretly had these desires which later came out as seeing herself as a woman over time.  We see this with the dresses.  All the talk and POV of the dresses and their supposed indecency which she grudgingly accepts as a disguise and later secretly comes to enjoy wearing while thinking of what Lan might like to see her in.  POV's from Elayne (iirc) observes that later on she is merely giving lipservice to her displeasure over silks and the different cuts from Tanchico and Ebou Dar.  These fears allow her to cowboy up eventually when it came to Moggy.  Too bad there was all the sniveling with Birgitte, after what happened.  She just needed the courage to believe in herself that she COULD do these things.

Wow, I'm gone a week and come back to find I missed the Big Announcement by four days!  This is great!  Whether you are for the tv series or against it, remember that it will expose new people to this wonderful series who will become avid fans and readers like us.  I had to check the date just to make sure that it wasn't a sick April Fool's joke.  I am so excited!

there's nothing magical about rand's pipe,lol,rand returned from the last

battle with the ability to alter reality,the same way wolfbrothers or dreamwalkers

manipulate tel'aran'rhiod,only,he can do it in the real world,this is of course

my personal opinion,there are many more theories regarding  how rand

lit his pipe,if you want to learn more,just read rand's arc,half of the posts

in that thread are about his pipe.

You made a good comparison!  I've tried to describe that many times and wind up with about two paragraphs.  Nice job.  I am very convinced of this from Rand's wrestling the ribbons of the pattern from the DO and spinning out his own version of worlds.  He touched reation itself and now can influence it, not needing the OP any longer, at least for minor changes.

It seems that Jordan wants to write strong, resilient woman but I'm not sure he knows how. Instead of capable and discerning, most of the women come across as petty and stubborn. In my experience, women can be "cattier" but we certainly aren't as petty or ridiculous as Jordan portrays. It's very insulting and irritating that the women are constantly bungling and stumbling about. Their advancement seems to be a matter of luck and happenstance as opposed to purpose.

 

It makes me wonder about Jordan's relationship with women. Whenever I'm in a coed meeting, I find the women much more reasonable and willing to compromise and communicate.

You must never have seen a show called Jerry Springer.  

Yes, anyone killed with Balefire will comeback.  The DO can't bring you back because he can't locate the soul, since you actually died before you died.  To bring someone back he has to know when you died.  But with balefire he has no idea if an hour of what you did is gone, five minutes etc.   So as the DO said he would need to step outside of time to get the soul.  Basically what you did in that life is damaged but your soul is still out there to be reborn one day since you aren't removed from the pattern.  My guess this is sort of a failsafe device so no one can try to balefire everyone out of existence. 

 

I found this example in another topic on balefire:

 

But they aren't removed from the pattern, their thread merely burns backwards a bit. Think about touching a shoe string with a lighter. Balefire is not the final death...their soul will still be reborn.

This could be another example of mistaken information much as the Aes Sedai with all their lore were wrong about the Horn of Valere and their fear the Shadow could summon the Heroes if it fell into their hands.  At worst, they could only deny its access to the Forces of Light for the last battle.  So it is up in the air whether Balefire actually removes a soul for good, and whether dying in T'A'R is a final death as well.  After all, Hopper came back in beast mode when the horn was sounded, and he had died in TAR.  Lots of loose ends for us to ponder.  These are some I agree didn't need to be tied up.

But the abilty to channel is tied to the soul.  So technically if the creator was allowing people to use the OP, he could give it or take it away.  The DO can give or take away access to the True Power, but you never seen anyone being denied acess to the One Power.  Just like the pattern spins out the souls when needed, the creator doesn't.  So for me it wouldn't make sense for the creator to not at least try to limit the forsake access to the one power.

There are ages where the OP vanishes entirely and is forgotten, which mean that the souls of sparkers never manifest