New Article Released : Dew Drop Inn part 1: New Spring

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: Dew Drop Inn : Wheel of Time Accommodation

Back in 2007, Linda put together for Wotmania this compendium of all the Inns mentioned in The Wheel of Time series, organized chronologically by their first appearance in the novels.

Inns are an omnipresent feature in The Wheel of Time, an aspect the introduction to this article explores. Robert Jordan often used the names & signs of inns to add layers of symbolism, from the subtle or mythological to the purely comical, often referring to the journey, in the largest sense, of the characters involved. Linda explored this aspect, adding to her descriptions of the Inns many clues to their possible symbolism.

For its Thirteenth Depository publication, Dew Drop Inn - Wheel of Time Accommodation has been split in 12 (and eventually it will become 15) installments, one for each book, to be released on a regular basis. This week, we offer you the New Spring The Novel entry. We have added to the article several illustrations of Inn signs, executed in the naive, comical or occasionally pretentious styles of 17th century inns. Robert Jordan (and this might surprise the part of his readers who consider him overly descriptive) has elaborated on fairly few Inn signs through the series, so these illustrations are mostly meant to set an atmosphere as you read.

This announcement also gives me the opportunity to mention to our more research-oriented readers a companion Index page to Dew Drop Inn, which lists alphabetically all the Inns, their locations, owners and personnel. It will be completed in parallel with the Dew Drop Inn installments.

Finally, I also attract your attention on another feature page of the Index, a repertoire of Real Life Parallels and Symbolism in the series - listing everything from historical figures, mythological or legendary characters, locations, objects, animals etc - with links to references in our articles. It can be accessed from the keywords Parallels, Symbolism and Themes in the Main Index. Like all the index features, it is a work in progress which we fine tune and augment with each new article we publish.

Good reading, and as always we welcome your comments.

Musings on the new WOT Illustrations

By Linda

The recent release of a preview of a few pages from The Eye of the World graphic novel and of the The Gathering Storm cover were most interesting.

The page from the Prologue of The Eye of the World shows Lews Therin standing in the ruins of his palace with his family dead around him. Dominic said that he pictured Lews Therin's palace as a Venetian palazzo and that got me thinking. Venice is renowned for Carnivale and pageants, which are a step away from masques.

The illustration looks like a scene out of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Masque of the Red Death, in which Prince Prospero tries to avoid a virulent, very rapid-acting plague (the Red Death) by confining himself and other wealthy nobles to his abbey. He holds a masquerade ball and in the midst of the fun a shrouded figure turns up. When Prospero demands to know his identity, the prince drops dead. The figure is revealed as the personification of the Red Death and all the guests die. It seems to fit the illustration. Ishamael, that enthusiastic user of the True Power, is the personification of the Dark One’s taint. Lews Therin, poisoned by the taint, killed everyone he loved and then himself. Different order of events, but the same result.

Masques originated in Italy and were a popular court entertainment of the sixteenth and early 17th centuries. One unusual masque that fits here is Cupid and Death, in which Death and Cupid accidentally get each other’s arrows and the result is chaos (!). The lovers Cupid shoots are killed, while the elderly people Death shoots become amorous. There are guest appearances by the personifications of Nature, Folly, Madness, and Despair. The latter three seem appropriate to the Eye of the World Prologue. Things are sorted out in the end by the god Mercury. It’s all about the world gone mad and the overturning of the natural order. The same thing that the Dark One and Ishamael are aiming at in WOT.

The Gathering Storm cover was an unfortunate unprofessional leak for TOR and was a mockup only. Rand is a composite figure and looks like he is on his last legs literally. I think the building he and Aviendha (in a coloured, rather than white blouse, but that’s a pretty tame disregard of the books for Sweet) are standing in front of is an attempted Polynesian longhouse with dragons carved on the roof peaks. Polynesia suggests sea-faring folk. I suspect they are visiting the Sea Folk islands, and Rand has just seen for himself the self-inflicted devastation of the Amayar. No wonder Rand looks like he’s just been kicked in the nuts.

New Article Released : How Do Channellers detect other Channellers?

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: How Do Channellers Detect Other Channellers?

