Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

This is a collection of quotes that were organized by Raina (presumably an old rasfwrj person) some time in 2001. Most of the original sources for the quotes she collected were found online, so those quotes aren't included here. These are only the leftover quotes, and as a result we have no idea where they came from or when they were asked, unless there are clues in the text. Sometimes it's not entirely clear if consecutive paragraphs are from different reports or the same report. We are, however, always searching for these lost interviews, and when we find them, we'll delete the quotes from this collection. I'll include Raina's introductory comments below, along with a list of the categories, each of which links to a Google Doc containing a link to the original category and an annotated copy of the page's original contents, linking to known sources and highlighting lost sources, which are the ones included here. Raina also drew from these interviews for her collection (and those quotes are not included here):

SOURCES

Letter to Tom McCormick: December 1993
Sense of Wonder interview: October 1994
Compuserve chat: October 19, 1994
AOL chat 1: October 21, 1994
AOL chat 2: October 21, 1994
Sci-fi Channel Interview: April 23, 1995
East of the Sun Con�Karl Johan Nor�n: June 16, 1995
East of the Sun Interview�Helena Lofgren: June 17, 1995
Balticon XXX�Bill Garrett: April 5, 1996
Balticon XXX�Pam Korda: April 6, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Brian Ritchie: June 21, 1996
Compuserve chat: June 26, 1996
AOL chat 1: June 27, 1996
AOL chat 2: June 27, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Hawk: August 4, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Robert Watson: August 23, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Lara Beaton: August 23, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Greebs: August 25, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Erica Sadun: October 9, 1996
ACOS Signing Report�Mike Lawson: October 12, 1996
AOL chat: October 19, 1996
DragonCon Sci-Fi Channel chat: June 28, 1997
Barnes and Noble chat: November 11, 1997
Waldenbooks Interview: October 1998
Barnes and Noble chat: October 19, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Aaron Bergman: October 20, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Pam Basham: October 22, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Drew Gillmore: Octoer 24, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Justin Howell: October 24, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Chris Mullins: October 24, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Rick Moen: October 25, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Kevin Bartlett: October 29, 1998
Sci-fi.com chat: November 1, 1998
Amazon.com interview: November 6, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Matthew Hunter: November 14, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Michael Martin: November 15, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�John Hamby: November 18, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Melinda Yin: November 18, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�John Nowacki: November 20, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�John Hamby: November 21, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�Rachel K. Warren: November 21, 1998
TPOD Signing Report�John Novak: November 21, 1998
Brisbane Signing Report�Joel Gilmore: September 21, 1999
Locus Magazine Interview: March 2000
Orbit interview: October 2000
Barnes and Noble chat: November 11, 2000
WH Signing Report�Ryan R.: November 12, 2000
Sci-fi.com chat: November 14, 2000
CNN chat: December 12, 2000
Author's Table Interview: 2001
Leiden Signing Report�Aan'allein: April 2001
Amsterdam Signing Report�Aan'allein: April 5, 2001
Rotterdam Signing Report�Aan�allein: April 6, 2001
Dromen and Demonen chat: April 6, 2001
Elf Fantasy Fair�Aan'allein: April 7, 2001
Elf Fantasy Fair�Aan'allein: April 8, 2001
Interview with RJ�Kurafire: April 10, 2001
Marcon Report�Sorilea: May 2001

Below are collected various Jordan questions and answers, and reports from interviews. Not all quotes are guaranteed to be here, although I try to be thorough, and in some cases I've deleted answers that repeat material more or less verbatim. They are organized into categories by topic, and some are in more than one category, so you shouldn't find it hard to find a quotation you're looking for. Try 'Miscellaneous' if none of the categories seem to fit. As for such categories as 'Sex and Sexuality' and 'Bela'�you asked the questions, I just sort them.

And please stop asking who killed Asmodean or if Moiraine will be back. 'Read And Find Out' is already far too long!

In several cases, the people who provided the quotes have included comments of their own on the questions or answers. As such, any interpretations of Jordan's words do not necessarily represent my personal opinion. A few comments were written by me, and they are in blue text and signed Like this�Raina. so you should have no trouble working out which is which.

