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Your search for the tag 'channeler strength' yielded 34 results
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1
Interview: Jun 16th, 1995
East of the Sun Con - Karl-Johan Norén (Paraphrased)Robert Jordan
On channeler strength he said that he knew the rough strength of every channeler in the books, imposed on a 21-graded scale. Nynaeve he said had Forsaken strength, i.e. as strong as most female Forsaken. Egwene, Elayne and Aviendha was a step lower, and an additional step lower Elaida, Siuan and Moiraine was found. They were the strongest Aes Sedai known before "the new ones". Several Aes Sedai, including Leane and Kiruna [I'm uncertain on Kiruna, I might have misheard], was next in strength. By the old standards they were deemed very strong and capable.Tags
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2
Interview: Oct 9th, 1996
ACOS Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)Greebs
Ask what the deal is with Nynaeve being able to hold half the power as ten sisters with a sa'angreal but not being able to handle two pussy little Black Ajah by herself.Robert Jordan
Some people have shielding talents.QUESTION (LATER)
This is similar to Greebs' question, but from a slightly different angle: How much stronger do you have to be to forcibly shield someone else who is already holding the One Power? Is it different for men than for women, or for heterosexual shielding? If the answer is only a little stronger, then ask him how come Nynaeve couldn't shield Elayne in A Crown of Swords, Chapter 21 (Swovan Night)? Also, how much weaker can you be and still be able to hold a shield on someone, Berowin excepted?ROBERT JORDAN
He did not use a "real scale" for One Power stuff. You just have to be stronger. Mostly handwaving. Consider the Kin. The woman who is very weak but has a real Talent for shielding.FOOTNOTE—TEREZ
On the second answer: RJ indicated in Sweden in 1995 that he does use a 21-graded scale to keep track of channeler strength.
The first answer appears to be an Aes Sedai answer (avoiding the question). The real answer (at least, the answer that is consistent with the rest of the books) is that RJ probably used a bit of hyperbole in the scene where Mat was Healed in The Dragon Reborn (or rather, Nynaeve did, and she even caught herself...but RJ wrote it in such a way that left room for doubt whether she was amazed at her arrogance or at her potential strength).
The woman with the shielding talent, at least as far as we were shown in A Crown of Swords, was in the Kin (Berowin), and not one of those holding Nynaeve when they went after the Bowl (Falion, who got away, and Ispan, whom they captured). They were linked, and they waited until Elayne went upstairs with most of the Kin, then caught Nynaeve off-guard while she wasn't already holding the Power, and they (rightly) believed the remaining Kin wouldn't interfere. (Erica noted when I interrogated her about this report that these were all quick questions which he answered while signing books, so he was probably too distracted to explain properly—all indications are that he truly enjoyed explaining such things when he had the leisure to do so, and that he also would have gladly admitted to the hyperbole so long as he had time to address the rest.)
I think one of RJ's main points in that scene was that Mat, not being able to see the weaves, wouldn't have any idea what was going on, and therefore neither should we, really. RJ even called our attention to this phenomenon in the battle between Moghedien and Nynaeve at the end of The Shadow Rising:
"A man who came in then, or any woman unable to channel, would have seen only two women facing each other across the white silk rope from a distance of less than ten feet. Two women staring at one another in a vast hall full of strange things. They would have seen nothing to say it was a duel. No leaping about and hacking with swords as men would do, nothing smashed or broken. Just two women standing there. But a duel all the same, and maybe to the death."
The scene in A Crown of Swords was a way of exploring that phenomenon. Presumably Nynaeve was strong enough to break the shield, but it was close enough that it came to a fight much like the Moghedien fight. Meanwhile, Nynaeve says aloud that Falion and Ispan are linked, and she chastises the Kin for not helping her. That tells us all we need to know.