This article, written by BobH (Shishka) for the Wotmania FAQ section in 2005, is the first of his contributions to be republished here fully indexed. It details, with many examples, the possible ways, if any, that channellers can detect the status and strength of other channellers. This, of course, depends on their own status. The various ter'angreal which detect channelling are also discussed, giving insight into how these devices can inform the wearer as to what channelling is happening, or could happen, nearby.

Other contributors : KCF (aka Nethspace), Onarishma and our own Linda and Dr. Saidin

This article and its content have also been added to the Index.

The Gathering Storm (in a glass of water?)

Thoughts and musings about the official announcement released by Tor Books.


Yesterday was a day to mark on the calendar for all Wheel of Time Fans.

We have a title for the first part of the series's finale: The Gathering Storm. We have a definitive release date: November 3, 2009. We have the great lines of the plan for the the publication of the remaining volumes of what Robert Jordan originally thought would be the single last book of the series.

Great news or bad news? It's all a matter of perspective.

I am a passionate person who feels very strongly for what grabs my interest, for what I decide to devote precious time and energy. I sympathize with all my fellow dedicated fans who today feel betrayed, worried, disappointed or very sad about the decisions the 'Wheel of Time Team' have just announced. This has happened to me in the past over other hobbies and passions of mine, and it really sucks - but the more negative I was about it, the worse it seemed to suck.

For all my understanding of these feelings, I can't join in the concert of bitter disappointment and criticism, because for me today is a great day, and the announcements made by Tor, Harriet McDougall and Brandon Sanderson are cause for much rejoicing and even a bit of relief. A few qualms and worries, but no many.

I want to salute first Brandon Sanderson for his honesty and openness – since you've taken on this project, Brandon, I have come to respect you and to enjoy your Blog and your attitude toward us fans more and more. You're truly a great guy, and truly one of us – your own passion and dedication to the series permeate all your communications with the fans. Kudos for that.

The very long blog post explaining the reasons for the split was frank and courageous, heart warming and often funny. I must speak my mind on this, though: Brandon, often you are a bit too honest and open, and today it landed you in the pickle many of us predicted on the first days you took over this project and began to communicate directly with the WOT fans, notably among us at Wotmania. But with your comprehensive Blog post you've set matters straight – again - about progress on the book and the process behind the hard decisions, and gotten yourself out of that pickle with both courage and elegance. If you can be blamed for anything, it's certainly not for misjudging the scope of the project in the early phase, for adapting your plans as it evolved, or for feeling a bit overwhelmed and tired. No, the only criticism I'd put at your feet today is that in your generosity and desire for transparency, you've created too many hopes and unreasonable expectations among part of the fanbase that Tor and Harriet now had to crush, at least among those who have less aptitude to read between the lines a bit, nor have heeded all your warnings that nothing was set in stone or would be for a long time, and that anyway you were not the one who would make the final decisions on publishing, and you could only give your opinions. Perhaps taking a page from the ever discreet Harriet's book would have simplified your life, though personally if you cope well with all this controversy and pressure, I say by all means do go on being yourself – your candor would be greatly missed in the years to come before this project is over.

I want also to salute Harriet McDougall. The decisions you've announced today were no doubt difficult ones to make, and you must have known they wouldn't be very popular and at best highly controversial, that your late husband had created too many expectations with his promise to finish in a single book, with his jokes about forcing his publisher to invent new methods to bind books if necessary – which as usual were taken dead seriously at face value by too many fans who should have understood Jordan's humour better after all these years of reading his work. But again, you're showing how much you have your priorities straight in this project, and again you've taken the necessary hard decisions to achieve what is best for the book, to make justice to Jim's memory and legacy. As always, it's very reassuring for a fan like me to see the helm of the Wheel of Time vessel in your capable and loving hands. You'll get us all to port, in your time.

A thank you as well to Tom Doherty and Tor Books. All around you're accused today by the more cynical who can't seem to see motivations behind those with dollar signs, of being this evil capitalist publisher, obsessed with making the most financial gain out of the Wheel of Time, with your hawkish eyes targeting the wallets of Wheel of Time fans worldwide.