Robert Jordan Himself
How long will the series be, how long will it take, and does he know the end?
What if he dies before finishing it?
How did the series originate?
How does he go about writing the books?
What are his sources and inspirations?
What else has Jordan written?
What else is in the Wheel of Time universe?
What is he planning to write?
Fan reaction to the books
Spin-offs: movies and so forth
The Wheel of Time game
Fantasy as a genre
Jordan and Tolkien
Advice to aspiring writers
Guide Art and Cover Art
WoT versus reality
Themes of the series
What books does Jordan read?
Timing of events in the series

Workings of the Wheel
Women and Men
The One Power, the True Power, and channeling
The Dragon
The Heroes and the Horn
Tel'aran'rhiod and other dreams
The Age of Legends
Is he his characters?
Rand al'Thor
Mat Cauthon
Perrin Aybara
Egwene al'Vere
Nynaeve al'Meara/Mandragoran
Moiraine Damodred
Al'Lan Mandragoran
Min Farshaw
Elayne Trakand
Aviendha
Thom Merrilin
Faile ni Bashere t'Aybara
Berelain Paeron sur Paendrag
Tam and Kari al'Thor
Padan Fain
The Daughter of the Nine Moons
Birgitte and Gaidal Cain
Verin Mathwin
Cadsuane Melaidhrin
Galad Damodred
Sharina Melloy
The Shadow
The Black Ajah
The Forsaken
Shadar Logoth
Slayer
The White Tower
The Black Tower
Warders and the Bond
The Aiel
The Aelfinn and the Eelfinn
The Oath Rod
Language and the Old Tongue
The Ogier
Geography
Theology
Prophecy
Blademasters
Other Lands (Shara, Seanchan, the Land of the Madmen)
Sex and Sexuality
Bela
Trivia
Miscellaneous
Read and Find Out!
Questions for the future
Raina's Hold

RJ fits the classic description of an author: Plenty of facial hair, a cane and a little on the podgy side. He didn't have an African hunting hat though…The cane looked pretty cool, and he assured us he'd use it if we tried to swarm him.

rj the man

After he explained how they taught him to speak in the army. They'd stand you with your nose touching the barracks and get you to give your orders, if the people on the other side obeyed, you were half way there. If the barracks obeyed, you had it.

rj on life

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military

RJ first started reading at 4. He skipped children's books and read White Fang. By 5 he was reading Jules Verne. Since then it was his dream to become an author. But instead at uni he chose Maths(?) and Physics to become an engineer because he hadn't heard of a successful American author. Later, after he had had a near death experience, he decided it was do or don't time. He wrote The Eye of the World, and sent it in to a publisher hoping to get a reply something like "This is good, with some more experience you can do well." Instead he got, "This is great, we want to buy it."

rj on writing

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rj on reading

RJ writes 8-10 hours a day. He usually misses lunch, sometimes dinner too. If he takes a day off, it's because his wife says he's working too hard. He says he writes because he likes it.

rj on writing

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harriet

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rj's routine

You’ve seen him in the back of the books. He’s got a scragglier gray beard and longer hair now. He walks with a cane. Hmm… Ah yes, and he still has the infamous hat, of course.

RJ’s Intro: Basic rules, such as no personalizing until after everyone’s through, pictures are fine, NO full frontal male nudity (when asked about back nudity, he gave an equally hearty no). Female nudity was not commented on.

male nudity

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rj the man

What kind of music do you listen to?

Works to classical. Listens to South African, Japanese, some country music, etc. He said (quite seriously) ‘everything under the sun’. Except for punk music.

rj on writing

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rj on music

RJ exercises his hands a lot to avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and whatnot. He had amusing comment on how women saying “Oh, he’s got such strong hands” and whatnot is BS, and that what they’re thinking about is those muscular jaws. (I won’t elaborate, as I think your imagination will make that more interesting than it really was.)

rj on life

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sexuality

Can you personalize this?

You’ll have to get to the end of the line [it was a rule that sigs would come first, then anyone who wanted personalization would have to wait in line again]. Then he goes on to tell a story about a guy who was the last in line that wanted a personalization.

