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2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."
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Interviews: Waygate Foundation Q&A
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Waygate Foundation
Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions for our Team Jordan Q&A during the A Memory of Light tour. We were excited to see the questions, and even more excited to share the answers!
This sneak peek into the future content of the Wheel of Time Encyclopedia is brought to you by Team Jordan in support of our "A Story Begins" campaign benefiting Patrick Rothfuss' Worldbuilders charity. To help us reach our goal and release a full page of the future encyclopedia, please consider contributing a donation using the "Support" form on the right!
Warning—a lot of these answers contain SPOILERS. Read at your own risk! Each answer has been supplied by Team Jordan, and was written by Maria Simons, continuity editor of the Wheel of Time. Maria and the Team have been very generous with their time, and will provide as many answers as they can.
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Will the encyclopedia be written in a way that someone reading the series the first time can reference it without learning spoilers? That was the hardest thing for me first time through.Maria Simons
No, I don’t think so. If we are to avoid spoilers, it would require Rand’s entry to say "A young man from the Two Rivers, the son of Tam and Kari al'Thor." Anything else would spoil The Eye of the World. And it would only get worse from there. We wouldn’t even be able to reference Asmodean’s death, because his dying is a spoiler for The Fires of Heaven.Tags
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Will The Wheel of Time universe become open source? Meaning will people be allowed to write stories with approval from Harriet and team Jordan?Maria Simons
No, The Wheel of Time universe will not become open source.
Question
At a book signing the other day Brandon said that there would be no more books written, prequels, sequels etc. He said that the only extra book would be this updated encyclopedia. Will all the characters bios include what happened before and after the WOT series?
Maria Simons
Some characters' bios will contain more information about a character’s history. For the most part, they will not contain what happened to them after the end of A Memory of Light. Robert Jordan is on record as having no intention of wrapping things up neatly for all characters. As a fan myself, I like this, because it means that in my own mind, the character that I loved can live on happily forever, and the characters that I hate can suffer woefully and die painful deaths.
In addition, Robert Jordan’s notes did not have information about what happened to each character before and after the series, and since we at Team Jordan don’t know his thoughts on these things, we are reluctant to just make things up. I would be happy to share my personal imaginings for the characters that I care about, but they are not canon.
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Question
Will the Tinkers ever find their song?Maria Simons
According to Robert Jordan, no, the Tinkers will never find their song.Tags
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Based on the weather of the different lands, it seems like Randland is in the northern hemisphere of the planet. Are there lands to the south of Randland? The Seanchan came from the West across the Aryth Ocean—is Shara on their western border?Maria Simons
There is a map of the whole world of The Wheel of Time in The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time; it shows Randland to be almost totally in the northern hemisphere, with a small southern portion of Shara being in the southern hemisphere. Below Randland, at apparently the same longitude though covering a much smaller area, is the Land of Madmen. Seanchan is spread over the northern and southern hemispheres, and on its western border is the Morenal Ocean; that ocean is also the eastern border of Shara.Tags
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Question
One that I can't ever get an answer on: How did Thom know Padan Fain? In The Eye of the World, he says he recognized Fain and he scornfully says Fain "is always one to carry bad news quickly, and the worse, the faster. There’s more raven in him than man." This implies more than a passing knowledge of the man.Maria Simons
Both Padan Fain and Thom Merrilin made their livings by traveling from one small village to another in a reasonably small area. They had simply been in the same village at the same time on multiple occasions. Add to that Thom's proclivity for collecting information, and you have a very simple explanation.Tags
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What are the three oaths which bind Darkfriends?Maria Simons