You're in this for profit, of course, but I rather choose to see in all of this primarly your steadfast support of Harriet and Brandon, your obvious love for Robert Jordan's work you've been involved with and believed in since its genesis, and your support of the creators when they decided to stay true to Jordan's vision, by taking as much pages as they feel the story needs to be told in full. Some would have pressured the writing team to shorten things up to be able to publish the story in one book, and some would have pressured them to stick to the announced deadline. Tor rather chose to bite the bullet on this one, to go with the options that won't be popular among the readers and even leave a bitter taste among some of your customers. This isn't greed I see in your decisions concerning the publishing of the last Wheel of Time books, this is vision, and respect for the story and its creators, skills at finding the best possible compromise solution for the book, and for your company. And yes, you'll make money out of all this.. but then, I was under the impression publishing books for a profit was the raison d'être of Tor Books, so why blame you? Thank you Mr. Doherty. Robert Jordan was right to put his trust in you.

And I genuinely have come to believe that this 'WOT team' have just taken the best possible decisions for the series, one for which we'll thank them when all is said and done. Jordan's promises can be dismissed for what they were : well meaning wishes and intentions and a genuine desire to reach the end of the great journey – an end he no doubt was deeply eager to have us read at last. Harriet believes he would never have managed it, and it's all too easy to trust her opinion on this. All too easy. If anyone knows how much his tales expanded in the telling, it's her. She heard them over the table, she read them at her work desk. He announced this a bit too early, with just an outline to judge the length of the coming book. Jim Rigney excelled in many things, but with all due respect to his beloved memory, if anyone ever sucked at evaluating how long it takes to tell a story, it's Robert Jordan. For years, it was always '2-3 more books". It had become a running gag in the fan base, a bitter one for some, a funny on to others like me who really didn't care how long it would take to reach the end. It's hardly surprising he had misjudged the length of the 'last book' too, and if alas he is no longer here to have revised his early judgment along the way, his passing is no good reason to make his statement virtually sacred and untouchable, and to point now the accusing finger at his widow and his friend Tom Doherty for facing reality and finding viable solutions.

I am one of those fans who appreciate all the details and intricacies of Jim's story, one of those whose love for the series increased as the books went on and one of those who much prefer the famously or infamously 'long winded' books 4-11 to the early and faster paced 'trilogy'. Lacking in the details that for me truly makes WOT WOT, is often how I describe Eye of the World, The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn. In many ways, for me, the Wheel of Time really kicks off with The Shadow Rising, still one of my favourites.

Knife of Dreams, as good as it was, was also cause for some concerns. Perhaps under some pressure from the fans, perhaps because he was eager to get to the ending, Jim began to cut a few corners here and there, to precipitate resolution that felt like maybe it wasn't fully doing justice to all his 'set up'. If the price for a single volume A Memory of Light was to rush the ending, let too much of the details abandoned behind, unused for lack of space, then my belief is that this was too high a price to pay. I can only salute now Brandon and Harriet's decision to take all the time and pages they need to let the story breath.

The fact the book will be split into three installments may even be seen now as a gift. We were seeing the end of the WOT communities, very soon. We had only one book to look forward to, the book that would resolve everything at once. The end of theories, the end of many beloved topics of debate and discussion. A rush of discussions for a few weeks, tainted by the depressive effect that it's all over, and by the division between those who will be satisfied and those who will hate the finale (just look how the BSG fandom has just recently collapsed over the controversial ending of the series). For many years, the fan base has had it rough. Jim's disease and sad passing was a massive blow. Some sites vanished almost overnight, one of the major ones is about to close down. Harriet's decision to take all the time she needs to finish the book, and to offer them to us in three volumes over the next two years, has the very positive effect (one of Siuan's beloved unintended consequences) of giving us our Wheel of Time back. We have a book to look forward to and be excited about, and it's but a few months away. And then we'll have months of discussions and anticipation ahead of us, with the knowledge that the next chapter isn't that far away.

It is all a matter of perspective. When you have passions that bring you pleasure in life, you must make the efforts to protect and nurture them, and part of achieving that is in looking at things positively whenever it's possible, and to accept letting go of things you can't change. The alternative is too often to let changes and disappointements sour and ruin everything.