RJ: “You’ll have to get in back of the line.”
Fan: “I AM the back of the line.”
RJ: “Don’t make me repeat the rule.”
Fan: *think, think* *walk around in a circle and returns to the table*
RJ: “Hi! *smile, smile*”

[Just included this to show how cruel and sadistic he is.]

fandom

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lol

Did you get that custom made? *pointing to RJ’s cane*

No. And he likes ram’s horn sticks (walking canes?). They fit the hand nicely. [Ok…]

[The next piece of conversation was between RJ and a guy from Russia. He started off asking how he liked Russia (since RJ went there before), and this whooooole thing got rolling. For the first part, I’ll just say that RJ has met some rather dangerous Russian mafia types (heh). Robert Jordan, a white-knuckled translator ready to wet himself, and a Godfather-type guy. “How do you know what you know?” Interesting picture there.

Second part: What everyone wants to know: RJ’s drinking habits.
When he was in Russia, he was surprised by the drinking there. Everyone says that Russians can and do drink a lot, he said, but he was amused that people kept telling HIM to slow down and eat before drinking. The man can handle a good deal. I mean, ****, he said vodka was like mother’s milk.

“When I was young, when I really used to drink”—Imagine if you will, the Creator himself, sitting at a table with a bunch of drunken buddies. There’s $4700 dollars on the table. Yes, this is a drinking game. At any point, someone can say ‘stand’. The drinkers have to stand up, hold their hands above their heads, spin around three times, and sit back down. If you become unable to do that, you lose. After TWO QUARTS of Russian vodka, everyone else is floored, and our man wins. Not only that, but he drags his drunken friend back to their room. He mentioned that he didn’t get undressed for bed that night (as if admitting some weakness from the alcohol).

He used to know all of 7 words of useful Russian, most of them curses (he repeated two of them, to the amusement of the guy he was talking to).]

rj on life

Then Jordan finally entered. I don't know how late this was, but I'd say around 19:40 or so... My first impression was that he was pretty much like the photos I'd always seen of him, except that his hair was even wilder, and I never really appreciated the size of that cane.

rj the man

Is the ending written and stored in a safety deposit box somewhere?

No. It’s in my head.

QUESTION

What if you die or something?

ROBERT JORDAN

You’re screwed [basically. Heh.]

rj on death

To the books then. The Wheel of Time is a fantasy series epic in size and scale. How did it all begin—and what was your inspiration for it?

It's really hard to say. There's all sorts of things that come about before you start writing a series. You don't have "an idea" that becomes a short story, or a book. A short story is maybe hundreds of ideas that have come together, a novel is thousands of ideas that have come together. But The Wheel of Time—I was thinking at one point about what it'd really be like to be tapped on the shoulder and told "You were born to be the savior of mankind. And oh yes—you're probably going to die in the end and no, you can't resign—it's your job, you're stuck with it".

Then I had been thinking about the source of myths, the source of legends. About whether some of them might not have been personifications of natural events, the way we say some of them are supposed to be. What if some of them were things that people had done, and had simply been told and told until it became a myth and legend?

At the same time, I was thinking about the degradation of information over distance. The further you are from an event in either space or time, the less reliable your knowledge of the event. Information inevitably degrades over distance, whether it's spatial or temporal.

I was thinking about lots of other things too, and it began to coalesce. It was the beginnings of what would become the Wheel of Time. I let it mull over for four or five years, then I thought I was ready to sit down and write. But it took four years to write The Eye of the World because I discovered there were a lot of other things I had to think and sort out.

genesis

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wot influences

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rand

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wot themes

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chinese whispers

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the eye of the world

Was the storyline for "New Spring" one that was created at the same time as the rest of the WoT plot, or did you come up with it specifically for the Legends anthology?

The basis was notes that I had made for myself on backstory, things that I had never intended to put into the books themselves, but that I needed to know to write the books: such as where did Moiraine and Lan meet, and where did they come from.

new spring

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rj's notes

Rand and Tam al’Thor originally started out as one character.

He is a man in his 30s from Emond’s Field in the present.

(Earlier, when his story ‘starts’) There isn’t much for a kid from a small village out wherever to do that does not involve backbreaking work. At about 15, he runs away to become a soldier (yes, a field that does involve backbreaking labor). After 20 years or so as a soldier, Rand/Tam wants to go home, but when he does, he realizes he’s no longer the boy that left that little village. “And prophecy is on his heels”. Maybe something of the sort will be done in a future series.

rand

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tam

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genesis

[At this point, people were managing to wedge their way in between me and the table (coming within three inches of RJ), so I didn’t really get the whole question. Something along the lines of:] Are you making this up as you go along, or do you have everything planned out?

