Winter's Heart Read-through Post #4: The Imperial Return

By Linda

And so we come to the long-anticipated arrival of the (at the time) future Empress who, while she won’t live forever will, after she channels, live for a very long time. Her entry onscreen often cues Handel’s triumphal music “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” in my mind, although Mat is definitely no Solomon!

As befits someone with large amounts of magical as well as temporal power, Tuon has parallels with quite a few powerful mythological and historical figures and these are described in the Tuon parallels essay newly released here on the Thirteenth Depository.

Some of the parallels link her closely to her consort Mat, well-matched mates for each other as they are, but others are Tuon’s own: Tuon is no mere adjunct to Mat, but an important figure in her own right. Like Mat she has strong links with deities of the sea and horses, wealth, luck and war, the last leading on to her important role as Queen of the Underworld/Dead. Independently, however Tuon has links to justice and order goddesses and mother-plenty-fertility goddesses. She is the dedicated Mother of an Empire always at war or in rebellion, and the prosperity, order and justice she brings is supported by her well-honed armies at her back. Her purpose with the Return is:

to reclaim what had been stolen from her ancestor.

- Winter’s Heart, What A Veil Hides

In other words she is Nemesis restoring proper order as she sees it and changes the Fortunes of the Westlands.

Tuon is very much the empress - be it a conquering warrior one or a caring one, but has an end of era feel about her, like Emperors Hirohito of Japan and Puyi of China, as though she is the last of the traditional type of Seanchan ruler. And like them has a strong war and corruption motif surrounding her.

How can the Empress’ sovereignty not be changed when Tuon currently has no heirs, or even family, her homeland is in anarchy, she has made an unconventional marriage and even more potentially explosive: she could learn to channel? She almost certainly will channel in these Last few Days to save somebody or something. Her predicament is mirrored in that of the sul’dam Bethamin who, knowing she could be damane, agonised over her duty to the Empire to be collared and finally channelled to ‘save’ herself from the dreaded Aes Sedai (who ironically are bound not to kill with the Power). This same threat of channelling hangs over Tuon, symbolised by her changing all her names except one upon becoming Empress and keeping the seemingly insignificant one which is an anagram of athame, a witch’s knife. Tuon has cut the Aes Sedai witches once already, and will again now that she has her long line of women to call lightning against the Tower, as Egwene dreamt (The Dragon Reborn, Questions and see Egwene’s Dreams essay). However, will the blade of ‘witchery’ cut Tuon in her turn, leaving Nemesis hoist by her own petard? Very likely. I believe she will be forced to channel and she is going to face rejection by some of her own people as a result. This is where Berelain sur Paendrag may step to the fore, whether she wants to or not. It’s one reason why Berelain has been kept prominent in the series. If the Seanchan start focussing on the Last Battle instead of dividing and distracting the westlands and enslaving women channellers, the Shadow can disunite them by revealing the sul’dam’s, and therefore Tuon’s, ability to channel. Berelain, who flies Hawkwing’s hawk standard as his descendant, may become an alternative ruler for the disaffected.

Like Berelain, Tuon uses Hawkwing’s colours of blue and gold as we see in her first scene: the carpet in Tuon’s cabin was of gold and blue and so was the cape she wore for her arrival at Ebou Dar. For Berelain these colours refer to being a ‘royal hawk’ as Artur Hawkwing was, but in Tuon the hawk has partly been displaced by the Seanchan raven, and the colours also refer to royalty on the sea – or at sea.

The Daughter of the Nine Moons wears a raven and rose motif marking her as the much-loved flower of the Seanchan Empire. The raven is a carrion eater and scavenger associated with the Dead. (It would be interesting to know when and why the Seanchan adopted a symbol used by the Shadow.) As the flower of the Seanchan ravens, Tuon has come to pick over the remains of Hawkwing’s empire. After the Last Battle, the nations – what is left of them – will resemble that empire even less, which is why I think Tuon won’t be Empress of the Westlands.

But back to her arrival: Tuon has quite an entourage as befits a goddess empress.

6 damane – the best of her damane, and interestingly an Aes Sedai is one of them, so Tower training is not so bad!

18 sul’dam

10 maids

Anath, her Soef'eia

Selucia

Ronde Macura

Yuril, her Secretary and Hand for her Seekers

>500 Deathwatch Guards

25 Gardeners on ship with her but 100 Gardeners all told.

Tuon ends Winter’s Heart rolled in a rug like Cleopatra to be taken by, rather than to, the great general Julius Caesar/Mat.

* * * * *

EDIT: I've decided to change the format of the read-through posts that introduce essays to include the first page of the new piece. So here is my analysis of Tuon:


Character Parallels Tuon

This essay will deal with the sources I think were used to create Tuon. Due to her late, though long anticipated, entry in the series, many see Tuon as no more than Mat’s wife. However Tuon also has important functions that have nothing to do with Mat.

Each one of the couple finds the other very complex, with Mat complaining about Tuon:

That little woman made a blacksmith’s puzzle simple.

- Knife of Dreams, Dragons’ Eggs

Just like Mat, Tuon has many parallels: mythological and historical references to the sea, war, wealth, horses, empires, fertility and marriage, justice, and the Underworld.


Sea

With the Return figuring large in Imperial planning for over a hundred years (The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time) and taking up considerable resources, the Seanchan Empire has become increasingly associated with the sea. Tuon’s triumphant arrival with thousands of great ships crossing a large and underexplored ocean links the heiress of Seanchan to sea goddesses.

At one stage Tuon considered making Tar Valon her capital (Knife of Dreams, A Village in Shiota) but she announced publicly in her audience hall with its ceiling painted with gulls and fishers at sea, and the walls a soft blue, that it would be the maritime port of Ebou Dar, and this while wearing a pleated gown of the deepest sea blue, a white cape fluttering behind her like wave foam (The Gathering Storm, Gambits). Her fingernails were lacquered blue in this scene, instead of their previous red.


Mazu

Mazu, or Mat-su ("Mother-Ancestor"), is the East Asian goddess of the sea who protects those associated with the ocean. According to legend, she was born Lin Moniang in 960 AD as the seventh daughter of Lin Yuan of Fujian, China. The menfolk of her family earned a living by fishing. Lin Moniang started swimming relatively late at the age of 15, but soon was an excellent swimmer. She was greatly concerned about the dangers of the sea and stood on the shore wearing red clothes in all weathers to guide the fishing boats home. She was said to have saved her brothers and father from drowning at sea in a storm when she was either in a trance or dreaming. Lin Moniang also healed the sick and could predict the weather. After she died, she became a folk hero for her deeds and for trying to save those at sea, and was ultimately deified as Mazu.

Mother-ancestor would be an excellent description of how the Seanchan regard their Empress. Red is the colour of the Seanchan Imperial family, which is why Tuon’s long fingernails are lacquered red (Knife of Dreams, Prologue) much of the time. Saidar itself is often symbolised by water in the series, and Tuon teaches damane in a much more positive and caring way than most. Having trained damane, Tuon has the potential to learn to channel, and may well be forced by events to do so – relatively late at age 20. Channellers, even those made damane, exhibit similar talents to Lin Moniang: Tuon has taught her damane Healing and has one which can tell ‘fortunes of the weather’ (The Gathering Storm, A Halo of Blackness), presumably similar to or the same as predicting the weather by Listening to the Wind. In Seanchan, people adopt new names as they change rank: Tuon took a new name when she was invested as Empress.

In paintings Mazu is usually depicted wearing a red robe, and in sculptures she is a heavily bejewelled empress holding a ceremonial tablet or a jewel staff, and wearing the flat-topped imperial cap with hanging beads front and back. She is usually accompanied by two guardian generals known as "Thousand Miles Eye" (usually red in colour) and "With-the-Wind Ear" (usually green). They are believed to be former suitors whom she each challenged to fight her for her favours. Mazu defeated them in unarmed combat and they are now completely loyal and do her bidding.

In Ebou Dar Tuon wore much jewellery and was interested in Mat’s ashandarei, and in Jurador, she had Mat buy her many shades of red silk which she had made into clothes. Tuon showed her skill in unarmed combat when she wrestled with Mat. The colours of the Deathwatch Guard are red and dark green. Like Mazu’s two generals, they are supposed to be loyal guardians. When hunting Tuon they likened their task to ‘catching the wind in a net’ (Crossroads of Twilight, The Tale of a Doll).

CLICK FOR MORE TUON PARALLELS

Winter's Heart Read-through Post #3: Sevanna the Noble Savage

By Linda

Many of the westlanders deride the Aiel as savages; in Sevanna we have a noble savage - although not quite in the usual sense of the term.

From Winter’s Heart, until her capture, Sevanna wore only silk – dark grey silk skirts divided for riding, white or cream silk blouse laced very loosely and red or blue silk headscarf with or without a circlet of gems upon it – plus a crimson cloak, red boots and large quantities of looted necklaces, bracelets and finger rings. Laundering of luxury fabrics like silk is arduous and requires a lot of water, hardly acceptable to a semi-nomadic desert warrior society.

Red symbolises blood and fire and this is echoed in Faile’s thought that Sevanna had:

painted her name across the sky in blood and fire.

- Winter’s Heart, Offers

It is not a colour that Aiel wear everyday. Red fabric is expensive to produce, more so than almost all other colours, as well as conspicuous. But then that’s what Sevanna was trying to be. Sevanna’s red cloak is lined with white fur, yet the other Aiel won’t even add white to their cadin’sor for winter camouflage because it is a colour reserved for gai’shain. Neither do Aiel wear finger rings. Finger rings, especially in large quantities, reduce or limit the work capacity of the hands wearing them, which is why many people remove their rings for rough or messy work.

