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Q: Do the Forsaken get reports from rats and ravens?Is there any way to distinguish one that is the eyes and ears of the Dark One.
A: Eventually. Not from every rat or every raven, but eventually. No, there is no way to distinguish the Dark One's eyes and ears from normal rats and ravens.
Q: I was wondering if you could speak to way drew you to any of those particular aspects of mythology that you synthesized into this universe, and was this kind of synthesis something you deliberately set out to do?
A: Yes, I found them all interesting, is what directed me to them. There are many books which are based upon one myth or perhaps I should say one country's myths. There are many Arthurian novels, there are many novels based on one continent or another, one nation or another. A few, I don't know too many based on Chinese or Japanese mythologies, but there are some. It seemed to me within the borders of the United States, I could find representatives of almost every culture of the world, not just one or two, I could find perhaps communities, and given that, it seemed to me a truly American fantasy would be based on the myths of every possible culture that could be included, so I went gathering. As I say, I was fascinated by many of these myths beforehand, but, myths and legends, and I went hunting for what I could use.
Q: Do males with the spark also become wilders with blocks then?
A: It depends, a woman born with the spark, that doesn't get trained, she may become a wilder, she may or may not have a block, but quite often do. A man born with a spark, is probably much more likely to go up and become a false dragon, frankly, but uh, at least before the black tower opened up for business. But there are blocks among the men as well. We had one of the characters, one of the men who was one of the first Asha'man, one of the first to come to the black tower and is since deceased. He would not believe that what he channeled at, that he could affect anything he could not see. Thus he limited the range, he could not thus make a lightning bolt that hit on the other side of the hill because he could not see. Jordan discussed the isle of Madmen, that blocks in men were one of the reason the isle/continent still remains.
Q: What parts of yourself did you see in these three characters (Rand, Perrin and Mat) and then what parts of yourself does your wife see in these characters that you have created?
A: Well, I don't know, as I like to point out, Lan was the guy I grew up wanting to emulate. Mat is the side of me that at fourteen was passing myself off at twenty and picking up college girls in bars on North Market St. Perrin is the side of me who knew I was bigger than kids of my own age, so I did not have a fight with any single person, there were some times where kids of my own age decided since I was too big to fight one on one, it was quite alright to come at me with five or six together, but the only fights I had one on one until I got into the army, were with kids who were three to six years older than I was, because I was going to hurt the other guys, I was afraid of kids of my own age, I would walk away from a fight with kid of my own age because I was bigger than he was, I was going to hurt him, there was that out of me in Perrin. And in Rand, I don't know, I don't know what there is of Rand in me, except that I always felt like an outsider, even when I was an insider, I felt like an outsider.
Q: Can you make music using just the one power?
A: Yes, you could.
Q: With regards to healing stilling vs. being burned out. There are a lot of theories online that you can heal stilling but you cannot heal being burnt out. Is that true?
A: rafo
Q: I know a lot of questions have been asked and I was wondering if either of you knew of a question we haven't asked that you think we should have asked already, and what would that be?
A: You really think I am going to be that easy. I mean I am gullible, but that's with women, Jack!
Q: The relationship between Rand and his adopted Father, I enjoyed it very much in the first book. And I wondered if it was a deliberate choice to keep them separated over most of the series so far?
A: Yes, a deliberate choice, yes.
Q: You have said, you are going to keep the series to twelve books. Since we are on eleven, what comes after book twelve, what do you plan to do after that?
A: At some point I will do the two prequel novels that I talked about, the two other prequel novels, besides New Spring. But, primarily I will give Harriet a small hand on a project she has signed a contract for, she's gonna do an encyclopedia of the Wheel of Time which will have all of the characters, all of the terms, all of the invented words, and roughly and a roughly eight hundred fifty to nine hundred vocabulary in the old tongue. What I will be starting with is a trilogy called Infinity of Heaven, which will be a different universe, different world, different set of rules, different cultures. One culture that you meet eventually will be as close to being inside the Seanchan empire as you can come but this culture is even more stratified both vertically and horizontally than the Seanchan empire, much more like ancient Japan truly was, or really like medieval Japan truly was. It's funny I talked about book I'm gonna call Shipwrecked, some of you may have heard of that. Shipwrecked is actually the second volume of the Infinity of Heaven trilogy, because I realized I needed more of the setup and as I did more of the setup I realized I had another novel here. It could not be the first part of the novel to do that, it had to be this was a novel in itself. So in these things I had thought ten or twelve years ago, would be a trilogy, has become two trilogies, but I intend to try and hold it to that very tightly.
Q: Are we going to see a full version of the prophecies of the Dragon in the encyclopedia?
A: No, the prophecies would be a volume in themselves, and I don't think I am going to go into that. I will admit I have not written out a complete set of the prophecies. I have the prophecies written out that I needed, but not the others.
Q: Can a person who cannot channel the one power, can they use the true source of the Dark One?
A: No
Q: Before it became public knowledge that Rand was the Dragon Reborn, did Tam Al'Thor know or suspect that Rand was the Dragon Reborn or could channel?
A: No, Tam had no inkling of this.
Q: Since you said Galad fancied Nynaeve first. But in the Great Hunt I thought he fancied Egwene first because he asked Egwene for a walk in the garden.
A: Galad just thought Egwene was pretty and that it would be nice to walk with her. (Harriet added that it doesn't always have to be love at first site.)
Q: Nynaeve was born with the spark, right? Because yesterday there was a question about Learners...
A: Yes, she was born with the spark......somebody who is not born with the spark, but is born with the ability to learn, could they begin channeling unconsciously. And no, they could not, they would have to make a conscious effort. They could make a conscious effort without a teacher and maybe succeed, but without a teacher they've got a very small chance of actually doing it.
Q: Someone (on the internet) has mentioned that you met them in a restroom, and you told them who killed Asmo...
A: No, I did not.
Q: Do the Finns inhabit a perpendicular world?
A: No, it is a parallel world.
Q: Does the physical location of the world of Finns have anything to do with the bells ringing when the ta'veren were in together?
A: No (bye bye finnland revisited theory)
Q: Have the Finns existed as long as the Wheel? Do they have souls?Are the Finns from human stock?Did they originate in their current location?Are they related to T'A'R or do they control T'A'R?
A: Yes. Yes. No. Yes. No.
Q: Is Shaidar Haran an avatar to the world beyond the Bore?Is it twenty four seven, or just part time.
A: Jordan: I am not certain you can really call him an avatar because I generally think of an avatar as having exactly the same powers as, and it is not, Shaidar Haran does not have nearly as much power as the Dark One. It's as though the Dark One is able to project a shadowy form of himself into this creature...it is the Dark One in shadowy form.Jordan: Twenty four seven.Harriet: Shaidar Haran has another life in the suburbs...WinespringBrother: Yeah, he has two and half little fades running aroundHarriet: He has to go home for the weekend to cut the grass...I don't think so.
Q: How old is Taim and has he slowed?
A: Taim has slowed, but one thing I am not going to reveal it in the books, so I'll tell you, men slow later than women do. And yes, he has slowed, and he is in his late twenties, yes his late twenties.