Everything is planned out. RJ has humongous files on his computer dedicated to certain topics. Example: two files for the Aes Sedai. The first one has info on each Aes Sedai. Everything she wears, eats, where she was born, etc. The second is history of the Tower. Halls, Amyrlins, organization, etc. He then said he was lucky to get a LS120 drive, because these files were getting too large for 1.44’s.

plotting

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rj's notes

[Some question on perspective and what happens]

[basically] What a character sees and thinks happened is not necessarily what did [made a big deal of this, as if it wasn’t a “duh” point again. This screamed ‘Sammael’ at me for some reason.]

wot themes

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errors

[Regarding whipping from one character POV to another, and why he’s sticking with one for a longer amount of time now]

I’m not changing characters just for the sake of changing them. There are things I want you to see, but it’s important whose eyes you’re seeing them through.

rj on writing

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characterization

Are the names "Dragon", "Coramoor" and "Car'a'carn" based on chess openings?

No.

REPORTER

This surprised me, there has been a thread around here in which was stated that Dragon, Caro-Kann and the Coramorant (I'm not sure of the last one) are chess openings. If he had answered with a yes then I would have asked why because they're all variants played by black and rather defensive but I needn't.

It's Cormorant.

games in wot

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rand

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wot influences

Have you ever studied comparative religion? (influenced WoT, inspiration, etc.)

No. RJ did make a comment on how he never studied comparative religion, but rather lived it. (He put forth a list of people that he knew in his life, with each person being a different religion. Sorry, I couldn’t write it down, since it was much too fast, and 80+ people in a small bookstore are LOUD.)

wot influences

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religion

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rj on life

Will you ever give use the answers to all our feeble WoT questions and whatnot?

Perhaps in the future there will be an encyclopedia or concordance. Harriet (both wife and editor) keeps a list of every plant, animal, organization, etc., all alphabetized and everything. This could possibly be the basis of an encyclopedia in the future. [This was one of the points where he said that he wouldn’t say ‘never’, because it “has a tendency to come back and bite you”.]

unsolved mysteries

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harriet

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encyclopedia

After the Last Battle, will you write any more books in the WoT world?

No. No more in this universe. There will probably be some parallel stories in other fantasy series he’ll be writing, but no, no WoT books. [HOWEVER… He made a point of saying here (and in other places) that it was not NEVER, because “when you say never, you sometimes end up having to eat it”]

infinity of heaven

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prequels

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outriggers

The FAQ was also mentioned, to which he gave his usual answer. One third is right, another is almost right, while the last is completely wrong. When asked whether he was surprised that there is so much discussion on the net everyday, he simply replied, "no". He then explained that it was important as an author to have a big ego, which he did. He then explained that you didn't have to be arrogant, even though he had been described so occasionally. To me he didn't come over as arrogant.

fandom

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wotfaq

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rj on fame

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rj on writing

Also (and I'm not sure if this is new to anyone) he told me that NBC has signed an option to make The Eye of the World into a mini-series (4-6 hours). He doesn't know if it will definitely go ahead or not.

wot film

Oh and he said he had signed a contract with NBC (i think) for a mini-series to be made of The Eye of the World. The guy who wrote the screen play for Merlin is writing it.

wot film

The following questions all come from a single interview, published in a computer magazine called PCPowerPlay, in November of '99.

PCPOWERPLAY

So how much of The Wheel of Time game bears the mark of Robert Jordan?

Well, I only know a little bit about the game. I'm not a programmer. My real programming skills are decades out of date. I started when you had to learn how to operate a key-punch machine so you could do your stacks of cards to hand into the mainframe, 'cause there was nothing else than the mainframe!

PCPOWERPLAY

Oh dear! So what role did you play in the development of the game?

ROBERT JORDAN

To a large extent it was that I said I wanted certain things to be done. And it was not that I was asking them to do these things, it was that I was telling them "Do these things, or there's no deal". They were okay with that. The things I asked them to do made the game much more complex; made it much more difficult to design—hence it wasn't on the streets three years ago.