1) I shall obey all commands given by those placed above me in service to the Great Lord. 2) I shall prepare for the day of the Great Lord's return. 3) I swear not to betray the Great Lord, to keep my secrets until the hour of my death. It should be noted that these were taken straight from Robert Jordan's notes, where he had added "May vary the wording a little."Footnote
Verin says "You can double-cross other Darkfriends, you can turn against the Chosen if you can justify it." To justify turning against the Chosen, you could argue that a specific Chosen was not placed above you by the Great Lord himself.Tags
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I realize that the two outrigger novels that Jim had planned won't be published, but I'm still curious about the story that would take place in them. I'm hoping that the history that would have been contained within those stories (Tam's life while he was away from the Two Rivers and what led Moiraine and Lan to the Two Rivers) will come to light in the Encyclopedia. Not really a question, but a comment nonetheless!Maria Simons
There is a little confusion here: there were two more prequels planned (with the subjects mentioned here), and three outriggers taking place after the Last Battle. We have about two sentences regarding the outriggers. While I promise that the encyclopedia will contain all we know about Moiraine and Tam from Robert Jordan's notes, he did not leave fleshed-out outlines for the prequels, either, so we can't promise too much.Tags
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Does the dagger from Shadar Logoth have a name besides Mat's dagger or Fain's dagger? (referring to an AOL interview from so very long ago where someone referred to it as Shadar Mandarb.)Maria Simons
We could find nothing in the notes referring to the dagger as such, but I seem to have a vague memory of at least hearing that phrase before. It does seem to be an apt moniker for it.Footnote
This nickname appears to have been adopted by the members of the rasfw-rj Usenet group; the term is used on their FAQ. We can find no mention of the AOL interview in question; there were several, and we might be missing one or more of them.Tags
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Was the Oath Rod, one of the Nine Rods of Dominion? What were the Nine Rods of Dominion? Who were the 17 Generals of Dawn's Gate?Maria Simons
The Oath Rod was not one of the Nine Rods of Dominion. The Nine Rods of Dominion that Lews Therin summoned were the regional governors of the earth; a rod—but not an Oath Rod—was the symbol of their office. The Seventeen Generals of Dawn’s Gate were a group of military commanders of high rank who led the fight against the Shadow in the War of Power; their names are unknown.Tags
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What was the Ring of Tamyrlin—could it have been the twisted stone ter’angreal?Maria Simons
The Ring of Tamyrlin was defined in the expanded glossary included in To the Blight (the second half of The Eye of the World repacked for YA readers); it was a legendary ring, believed mythical by most people, worn by the leader of the Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends. Stories about the Ring of Tamyrlin include that it was an angreal or sa’angreal or ter’angreal of immense power. It supposedly was named after the first person to learn how to tap into the Source and channel the One Power, and in some tales, was actually made by that man or woman. It was definitely not the twisted stone ter’angreal.Tags
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Trollocs invade the Borderlands pretty regularly. Do they invade from the Blight in the Aiel and Seanchan lands as well?Maria Simons
No, they don’t—not much, anyway. The Trollocs call the Waste Djevik K’shar, which means the Dying Ground. Elyas is of the opinion that Trollocs "wouldn’t go a hundred miles into the Waste if all the Myrddraal in the Blight were driving them." And according to The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, all of the Trollocs and Myrddraal were completely wiped out in Seanchan during the millennium after the Breaking.Tags
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What about the Waygates? If they were tainted by the Power were they cleansed when saidin was?Maria Simons
No, the Ways were not cleansed when the Source was. Robert Jordan said, "It's like a bacteria breed. Just by cleaning up the chemicals that caused the bacteria to come into existence, unless it's feeding on that, those chemicals, you are not going to destroy the bacteria. You simply cut off what helped to create it."Tags
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Can someone burned out be Healed, be it similar to the severing healing process or not?Maria Simons
No, someone who is burned out will stay that way. It cannot be healed.Tags
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How did Tam come to have a heron-mark sword?Maria Simons
It was given to him by the King of Illian during Tam’s service with the Illianer Companions. We do not know what he did to become a blademaster.Footnote
