A: rafo

A: Think of it as a...energy weapon. Remember, by the time we get to the breaking, shocklances are actually in fairly short supply and other devices of that sort. Long before we get to the breaking the industrial base has been enough destroyed that soldiers are once again using bows and spears and swords because there simply aren't enough shocklances to go around, nor jocars...and there is no industrial base to provide replacement for them

A: No, because what you are thinking of wasn't a connection, Rand thought it was.

A: The Children of the Light are all of those people who say I know the truth, my truth is the only truth, you must believe my truth, you must believe my truth, if you refuse to believe my truth I will kill you. I wanted them in there because there are always people like that in any world, and they have a tendency to organize and start killing people that don't believe what they believe, so it is really their similitude. I don't think there can be a world without the haters. Haters exist.

A: rafo

A: No. Fain can contaminate people because he has the dagger, it is the dagger. What Verin and Moiraine thought was incorrect. They were extending it too far. It is the one of things you may have noted in the books. Aes Sedai often believe they know more than they know. In fact, a lot of people belive they know more than they actually know. It is one of the themes I have running through the books, whatever you think you know, some of it is almost certainly wrong. It may even be the most crucial bit that is wrong, but even when you are aware that some of your information may be wrong you still have to go ahead and make a decision. You cannot stop, you cannot afford the luxury of saying, well I don't know everything and something I know may be wrong, so I am not going to do anything, I am going to sit here and wait and see if I can find out some more, because that only leads to sitting still forever.

A: An effect of the Wheel, really. It wasn't the Creator. The Wheel is more than a simple mechanism. Remember the Wheel can spit out ta'veren, can spit out Heroes as a self correcting device because the Pattern is drifting from what it is supposed to be. We are not talking about something as simple as a spinning wheel at all, we are talking something more along the lines of the most complex computer you could possibly imagine. There were at that time, two, there were false dragons that had a chance to create a lot of disruption. By the appearance in the sky at that battle, not just in Falme but in other places, those false dragons were taken off the board because there was only room now for one, for one dragon.

A: If you think of history being in a loop, then time must be in a loop. The Greeks were the first, as far as we know, to think of time being linear which allows for change. Almost every other culture prior to them had believed in circular time, if time is a wheel there is no possibility of change. Whatever I change now, whatever injustices I correct, the wheel will inevitably return, the inequities will return, there is no possibility for change, therefore there is not impetus to change. So time and history are in a loop in this world, a large enough loop..ah...it is really quite immense.In this universe the sun will never go nova, or die.

A: Jordan: Largely it was to make things realistic, as realistic as I can. Background in physics and engineering; I also tried to structure channeling as if it were a science or technology. No eye of Newton, hair of dog. There are real limits, there are rules, there are technological structures to channeling which I think are fairly obvious to anyone who looks at it. That was the major influence. Plus making sure that I see that everything is real. Well if I bring about a blacksmith, well I don't know anything about blacksmithing, but I was able to get some nineteenth century books on blacksmithing, and once I had written the scenes I sent them to a women I met that was a blacksmith and Ferrier, and she said you need to do this and you need to do that, but otherwise it is okay.Harriet: This woman, was t the time the only woman blacksmith on the high council of American smithing. She made a lot of the stuff at Billy Graham's in North Carolina, but she wrote wonderful comments back and said, if you want Perrin to ever have children, you must have a leather apron, which was among her other good bits.Jordan: The Mirror Worlds of course come right out of physics, and the possibility of (mumble) universes and all of the rest of it. But frankly while I don't follow the literature, I haven't for a number of years, I occasionally get stuck on panels with physicists and I am supposed to discuss physics which I am twenty five years out of date. But I find that I can hold my own, although I do not have a doctorate or did I ever intend to get one, I went to work instead. I can hold my own with the PHd's in physics when they are talking theoretical physics if I stop talking physics, at least from my point of view, and start talking theology and this troubles me ...

A: I am sorry this is a RAFO

A: Yes, she has the spark. The question seemed to me to be about the difference between the people born with the spark and those that aren't. Even people who are born with the spark are going to start channeling whether they want to or not. But Nynaeve did it through a conscious effort, really. It wasn't just happenstance that she began channeling at that point, she had a need to channel. Uhm, the same thing that who happen later to Rand, by the way. Often the thing, that as I believe has been point out, often the thing that pulls someone that has the spark into their first channeling is a perceived need, when they channel without knowing they channel, not realizing what they had done, quite often. The, the people who are not born with the spark, can they channel unconsciously, can they, that is someone who can learn but doesn't have the spark, can they channel unconsciously? No. For them, they must have a teacher to guide them, or make a conscious effort, which is unlikely to succeed, but might.

A: No, I am going to have to RAFO that one, it is going to give away too much.

A: Because a man like Mazrim Taim leaves a trail, even when he is trying to travel quietly, traveling quietly is not in his character.

A: I doubt it, it is as much talent as it is strength. And I don't think she (Nynaeve) has that talent. Yes. But they won't use the same weaves the women use, so they will have to figure out how to do it themselves unless they can get it from one of the male forsaken, if he happens to know it. It is an oddity that Moghedien even knew how to do this, its just her fascination with things that are valuable.

A: I think you are going to have to think of it as being on a quantum level.

A: rafo

A: Jordan: Um, when I was much younger, before I met Harriet, I had two girlfriends simultaneously, who arranged my dating schedule between them, who was going to date me on which night. They chipped in together to buy me birthday presents Christmas presents. You know, they just sort of shared me between them, you know. And they had been friends before, and I am not quite sure whether or not they made the decision they were both going to date me or not, on their own, before they first met me, it just came about. But I figured if I could manage two, surely Rand could manage three. Besides there are mythological reasons to have these three women involved with him. As far as my view on this, with Harriet, I have many more than three women, there are so many facets to her personality she quite often makes me dizzy, I am quite satisfied there. About how she feels about this, I suspect you want her answer, I seem to remember her saying to me, you do remember this is fantasy right? And I think it was an accident she was holding a carving knife to me throat, just coincidence, but I am not sure.Harriet: In four short words, I am not for it. Four and a half words.

A: rafo

A: Well, you're...I can answer that question, but I realize in answering that question I am going to have to RAFO you, because I can't answer your question without telling you some stuff I don't want to tell you yet, sorry.

A: They lead to Mirror Worlds, the Portal Stones can take you to Mirror Worlds, not to Parallels, which are separate.