PCPOWERPLAY

It could have been ready, theoretically, three years ago. How long has the game been in development then?

ROBERT JORDAN

For at least four or five years. The thing is, I wanted it to be a game where it'd be, at least in mathematical terms, impossible to play the same game twice. Every time you start the Wheel of Time, it's gotta be different. I mean, the landscape is the same, but you're not going to be able to play the same game again—there are too many changes in conditions. There are ter'angreal (magic foci, used as offensive and defensive weapons in the game)—there is a large library of ter'angreal in the game. But they are not handed over to the players. A random selection is made when you start up the game, and distributed at random over the landscape. I also wanted the NPCs to be as close to player characters as possible. So you can bribe them to lie to or kill others. And they'll respond to you depending on your character and the way you've dealt with others.

PCPOWERPLAY

So why did you specifically ask for all this?

ROBERT JORDAN

Because I think the world changes and things are different. Things change all the time. It seemed to me that making a game where you learn all the rules and zip through and go back and do it again to see if you can do it faster is boring. I find it boring.

PCPOWERPLAY

Given the almost rabid demeanor of your fans, how well do you think they will receive the WoT game?

ROBERT JORDAN

I hope well. It takes place somewhere between fifty and [a] hundred years before the time of the books. It doesn't involve any characters from them either, and it's not going to be exactly like the books—there's no way it can be as it's a different genre altogether.

It's shaping up to be a really good game. Hopefully, if it's well received, there will be modules that take people more into the world as it exists in the books, and possibly even modules where people play characters in the books, or interact with characters from the books—which I'm hoping is something the fans would love.

The game also uses the Unreal engine, and one of my favorite quotes is "It uses the Unreal engine better than Unreal does". The design team have done so well with it that they've been hired to design the sequel to Unreal—Unreal 2. Another quote I liked was "Every year we're promised something new, something different, something fresh. At last somebody has delivered".

PCPOWERPLAY

You come across as someone who knows games!

ROBERT JORDAN

I play games! But the games I play are Chess, and Go, and very firmly reality-based military-strategy and tactic games like Civilisation, Sim City, Sim World and so on. I really enjoy those. I don't play them very often though, and recently just cleared 12 GB of games from my hard drive.

PCPOWERPLAY

That's a lot of space for games!

ROBERT JORDAN

Yeah, yeah. Well, there are shelves of games up at home. I buy the darn things, I just find very little time to play them.

PCPOWERPLAY

To change the topic a bit, do you feel threatened, as a novelist, by games becoming more appealing as elaborate story-telling devices?

ROBERT JORDAN

Year after year, they tell me about the death of books. Yet I see more books sold. You can't take a computer into the bath and let it dry out if you happen to drop it by accident. You can't take a computer to the beach without worrying about sand getting into it. With a book, you can treat it as rough as you want to, and if it ends up destroyed, you can buy another one at a relatively low cost. Books also don't have maintenance costs nor need to have their batteries replaced on regular occasions. You can just put one in your coat pocket and walk. I think that says it all, really.

wot game

Oh he also made excuses for Mr. Sweet?? er cover art guy. He said the publishers dont give him enough time and yes he did read The Eye of the World before drawing the cover. He said Mr. Sweet? is a slow ass artist but a good one.

cover art

Some people have found so much depth to your books, that they've claimed you've attempted to start a new philosophical movement, or even a new religion, with the Wheel of Time. What have you set out to do with the Wheel of Time?

I'm not trying to create a philosophy, I'm not trying to create a religion. If people think that, they're missing the point.

