Question: Upto and including ToM, how much do the Ashaman know about TAR as a group? Obviously Taim knows enough to use a Dreamspike, but have they officially been taught anything? Reason I'm asking. The DS has not been disabled when Rand sends Naeff. BUt it is possible that even if Taim has been beaten, Ashaman loyalists may not even know about the existence of TAR, let alone how to reach and disable a DS. The bonded AS know nothing about TAR except vague rumours *they are not Blacks and they're from Elaida. Pevara & Co also know zilch.

The Shaido references are from KoD. Silversmith is TSR or TFOH

Silversmiths get a day off / week to work if they are taken gai'shain. Also see how the shaido treat wetland smiths.

It is one of those puzzling details, which is difficult to believe when you think about it.
The Athan Miere have natural curiosity as mariners, which means that Sea-folk ships do head towards Seanchan (western Aryth Ocean)
The Seanchan have serious naval forces and deep-sea competence.
This should have gotten them into (perhaps hostile) contact long ago.

The Seanchan and sea folk apparently don't trade.
Shara and the Sea-folk do.
Shara and Seanchan apparently do trade - silk and elephants (even if sre'dit boarhorses don't come from Shara, a Seanchan keeper knows enough about Shara to pretend they.do.)
Even though the Shara continent curls around to the Western side of Seanchan, we've never seen Shara ships in any Westland port  - they seem to conduct all their trading either via the Aiel or the Sea-folk.
So how do the Seanchan exchange goods with Shara if not via sea-folk ? (Edit: Assuming there's no land causeway between continents and also assuming that Seanchan doesn't use its ships to trade with Shara while strictly focussing on invading Westland )

Also how did the Seanchan send their spies over before they sent the Hailene if they didn't seek passage on Sea-folk ships?
Did they land them stealthily while waiting offshore or something or just tell them to fan out all over after they landed at Falme?

FWIW don't think the subject of saidin affecting women in mixed circles has simple answers.
Someone create a dedicated thread? 

I had some questions on Ajah / AS internal democracy.

Each ajah votes its leader whose ID remains secret outside the Ajah ?

Each ajah leader appoints two sitters (which may or may not  include herself) in the Hall?

The Hall appoints new amyrlins as and when required.

How much leeway do sitters have to make decisions when matters are raised in the Hall including the raising of a new amyrlin or do they always vote a whip from the ajah leader?

Given that sitters/ leaders are appointed for life and this could be very long, doesn't the secret ID of the ajah leaders eventually seep out into public domain?

I mean AS normally defer on the basis of strength and seniority. It would eventually be noticed that somebody who wasn't necessarily the strongest or oldest member of her ajah got unusual amounts of deference.

I think most of these questions are addressed in the text - would be obliged if somebody offered apposite quotes.

Worth recalling that the actual time period of AMoL wont be very long. It takes maybe months (?) of training for a new channeler to develop control and use the OP usefully. So even if there are potential channelers around above, they won't influence the AMOL action with their channeling. 

IIRC Luckers once culled a quote to show that channelers (not potential channelers but somebody who hs already embraced the source) are immune to normal infections.
They need to eat, drink, and they can suffer physical injury or psychic injury including stuff (13x13 and oath rods) that can't happen to ordinary people.

RJ set up a fudge by saying a channeler soul was also required. So the genetics isn't enough.

A single strong AS with the female Choeden Kal might be able to shield Rand without an angreal.

Or Lanfear with her angreal came close to doing it

Semirhage evidently believed she could shield Rand if she got the drop and she also believed that damane (without angreal) could shield very strong Ashaman like Logain or else she wouldn't have attempted the failed capture that cost Rand his hand.

Time flow differently in Finnland as well. So that's another factor.

Or Brandon may simply be referring to the fact that he's still trying to synchronise different timelines (Black Tower/ Avi, Rand, Lan, etc) in AMol.

"A severed connection inside the head" is what they see - not saidin/ saidar.

IIRC this is true. It's mentioned somewhere by RJ as part of the automatic buffering that happens in a circle.

Didn't RJ clarify somewhere that Fades (in general, not Shaidar Haran) cannot carry much, (certainly not trollocs or people) with them while shadow travelling?

I always assumed the horse disappearing with Fade in EotW was an early bookism.