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3
Interview: Jun 28th, 1997
DragonCon SciFi Channel Chat (Verbatim)Rand
Is Rand the most powerful channeler alive right now?Robert Jordan
RAFO.Tags
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4
Interview: Nov 1st, 1998
SciFi.com Chat (Verbatim)Linda
We see a lot of characters making estimates about how strong such and such a channeler is or will be, but when we're talking about so far unfulfilled potential, how accurately can it be judged? Especially if the channeler making the judgement doesn't know how much training the channeler being judged previously has had?Robert Jordan
Someone can judge a current strength. This differs between men and women. A woman that can channel can [make a] very accurate judgement of another woman's strength whether she is channeling or not if she is standing close enough. Among Aes Sedai at least, knowledge of potential strength, especially if it is thought to be a great strength, becomes very widespread. Among men the circumstances are different. A man who can channel cannot judge the strength of another unless the other is channeling the One Power or holding the One Power, and even then all he can judge is how much of the One Power the other man is holding. He can't say how much he can hold. There are great differences between men and women in the One Power.Footnote
Rand noted in Lord of Chaos that it is possible to tell if a man is straining (that is, holding as much as he can), and Logain reiterated the point in Knife of Dreams.Tags
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5
Interview: Nov 20th, 1998
TPOD Signing Report - John Nowacki (Paraphrased)Robert Jordan
RJ said that a channeler can hide strength as well as ability to channel, but added that 1) few people know how to do it, and 2) the Aes Sedai don't even know these tricks are possible.John Nowacki
Those caveats are rather obvious, I know. But I mention this answer because I thought I heard it reported here that this question was met with "RAFO" in the past. I'm sure someone will clarify that for me.Tags
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6
Interview: Nov 14th, 2000
SciFi.com Chat (Verbatim)Balerion
There's a suggestion in the books that Lanfear was believed to be as strong as any female channeler could ever become. What was the reason for that belief?Robert Jordan
Read and find out!Tags
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7
Interview: Jul 14th, 2005
ComicCon Reports (Paraphrased)Question
There is some confusion in the books about the relative strengths of the Forsaken. Can you rank order them?Robert Jordan
No. The confusion is intentional. The only information on their strengths is rumor and story held over from the Age of Legends and personal opinions of the Forsaken themselves, hardly an unbiased source! The hierarchy of the Forsaken is complex and fluid, not reflecting any direct measure of strength. Also, remember that different channelers have different Talents.Tags
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8
Interview: Jul 14th, 2005
ComicCon Report - Diomedes (Paraphrased)Diomedes
First, I tried to ask shannow's question about how the Forsaken compared to each other in their strength of the Power. Being nervous, of course, I managed to flub that as well by saying, "There's a lot of contradictory information in the books about how the Forsaken are ranked in their strength in the Power. Could you rank the Forsaken more explicitly?" (Or something to that effect.)Robert Jordan
RJ then explained that the Forsaken don't rank themselves in terms of strength in the Power as Aes Sedai do.Diomedes
(Duh! Looks like I used the wrong turn of phrase, or RJ deliberately misinterpreted what I was getting at.)Robert Jordan
He went on to say that the Forsaken do not like to think of themselves as weaker than anyone else, and, due to their arrogance and ambition, will tend to understate others' abilities and overstate their own. He concluded by saying that, given these weaknesses in character that the Forsaken possess, any information that the Forsaken provide should be considered highly suspect.Diomedes
I'm not sure how much this helps, shannow, and I wish that I had phrased the question somewhat differently in light of this response, but I do believe it indicates Rahvin is mistaken when he thinks that he or Sammael are strong enough to take on Lanfear. It's also led me to believe that RJ likes the confusion he's created about how the Forsaken relate to each other in regards to the Power, and he won't easily yield the explicit information that you're looking for.Tags
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9
Interview: Sep 2nd, 2005
DragonCon Report - Isabel (Paraphrased)Question
A question about the Forsaken. It is said they have varying levels of strength in the One Power. Do you know where they rank?Robert Jordan
Yes.Question
I get the impression that Asmodean is weaker than Lanfear even before he was shielded. How much weaker, etc.?Robert Jordan
RAFO. I don't go into that kind of thing. I know where they are. I also know they are highly unreliable. None of them is going to admit that anyone is that much stronger than they are. Even when you are inside their heads. Don't take everything they say as the absolute truth or unbiased observation.Tags
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10
Interview: Oct 2nd, 2005
Robert Jordan
For Infested Templar, two women linking have slightly less of saidar available to them than the two women would have individually. But it can be used much, much more precisely, and therefore more effectively, than they could manage working merely as partners. The reduction also occurs for men entering a circle. One man in a circle means that only the amount of saidin that he can handle, less the reduction for being in a circle, is available. Men can be much stronger than women in the pure quantity of the Power that they can channel, but on a practical level, women are much more deft in their weaving and that means the strongest possible woman can do just about anything that the strongest possible man could, and to the same degree.
And finally, the Old Tongue is written in a script that has more letters than the English alphabet, some representing diphthongs. That script will be in the Encyclopedia that Harriet will do, along with 950 or so words of the Old Tongue derived from what is called Basic English, the 950 words necessary to carry on a understandable conversation. Some words I dropped as essentially unnecessary to the books—electricity, for example—while others—such as sword and names of birds and animals—I had to add. The total might come nearer 1000 words by now.
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11
Interview: Oct 2nd, 2005
Robert Jordan
For Papazen, while I have spoken of souls being born with the ability to channel in response to questions, I think of it as being genetic also. In the Age of Legends, between 2 and 3% of people had some ability, following a bell curve distribution in strength. For over 3000 years, though, Aes Sedai have been removing men who actually learned to channel from the gene pool. They have been very efficient at this. As a result, the "present day" sees about 1% of the population who can learn to channel, with a much, much smaller percentage of that being born with the spark.