Harriet McDougall and Brandon will now have all the necessary time to make these books as good as they can be, and to ensure they do justice to Jim Rigney's legacy – books the fans can enjoy, and books Brandon and Harriet can look back at and be proud of. We will have the entirety of the story as envisioned by Robert Jordan in his notes and outline, not a shortened version to accommodate publishing, or to bow under the pressure of the more impatient part of the fan base. And we have ahead of us a reprieve of 2-3 years for the WOT fandom, with a new Wheel of Time book to enjoy every autumn. I don't know about you, but I salivate in advance. Today, watching over Harriet's shoulder from wherever he is, Jim must sport a content smile, and gave a good chuckle when she uttered her first official RAFO. All is well and his legacy is still in the best and most loving of hands. Brandon, Harriet, Mr. Doherty – best of luck to all of you with the rest of the project, and again, thank you for all the care you put into this for Jim and for us all.

And for the little worries, for instance how what was conceived as an 'Act 1', and knowing how RJ's 'acts 1' were usually structured, will make a satisfying read, are better left for post-reading discussions in November. At least we'll know then what we're truly talking about.


Dominic

New Article Released : Egwene, Leane and the Harbour Chains

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: Egwene, Leane and the Harbour Chain

This article, written by Old Salt for the Wotmania FAQ section in 2006, is republished here fully indexed and completed with pictural research by Linda. It explores all the details between Egwene's plan to block the Harbours of Tar Valon, and the consequences of having partially succeeded.

This article and its content have also been added to the Index.

New Article Released : The Noble Houses of Andor

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: The Noble Houses of Andor


This is Linda's first new article written exclusively for the Thirteenth Depository, and one we're both fairly proud of. It documents the nineteen Great Houses of Andor and all the known lesser Houses. The article also explores the founding of the nation of Andor and some key historical events known from the series or The World of Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time. The article is illustrated with charts, maps and renditions of Andoran sigils.

A thourough reference tool and a good read in itself, it was also written to be a comprehensive refresher before jumping back into this storyline in A Memory of Light

This content of this article is in process of being added to the Index.

Linda and myself hope you enjoy it, and as always we welcome your comments.

The Study of Master Roidelle : Mapping the Wheel of Time

For many years, I have loved cartography, especially from the Renaissance, Age of Discovery and Baroque eras. Creating maps of the Wheel of Time universe is for me a natural extension of my fascination with Robert Jordan's series.

Over the years, I have worked in different media. A very great deal is done purely as computer graphic imagery - a natural medium for me as it's been the stuff my professional life is made of since the late 1980s. Other maps have been painted in watercolours or acrylics, or done in charcoal or china ink, with or without CGI enhancements or treatment.

Within the 'The Study of Master Roidelle - Mapping the Wheel of Time' series (Master Roidelle is the mapmaker of Shen al Calhar, for those not completely up to date on WoT trivia), I will be adding to the Thirteenth Depository's Reference Library some of my favourite maps. Some have been done long ago, some are quite new, and many are in-progress. In the next couple of months, much of my the efforts will be focussed on finishing the maps that are meant to complement Linda's various articles; illustrations being a major improvement we are very excited to be able to offer, and something we had long wanted at the old FAQ section at Wotmania. On an irregular basis, I will also add maps from my personal collection and show you some of the ongoing projects. I am, of course, very much looking forward to documenting cartographically some of the events of A Memory of Light.

The maps will be collected over time to form a virtual Wheel of Time Atlas - the 'Study of Master Roidelle' section, where I will often add more information and comments, pointing book sources and various guesses and problems. Several maps will also be found in the articles in the Library.

You can expect soon the first two maps, documenting the Siege of Caemlyn during the Succession (that didn't dare speak its name) and the events in and around the city on the day of Arymilla's last attack that brought her final defeat. These maps will complement Linda's first wholly new article written specially for our new site: a great essay on the early History of Andor and a study of the known Noble Houses and their members. The article to be published later this week will also be augmented with family trees, and renditions of the Andoran Houses' sigils.