If Fades can carry trollocs / humans / horses with them while shadow travelling, a whole lot of strategic implications about the War(s) of the Shadow change.

In the pre-Hawkwing era, when the dreadlords and trollocs invaded Westland in force, they couldn't Travel, or use the Ways (where the wards were still working). There's no way they wouldn't have won otherwise.

Also if fades can carry trollocs, the attack on Algiarin's Manor, attack on the Two Rivers, on Galad-Perrin on the Jehannah Road, the multiple invasion of Borderlands etc, essentially all become unstoppable.

For example, the Fades would just have hopped in behind Rodel's defences with fists of trollocs.

Everyone is assuming the best shadowspawn can do in the way of teleporting in numbers is to 1) use portal stones if they have channelers to work them 2) use the Ways.

If that's wrong, the entire defensive matrix breaks down.

HoTH are born multiple times and in their TAR presence, they're probably represented as the stereotype.

Like for example, Hawkwing would have been born multiple times ( hesays as much) and presumably he didn't carry Justice and what not in every incarnation.

So if the most famous HotH stereotype for a respective soul is a WoTland one, they'll look like Wotlanders.

The WoTlanders wouldn't know about Seanchan / Shara incarnations f there were any.

Why not? He's crazy. He trusted the Whitecloaks not to kill Rand despite having ordered them to do exactly that.

The theory that Fain used zombie Sammael to order trollocs into the Ways in KoD hinges on several things, all unconfirmed.

1) Does the Chosen mark stay on after Sammael's been "eaten" by Mashadar? Else the Spawn won't obey him

2) Can a Fain zombie say coherent things? It has to give orders that spawn understand.

3) Can Fain reach out and control any victim of Mashadar (post the mordeth-Fain melding)? As far as we know, he was nowhere near Aridhol in ACoS at the time of the incident.

4) Whoever reported to Moridin on the KoD event of ordering spawn into the Ways didn't mention that Sammy looked strange in any way. Difficult to believe that a zombie Sammael who has been kept "on ice" for a longish period would not have tattered clothes, other more disgusting signs of beng zombied, etc.

Nice speculation however.

IIRC in WH, Fain pulled a similar illusion of replaying something that had happened in the recent past when two rogue Ashaman climbed up the stairs into his lair in Far Madding.

Again, he nearly caught Rand. Analysis: Fain can't stop time but he can put together very vivid video playbacks of things that have happened relatively recently. it's not very clear how he would trapped Rand in TGH; in WH he was sidling into striking distance with his dagger while Rand watched the show.

Edit: Typos

Tuon's PoV - the DR would kneel to the CT and then, at TG, he would be sent to fight the GLoD.

Suggests that the Seanchan prophesies (*both the corrupted karatheon and the essanik) do indeed have specific instructions about the DR and his subservience to the Seanchan.

The Corenne / Hailene was driven by prophesy and while it''s never been made clear whether it predicts complete Seanchan dominance of Hawkwing's former empire, the prophesies probably tells them that they have to have a bash at it..

About certainty: The Seanchan have a strong belief in omens and prophesy. We've seen the gambles Tuon's taken on that basis (deliberately being kidnapped and then marrying an adventurer she doesn't know). So if the prophesies say something they'll try to fulfil them to the letter.

The Old Tongue seems to be pretty widely known.

Clerks, minstrels, AS, adventurers of all descriptions, even farmers from the Black Hills or the Two Rivers.

Think about it -When Dashiva is undercover as a random farmer from the Black Hills, he (or rather Taim on his behalf) cheerfully says he's a scholar of the OT, Ditto Mat who inadevertently reveals his unconscious knowledge several times. Nobody is very surprised or finds this particularly suspicious.

Ditto Brigitte who is pretending to be a rough tough mercenary.

Ditto Noal Charin who's a homeless vagabond.

MIn could have been reasonably fluent in OT even if she's brought up in Baerlon.

There are lots of inconsistency regarding languages in the WOT (drift over 3K years would have been much more going by what we know ) but RJ fudged most of those by saying that the Post-Breaking society stayed completely literate and printing technology remained universal.

