A MEMORY OF LIGHT

By Linda

The Town in the Blight’s no-name inn is where Isam met Cyndane to receive orders to kill Rand (A Memory of Light, Prologue). It is very basic and dirty with worn-out and damaged fittings and furniture. There are a few drab rooms for let, and the food is bland and tasteless. The serving women are dull eyed.

The Great Gathering at the Black Tower in Andor is a fairly new tavern converted from a warehouse which Androl and his friends visited to check out Welyn (A Memory of Light, A Dangerous Place). The common room can seat dozens, even though the furniture doesn’t yet match, and there is a well-stocked library. Future plans are for private dining chambers and sleeping rooms for visitors to the Black Tower on the second floor. The innkeeper, Lind Taglien, exercises strict discipline to prevent the male channellers from damaging it or each other in fights and her husband Frask teaches swordsmanship with Henre Haslin. She is a nod to myself, Linda Taglieri, who was a beta reader and runs the Thirteenth Depository.

The Winter Blossom in Ebou Dar was the first inn Mat visited when he arrived in A Memory of Light, Just Another Sell-Sword. He left immediately because its clientele was Deathwatch Guards in uniform.

The Yearly Brawl in Ebou Dar is where Mat was told of assassins trying to kill Fortuona and that he was a wanted man (A Memory of Light, Just Another Sell-Sword). The inn’s sign depicts clapping people. The innkeeper is Kathana, screen name of Jennifer Liang, beta reader, second in charge at Dragonmount.com and director of JordanCon, the yearly gathering of Wheel of Time fans to which the inn’s title refers. Hence the clapping people on the inn’s sign. Her husband, blademaster Jame who despatched one of the would-be assassins, represents James Liang, who is a Texan of Asian descent, just as Seanchan have a strong Asian influence and a “Texan” accent. Incidentally Jennifer Liang is an enthusiastic good cook, hence the inn’s comparatively tasty food.


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Written by Linda, December 2013