I hope you'll enjoy this feature of the Blog, and I'm looking forward to your comments.

New Article Released : Setalle Anan

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: The Importance of Setalle Anan


Written in 2004, the article is Linda's exploration of the mysterious character of Martine Janata, the burned out Aes Sedai scholar of ter'angreal and other One Power related objects, better known under her new identify of Setalle Anan, once Innkeeper of the Wandering Woman in Ebou Dar, the nightmare of Nynaeve and Elayne, and currently a valuable ally and friend to Mat Cauthon, and even a mother figure to him and Tuon in their carnivalesque escape from Ebou Dar.

This content of this article has also been added to the Index.

New Article Released : Foretellings

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: Foretellings


This article, written by Linda in 2005 for the Wotmania FAQ section and kept up-to-date with each new book, is a compendium of all the Foretellings in the series and their possible interpretations. The Weaves and Talents and Fate, Free Will and Divining the Pattern articles have a general discussion of the Foretelling Talent and of the characters who can Foretell.

Foretellings is the first re-published article from the Into the Future series, which discusses all the Prophecies and as well as the matters of Fate, Free and Divination in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. The rest of the series will be re published in installments in the Thirteenth Depository... in a very foreseeable future. ;)

This article and its content have also been added to the Index.

New Article Released : The Black Ajah

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: The Black Ajah


It is the latest iteration of whatwas once the Wotmania 'Black Ajah FAQ' researched, rewritten and added to by Linda and Wotmania member Moridin_2000 over the years.

You'll find in the latest version we add to the Thirteenth Depository in-depth discussions of many Black Ajah related topics, from the early History of the secret society to what we know of its functionning and beyond, as well as a 'Who's who' repertoire of all the Black Sisters & their deeds in the series.

The article also embodies a full section on the use of Crytography in the Wheel of Time world.

The content of the Black Ajah article is fully indexed.

Individual entries for the Black Sisters can also be accessed directly using the Characters Index.

New Article Released : Herbs and Other Medicines

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: Herbs and Other Medicines

Its a repertoire of all the WOT medicines, herbal and occasionally otherwise, and their uses. The article is completed with many real life parallels, and general information on the use of herbs and medicines in the series. The center piece of this article is without a doubt the extensive Forkoot entry.

The article was originally published in March 2008 by Linda, for the Wotmania FAQ section. For its first anniversary, the article makes its entry in the 13th Depository in new revised and illustrated edition. Each of the entries is also available directly using the Index.

New Article Released : Ter'angreal and Allied Items

A new article is now available in the Reference Library: Ter'angreal and Allied Items

Written by Linda in 2005 and originally published in the FAQ section of Wotmania, it now enters the Thirteenth Repository in a revised edition. This article offers a complete catalogue of the ter'angreal described in the series, as well as comprehensive general entries about all sort of issues related to these devices: Their making, the Talents involved, security measures various characters have put in place to protect their collections or caches of ter'angreal, as well all many issues related to specific items, like the Accepted Test and the sul'dam and damane culture of Seanchan. Several 'Allied Items' are also discussed, notably the Portal Stones and the Ogier's Book of Translation.

The topics covered by the article as well as all the individual entries are also searchable through our index. The main entry for Ter'angreal can be found here.

Dabel Brothers post two new WOT images

By Dominic

The Dabel Brothers have posted new image from their upcoming comic book adaptation of The Eye of the World in this Dragonmount Announcement.

After the sour turn their New Spring adaptation project took (in a complex imbroglio caused by Red Eagle Entertainment, now solved and not worth getting into), I'm still waltzing between excitement and mild scepticism concerning the new project.

The guys picked by DB for the WOT project(s) are very talented, and the work on New Spring was often outstanding and very interesting to follow month after month. Good art - often better than good art, and a surprisingly good adaptation, considering the complexity of the novel. Adapting the whole series is however such a massive, many years endeavour. I'm not convinced just yet they will manage to bring even the first book to its end (and not necessarily by their fault, mind you - with REE out of the picture and Tor involved in the publication of the issues in graphic novel form, a drop in sales would be a more likely reason the project could come to an early end), and the possibility we may begin the journey but never get to finish it damper my enthusiasm a bit.