What I'm primarily trying to do is tell a story. If I get to ask you a few questions along the way, that's good. And if I don't get to ask you a few questions, that's good also. If there are any messages it's that everybody has to struggle against evil, as opposed to good. Because you can't depend on a few heroes to take care of it. If you depend on heroes, evil's gonna win. Also, how it's not easy to tell the difference between bad and good sometimes. Sometimes you think a course of action is the right thing to do. And if you do it and a few million people starve to death somewhere, was it really the right thing to do? Unintended consequences too: every action you take will have at least two results that you never intended and one of them will be a result that you really didn't want. You have to contend with that under all circumstances. You can never figure out all consequences of what you do, and you can't stop them because of that. I'm fascinated by these ideas.

religion

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rj on ethics

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wot themes

The summarised version is: Tad Williams, Robert Holdstock, Raymond Feist, Janny Wurts, Barry Hughat, C.S. Friedman, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, John M. Ford, Guy Gavriel Kay, Terry Pratchett, George R.R. Martin, Jared Diamond, Robert Heinlein, John D. MacDonald, Louis L'Amour, James Patterson, Patrick O'Brian, Montaigne, Andrew Vachss, John Sanford, Patricia Cornwell, Jack London, Stephen King, Tim Powers, J.V. Jones, Greg Bear and everything else under the sun, except for romances.—Raina

rj on reading

What books do you read?

Another ‘everything under the sun answer’. The only author names I managed to jot down from his list were: Terry Pratchett, George Martin, Elmo Lemar (lol, I know I misspelled that, but I didn’t know the author). In short, he reads everything, except for romance. He’s tried a book or two, but never passes page 100.

rj on reading

On my second pass through, I asked him to name some favorite science fiction writers, since he always listed fantasy writers.

He answered John M. Ford (again), Greg Bear, and C.S. Friedman (again), who also has written a lot of good science fiction.

He actually reads a lot less science fiction, because he doesn't like distopias all that much. He likes technology. Why would people have to die at age 30 in the mud in some miserable hovel when they could live so much longer, do so much more.

Especially since it wasn't that long ago that people in American did die at the average age of 30. You just had to go back a few hundred years.

rj on reading

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rj on history

[Regarding the flow of time in books]

Books 1 through 9 cover (very roughly) about four years [made a point of roughly, as I doubt even he could whip out a precise answer on the spot] Most of the books overlap with each other. Some of the events in early Winter's Heart, for example, overlap with late The Path of Daggers.

chronology

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winter's heart

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the path of daggers

Female Dragon..NO when a female hero is needed she is one of the ones bound to the Wheel. Jordan did mention a name but I didn't hear it. But he did say the Dragon is never female.

Let's try and clear some of this up... I can't remember the exact question, but from what I read in this thread, it doesn't matter (I haven't read the Female Dragon thread). RJ said that, no, it is not possible to have a female Dragon. If the wheel needs a female Dragon, then it would weave in *insert female Dragon name here*. Probably because of the blank faces he was getting he then added, you can find her in the scene where Mat blows the Horn...

He also said that a soul ready to be reborn cannot change gender, therefor the Dragon is ALWAYS male.

This might actually be two different reports; since we haven't found the original sources for either, we're not sure.

dragon soul

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souls

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rebirth

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gender

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heroes of the horn

Each age is NOT precisely the same with each new turning of the Wheel. I actually asked RJ to explain this before Eye even came out, because he was trying to explain the cosmology to me and I wasn't getting it. The analogy he used (for the differences between an Age in one turning and in another) was to say that it would be like standing in front of what looked to be two copies of the same painting; but as you looked closely, you'd start to find tiny, subtle differences, more and more differences the more closely you looked, until you eventually realized that the paintings were almost completely different.

the pattern

When a soul is reborn, at what point does it enter the body?

Hmm… *think, think* I’d have to say as a fetus. When the body becomes capable of sustaining life.

H

*stupid grin* Ok. In The Eye of the World, Thom said that the dead can take over a living body. If this happened, what would happen to the original soul?

ROBERT JORDAN

*gave me a “haha, nice try you stupid monkey” grin* “Read and find out.”

H

YAAAAAAAAAAAARG! DAMN YOU! (ok, not really)

souls

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gaidal cain

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rebirth

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thom

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fain

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mordeth

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slayer

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bodyswap

He also said he tried to create a world without sexism or organized religion.

gender

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religion

Are there any channelers on the Seanchan continent that suffer from an emotional block like Nynaeve had?

Questioner

sul'dam

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damane

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channeling

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seanchan

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nynaeve

Next was a question about balefire.

QUESTION

If person A balefires person B, then person C balefires person A, what happens?

Depends on how strong the balefire was....

balefire

The question I asked was "Does anyone within the books have the ability to use the Flame and the Void?"