Since her clothes are impractical and expensive and violate the Aiel values of work and hardiness, Sevanna was the first Aiel noble.

Further support for this is that, contrary to Aiel custom, Sevanna intended her children to inherit her rank:

The wetlander notion of handing down rank to your children, and their children, for instance

- A Crown of Swords, Prologue

and had her gai’shain – slaves, in reality – refer to her as ‘the Lady Sevanna’ (Winter’s Heart, Offers).

These excessive numbers of gai’shain, all formerly of considerable wealth or rank, were dressed in white silk robes and elaborately jewelled gold belts and collars/torcs (Winter’s Heart, Offers) as a humiliating reminder of their fall, and, intentionally or not, as a mockery of the gai’shain and the Da’shain ideal as well as a semblance of a personal livery. Perhaps Sevanna was tempting fate wearing white fur. Under her leadership huge numbers of Shaido were made da'covale, exactly in the way the Shaido's wetlander captives were to be permanently gai'shain.

By Winter’s Heart, Sevanna’s feet were no longer good enough for transporting her, and she took to riding a horse – although it did keep her silk skirts out of the snow. It also literally raised her above the other Aiel. Since horses are often a symbol of saidin, riding one reflects Sevanna’s intention to control and use Rand. It is impressive how consistent the layers of symbols are in the books.

And even Faile was amazed at Sevanna’s new bathing routine:

The water for Sevanna's morning bath—she bathed twice a day, now!—had not been hot enough…

- Knife of Dreams, As If the World were Fog

especially considering that they are living in a crowded camp. Bathing twice daily would be unheard of in our world in the 17th and 18th centuries (see Private Lives article). Faile, too, thinks it decadent.

Sevanna was almost Graendal-like in her desire for servants - or rather, slaves - who were formerly of high rank (she just used different methods of coercion) and the trouble she takes over dressing:

Sevanna gathered the rich, the powerful and the beautiful, simply taking them if they were gai'shain to someone else…once she [Sevanna] did rise, all her talk had been of what clothes and jewels she would wear, especially the jewels. Her jewelry chest had been made to hold clothing, and it was filled to the top with more gems than most queens possessed. Before putting on any garment at all, Sevanna had spent time trying on different combinations of necklaces and rings and studying herself in the gilt-framed stand-mirror.

- Knife of Dreams, Something Strange

By Aiel standards, Sevanna was as decadent as Graendal, too, and both wanted to enslave Rand. Sevanna thought she would be able to bind Rand with a ter'angreal from Sammael, marry him, collar him, and use him as a puppet. Graendal said she would like to make Rand one of her pets – her most prized pet, to be the centrepiece of every display (Lord of Chaos, Threads Woven of Shadow). I guess this makes the austere, threatening and sadistic Therava an equivalent of Semirhage.

Ironically, while the Aiel have been regarded as savages for many years by westlanders, they have been a strictly ordered society with strong values. However under Sevanna the Shaido became closer to living up, or maybe down, to the insult than any Aiel previously.

Winter's Heart Read-through Post #2: Schooling Their Thoughts - Wheel of Time Academies

By Linda

In Winter’s Heart, Rand re-visited the Academy of Cairhien after his campaign in Altara and Illian. Rand’s aim in establishing academies is to preserve knowledge in the face of the Last Battle and feared breaking of the world. There are now three academies – one each in Cairhien, Caemlyn and Tear. It is certainly a good idea to have more than one centre of knowledge to increase the chance that one academy at least will survive the Last Battle, and to provide variation in ideas. The latter reason is also why Rand has insisted that scholars of all types be given a place at them.

The first academy since Artur Hawkwing’s time began in Lord Barthanes Damodred’s palace after Cairhien was taken. On the site of a former Ogier grove, its search for, and collection of, knowledge is probably the best possible use in Ogier eyes – short of replanting the Great Trees - of what was effectively sacred ground to the Ogier.

Idrien is the headmistress of the school and her name is similar to that of Idris, the Islamic legendary inventor of writing and sewing and patron of craftsmen (see Parallels for Character Names starting with I now released on the blog).

We do not yet know what inventions or improvements have been developed at the Academy of Tear.

Elayne has taken over the Academy of Caemlyn and for a similar reason to Rand:

So far the school consisted of only a few dozen scholars with their students, scattered about the New City in various inns, but even in winter more arrived every day, and they had begun to clamor for more space. She did not propose giving them a palace, certainly, yet they needed something. Norry was trying to husband Andor's gold, but she was looking to Andor's future. Tarmon Gai'don was coming, yet she had to believe there would be a future afterward, whether or not Rand broke the world again. Otherwise, there was no point in going on with anything, and she could not see just sitting down to wait. Even if she knew for a fact that the Last Battle would end everything, she did not think she could sit on her hands. Rand started schools in case he did end breaking the world, in the hope of saving something, but this school would be Andor's, not Rand al'Thor's. The Academy of the Rose, dedicated to the memory of Morgase Trakand.

- Winter’s Heart, A Cup of Tea

The Academy of Caemlyn will play an important role in developing weapons for the Last Battle. It is the natural place for Aludra and Mat to work on developing their projects. If the Murandian mechanical engineer who designed the current crank for the Band’s crossbows reached Caemlyn despite the dangerous conditions, Mat would surely be interested in meeting him and discussing his new concept of a crank with which to load the crossbow without lowering it (The Gathering Storm, Legends). This mechanic may also suggest improvements to Aludra’s dragon carts that will absorb recoil upon firing, or increase their mobility and angle of aim, perhaps by mounting each cannon on two wheels with a trail (see Mat, Fireworks and Bellfounders article) if he is shown the designs or a prototype.

A wealthy royal patron such as Elayne can assign her city’s foundries to casting the cannon. Elayne would also have scribes or clerks, perhaps even Norry himself, who could complete the costing for the ‘feasibility study’ of the cannon that Aludra began in Knife of Dreams, Legends. Mat joked that if Rand won’t finance the dragons he might have to dice with the Queen of Andor to raise the money or resources for their manufacture, and this may well occur, since Rand spent a great deal of his wealth on food for Arad Doman:

It was a pittance [Tellaen’s compensation] compared with the amount of money Rand was spending to fund his armies, and even that was small compared with the funds he'd dedicated to bring food to Arad Doman and other troubled areas. At this rate, his stewards worried that he would soon bankrupt his assets in Illian, Tear and Cairhien.

- The Gathering Storm, The Last That Could Be Done

The last minute development of substantial fire power might leave too little time for the Shadow to react to intelligence received and prevent their construction. Apparently the Pattern believes in ‘just in time’ ordinance manufacture.

Whatever else the Academy of Cairhien produces – and since it has made telescopes it can make gun-sights or even crossbow-sights or field-glasses – it has already provided something vital: Herid Fel’s books on philosophy. In Winter’s Heart prologue Min collected many of them and has been studying them assiduously ever since for clues on winning the Last Battle. Her findings may be crucial to the Sealing of the Bore. Herid Fel was killed to prevent him making just this contribution.

With a generous endowment by Rand (although Elayne can now afford to fund Caemlyn’s academy independently), the academies are making rapid progress. They are bringing about a renaissance in learning plus an ‘industrial’ revolution. A variety of inventions and new developments have been made besides the crossbow crank, and I have detailed them in the Inventions From Rand's Academies article now released on the blog and also compared them with their real world equivalents. Most of the inventions date from 1700 to 1860 in our world. These inventions might imply that there won’t be a One Power powered technological revolution after the Last Battle, and certainly not a total reliance on the One Power as occurred in the Age of Legends.

Since the assassination of Herid Fel, the Shadow has apparently not seen the academies as a threat. Perhaps coming from a highly technological age, a technology based on the One Power, the new developments seem too primitive. That is, however, their strength. Anyone with understanding and fairly simple tools can make these devices for themselves, whereas once the Age of Legends society was disrupted enough for the standing flows which powered the ter’angreal to be destroyed, the populace was left with almost no technology, or tools to create and maintain it, at all since only a few percentage of people could access the Power source, i.e. channel.

Knowledge, real and false, and its acquisition or destruction, is an import theme in the Wheel of Time series. Dominic wrote an essay on the Price and Prize of Knowledge prior to the release of The Gathering Storm.

The destruction of knowledge is supposedly Mesaana’s favourite modus operandi, but Ishamael works more insidiously and perhaps effectively, by substituting real knowledge with false. Being a philosopher himself, it was likely he who saw the threat Fel constituted and arranged for Fel to be killed.

Directly or indirectly, the academies will contribute greatly to the Light’s efforts at the Last Battle. They are not just academic.

* * *

The first page of the new article:

Inventions From Rand's Academies

This article describes the technology being developed by the members of Rand’s academies in order of their occurrence in the series. All these technologies have been developed before in Jordan’s world, but, in keeping with his ideas on cyclic time, they were forgotten during the Breaking or the early Third Age and are only now being rediscovered.

CAIRHIEN

This was Rand’s first academy and it is located in Barthanes Damodred’s former palace.

Ballista

During the siege of Cairhien, [Idrien] had built a huge crossbow, all levers and pulleys, that hurled a small spear a full mile hard enough to drive through a man.

