Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

The evening started off with me getting my Death Gate Cycle books signed by Tracy Hickman, a very cool moment. I asked him to write something Zifnab thought about Haplo and Alfred that we the readers were never privy to. For Haplo he signed, "I believe we have met before" and for Alfred, "Have you ever been to Paris?" If you haven't read the Death Gate Cycle, these are completely meaningless. If you have read the Death Gate Cycle—these are almost completely meaningless.

Anyway, shortly thereafter Brandon arrived and immediately asked if I had questions. He has seen my tweet about asking for questions earlier in the day. I replied that I had not received more than one or two, surprisingly, so I went to look them up. In the process of looking up questions I asked the following:

I know you won't answer me definitively on the Lanfear/Verin questions I have until after A Memory of Light. So how about this, did Lanfear know of Verin?

Yes, Lanfear knew of Verin.

Matt Hatch

(One step closer...)

verin

,

lanfear

After this first question I got myself out of the way as fans were arriving to have their books signed. I went back behind the signing desk to listen to what was going on as I asked for more questions over Twitter. Ten or fifteen minutes later Brandon took a break and answered the following three questions:

Can we figure out who Demandred is disguised as based on evidence?

There are clues.

demandred

,

roedred

Will we have any Logain scenes/POV?

RAFO.

logain

,

a memory of light

Does Bayle Domon still have his treasures that he had hidden on his ship "The Spray"?

MAFO.

domon

How far past Shayol Ghul and the Last Battle will we see written in A Memory of Light?

RAFO.

a memory of light

,

how will it end?

There were some short chats here and there between signings, but I didn't record anything. Some dealt briefly with the question of the changes Rand seems to have gone through as witnessed in Towers of Midnight. Then, I noticed a few questions submitted on Twitter and asked those:

Was Lews Therin one with the land like Rand is?

The Dragon is one with the land...so the answer is yes.

Matt Hatch

He went on to say that it says the Dragon, not the Dragon Reborn, making the point that it most definitely applied to Lews Therin. (I riffed off a second related question from Luckers which was: Did he have the same extra abilities?) Instead I asked:

Question

Considering what you mentioned regarding Lews Therin's ability to sense the lack of inhabitants within miles of the spot he was at in the Prologue, is this ability something that comes from being the Dragon, being ta'veren, or a Talent?

Brandon Sanderson

(paraphrased) It's not a Talent, but I won't say whether it is a factor of being the Dragon or something about being ta'veren.

Matt Hatch

Luckers, I asked this question because the way Brandon answered the first it seemed apparent to me that the Dragon is Lews Therin is Rand, as far as 'one with the land' and abilities. My interest then became that specific ability he noted in Lews Therin during the re-read.)

rand

,

lews therin

,

fisher king

,

dragon soul

,

prophecies

,

ta'veren

,

unsolved mysteries

Seanchan woman go through annual testing till 24; Fortuona is 21-22. Is she still tested?

As Empress I don't know. I get the impression she could do as she pleased.

seanchan

,

tuon

,

damane

,

sul'dam

Brandon and I got into a conversation about Chapter 9 of The Eye of the World. We started discussing what happens there and the GOI (Gap of Infinity) as a function of finding dreams, which brought up the next two questions:

Can someone that enters Tel'aran'rhiod physically, use the Gap of Infinity? More specifically, if Egwene entered Tel'aran'rhiod in her physical body, could she access the Gap of Infinity?

MAFO.

dreams

,

dreamwalking

,

tel'aran'rhiod

Is Lanfear a Dreamer?

I lend a lot of credence to the theory that at least one of the Forsaken is or was a Dreamer.

Matt Hatch

I did my best to just get him to tell us straight up that one IS, actually that more than one is a Dreamer. But he persisted in using the above language.

He did confirm that later.

lanfear

,

forsaken

,

dreams

,

dreamers

And that was all folks.