What Maria says here is what RJ said (reported by Erica Sadun in 1994). In The Gathering Storm Chapter 47, Tam tells Rand that he became a blademaster by killing a blademaster in front of witnesses. The general fan explanation is that Tam refused to take his sword, but was essentially forced to take it by the King of Illian.Tags
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Robert Jordan at one point said that Beidomon had been born again and was out and about currently. (I know this was during the time of his Blog, while I was on Wotmania, so it’s been impossible for me to find the actual comment.) I always assumed he was Bayle Domon (B.domon), but that seems almost too blatant to me. IS he Bayle, or is he someone else, completely unimportant? (Wouldn't it be working on his Karmic balance, helping Egeanin/Leilwin to help with the Last Battle, to help make up for what he did previously?)Maria Simons
I could only find two quotes where Robert Jordan spoke of Beidomon and his possible appearance in the current age. In the first, he confirmed that Beidomon was not Mordeth, and in the second, when asked if Beidomon was someone in the current Age, he answered "RAFO." I have not yet found anything to indicate who—if anyone—Beidomon is in the current Age, but if we come across it buried in the notes, it will be included in the encyclopedia.Tags
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Did Jain Charin become a servant of the Shadow in part due to Moiraine having bonded Lan? He must have felt it a huge betrayal, the last Malkieri king submitting to being Bonded after the White Tower failed to help Malkier. Was he the one to train Isam once he became a Darkfriend?Maria Simons
No, he didn't become a servant of the Shadow because Moiraine bonded Lan. He did not become a servant of the Shadow of his own free will. The Shadow used him and Graendal Compelled him. He did not train Isam.Tags
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In Lord of Chaos, ch 21, "To Shadar Logoth", Lews Therin whispers to Rand: "There is darkness here. Blackness blacker than black. If the Dark One chose to live among men, he would choose here" and then "I must kill Demandred" to which Rand responds "Does Demandred have some connection to Shadar Logoth?" And Lews Therin says nothing. So...does he? Or is it alluding to the possibility that Barid Bel went seeking a way to defeat the Shadow which ended up in corrupting him in the same way Mordeth was corrupted?Maria Simons
I can find nothing relating Demandred to Shadar Logoth; note that after the Demandred bit, Lews Therin starts talking about Ishamael and Lanfear, and doesn't appear to be answering Rand's questions at all. I think that it's safe to assume that Lews Therin is just rambling insanely.Tags
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Will there be a list of The Prophecies of the Dragon and the dark prophecies? Also the other prophecies from the Aiel and the Atha’an Miere?Maria Simons
We hope to include the prophecies that we know of; Robert Jordan did not have a complete Prophecies of the Dragon written—that would have been an entire book in itself. He knew the general gist of the prophecies, and came up with pieces as he needed them.Tags
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By the way, was Bael one of the Aiel Clan Chiefs killed?Maria Simons
I don't know. Robert Jordan didn't say one way or the other. In my own vision of the post Tarmon Gai'don world, he survives and goes on to spoil his twin daughters rotten.Tags
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Did Ishamael/Moridin send "Noal" to Mat to kill him, or because he knew Mat would be going to the Tower of Ghenjei, and wanted "Noal" to kill Moiraine (since he knew that she was alive after collecting Lanfear from the 'Finn)? Reasoning behind the question: In The Great Hunt, Moiraine tells Siuan that they are part of the Prophecies, so it would make sense that Ishamael/Moridin would know of Moiraine's future importance (since he's an "expert" on all the various prophecies) and seek to have her killed (the Draghkhar attack in The Dragon Reborn, "Noal" going to the Tower of Ghenjei as an assassin, etc.).Maria Simons
No, Ishamael/Moridin did not send Noal to Mat, either to kill him or to kill Moiraine. Someone else sent Noal to Ebou Dar for other purposes, and he found Mat more or less by accident.Tags
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Who will do the artwork [for the Encyclopedia]? And: Will the artwork be reviewed by anyone from Team Jordan before use?Maria Simons
No decision has been made yet about who is doing any artwork; it will be reviewed by Team Jordan before use.Tags
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Just to clear it up, cause I really dislike arguing with people: just to have it out there, in big BOLD letters: Brandon did confirm in his January 2013 Twitter chat that Hopper was "the Broken Wolf, whom Death has known", yes? ("The Broken Wolf was Perrin’s spirit guide.") Because this one aggravates me almost as much as Olver/Gaidal Cain and Taimandred, especially when people insist it was Rodel Ituralde.Maria Simons
Yes, Hopper was "the Broken Wolf, whom Death has known."Tags
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