- Lord of Chaos, A Taste of Solitude

This is a small ballista, and would be fastened to a mount. In our world ballistas were developed in Ancient Greece. Idrien may not have (re)invented the ballista in the Third Age, since in The Shadow Rising, Verin and Alanna used catapults, a related device, against the Trollocs in the Two Rivers and no one was particularly surprised.

In general, military technology currently lags behind other technologies in the Wheel of Time world. Gunpowder is not used yet, for instance, though its military use in our world predated the invention of the printing press (which has been developed in the Third Age).


Improvements in paper quality

One of the academy’s inventors has developed a method to improve the quality of paper:

An array of screens and scrapers and crocks full of linen scraps produced finer paper than anyone made now.

- Lord of Chaos, A Taste of Solitude

Unfortunately Jordan gives no details of this method.

In our world paper mills were in existence in Europe by the 14th century, and the process remained largely unchanged until the late 18th century, with linen and cotton rags as the raw materials. Eventually the great demand for paper was more than the rag industry could provide, and a process was developed to make paper from wood pulp in the 18th century.

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Winter's Heart Read-through: Post #1: Hunting Black Sisters

By Linda

The hunt in the White Tower for the Black Ajah is one of my favourite sub-threads. I like the Sitters' blend of personalities and skills, the by-play and cooperation. They aren't stereotypes of their Ajahs either: for instance, Pevara is far warmer and more open to others and ideas than the average Red and Saerin is a fierce, bold Brown who has fought duels.

The hunters knowingly commit crimes and break Tower laws to find Black sisters:

She [Seaine] had laid hands on another sister, on a Sitter, had helped bundle Talene along deserted basement hallways wrapped in flows of Air, had broken a dozen Tower laws, committed serious crimes, all to hear an answer she had been nearly certain of before the question was asked.

- Winter’s Heart Prologue

Some of their crimes would be abduction, using the Chair of Remorse on an initiate, coercion of sisters with the Power and appropriating ter’angreal, although we don’t know all the laws they broke.

So far they have not been charged with any crimes or received the punishment they feared – unchairing, birching and exile. They were not hoping or expecting to get away with it; they are prepared to pray the price to rid the Tower of Darkfriends.

Egwene is aware of the methods they used but knows the necessity, or at least the temptation, of breaking the law to catch Darkfriends. After all, she did worse herself keeping Moghedien.

Finally in Winter’s Heart the hunters have some success though they found it rather alarming. Talene’s agony on being freed of the Oaths in particular stunned them. No non-Darkfriend has had anything like as much pain unswearing three Oaths simultaneously. For instance, in The Gathering Storm:

Romanda took the Oath Rod, and did as instructed, releasing herself from the oaths. The process was obviously painful, but she held herself to a controlled, hissing intake of breath.

- The Gathering Storm, Sealed To The Flame

Perhaps it is the nature of the three Black Oaths that they are more agonising to remove.

Having achieved something in their hunt, Seaine suddenly wonders whether they are doing what Elaida ordered or if she got it wrong:

Had Elaida really set her to dig out the Black Ajah? She had never once actually mentioned the name. Could she have meant something else? Elaida had always jumped down the throat of anyone who even mentioned the Black. Nearly any sister would do the same yet….

- Winter’s Heart Prologue

This is what Elaida actually said:

"I charge you to follow the stench of treason, no matter where it leads or how high, even to the Keeper herself. Yes, even to her. What you find, whoever it leads to, you will bring before the Amyrlin Seat alone, Seaine. No one else must know. Do you understand me?"

- A Crown of Swords, Sealed To The Flame

What Elaida was aiming for was for Alviarin to be charged with treason:

She had not spoken to Seaine, in case someone might see and tell Alviarin when she returned, but Seaine was certainly working away as instructed, following the path of treason that surely would lead to Alviarin Freidhen.

- The Path of Daggers, An Unwelcome Return

As Seaine noted, Elaida has never considered the possibility of the Black Ajah existing, not even after she was blackmailed by Alviarin. So Seaine’s interpretation of Elaida’s orders was indeed wrong:

"She [Elaida] was very circumspect, but after a little thought, it was clear to me what she wanted. I am to hunt out..." At the last, courage failed her tongue. "... Darkfriends in the Tower."

- The Path of Daggers, An Unwelcome Return

Seaine was so frightened at the thought of hunting Darkfriends that she broke the law on keeping information Sealed to the Flame secret. This is actually treasonous under Tower law (A Crown of Swords, A Morning of Victory and A Crown of Swords, Sealed to the Flame) so the person Elaida charged with exposing treason in the Tower immediately committed it herself!

Seaine surely needed Pevara’s courage and focus for her search. Pevara was the least put out by Talene’s confession and was not as appalled as Seaine was:

The Black Ajah really did exist. She [Seaine] was staring at a Black sister, a Darkfriend who wore the shawl. And believing turned out to be a pale shadow of confronting. Only her jaw clenched near to cramping kept her teeth from chattering. She struggled to compose herself, to think rationally. But nightmares were awake and walking the Tower.

Someone exhaled heavily, and Seaine realized she was not the only one who found her world turned upside down.

- Winter’s Heart Prologue

But then Pevara had faced up to the existence of the Black Ajah years earlier, the Reds being heavily involved in the ‘vileness’ right after the Aiel War and its aftermath. Which goes to show that if you refuse to think about something it can assume too great a power in your mind.

The world turned upside down motif will become stronger as we get closer to Tarmon Gai’don. It is part of the Shadow’s plan to weaken the world with anarchy and chaos. Poor Herid Fel’s insight that belief and order give strength was by itself enough to sign his death warrant, never mind his other useful deductions.

Talene made a faulty deduction about Elaida’s relation to the Black Ajah:

“Elaida is Black Ajah!...she must be. They know every report she receives, even the secret ones, every word spoken to her. They know every decision she makes before it’s announced. Days before; sometimes weeks. How else, unless she tells them?”

- Winter’s Heart Prologue

It is the reverse that has been happening: the Black Ajah are telling Elaida what to say. This is something that few Aes Sedai, even Black sisters, would ever imagine.

The five hunters could not get far in their quest without the Hall’s knowledge or cooperation. They were only exposing and binding one Black sister at a time, and as it turned out, there were too many Black sisters – well over 60 in the White Tower at the time - for that method to work. They couldn’t know that of course. Verin was the crucial factor. Egwene had the advantage of Verin’s list of names and from this was encouraged to trust her Hall. She was thus able to strike quickly and extensively – and still many got away.

While ultimately and disappointingly the Black Ajah hunters got nowhere, they did achieve some good – they were five Sitters of different Ajahs working together and they showed Egwene how to use the Oath Rod to expose Darkfriends.

Wheel Of Time Embroidery Collection #3 - Rand's Coat Sleeve Embroidery 2

By Linda

This is the second of two posts on my embroideries of Rand’s coats. The previous post on Rand’s black and silver coat is here.

Nearly all of Rand’s coats are embroidered in gold thread, thin strips or wires of actual gold metal wound around a silk thread, to reflect his royal status. The gold thread is sewn onto the right side of the fabric with silk thread because it would damage the fabric if drawn in and out of it. Also, the thread was so valuable that the embroiderer aimed to have as much of it as possible on the right side of the fabric.

Moiraine had a number of coats made for Rand in Fal Dara and pretty much foisted them upon him. Lan instructed Rand to wear one of them to his meeting with the Amyrlin in Fal Dara and chose this one (see photo right):

Tangled, long-thorned briars climbed each red sleeve in a thick, gold embroidered line, and ran around each cuff. Golden herons stood on the collars, which were edged with gold.

- The Great Hunt, Blood Calls Blood

The briars are of two strands of thick gold thread sewn down with gold coloured silk thread onto red silk fabric.

Perhaps Lan thought the coat appropriate because the briars with their long thorns were a warning that Rand is no pushover. Lan was concerned that Rand not seem easy meat to the Amyrlin and those with her:

"I am on your side, sheepherder. A little. Enough to help you a bit." The Warder's face was stone, and sympathetic words sounded strange in that rough voice. "What training you've had, I gave you, and I'll not have you groveling and sniveling. The Wheel weaves us all into the Pattern as it wills. You have less freedom about it than most, but by the Light, you can still face it on your feet. You remember who the Amyrlin Seat is, sheepherder, and you show her proper respect, but you do what I tell you, and you look her in the eye."

- The Great Hunt, Blood Calls Blood

He thought the red colour right, too. Lan may have been thinking of the red eagle of Manetheren, which was a thorn to the Dark One's foot, because he gave Rand a pin with the Manetheren symbol on it to wear with the coat, but it has other associations too. With its thorny stems, the red coat may have reminded Siuan of her troubles with the Red Ajah, and of the threat the Red Ajah, and Elaida in particular, would be to Rand. Red and gold are two of the Dragon's colours: red symbolising Rand's anger and 'soul of fire', and the blood he has to spill, and gold his royal heritage and his role as the Lord of the Morning and Prince of the Dawn and as champion of the Light of the World, the Creator. And, of course, the colours are eye-catching and impressive.

Rand’s coat probably had two herons, one on each side of the collar (see photo of heron, left), since at that time Moiraine was trying to consciously fulfill the prophecy of:

“Twice and twice shall he be marked, twice to live, and twice to die,
Once the heron to set his path. Twice the heron, to name him true.

- The Great Hunt, Discord

Thom pointed this out to Rand in Cairhien (The Great Hunt, Discord). Moiraine needn’t have bothered; Rand's body received the prophesied markings soon enough.