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12
Interview: Oct 4th, 2005
Robert Jordan
For Sidious, when Alivia faced Cyndane, Alivia was by far the stronger because of her angreal, and had various tools (ter'angreal) to work with besides, but Cyndane was much, much more knowledgeable about channeling. Alivia, after all, knew relatively little except how to be a weapon. That was very useful in the situation, but in this case, knowledge versus strength made it an even match.
Now as to Rahvin sitting on his throne and being shocked to see Rand. First off, he knew his first trap hadn't worked, but he had others ready. He saw no reason to start jumping about. He thought he was maneuvering Rand into a series of traps, one of which he was sure would work. He did not expect Rand to simply leap into the same room with him. He did not expect Rand to know that he could Travel to somewhere in sight of himself without knowing the ground. So what he had expected to be a chess game where he knew the positions of all the pieces and Rand did not suddenly turned into a close-quarters slugging match. Surprise!
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13
Interview: Oct 4th, 2005
Robert Jordan
For Gyrehead, Foretelling is not related to strength. The weakest possible channeler could Foretell as strongly as Elaida or Nicola, or perhaps even more so, depending entirely on the strength of his or her Talent for Foretelling.
The three Red Sitters were sent into exile in 985 NE under Marith Jaen.
Yes, Morgase has slowed, and that is exactly why there is so much emphasis on her looking only ten years older than Perrin when she has children the ages of Elayne and Gawyn.
Regarding the percentage of women who could test for the shawl, it would be 62.5% of the bellcurve. I'll leave the maths to you for an idle moment. The question doesn't really apply to men, since the Black Tower accepts anyone who can learn to channel, but if the White Tower limits were applied, it would be roughly 65.4% of the bellcurve. Although, considering the effectiveness question, they should probably set it at the same 62.5%. Again, the maths are all yours. Regarding the levels of male strength, while the weakest man and the weakest woman would be roughly equivalent, you might say that there are several levels of male strength on top of the female levels. Remember to integrate this with what I've said elsewhere about effectiveness, though.
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14
Interview: Oct 13th, 2005
KOD Signing Report - Allen Bryan (Paraphrased)Question
Does the rate of slowing depend on your strength in the Power?Robert Jordan
Yes, basically; you age at 1/X your normal rate, with X being dependent up to a point on Power strength. The Power acts as a natural rejuvenator on you; even at the point of death you won't look or feel worse than a normal 65-year-old.Allen Bryan
(RJ had to hem and haw a good bit to avoid revealing that slowing != the Ageless Look—there were several spoiler people in the audience, including one who was working on Book Six at the moment.)Tags
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15
Interview: Oct 28th, 2005
KOD Signing Report - Jason Wolfbrother (Paraphrased)Jason Wolfbrother
Does it take a lot of concentration, strength and effort to weave inverted/reversed weaves?Robert Jordan
Not easy but not difficult either. Just need to learn the trick.Jason Wolfbrother
Can everyone, no matter how weak they are, use inverted weaves?Robert Jordan
Anyone can do it once he/she learns the trick.Tags
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16
Interview: Dec 19th, 2005
Robert Jordan's Blog: THIS AND THAT (Verbatim)Robert Jordan
For sheep the evicted, who has heard that I assigned various numerical strengths in the One Power to Rand, Ishamael and others based on a scale of 100 points, no I did not. I have said that in my notes I have such a scale that I use to keep track of everyone, but its main use is for the lesser characters, in particular Aes Sedai, so that I can check on who should defer to whom, who should only listen a little more attentively to whom, and so forth.Tags
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17
Interview: Oct 27th, 2009
BYU Stormleader Dinner - Matt Hatch (Verbatim)Matt Hatch
Did Robert Jordan leave a power to time comparison, as to how much time is burned back on a thread using balefire. Is there a calculation that says x amount of power will burn back x amount of time on a thread?Brandon Sanderson
M.A.F.O—Maria and Find Out. What he did leave, he left a lot of stuff, there is discussion of these things in the notes. I need to look and see if there is an actual equation. He was very focused on strength of the Power and things like that. He has probably told you before, I think I’ve seen a copy of that on notes and things. He did leave scales on exactly how powerful each person is...
MARIA SIMONS (VIA LUCKERS)
RAFO. Sorry, but we are doing an encyclopedia, and I have to reserve some things in case we want to put them in there.
Footnote
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18
Interview: Nov 21st, 2009
Matt Hatch
You saw where we were going…
Brandon Sanderson
...yes, I see where you are going...
Matt Hatch
...I had to do the build up to it because it all comes down to that one question for a couple of things.
Brandon Sanderson
This one question you are going to ask next?
Matt Hatch
I’m not going to ask it...