The answer was "The Flame and the Void is a concentration aid and you do not have to be able to channel to do it."

the void

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channeling

I personally have specifically asked Robert Jordan about this issue. (during a book launch in Sydney late 1999)

He confirmed that Cadsuane's hairpiece IS a ter'angreal, and that we should have enough information to know what it does. Whether this means that it acts similar to Mat's foxhead medallion, or senses male channeling, or both, is still unknown.

cadsuane

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ter'angreal

Can you use the True Power in a stedding? [I think Far Madding was mentioned..?]

No. [That should help some arguments.]

true power

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stedding

[Someone was nitpicking about the Eye of the World prologue, when Ishamael suddenly pops in. It was a ripple or a shimmer or something of the sort, not a 'gateway'. So, this guys asks what was up with that? Creative license? Had not established the magic of the realm yet?]

What do you think?

Fan Response

[The guy said True Power travel]

Robert Jordan

Yes. [Can't give you specifics of response, but he did say that it (True Power) was the reason for the difference in Traveling.]

true power

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gateways

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traveling

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ishamael

As I promised, here is a short synopsis of what RJ said at the book signing regarding whether or not Rand is King Aemon Reborn.

For Rand to be Aemon reborn, Rand would have to be the same height as Aemon if Lanfear was correct in The Shadow Rising that Rand is always the same height in each of his lives.

RJ stated that Aemon was 6'1" tall, but when I asked if Lanfear was correct, RJ stated that she was not. Normally this would not say either way if Rand was Aemon.

RJ knew immediately where I was heading (this is one very intelligent man). RJ confirmed that Rand is NOT Aemon. :-(

MAHIRO

*sighs*. He stated that it was like an author's prerogative to dangle "bait" in front of people and snatch it away. That's cruel and twisted. :-)

This not just torpedoes my theory out of the water, but just nukes it completely.

Thanks to Adrian for letting me use you as a sounding board for my theory.

If anyone wants his exact words, I can post a transcript later.

Here's what I got...

MAHIRO

Mr. Jordan...

The Creator

Yeah.

MAHIRO

How tall was the last king of Manetheren?

The Creator

The last king of Manetheren...?

MAHIRO

Uh-huh.

The Creator

The last king of... Height?

MAHIRO

Yes.

The Creator

Ummm...He'd be about 6'1" [six feet one inch].

MAHIRO

6'1"? Okay. And was Lanfear correct that Rand is always the same height in each of his lives?

The Creator

Ahhh, no.

MAHIRO

No... okay. Thank you.

[At this point I turned to leave.]

The Creator

Rand uhhh, Rand was not the last King of Manetheren.

MAHIRO

Thank you.

The Creator

I very rarely come out and tell you guys something like that. It's much more intriguing to simply dangle a bit of "bait" in front of you and snatch it away. But, ahh no. That's that's that's definitely a "blue sky" direction.

MAHIRO

Aan'allein, there it is nervous statements and all. You should have been there. "you can... hear him. You can... bathe in his presence...words cannot even begin to describe it. You must experience it to know. You must."

Oops, got a little carried away there... ;-)

If anyone is Aemon reborn, it's Mat, since Mat had memories of being Aemon before he got his memories from the Eelfinn. However, the clues in that case point to the Old Blood and Mat being a descendant of Aemon rather than Aemon reborn.

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rebirth

Tonight I asked him, sneakily and in-between two people asking him to sign their books, about whether or not anything was still remaining from Lews Therin's palace, in other words if there were still ruins left of it in the current world.

Sadly, he answered a very clear "No, nothing is left of that anymore."

REPORTER

This means that the ruins underneath the Panarch's palace in Tanchico are not the ruins of Lews Therin's palace.

age of legends

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lews therin

The person said something along the lines of: "My wife thinks Perrin is the sexiest man alive."

RJ responded by saying that he, himself, found Perrin kind of boring, and he didn't understand why people liked him so much. But what really surprised him was that the most popular guy was Mat, the guy he had thought would be the most hated.

RJ then went into a minute-long tirade about how nice guys never get girls. He said that, while the girl might think she wants the good guy, she will always end up driving off with the guy in the Harley. Yes, he said Harley.

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Ok, I got my book signed in Vroman's in Pasadena, CA, today. RJ was extremely friendly, and talked to everyone, laughing and even teasing a bit. One could say he was "jolly".