I sewed the heron’s body in very thin silk thread wrapped with gold strip sewn down onto red silk fabric. The wings, tail and eye of the heron are coils of gold wire sewn down with gold silk thread.

The dragon’s colours being red, gold and white, it is perhaps not surprising that the second coat I illustrated, the one Rand wore in Tear when he hurled Callandor into the Stone, is also red embroidered with gold:

Rand strode down that corridor, looking straight ahead, imperious in a red coat embroidered with golden scrolls up his sleeves, cradling Callandor in his right arm like a scepter.

- The Shadow Rising, Into the Heart

The scrolls of Rand's sleeve panel shown right are thin gold (synthetic in this case) braid sewn onto red silk with gold-coloured silk thread. There is just the single line of embroidery along the sleeve, and none outlining the cuffs.

New Article Released: Lord of the Rings parallels

By Linda



Today I am republishing an article from the old Wotmania FAQ on the parallels between The Wheel of Time and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t write it, although I did make the odd contribution, along with many other readers.



As Jordan said on his blog:

I did try to make the first roughly 100 pages of EYE seem somewhat Tolkienesque. I wanted to say, "This is the place you know, guys. Now we're going somewhere else." And then the Trolloc kicked in the farmhouse door.

He deliberately used The Lord of the Rings as a familiar starting point, since at the time The Wheel of Time was begun, the 1980s, Lord of the Rings was the series against which all other fantasy books were measured. He then gradually diverged into his own world and themes still adding a reference to Tolkien’s books from time to time.

It may have been this Tolkienesque beginning that was the origin of the New York Times review blurb

With The Wheel of Time, Jordan has come to dominate the world Tolkien began to reveal.

on the back cover of many Wheel of Time volumes.

New Article Released: Private Lives of the 17th to 18th Centuries

By Linda


The many domestic scenes Jordan included in the books add realism, while often making a point. The laundry scenes, for instance, show the hard labour of the novices, or the humiliation of queens, princesses and Forsaken. Elayne’s obstetric care is a mix of 20th century attitudes grafted onto 18th century practice. These are perhaps better appreciated with some background on what living conditions were like in the west in the 17th to 18th centuries. In the Private Lives of the 17th and 18th Centuries article, now re-published on the blog, I compare descriptions of underclothing, personal care, laundry, vermin, sanitation and childbirth in the Wheel of Time series with those of the equivalent time period in the real world.

New article Released: Names of the Shadow

By Linda


An article on the allusions underlying the names of all the characters allied to the Shadow, Names of the Shadow, is now published on the Thirteenth Depository. It dovetails in with the regular Character Names articles series (where I am up to the letter I). The Forsaken's names, with their references to demons, devils, monsters, and gods, are there of course, plus their various aliases, which are usually more innocuous, but hint at knowledge that genuine Third Agers would not know.

I've also looked at the names of the Shadowspawn including the Trolloc clans.

The names of the Black Ajah and Ashaman and Darkfriends are sometimes merely derived from surnames or place names, but some, such as Ryne Venamar (venom + mar) refer to the evil they cause.

My favourites? Moridin, M'Hael, Maisia and Jaichim Carridin, I guess.

JordanCon 2010 now only a few weeks away!

By Linda

JordanCon, the Wheel of Time convention, will be held in Atlanta Georgia at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia hotel from April 23 to 25 2010. It’s coming up breathtakingly fast. Pre-registration closes in 30 days time!

Jennifer Liang, the JordanCon Chair, and her team have organised a wonderful list of guests, including Brandon Sanderson, Harriet McDougal, Jana G. Oliver, author of the Time Rovers series, David Wong, author of John Dies at the End, Maria Simmons and Alan Romanczuk of Team Jordan, Jason Denzel, webmaster of Dragonmount, and Matt Hatch, webmaster of Theoryland.

There will be heaps of discussion of course, plus panels, the Seanchan Homecoming Ball, a charity silent auction and poker game, a Writer’s Track, costuming and gaming. It will be really great! Visit ageoflegends.net to pre-register or for more details.

I plan on attending and have booked plane tickets and a room. I’ve still got a few things to organise, like my costume for the Ball. I finally obtained the fabric I wanted this afternoon. Old Salt, who has also written articles and a theory for the Thirteenth Depository, is also going.

I hope to see you there!

The Path of Daggers Read-through #7: Attack of the Turncoats

By Linda

According to Kisman, four Darkfriend Asha’man, Gedwyn, Rochaid, Kisman and Torval, were ordered by Taim to kill Rand in the Sun Palace:

"Kill him," the M'Hael had ordered before sending them to Cairhien, but he had been as displeased that they were found out as that they had failed. Far Madding was to be their last chance; he had made that as plain as polished brass. Dashiva had simply vanished. Kisman did not know whether he had run or the M'Hael had killed him, and he did not care.

- Winter’s Heart, Out of Thin Air

They smashed a large hole in the part of the Palace where Rand had his rooms, but missed Rand, who had just left to meet with Cadsuane. Rand felt their weaves coming from different directions. Dashiva knew Rand survived because he felt Rand channel something – probably the shield on Shalon. The other four Darkfriends felt nothing, but then, unbeknownst to them, Dashiva was far stronger and more knowledgeable, so he would sense channelling better. Interestingly, Dashiva did not use balefire when he attacked Rand in the corridor. Perhaps he didn’t want the four Asha'man to learn it, or to know he knew it.

Why did Dashiva join in?

Week 21 Question: One thing that's always confused me is just why Dashiva/Osangar chose to attack Rand (with the turncoat Asha'man) when he did. The last time we saw Rand with Dashiva before that was when they went together (with Flinn, Hopwil and Morr) to confront Cadsuane, and there didn't seem to be any one particular incident that would "set him off."

Robert Jordan Answers: Partly this was guilty conscience working. Even people who don't have a conscience can have a guilty conscience, the sudden conviction - as when Rand came on Dashiva and the others - that somebody knows what they are up to. Add to this that Dashiva was plain getting tired of trailing around after Rand, taking orders. He's one of the Chosen, and the Dark One reclaimed him from death, which is really good, but he's been stuck in a decidedly second-rate body and stuck spying on Rand, fetching and carrying like a servant as he sees it, with hardly even an opportunity to put a spoke in Rand's wheels except in very minor ways. How much better if Rand simply died.

- TOR Question of the Week

The attempt was made to kill Rand because then Taim could do wrong in his name and perhaps take his place. He had been edging in this direction for some time as his clothing and messages show. Even Rand remarked that Taim’s written communications looked as though they might have been sent by Rand:

The paper was snowy white and thick, the seal a dragon impressed in a large oval of blue wax that glittered with golden flecks. It might almost have been thought to come from the Dragon Reborn.

- The Path of Daggers, Message From the M’Hael

If Rand could be impressed and fooled, then anyone could be.

Taim doesn't wear the collar pins which he found so upsetting in Lord of Chaos when they were publicly presented to him by Rand; neither does Rand. Taim does wear the rest of the Asha’man uniform, with dragons embroidered around the sleeves in the same position as Rand’s dragon tattoos, so that he commits evil in Rand's name and in Rand’s uniform.

While the Pattern now prevents Taim from declaring himself the Dragon Reborn, others may yet do so. If Taim does bad things in the Dragon's name wearing the dragons, people will then believe that Rand has ordered them, or at least sanctioned them. Taim doesn't have to say anything; people will believe it anyway.

If the attempt to kill Rand failed, as it did, there was the probability that many people would think Rand insanely did the damage himself. Further distrust between Rand and his allies would be sown. Rand might be jolted into making mistakes and prevented from having time to think, and his plans hopefully would be disrupted.

While it was a good idea to remind everyone how badly the war in Altara went by saying that it made the Asha’man rebel, as a protest vote by Dreadlords the attack was overdone. It would have been more confusing to just quietly go and commit atrocities, but then people might suspect that Taim was involved. So Taim aimed at total confusion so that no one knows what to think.

After the attack failed, Taim personally reported the four Asha’man as deserters to Rand and was surprised and annoyed to learn that Dashiva had participated too – since he knew which men he gave the order to. Taim didn’t want Dashiva getting creative or blowing his cover. The other four were a little more expendable, although, according to Kisman, Taim was as furious that they were found out as that they had failed.

There had been sporadic attempts to kill Rand before, but no less than four figures of the Shadow – Taim, Dashiva, Demandred and even Moridin to a degree – tried to kill Rand at about this time. What had them feeling so murderous?

Well it had finally been brought to their notice that Rand intended to cleanse saidin and, as Moridin also learned, had the means to do it. Dashiva and/or the Black Asha’man reported Rand’s desire to remove the taint after Rand told them during the campaign in Illian and Altara. There might have been Darkfriends or agents among the servants, too. A little investigation by Moridin uncovered Cyndane’s knowledge that Rand had the access keys to the Choedan Kal.

Obviously the taint could not be removed if Rand were dead.

As this quote shows:

And later still, Moridin had said, "Kill him if you must, but above all, bring everything in his possession to me. That will redeem your previous transgressions." The man said he was one of the Chosen, and no one was mad enough to make that claim unless it was true, yet he seemed to think al'Thor's belongings more important than his death, the killing incidental and not really necessary.

- Winter’s Heart, Out of Thin Air

Moridin realised that if he took the access keys from Rand that alone would prevent the cleansing and he would not have to alter his plans. Plus, of course, holding the keys, Moridin would have an extreme advantage over the other Forsaken, and remove the threat of any of them ‘getting above themselves’. Rand’s death is not really desired by Moridin – not until the planned moment.