No doubt that's true, Terez, but that's still kinda a big deal. Aside from the Aiel's history revealed in the glass columns, Aram's the only other Tinker we see abandon the Way of the Leaf, and it was a pretty big deal for him, and indeed for the Aiel as well. People are supposed to join the Way, not abandon it. And I don't see anything about being an Aes Sedai that requires one to abandon the Way of the Leaf. It would have been more interesting to see an Aes Sedai that did follow the Way, instead of an Aes Sedai that used to before she shawled, but no longer does.

I'd say the oaths (which are a matter of interpretation) would conflict with the way.

They define situations when the AS is not allowed to use force (at least not with the OP).

The AS oaths imply that she has to defend herself, her AS sisters and her warders (if any) against a threat to life.

AS are also free to kill Shadowspawn on sight using the OP without any issues. They are allowed to, and even encouraged to, use force to restrain or kill DFs.

Finally there is very little chance that any AS would pass the test for the shawl without using force.

The test in the ter'angreal specifically looks for weaknesses and with a tinker, you can bet those sadistic bxxxxs would push her buttons.

Also by Semi's own admission, she's not the expert. Graendal is.

Bronze is a much more easily and widely assimilated technology - all it takes is copper, tin and charcoal.Historically bronze was around for millennia pretty much before steel. I'm guessing Aludra can't get steelmakers in the kind of quantity/ quality she requires whereas she knows she can get bronze and it serves her purpose.

Exactly what I was saying. He jumped to the right conclusions

Just a thought.

Saldeans have one unusual racial feature -"uptilted" eyes.

Another thought. Borderlanders fight and trade together. across all the kingdoms

Masema may have seen a fair number of random Saldeans.

(Even Flynn who isn''t Borderland has met a few "in his time")

He may even know the accent - think of the PoV of the Malkieri jeweller - there are differences in Borderlander accents

He's very likely to have seen them if he fought at the Bloodsnow and he's definitely old enough to have been there.

He would know that Perrin is married to a Saldean.

Now he sees a Saldean woman (*uptilted eyes, accent) in command of a bunch of Two Rivers bowmen (and yes, he does know TR bowmen for sure)

He jumps to a conclusion which happens to be correct.

 

Nice, He hadn't yet seen the bowmen IIRC, but the rest presents a pretty good argument as long as he does know she is Saldean. Probable that he does but not explicit. Still pretty swift for an accurate deduction by a veritable madman. My hopes for an elaborate backstory on this one are dwindling.

TGH onwards, and at Malden itself, Masema's seen the TR boys using the longbow multiple times. He's even commented on it iirc in TGH.

Also he's nuts - not stupid.

Just a thought.

Saldeans have one unusual racial feature -"uptilted" eyes.

Another thought. Borderlanders fight and trade together. across all the kingdoms

Masema may have seen a fair number of random Saldeans.

(Even Flynn who isn''t Borderland has met a few "in his time")

He may even know the accent - think of the PoV of the Malkieri jeweller - there are differences in Borderlander accents

He's very likely to have seen them if he fought at the Bloodsnow and he's definitely old enough to have been there.

He would know that Perrin is married to a Saldean.

Now he sees a Saldean woman (*uptilted eyes, accent) in command of a bunch of Two Rivers bowmen (and yes, he does know TR bowmen for sure)

He jumps to a conclusion which happens to be correct.

In the world of WoT they developed really heavy accents that make it hard to understand each other. That is close enough to new languages without needing books devoted to people learning languages. I know some people love RJ's descriptions but wanting that is as rediculous as complaining that a world that revolves around magic, alternate worlds, and rebirth does not follow every law of physics that we have.

The main problem is the Seanchan. They have plenty of off-screen time to learn the language, and are completely isolated from the continent. It wouldn't require more than maybe three lines scattered throughout the books. Heavy accents are not enough to compensate for thousands of years of isolation, culture merging, and a complete language transition.

 

I think it more unlikely the Aiel would use the common tongue. At least the Seanchan were conquered by an army that spoke the common tongue, so at least it's possible if not very likely that the language of the conquering army spread through the continent replacing (I assume the old tongue) as the common language.

 

The Aiel would have have gone into the waste with the old tongue as their common language. They have had very little contact with the outside world since, why on earth would they have adopted the language of a people they had very little to do with?

I think the common tongue was used even before the Breaking. .