Anyway, when it was my turn, I asked him two questions. I'll put parts in quotes when they are exactly what was said (or close enough), and I wrote it down so I'd remember.

As he signed my first book, I asked, "Is Cyndane's power roughly equal to, say... Moiraine?"

He had a surprised look on his face for a moment, then it became amused, and he gave me a RAFO. His face indicated to me that I was absolutely right, but obviously it's not evidence.

(Didn't catch the question exactly, but it regarded Fain's escape and the dead prisoners.)

Fain killed the prisoners, not his rescuer. And it wasn't Lanfear.

RJ later confirmed that it was Ingtar who rescued Fain from the dungeon in Fal Dara.

fain

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Next came question time. I was the first one to buy a ticket, the first person to arrive, I was sitting right under his nose so I figured I might as well be the first one to ask a question as well. Me: "Is Verin Black Ajah?"

Reporter

verin

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black ajah

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darkfriends

Does the Black Ajah still have the dice they stole, when the first thirteen left the Tower?

Reporter

black ajah

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ter'angreal

Thirteen Black Ajah that left the Tower. Two from each Ajah. This obviously didn't fly, and was a mistake from an early printing.

black ajah

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errors

Next, I believe, was the aforementioned big mouth. In the interests of not getting banned, we will simply call him Cranially Undernourished Bozo. He was asking something about Ishamael and about him being the only one to use the True Power therefore he is Mordin. RJ started explaining that he didn't necessarily have to be Mordin to which CUB declared that he was avoiding the question. RJ then gives a complicated explanation about the Watcher watching the events unfurling (this is all from memory and unfortunately I can't remember everything) which ended in a question if that is what he meant. CUB with a confused look on his face was obviously in over his head, and started planning how he could become a bigger nuisance.

ishamael

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moridin

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true power

FAQ: Who killed Asmodean?

Should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. [yeah, uh huh...] Ok, we know that. But he also said that we should know based on where everyone was, what they were thinking, what they were doing. Duh, right? But he made a point of mentioning where. For people thinking it was a Traveller, would 'where' be important? Dunno...

His list of candidates included the Aes Sedai, Nynaeve, Aviendha, Bela, and God knows who else.

And you know why he won't tell us? Because he likes to see us SQUIRM. He said it in a friendly voice, but you could tell he meant it.

asmodean

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fandom

Well, It was the second time this week I got to get my book signed and talk to the great RJ. The first time was in Leiden and I didn't prepare anything so I asked something lame about what he thought of the cover art. This time I forgot to think it over again so at the last minute I had to come up with something. It turned out quite funny:

Me: "Did Slayer take Asmodean to Tel'aran'rhiod before, or after he killed him?"

Reporter

April 2001.

slayer

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asmodean

This one was asking about the lack of churches in Randland. They apparently have religious beliefs and such, so why aren't they there?

Churches and other places of worship are for people to connect with and reaffirm the presence of God (or whatever). The people of Randland see signs of their Creator every day through the One Power. If common people today could walk around performing miracles at will, we wouldn't have as much of a need for that confirmation either.

religion

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Oh and he said he would bring the other parts of the world into the books if he needed to. So Seanchan and Shara have a shot.

seanchan

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shara

Were the Seanchan animals created before or after the Shadowspawn?

They are the 'exotics'. They were brought to Randland from parallel dimensions (like in the Portal Stones). When Rand saw grolm in the Portal Stone world, he was seeing them in the native 'land'.

This answer is a bit puzzling in that later questions to RJ about Portal Stones indicate that they connect to Mirror Worlds, not Parallel Worlds. In addition, the BWB indicates that the Seanchan exotics were brought back from Parallel Worlds via Portal Stones.

seanchan

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mirror worlds

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parallel worlds

As he grabbed my second book, I asked, "Is Bela the Creator?"

Reporter

Robert Jordan

Reporter

Robert Jordan

Reporter

bela

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silly questions

In response to the people in the back of the line (which had circled around two book aisles to the RJ table again), he asked the following question of them...

Reporter

bela

I just have one question. In the end, who wins?

"I do." *grin, snicker, snicker* "Read and find out." [I just found this one amusing]