The Path of Daggers Read-through #6: Double Murder

By Linda

The murder of Adeleas and Ispan has been solved, but I think it is worth a retrospective analysis.

Timing

The killings occurred 28 days after the Bowl of Winds was used and 8 days after Adeleas revealed Garenia was a runaway; Garenia whom Darkfriend Careane should have recognised.

Why were Adeleas and Ispan not killed sooner?

It had been public knowledge for a short while where this party was headed. Perhaps Careane wasn’t in regular contact with a Forsaken. It looks like she did not receive orders until the group passed through larger villages and a Darkfriend spy could report through the chain to Moridin and orders be given to Careane. Moridin was the only Forsaken who knew who was in this group and was eager to find them.

The murders were the beginning of a scare campaign to break this large group of channellers with rising fear. Moridin was soon to give Shiaine orders to have food stores burnt and the Kin killed with the One Power in Caemlyn as part of his revenge on Elayne’s group for their restoration of the weather, and to destabilise her hold on the city and nation.

Method

Each woman was killed twice over, once by poison and once with a manual weapon:

Adeleas lay on her side beside an overturned stool, a cup on the rough wooden floor not far from one outstretched hand. Her eyes stared, and a pool of congealed blood spread out from the deep slash across her throat. Ispan lay on a small cot, staring at the ceiling. Lips drawn back in a rictus bared her teeth, and her bulging eyes seemed full of horror. As well they might have, since a wrist-thick wooden stake stood out from between her breasts. The hammer that had plainly been used to drive it in lay beside the cot, on the edge of a dark stain that ran back under the cot…
A second three-legged stool, a rough table holding a flickering lamp, a green teapot and a second cup, a rude stone fireplace with cold ash on the hearthstone. That was all. The hut was so small it only took Nynaeve a step to reach the table. Dipping her finger into the teapot, she touched it to the tip of her tongue, then spat vigorously and emptied the whole teapot into the table in a wash of tea and tea leaves.…
"This is crimsonthorn root," she [Nynaeve] said, trying to sound matter-of-fact and failing. "It's sweet, so you might miss it in tea unless you know what it is, especially if you take a lot of honey."
Vandene nodded, never taking her eyes from her sister. "Adeleas developed a taste for sweet tea in Ebou Dar."

- The Path of Daggers, Crimsonthorn

Crimsonthorn root was used in a tea. In small doses it is a painkiller; in higher doses it slowly kills through paralysing the muscles. The victim would be aware but unable to move. Death, probably by gradual asphyxia, could take hours. Nynaeve does not know of an antidote for a strong dose.

There is a real world plant with a similar physiological effect, and with some associations with the name crimsonthorn: hemlock (see Herbs and Other Medicines article). Hemlock is very poisonous and its leaves (sometimes seeds) were used as a painkiller, a sedative and a muscle relaxant. It is still sometimes used medicinally. There is little difference between a therapeutic and a toxic dose and an overdose produces paralysis:

In poisonous doses it produces complete paralysis with loss of speech, the respiratory function is at first depressed and ultimately ceases altogether and death results from asphyxia. The mind remains aware to the last.

- Maude Grieve, A Modern Herbal

These symptoms are pretty much as Nynaeve described for crimsonthorn.

Nynaeve thought that both women drank the tea:

"They might have remained conscious for hours. Not able to
move, but aware.

- The Path of Daggers, Crimsonthorn

Ispan showed an expression of pain and terror, so she either already wore this expression when the paralysis came on – the pain could have been from her interrogation – or she never drank the tea and the second cup was intended for Vandene if she was there. The former is more likely since then Ispan would be defenceless.

Why crimsonthorn root? Careane did not wait for the crimsonthorn to kill either woman. If they were given forkroot instead, they would have slept and killing them would be much simpler. Careane had been told to make the deaths scary and an obvious betrayal by one of the group. Perhaps Careane wanted them conscious for as long as possible; Ispan for punishment and Adeleas to hold her shield. It seems the paralysis would prevent any channelling since, as Cadsuane explained:

Few had channeled where she could see, but she had noticed that they created some weaves without the gestures that sisters used. The hand movements were not truly part of the weave, but in a way they were, because they had been part of learning the weave. Perhaps, once, there had been Aes Sedai who could, say, hurl a ball of fire without some sort of throwing motion, but if so, they were long dead, and their teachings with them. Today, some things just could not be done without the appropriate gestures.

- The Path of Daggers, New Alliances

Aes Sedai have to move to make a weave, not only for the necessary gestures, but also because they need to know where something is in relation to themselves so they can affect it and if they are paralysed they can’t move their eyes. While Ispan should have been unable to weave anything, maybe Careane didn’t take any chances. Adeleas would hold the shield on Ispan; Careane was perhaps too weak to do so (see Saidar Strength Ranking chart). Adeleas would not release the shield on Ispan because otherwise she would be freeing a Darkfriend. If she held the shield at least this way one Darkfriend was killed.

With the tea, Careane was prepared for any eventuality, including the presence of Vandene, and would have an excellent excuse for visiting the hut. The killer knew Adeleas’ taste in drinks because she served everyone drinks all the time.

Adeleas was dispatched with a quick slash across the throat some time during the proceedings – perhaps once it was obvious Ispan could not channel. This may have been part mercy and part safety measure. Ispan, on the other hand, was to be made an example of.


Killer

The killer was the drinks waiter; the one who knew how everyone liked their tea. Careane was a big strong woman and Ispan’s murder required physical strength.

The party stayed at many inns on their laborious journey to Caemlyn and the article detailing these is now posted on the Thirteenth Depository.

The Path of Daggers Read-through #5: Egwene and Halima

By Linda

It took two to three hours of precise and intricate weaving with a very powerful circle to restore the seasons with the Bowl of Winds. Bearing this in mind, the criticism Romanda made that the Aes Sedai could have done better is ludicrous:

"Easier to instruct Merilille than to see she obeys, Lelaine. I expect she knows she faces sharp questions. This Bowl of the Winds should have been brought to us for study first. None of the sisters in Ebou Dar had much ability in Cloud Dancing, I believe, and you can see the result, all this hurly-burly and suddenness. I have a thought to call a question before the Hall concerning everyone involved." Abruptly the gray-haired woman's voice became smooth as butter. "As I recall, you supported the choice of Merilille."
With a jerk, Lelaine drew herself up. Her eyes flashed. "I supported who the Gray put forward, Romanda, and no more," she said indignantly. "How could I have imagined she would decide to use the Bowl there? And to include Sea Folk wilders in the circle! How could she believe they know as much of working weather as Aes Sedai?"

- The Path of Daggers, Unexpected Absences

Moridin is prepared to admit that the Windfinders know more about working the weather than Aes Sedai did in the Age of Legends when they actually used these ter’angreal regularly.

The rebel Aes Sedai think Merilille should have brought the Bowl to them to use. If they had, Halima would have ensured it was not used. (Not that the rebels would have had a clue how to use it anyway.)

Halima’s ploy of inducing headaches which only she could ease to get close to Egwene always struck me as clumsy but no character saw through it. She needed to sleep in the same tent as Egwene to find Egwene’s dreams. As a result of Halima’s manipulations, Egwene was not remembering all her dreams clearly:

In the dim, cold dark of deep night, Egwene woke groggily from restless sleep and troubling dreams, the more troubling because she could not remember them. Her dreams were always open to her, as clear as printed words on a page, yet these had been murky and fearful. She had had too many of those, lately.
They left her wanting to run, to escape, never able to recall what from, but always queasy and uncertain, even trembling.

- The Path of Daggers, Stronger than Written Law

Egwene’s restless troubled dreams leaving her wanting to run are similar to Morgase’s restless dreams of running from someone when under Rahvin’s Compulsion:

Her [Morgase’s] eyes closed, and she fell immediately into sleep, a sleep troubled by restless dreams of running from something she could not see.

- The Fires of Heaven, Fanning the Sparks

Egwene’s talent and will is strong enough that she can recall a portion of her dreams even under these circumstances.

At least part of Egwene erroneously positive and unsuspicious attitude to Halima comes from associating Halima with the removal of pain.

Halima was clumsy in the way she publicly instructed Delana and made her try to join every faction and submit extremist suggestions to the Hall. This ensured Delana wouldn’t be taken seriously.

Balthamel/Aran’gar, Halima’s alter ago, is skilled in violence but is pathetic at politics. She killed two of Egwene’s three maids – leaving alive the one Sheriam (Black) supplied and that Egwene trusts the most. Chesa seems entirely trustworthy, but…

Or would all three disappearing have been a bit overdone?

In the Age of Legends Balthamel ran concentration camps where people were kept as fodder for Trollocs and also an intelligence network. Until her cover was blown, the transmigrated Halima was a spy and agent provocateur. Parallels for both figures are described in the Balthamel parallels essay. My favourite is the twice-born Greek god, Dionysus and his hangers-on.

Egwene thought Halima a wide-eyed innocent country girl, whereas it is Egwene who was the naive one. It was not innocence that made Halima oblivious to the Aes Sedai pecking order, it was arrogance. Her handwriting is unformed because transcribers were used in the Age of Legends (The Path of Daggers, New Alliances).

Egwene completely misinterpreted what she saw of Halima and Delana:

Only Delana never joined one of those brief conversations. She stayed close beside Halima, who at last admitted that she was cold. Face tight, the country woman held her cloak close around her, but she still tried to comfort Delana, whispering to her almost constantly. Delana seemed to need comforting; her brows were drawn down, putting a crease in her forehead that actually made her seem aged.

