Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

TPOD Signing Report - Michael Martin (Paraphrased)

He also said the that the idea for the chapter icons was his wife's. They sat down and decided (roughly) what they ought to look like, and hired an artist to do them.

harriet, chapter icons,

Robert Jordan's Blog: YET ANOTHER, IT SEEMS

For kcf, again, we have never met anyone who has the Talent of emulating the effects of a ta'veren over a small area.

I give my input on the design of the chapter icons whenever a new one seems needed, but Harriet actually decides where to place them, and I am happy to leave the job to her.

Yes, Ingtar was seen at the Darkfriend Social.

The Wheel creates ta'veren at need, making someone who is already alive one. You aren't born ta'veren. Can you imagine being around a ta'veren who is teething?

It would be possible for a Darkfriend or Forsaken to be made ta'veren, but it seems unlikely. Ta'veren are part of the Wheel's self-correcting mechanism. When the Pattern seems to be drifting too quickly, and especially if it is in the wrong direction, one or more ta'veren are created. I can't really see how making a Darkfriend or Forsaken ta'veren would help with correcting the drift of the Pattern.

Ta'veren can oppose one another, when their conflict is what the Wheel "sees" as the necessary corrective. And, no, ta'veren is not Old Tongue for Deus ex machina. It came out of musings on luck, charismatic leaders, and the theory of the indispensable man.

Katerine escaped with the help of Darkfriends. Galina, who is much more closely watched by Wise Ones than Katerine was, would have little opportunity to use their help for an escape even if she wanted to, and she doesn't, not until she can get her hands on that rod. She'll put up with anything to get that.

Anyone who can channel, however weakly, can see the glow of saidar and feel someone channel. For sul'dam who have been sul'dam for a time, some begin to be able to see what might be called a ghostly image of the flows. Others convince themselves that this is, of course, only imagination and manage to give themselves a block.

Wow, you have a lot of questions. One more, and then I'm off to the next person.

Someone who sees ta'veren sees them as glowing. The more strongly ta'veren, the brighter the glow. This is a Talent, and is something that only someone who can channel can do. While she was stilled, Siuan could not see ta'veren, nor could she have if she had been burned out.

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KOD Signing Report - Robert Mee (Paraphrased)

And (drumroll)... The question regarding the Gauntleted Fist clutching the three Lightning Bolts...

At first he thought I was talking about the chapter icon, which he said he has no control over, but referenced something about Trollocs. When I explained that I meant the sigil we'd seen in Tear and on Sammael's throne and Mazrim Taim's (Mazh-rim Ta-eem)'s throne... his response was "Oh! That...I...I'm going to have to tell you to read and find out." Bah!

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TGS Signing Report - Peter Binkowski (Paraphrased)

What are the new chapter symbols?

Harriet names the chapters actually, so she sent over a list of all symbols and chapters, and wanted me to pick out symbols to go with the chapters. Brandon pushed for new symbols. He wanted a symbol to show the pattern unfurling. So that's what you get with chapter. Also Brandon chose Perrin's blacksmith puzzle for his own symbol on the author page.

the gathering storm, harriet, chapter icons, chapter titles,

Alloy of Law Signing Report - Wetlandernw (Paraphrased)

Is there a distinction between the "bubbles of evil" and the "Pattern unraveling" events?

There is a distinction, in that they are different manifestations of the same root cause: the bubbles come from the Dark One's prison and slide along the threads of the Pattern until they pop, while the Pattern unraveling is a result of balefire as well as the Dark One's direct influence. The "torn lace" icon is used for both.

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WoT Production Tidbits - JD and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (Verbatim)

Question for those in the know: is the written content in the WoT ARCs or galley copies any different from the retail version? Any changed lines or new/missing parts?

I own a few ARCs of other books, and they don't seem any different from the retail version (as far as I can tell), but reviewers were asked to make sure any quoted text matched with the final version.

Kafmerchant (@323)

For the various versions that I have of this series, the results are all over the place; here are few examples:

A lot of the pre-publication versions I have such as The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Fires of Heaven, Winter's Heart and Knife of Dreams have no obvious noticeable differences from the retail versions (although I haven't read through each in great detail so as to not damage them).

The galley for The Shadow Rising has a prologue of approximately 1.5 pages that was integrated into the first chapter of the finished book.

The advance version (2-book set) for Lord of Chaos has line edits, handwritten notes including some chapter titles written in and notes of what icon is to be used for certain chapters.

For The Path of Daggers, the book I have is labeled as an advance uncorrected bound manuscript that includes tons of changes: many, many line edits, actual chapter revision numbers, and in one spot, a chapter was moved to a different sequence in the book, and that's just what I noticed scanning through it quickly a few years ago.

My intention always has been, if/whenever I get the time to do a detailed review of each book, but that maybe just a pipe dream as I own a small business that consumes my life.

I started discussing some of this with Bob Kluttz of Encyclopaedia-Wot a few years ago in order to try get some info posted on-line, but I don't have the time to do the work nor the space or skills to post the info.

Hope this helps a little.

JD

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WorldCon 2009 - Dom (Paraphrased)

About Harriet, Brandon revealed that not only did she provide most of the chapter titles and decide on the icons and maps (which we already knew) but she is also the one who handled the titles for most of the books. So those multi-layered titles that fit the main themes of each book and the opening quotes so well, or bring back metaphors or details from earlier books are actually hers, not RJ. Exceptionally, he's the one who came up with A Memory of Light for the last book as he was working on it. Normally it's Harriet who came up with a title after reading the full manuscript.

harriet, chapter names, chapter icons, a memory of light, maps,

Talking With Tom: A Conversation Between Tom Doherty and Harriet McDougal (Verbatim)

I also loved the ornaments. We worked with Matt Nielsen creating those. They were really good. The emblem that we used for the Blight is a tree, and I was trying to tell him what I needed. I said I wanted Arthur Rackham, and he said: "Who?" I said: "Well, okay, let's try and work on this."

Irene Gallo

He couldn't Google it at that point, either.

Harriet McDougal

No, but he did such a good job. The fans really caught onto them, thinking about their symbolism. "What do these ornaments mean?" They did, in fact, have a bit of a coded meaning. Lanfear's symbol means Lanfear is lurking in this chapter, even though she's not named.

It was fun, working on those ornaments. From the beginning, I did most of the chapter titles, all but one or two each book. I was very proud when somebody told me, many years ago, that he saw a chapter titled "Footprints in Air" in the table of contents and that made him buy the book. Well, great, that's the idea.

Irene Gallo

Every piece of it counts. The whole package.

Tom Doherty

Exactly.

Harriet McDougal

I really wanted to do something we hadn't followed through with: the Wheel of Time in front and back. Back in the twenties, there was a wonderful children's book with a bullet hole that ran through the whole book. It was by Johnny Gruelle, who later did Raggedy Ann and Andy. It was a wonderful thing. I would have loved a book that had the Snake Wheel in the front of the book, the big one, and one in the back of the book, so you could really hold them like that to reinforce "There are neither beginnings nor endings—"

Tom Doherty

"—in the Wheel of Time." Practically, to do that right you would have had to put it on the end papers. We had such nice end papers.

Harriet McDougal

Oh, yeah. Well, the map was more important.

Tom Doherty

Exactly.

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