The new images are very nice - to my taste a bit too stylized in the character design compared to the art direction chosen for New Spring, perhaps - and they are apparently for the cover(s) of issue #1.

They've used some artistic license there - early morning in late spring somehow looks more lik sunset in autumn - and this changes the atmosphere early book one scenes evoke with me. Though, admittedly, cover art is a different game and the DB took similar license with the covers of New Spring, while the content of the comic book adaptation itself remained a lot more faithful to the novel.

Alas, some of that faithfulness that made New Spring even more interesting may have had quite a bit to do with the close involvement of Jim Rigney with the project, and his enthusiasm to get faithful WOT art at last. Part of the attraction of New Spring by the DB was that RJ saw it as an opportunity to guide talented artists into making renditions from his world for his fans. And for once, this was to be done by people who cared to bring his vision faithfully to the page, not artists commissioned to create covert art under the direction of marketing execs and the like.

For many years, Jordan had been dissatisfied with WOT art like the covers or the illustrations from the BWB, and the DB were giving him a new chance to 'get it right'. With the Dabel Brothers he got gorgeous renditions from his world, with attention to details in costumes and architecture. The rendition of a bird view of Tar Valon from an early issue was especially stunning then and still is now, looking again at the comic book. With his passing, let us hope the adaptators at DB make can make full use of Harriet and RJ's assistants as advisors, though all the little insight RJ could offer, all these little details that weren't in his notes but only in his head, or that he created along way, inspired by the rough version the artists sent him, are now lost forever. They probably miss that collaboration as much as we do, however.

This project remains exciting, far more so for me than the possibility Universal goes forward with a film adaptation of the novel, a format I personally find totally inappropriate for the series. As with many other 'long winded' authors of renown like Alexandre Dumas (whose work became fairly disappointing mini-series and movies, especially the awful Hollywoodian versions), a main attraction to the Wheel of Time is in the details of plots, characters, descriptions and atmospheres. Rushing and cutting WoT would degrade it to standard fantasy fare, and that's without going into the massive problem created by Jordan's decision to evoke 'Fellowship of the Ring" and its plot a lot in the early parts of The Eye of the World (he intentionally wanted the reader to feel comfortable with a well-known setting, before suddenly opening his world to something quite different from LOTR once they leave the Two Rivers), with the ensuing big risk that after the movie adaptation Wheel of Time is perceived by movie-goers who haven't read the books as a 'sub-standard LOTR rip-off'. The series's legacy, often unrecognized and unfairly maligned by readers of Fantasy and critics in the last years, deserves better than the REE/Universal project.

Comics and graphic novels are much more interesting, as they leave a lot more to the reader's imagination, especially when they're done by talented artists like the team the DB have assembled for the WOT project.

Good luck guys. With such an ambitious project you'll certainly need it, but it will be a treat to follow these issues month after month.

Mapping the Wheel of Time : Andor

by Dominic

This image is a 'draft' version of a map of Andor, done in a mock 17th Century Dutch style two years ago.

It is decorated with the sigils of 18 of the 19th main Houses of Andor (the 19th's, House Candraed's, has never been described).

Click the picture to get the full-size version.

Artistic license was taken with the House colours whenever unknown. More accurate renditions of the House Sigils can be found in the heraldry article, and eventually I'll add them to a more advanced version of the map.

A major gripe I have with map is the fact it uses the book's full colours map as background. Since I've done that draft, I've started work on a giant reproduction of 'big map', painstakingly translating all the details using grids. Once finished, this painting of the map of the Westlands (including the Waste and part of Shara, and a bit more of the Blight as well) will be used to finalize the regional/national maps I've done, like the present 'rough draft" of Andor.

Bayle Domon

Egwene

INDEX OF POVs


THE EYE OF THE WORLD

EARLIER:
Ravens (new prologue, Young adult edition only)

Summer 988 NE

• Egwene at the Shearing, ten years before the events of Winternight.

Egwene - The Great Hunt

Geofram Bornhald

Jaret Byar

Jaichim Carridin (Bors)