- The Path of Daggers, The Law

On the way back from the meeting with the Andorans and Murandians Halima was worried about what Egwene was plotting. From Egwene’s instructions to her sworn Aes Sedai to remind all rebel Sitters of Elaida’s misdeeds, she knew Egwene was up to something and had beaten Sheriam in an effort to find out what, to no avail. Sheriam had not been told. Halima wasn’t comforting Delana, she was giving her instructions for various possible outcomes, some of which made Delana miserable or fear exposure. Yet Halima didn’t destroy Egwene’s role or plans as she easily could have by making Delana reveal the Egwene-Siuan alliance, therefore she still hoped to manipulate or use Egwene. Perhaps the Shadow saw Egwene as promoting division.

Both Egwene and Siuan were prepared to look foolish in the rebel Sitters’ eyes to manipulate them into declaring martial law.

A figure of some amusement and occasional pity, Siuan Sanche, reduced to attaching herself to the woman who held the title once hers, and that woman no more than a puppet once the Hall finished fighting over who would pull her cords. Siuan was human enough to harbor sparks of resentment, but so far they had managed to keep secret that her advice was far from grudging. So she endured pity and snickers as best she could, and everyone believed her as changed by her experiences as her face. That belief had to be maintained, or Romanda and Lelaine and very likely the rest of the Hall, too, would find ways to separate her - and her advice - from Egwene.

- The Path of Daggers, Stronger than Written Law

This probably lulled Halima too.

Egwene had been wondering how to ensure that the Sitters hurried back to the camp in time for Egwene to call the Hall to sit. Her impulse to publicly announce at the parley with the Andorans and Murandians that the novice book was open to all had the Sitters eager to leave and discuss how to counter this, and too blind with annoyance at Egwene to see her ambush coming.

Since Sheriam tried to pump Egwene for her plans regarding this sitting of the Hall, Halima didn’t penetrate Egwene’s ward protecting her discussions with Siuan against eavesdropping. Sheriam was bitter because she knew she would be in trouble with Halima for not finding out what Egwene and Siuan were planning.

Delana was nervous and late to the sitting due to probably getting last minute instructions – a measure of Halima’s uncertainty. The Grey Sitter did not want to divide the Tower further and was one of the last to stand for the war vote after looking outside rhe pavilion – to Halima probably, even though the Hall session was warded against eavesdropping. To obtain the lesser consensus, Moria (Black) harangued the seated Sitters until two other Sitters of her Ajah rose, so she had orders – possibly from a different Forsaken since Moria never worked with Delana politically (see Politics of the Halls article) – to sow disunity between the Aes Sedai and prolong the rebellion.

Egwene’s green-blue-white attire that she wore to the parley and the momentous sitting refers to the Green (Battle) Ajah and its allies. She wore pearls, too, which are lunar symbols of wisdom and feminine power, but also tears; as did Siuan, the former Amyrlin and her teacher. They had worked out a plan for Egwene to gain control of the rebels and truly become Amyrlin, but feared it could all end in tears. I loved the moment when Romanda supplied Egwene with an ermine cloak (a symbol of royalty and since it is white, saidar). Romanda had probably been saving it for the glorious day when she would be raised Amyrlin at last. Instead, she ‘ennobled’ Egwene with it.

The Path of Daggers Read-through #4: Appraising the Treasure

By Linda

The Elayne and Nynaeve subthread starts with Aviendha worrying about the lost child Olver. Much to her surprise, her love for Rand is inspiring her to develop maternal feelings. Some things haven’t changed however, such as her attitude to the ‘Oathbreakers’. Even though only one Cairhienin – Laman – broke faith with the Aiel and was executed for his offence, all Cairhienin are condemned. Indefinitely.

Aviendha also stresses about her difficulty with Travelling. It is due to Aviendha having already used a different weave for Travelling when she fled from Rand in Cairhien, but one she can’t remember. Cadsuane explains the problems:

The first way you learned the weave for a particular thing imprinted itself on you; learning a second was all but impossible, and even when you could learn, the second learned weave almost never worked nearly as well… As for handwaving… Few [Aiel] had channeled where she could see, but she had noticed that they created some weaves without the gestures that sisters used. The hand movements were not truly part of the weave, but in a way they were, because they had been part of learning the weave. Perhaps, once, there had been Aes Sedai who could, say, hurl a ball of fire without some sort of throwing motion, but if so, they were long dead, and their teachings with them. Today, some things just could not be done without the appropriate gestures. There were sisters who claimed they could tell who had taught another sister by which motions she used for which weaves.

- The Path of Daggers, New Alliances

Aviendha Travelled instinctively, but in her panic never took note of how she did it. She has had to learn Elayne’s way, but it is a poor second. Aviendha does remember the gesture she used for her original weave, but that wouldn’t help from what Cadsuane said, since whatever gesture Elayne used when she demonstrated it to Aviendha is ‘part’ of the weave. So Aviendha is performing neither weave exactly in the way she learned them. It will be interesting to see if Aviendha’s difficulties with Travelling are important for Towers of Midnight.

This subplot has some interesting symbolism in these early POVs:

The thin Sea Folk porcelain that Aviendha eyes was actually made by Amayar and reflects the brittleness and fragility of that people’s philosophy, the Water Way, and ultimately their mass murder and suicide (more on this in the Knife of Dreams, read-through). The gilded and lit lamps lining their way out of the Palace symbolise royalty, vigilance, truth and life, and refers to their quest to restore the seasons and establish Elayne on the Lion Throne.

Nynaeve’s attire of blue with yellow slashes hearkens back to Lan’s former Aes Sedai, Moiraine, as well as Nynaeve’s own Ajah and Healing Talent. She is trying to be everything to Lan. As he told her in Tear, Lan’s favourite colours on women are blue, green and white. The last is an odd choice, since white is the mourning colour. However, the colours are those of Moiraine’s Ajah and her Ajah’s allies. Elayne is also wearing her Ajah colour of green embroidered with gold to reflect her royal status. The girls have dressed formally for this very important occasion. Green is also the colour of fertility and Elayne will be pregnant soon.

Aviendha is modestly dressed in grey, reflecting her current lower station compared to the other two and also her growing role as mediator between Aiel and Westlanders. Aviendha’s comment that no Wise One ever told anyone to stand up to Wise Ones looks forward to her own problems with self-assertion which delayed her graduation as a Wise One.


Elayne was able to efficiently sort through the items they found in Ebou Dar by holding the Power and sensing whether an item resonated to saidar. (Hopefully items that are made to be used by saidin only also resonate to saidar.) The many items they obtained are detailed in the Ebou Dar cache article now reposted here on the Thirteenth Depository.

Three angreal were found in their share of the cache and their shapes are instructive, when one considers who uses them.

The turtle angreal was used by Talaan and later given to Aviendha. Turtles symbolise longevity. Being creatures of two domains, sea and shore, they are also often regarded as keepers of the doorways to other worlds, such as Faerie. Both Talaan and Aviendha chafed at the delays to their graduation and turtles are regarded as slow. The two girls have also, if not gone missing, at least taken longer to re-appear than they should. Elayne also considered using the turtle at a time when her path to the throne was delayed and the Borderlanders seemed a complication.

The figurine of a woman in a meditative pose clothed only in her luxuriant hair angreal is Elayne’s favourite despite being the weakest of the three. Elayne gave this angreal to Aviendha to use even though she wanted to use it herself. Unbound hair is often a sexual invitation, especially coupled with nudity as on this figurine. At this stage Elayne was rather jealous that Aviendha and Rand had made love - often telling herself to stay calm - and looked forward to doing the same with him herself.

The maze-engraved rings and bracelet with chains, padlock and key is the strongest of the three angreal. It adapts itself to fit whatever hand it is on and has been used by Nynaeve and Alivia. Rings are a symbol of commitment and, along with the chains and bracelet, a strong bond of service or duty and an eternal connection with someone.

The lock with its special key could be regarded as a symbol of marital fidelity. A lock and key also stands for both liberation and imprisonment. Another possibility is that the key could symbolise the unlocking of knowledge or weaves that are essential to protect. In a way the strenth of the angreal provides the ability to protect or save. Since the lock and its key are removable, it would be interesting to see if removing them affects the function of the angreal, for example by making it weaker or stronger.

On one level the angreal refers to Nynaeve’s marriage to Lan, especially considering Nyaneve wears Lan’s ring on a chain. Just before she was given the angreal to use she confessed that she had been silly about forgetting her duty while fussing over Lan.

Perhaps more importantly still, the angreal symbolism refers to both Nynaeve’s and Alivia’s fierce protection of Rand and also his trust of them in return. One will ‘help him die’ and the other is determined to help him live. Alivia feels a great obligation because Rand liberated her from the a’dam and she appreciates Rand encouraging her to learn all she can.

The angreal is engraved with a maze pattern. Mazes were thought to confuse evil spirits, and it is therefore apt that the angreal has been frequently worn and used in conjunction with the protective jewellery ter’angreal from the cache. The fact that mazes have many paths and dead ends implies that whatever weaves or aid Nynaeve and Alivia bring Rand will not come easily.

The Bowl of Winds is a hallows object, a life-giving cauldron of plenty in fact. The cauldron of the Dagda, an Irish god was called Undry and the Blow was used to bring much-needed rain and snow to the world.

The Bargain that Elayne and Nynaeve made with the Sea Folk was worthwhile. Without Caire’s rare and very advanced technical knowledge and skill they could not have restored the Seasons. The Windfinders’ knowledge was not valued by Egwene and the rebel Aes Sedai since they never saw the expertise necessary to use the Bowl.

Caire channelled into the Bowl with a star motif. The star symbolises hope, expectation and advent. For the alchemist it was a symbol of the imagination and of the material substances the alchemist hoped to transform. The mental powers of thirteen channellers were used by Caire to transform the weather pattern of the world. She began with a four-pointed star representing the four directions of the compass, or the four corners of the world, and then increased the number of points. The nine-pointed star triggered the Bowl to draw saidar itself and then saidin. Nine is a powerful number symbolising order within order, and the triple synthesis of mind, body and spirit, or heaven, earth and underworld.

Sammael also obtained a share of the Ebou Dar cache. After Sammael’s death, Rand and the Asha’man stripped Sammael’s rooms bare of whatever Graendal left (The Path of Daggers, New Alliances). She complained that she didn’t have much time before they arrived. This implies that Graendal got her hands upon more than just a weak angreal, but we don’t know what.

It’s remarkable how often Mat is present when treasure hoards are accessed onstage for the first time – Shadar Logoth, the Great Holding in Tear, Rhuidean and finally the Ebou Dar cache. He really is the God of Wealth. Perhaps he will be shown over the Eelfinn’s treasure stores too.

The Path of Daggers Read-through #3: Games of Deception

By Linda

The Prologue title emphasises deceiving others, or being deceived by them.

Moridin sits meditatively re-playing a past board game. Despite his reputation and the odd spot of acting, he is not as mad as he appears. He has been too effective to be mad, but it makes the other Forsaken wary of him if they think he is. The game is not an academic or idle exercise either. He is using it to work out his strategy in the war against the Light.

Moridin tells us he is playing both sides of the board in the real game. He has seemingly been helping Rand as well as openly opposing him. Since he thinks Rand is moving to his wishes, he approves of Rand ousting Sammael from Illian and killing him – thinning out his more independent rivals - and of sending Perrin and Mat away on long-running errands. Later he will advise Rand on how to permanently remove the Forsaken and aim him at the more dispensable or troublesome ones…

Verin in this chapter is playing both sides in the name of the Light. Her compulsion weave is safe of itself; it is her manipulations that she suggests to her victims that are potentially dangerous. In her rooms at the White Tower she has cupboards and chests filled with ciphered notebooks but in The Gathering Storm she only gives one to Egwene along with her cipher key. With her compulsion, she also tries to find out the identities of Rand’s ‘secret Aes Sedai supporters’. If only Rand had told Verin that the letter offering him support had come from Alviarin…

The Sha’rah game, played on a 13 x 13 board surrounded by a goal row with 33 pieces per player (see the symbolism of 13 and 33) plus an independent bone of contention, the Fisher, is a metaphor for the struggle between the Shadow and the Light, with Rand as the Fisher. One player takes the red side, and the other player the green. It’s a fairly safe bet that Moridin likes to choose red (blood, one of his colours), not green (fertility and life), when he plays.

The Fisher has a real world equivalent, the Fisher King of Arthurian legend who guarded the Holy Grail, San Greal, as Rand did the great sa’angreal. His unhealing wound represents original sin. Rand’s wound is made from the taint that was on saidin, tainted by the Dark One for men’s pride. It is overlain by the Shadar Logoth evil, the hatred of evil that becomes evil itself; hypocrisy is a very ancient and underestimated sin. Weakened by his wound, the Fisher King could not hunt, only fish; hence his name. Since the Fisher was at one with the Land, it could not be healthy while he was wounded and because no one asked about the Fisher’s wounds, the Land wasn’t healed. Nobody really asks about Rand’s wounds either, just Delves them when he is incapacitated, and he isn’t volunteering anything. Four holy objects, the Sword (Callandor or Justice), the Spear (Seanchan sceptre or Mat’s spear), the Cauldron (Bowl of Winds) and the Crown (of Swords) are necessary to restore the Fisher’s Land and Rand.

In Sha’rah the Fisher is always hunted. The real world games that Sha’rah was based on, the Tafl family of games (see Sha’rah and Fisher King article), are considered to be hunting games rather than war games like chess. Sha’rah is more complex, being both a hunting and a war game.

Depending on his square colour, the Fisher has differing moves:

Several pieces had varying moves, but only the Fisher's attributes altered according to where it stood; on a white square, weak in attack yet agile and far-ranging in escape; on black, strong in attack but slow and vulnerable.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

On the road to Caemlyn, Rand was weak yet elusive, since he could not channel consciously, but he did elude Shadowspawn and Darkfriends. In contrast, during the cleansing of saidin, Rand attacked strongly but was slow and vulnerable. He needed all the extensive defences that Cadsuane organised, and was helpless afterwards until he recovered consciousness. The varying moves weaken the Fisher’s powers since it makes him unstable and also makes playing him or manipulating him more complicated. This symbolises Rand’s vulnerability and tendency to cause chaos, but also his strokes of luck and genius.

The Fisher changes sides repeatedly during the game and is coloured black and white to reflect this. Likewise there have been attempts to tempt Rand to the Shadow and to force him to do evil along with any good. He was been captured a couple of times and manipulated many more. Neither Rand nor the Fisher is ever safe.

We don’t know how the Fisher is forced to change sides. Perhaps it occurs when he is blocked and taken in custody by one player. In the Tafl games any piece is won by custodial capture - blocked on both sides in either a column or a row by enemy pieces - and the King is won by double custodial capture, when all four squares around him are occupied by enemy pieces, or if he is surrounded on three sides by enemy pieces and on the fourth by the throne square or the side of the board. If at this point the Fisher then becomes a piece of the player who trapped and surrounded him, his previous owner would have to separate him from these now protective pieces and try to take him back into custody.

Moridin does explain most of the ways to win the game:

When the Fisher was yours, you tried to move him to a square of your color behind your opponent's end of the board. That was victory, the easiest way, but not the only one. When your opponent held the Fisher, you attempted to leave him no choice for the Fisher but to move onto your color. Anywhere at all along the goalrow would do; holding the Fisher could be more dangerous than not. Of course, there was a third path to victory in sha'rah, if you took it before letting yourself be trapped. The game always degenerated in a bloody melee, then, victory coming only with complete annihilation of your enemy. He had tried that, once, in desperation, but the attempt had failed. Painfully.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances.

A major part of the tactics is manipulating the other player to play the Fisher where you want, not where they want. This reflects the amount of manipulation going on in the war against the Shadow. In fact, it is not possible to win in Sha’rah unless one manipulates the other player, and through them, the Fisher. Ishamael is always manipulating Rand, even when he is in the hands of other ‘players’.

Most ways to win in Sha’rah involve getting the Fisher to move onto your colour whether you hold him or not. If you hold him, you move him to the other end of board. If your opponent holds him, you leave them only legal moves which force them to score an ‘own goal’ anywhere on the goal row resulting in your victory.

There is another path to victory, not described fully, which involves being the last man standing. Since you can be trapped using this strategy, it seems to be a last resort. If a player decides to win by eliminating all their opponent’s pieces, the other player would have to do likewise for their own protection. The game would indeed “degenerate into a bloody melee” as Moridin described it, since there are so many pieces to remove. Prior to this scene, Ishamael apparently attempted this once with very painful results. Ishamael was killed in Tear, but this wasn’t a bloody melee. Nor was Falme or the Eye. Lews Therin said Dumai’s Wells was nothing compared to the battles in the War of Power, so Moridin must have been referring to the Age of Legends when he was indeed trapped on the verge of victory.

Moridin is trying to win by manipulating and constraining Rand, surrounding him on all fronts, including inside his head, or disguising his pieces as Rand’s pieces (eg Taim), or subverting Rand’s pieces. The placement of the internal link to Rand was unintentional and hasn’t been successful for manipulatory purposes either, since there is a leakage of influence from Rand to Moridin. Order burns to clear Rand’s path, and Moridin is obstructing Rand as much as possible with conflicting orders, misinformation, subverted aides, distractions (eg rebellion) and multiple enemies (eg Seanchan). Until recently he left Perrin and Mat largely alone, since they appeared to have been distracted from their original instructions, and thus were seemingly not contributing. But now he has commanded they be killed, to free up some space so he can get his own pieces in for the final blocking moves, the double custodianship, on the Fisher King.

The Path of Daggers Read-through #2: Borderland Deception

By Linda

The four Borderland rulers are annoyed with Rand because he has ignored them and the potential peril their lands are in. So what do they do? All four rulers, not just one of them or their emissaries, leave their lands with their counsellors or household heads and a large part of their forces for months to wander around in the south in the very way they found objectionable in Rand. Brilliant.

They are incensed that Rand has supposedly ignored them, but they owe him a great debt. He used the Eye of the World to save them from Trollocs which Agelmar believed would overrun Shienar at the least when the Eye should have been used for Tarmon Gai’don. The monarchs should be even more angry with the White Tower, which has done nothing, but they are quite happy to have thirteen sisters potter along with them in the south for months.

If ever there was evidence that the rulers have been manipulated by the Shadow, this is it...

It will be interesting to see if Rand's chiding of them at the end of The Gathering Storm, will bring them to their senses and make them see their hypocrisy.

The chapter title Deceptive Appearances warns us to look for those whose appearances are deceptive. Verin of course is one, playing both sides of the board, and Moridin and his game of sha’rah is another (more on him in the next post). Normally perceptive, Verin misinterprets her sighting of Irgain, interpreting it as a warning to behave herself, when actually the Wise Ones were reassuring her that the stilled Aes Sedai were being treated honourably and the Aiel were making efforts to keep them alive. Such is the effect of a guilty conscience.

Which brings us back to the Borderlanders. The rulers and their closest counsellors were the ones who decided to go south. Who among them might be a Darkfriend under orders to move them away from their lands? Or even merely a ‘sleeper’? Paitar’s councillor, Kyril Shianri, is a candidate; he has the mandatory dissatisfied look, vanity and arrogance. To make sure all are committed to what amounts to weakening Borderlands, he was very quick to pounce on any doubt and scorn it. He actually butted in on exchange between a King and Queen:

She [Ethenielle] made her own greetings just as short, ending with a direct "I hope you've come this far without detection."
Easar snorted and leaned on his cantle, eyeing her grimly. A hard man, but eleven years widowed and still mourning. He had written poetry for his wife. There was always more than the surface. "If we've been seen, Ethenielle," he grumbled, "then we might as well turn back now."
"You speak of turning back already?" Between his tone and a flip of his tasseled reins, Shianri managed to combine disdain with barely enough civility to forestall a challenge.

- The Path of Daggers, Deceptive Appearances

So eager is Shianri that he seems to be over-reacting. Neither Easar nor Ethenielle were thinking of turning back.

(Also watch out for Lomas, the Kandori scout described as sly by Ethenielle).

It’s worth thinking about the Aes Sedai with the Borderlanders even though as far as we know none of them had any part in the rulers’ decision to make a pact and move south to meet Rand. For instance, why didn’t Coladara, Paitar’s Aes Sedai advisor, argue against the move once she was told that it was on? Ethenielle believes Coladara wasn’t involved in their original negotiations and this may or may not be correct. Paitar holds the White Tower in high esteem and would be influenced by what Coladara said. In fact, she and her seven Aes Sedai visitors were keen to join them.

The other three rulers weren’t influenced by Aes Sedai because their advisors had left (Easar and Ethenielle) or because they had none (Tenobia). Aisling left Easar for the White Tower after the coup (probably in answer to Elaida’s summons for all loyal Aes Sedai to return to the Tower) and went on the ill-fated expedition to the Black Tower. She is now bonded to an Asha’man, Arel Malevin.

Nianh, Ethenielle’s advisor, hasn’t resurfaced. She might be one of those Aes Sedai who stood apart from the Aes Sedai split; perhaps she answered Cadsuane’s summons:

She [Cadsuane] had begun gathering sisters she trusted, those here with her and others, the day she first heard of strange events in Shienar

- Winter’s Heart, Wonderful News

and is one of the Aes Sedai gathering information for her.

One would think Memara, the Red suggested by Alviarin to pull Tenobia into line is a likely Darkfriend, but that is academic here since she had no influence with Tenobia. (Who knows what Memara has gotten up to, left behind in Saldaea.) We know nothing about the allegiances of Illeisien and the four sisters who met Tenobia ‘by chance’ just before she left Saldaea, or why they were more keen on secrecy than Tenobia was. It might be because they had different allegiances to Memara and wanted to keep their presence from her.

All four rulers agreed on moving south, but they probably have different reasons, despite appearances. Tenobia apparently mostly wants Bashere’s and Taim’s heads and wants to vent her anger at Rand for using her forces without her permission. Ethenielle wants Rand to stop breaking nations – as though it is all his fault – whether he is the Dragon Reborn or not. The motives of Easar and Paitar are unknown.

Ethenielle didn’t want Aes Sedai with them, or even to know of what they were doing. She thought the Tower might even execute them for what they do. Perhaps Ethenielle thought the White Tower was in control of Rand? Presumably the Borderlanders had enough information to know Rand has many thousand Aiel warriors with him. How were 200 thousand Borderlanders supposed to bring Rand, a strong channeller commanding huge Aiel forces to heel without Aes Sedai?

What did Illeisien say to Tenobia that made her accept them when she was so against Memara (and probably the White Tower) at that point? What do Illeisien’s group plan regarding Rand? The group of five Aes Sedai would be too few to take such as strong channeller as even a non-Aes Sedai such as Loial knew:

"Perrin, both Elora and Ledar say that when Aes Sedai find a man of great power, they always gather thirteen to take him. Oh, they recount stories of four or five, and both mention Caraighan—she brought a man nearly two thousand miles to the Tower by herself after he killed both of her Warders— but. . . . Perrin, they wrote of Yurian Stonebow and Guaire Amalasan. Of Raolin Darksbane and Davian, as well, but the others are who worry me." Those were four of the most powerful among the men who had called themselves the Dragon Reborn, all long ago, before Artur Hawkwing. "Six Aes Sedai tried to capture Stonebow, and he killed three and captured the others himself. Six tried to take Amalasan; he killed one and stilled two more. Surely Rand is as strong as Stonebow or Amalasan."

- Lord of Chaos, The Sending.

A strong channeller can over come six Aes Sedai and they are only five. Were Illeisien’s group actually in cahoots with Coladara and co all along? Together they make exactly thirteen. How...exactly fortuitous.

Deceptive appearances indeed.

The Path of Daggers Read-through #1: The Slowing

By Linda

With The Path of Daggers, the pacing of the books slows both in the amount of elapsed time within each book, and the pace of plot resolution. This is deliberate to show how the Shadow is stymieing the Light by miring them in chaos and obstructions and keeping them from communicating or coming together.

The slowing reached its nadir or zenith, depending on your point of view, in Crossroads of Twilight. As it was planned to do:

“And it shall come to pass, in the days when the Dark Hunt rides, when the right hand falters and the left hand strays, that mankind shall come to the Crossroads of Twilight, and all that is, all that was, and all that will be shall balance on the point of a sword, while the winds of the Shadow grow.”

- Crossroads of Twilight, Opening Prophecy

Jordan’s aim was to make this stagnation palpable.

At the same time, the reader is informed a little more of what the Forsaken have been doing, but not enough to convince that the Shadow is a long way ahead in the war. Too much of their plans has been held back for surprise or mystery, increasing the effect of the slowing. The lack of information on the Forsaken’s plans means the reader doesn’t fully appreciate how well the Shadow is doing. Consequently, some readers were surprised to read:

But look at the situation in the world as it actually stands, from the White Tower divided to crop failures caused by a too-long winter and a too-long summer and people fleeing their farms because the Dragon Reborn has broken all bonds, meaning still less food, and that spoiling at a fearsome rate, from chaos in Arad Doman to a large part of the Borderland armies out of position, from the arrival of the Seanchan focusing too many eyes on them instead of the Shadow to the strongest single nation, Andor, riven by civil war in all but name and Tear split by open warfare, from.... Well, take your pick. There are lots more to chose from. Take a step back and look at what the forces of the Shadow have wrought. The world and the forces of the Light are in bad shape. At this point, boys and girls, the Shadow is winning. There are glimmers of hope, but only glimmers, and they MUST pay off for the Light to win. All the Shadow needs for victory is for matters to keep on as they have been going thus far and one or two of those glimmers to fade or be extinguished. The forces of the Light are on the ropes, and they don't even know everything the Dark One has up his sleeve.

- Robert Jordan on his blog

and commented that they weren’t convinced. For instance, the above post on Jordan’s blog in 2005 was the first news that the Borderlanders’ trek south was at least in part a plot of the Shadow. Perhaps with more and earlier hints in the books the reader would appreciate both the delaying tactics and the threat of the Shadow more.

Jordan took a considerable risk slowing the pace for three and a half books even though it is artistically correct. It is rare to see the good guys flounder or struggle for such a length of time due to the possibility of readers becoming disappointed or impatient, as happened. Another reason is that subplots that almost stall can be difficult to accelerate smoothly again. In my opinion this occurred in a couple of places in Knife of Dreams, one of them being in Perrin’s thread.

What I like about the slowing is the realism that the struggle is great and world-wide and that Shadow truly has obstructed the Light’s progress with war and chaos. Unlike in many earlier series, the bad guys are a force to be reckoned with. Jordan was in the vanguard of writers of Spec Fic series attempting to describe planetary scale destruction and portray truly effective megalomaniac, apocalyptic villains. (Compare the Forsaken’s activities with those of the Nazghul.)

The detail and assurance in Jordan’s world and nation building in the later books adds to the realism and heightens the sense of a population clinging to normalcy while the world collapses around them. During Books 8 to 11 the emphasis was on the personal development of the major and many minor characters and on the building of sustaining or co-operative relationships. As The Gathering Storm showed, these will be as important as any external victory in the war against the Shadow. Maybe more. And they are something the Shadow hasn’t gauged.

The plethora of plot strands and their interweaving is realistic and fascinating, but a real drawback to such complexity is that there are too many strands to progress them all in one book. The Wheel of Time series is not alone in exhibiting this. George R. R. Martin’s series is one example that springs to mind, but there are others.

The slowing of the last four books makes the acceleration into Tarmon Gai’don all the more intense as the world potentially tips in to the abyss. However the reader’s blissful ignorance of the Shadow’s plans – indeed even merely of the location of some of the Forsaken – leads to complacency that the Light will win. With more knowledge of Shadow’s plots there would be more sense of danger. If a villain stays hidden and secret for long enough, eventually s/he is discounted as a threat.

Only with the completion of the series will the crucial role and full import of the slowing be appreciated.