Brandon Sanderson
...oh, the one you asked…
Matt Hatch
...yeah, I guess I asked a piece of it last night...
Brandon Sanderson
...when it comes to this certain character that you are talking about, there is a whole thing where Maria and I exchanged a bunch of emails about this. She had managed to pull some things out of the notes that I had not seen, which is interesting, because I was going off of something else. I did not think that Cyndane should be nearly as powerful as she was put in the books as being, so I had been under the belief that the Dark One was pulling shenanigans...
Matt Hatch
...like a little, in essence, let’s say what the Forsaken Lanfear did to Asmodean, you thought maybe the Dark One was doing some similar...shielding...
Brandon Sanderson
...or the other way around…here is a little extra power you can draw upon while I am pleased with you, I can take this away...
Matt Hatch
...that is a question...let’s jump to that question, there have been some theories that talk about Lanfear...
Brandon Sanderson
...let’s back up and say I was wrong. I was interpreting the notes a certain way. Maria was able to pull something out that I had not seen that made it clear that I had misinterpreted and that that is not the case, Cyndane is not under any shenanigans. What you see is what you get.
Matt Hatch
Cyndane and her alter ego have never been under any shenanigans?
Brandon Sanderson
I’m not going to say never been under any shenanigans, but when you see her creating a gateway she is legitimately powerful enough to do it, which I did not believe that she was. Does that make sense? This is all digging into my read of the notes versus and Maria’s read of the notes and Maria was right. She was able to provide information to me that I had not seen which is nice because it was stuff that was very pertinent for what I am working on right now. It would have come out eventually when I would have sent her the scenes I’m working on, but it came out earlier, which is nice. Once I found out what was going on it all made perfect sense.
Matt Hatch
So, we will understand then in the next book or so why there is a decrease in power but not a significant decrease?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Matt Hatch
Ok, so that being said there are some theories out there that in the Age of Legends, at one point, Lanfear might have...
Brandon Sanderson
...let’s just say I have not said that Lanfear and Cyndane are the same person...
Matt Hatch
...Oh, absolutely, I’m jumping to this other Forsaken that we are talking about...
Brandon Sanderson
...this other completely different person...Uh huh...
Matt Hatch
...so Lanfear, the theory goes, that maybe she was accentuated from a beauty and/or power perspective by going to the Finnland previously...
Brandon Sanderson
...ok...
Matt Hatch
...would the Finns have the ability to accentuate someone’s beauty and/or quantity or access to the One Power through their own capabilities and talents?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, but it might involve third party ter’angreal, angreal, this sort of thing...
Matt Hatch
...so, they don’t have power to affect the soul’s capability of increasing its total channeling?
Brandon Sanderson
Certainly not permanently, as far I understand, that is outside the realm of their ability…
Matt Hatch
...from a beauty perspective can they affect the outer body of some individual?
Brandon Sanderson
I would say that, yes they can, but they may have to be using some type of ter’angreal or...
Matt Hatch
...some item of power?
Brandon Sanderson
Some item of power, something like that...of which they have great stores...[what???]
Matt Hatch
...Really...heh, so the obvious question, where did the Finns get great stores of ter’angreal, angreal, and is that part of the Pact they made.?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO...but if you just think about it, we don’t even have to go to the notes for this if you think about it logically, we know of them providing certain items of power to certain individuals that they were able to match very nicely with certain requests very easily. If you run the statistics on that its either a huge coincidence or they have very many to choose from.
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Interview: Nov 16th, 2009
TGS Signing Report - kcf (Paraphrased)Question
How does Nynaeve compare with Semirhage in One Power strength?Brandon Sanderson
I'm pretty sure she's stronger, but they are very close. RJ has a list of all the channelers' strengths. On that list, only six people are stronger than Nynaeve. It's such a rare event that pretty much anytime we meet someone stronger than her, it's explicitly said. There are two One Power strength scales—an 'old' and a 'new'. Nynaeve was the top of the female list for the 'old' list. Six are stronger on the 'new' list.
Brandon was pretty certain that Nynaeve is stronger than Mesaana, who isn't particularly strong in Forsaken terms.
Brandon was very open and willing to talk about this issue—people who care about these things should ask at every opportunity.
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Interview: Nov 16th, 2009
TGS Signing Report - kcf (Paraphrased)Question
Where did Cyndane’s new body come from?Brandon Sanderson
Where have any of the new bodies come from? He then mentioned that it's not confirmed who Cyndane is, though he didn't refute me when we all said that it's pretty certain.
I asked about her strength in the One Power—Brandon says she's very, very weak. This surprised me since I didn't think she was that weak.
Footnote
She's not; Theorylanders hounded Brandon, and he cleared it up here. She's weaker than she was, but still stronger than Graendal.Tags
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Interview: Dec 5th, 2009
TGS Signing Report - kavorka (Paraphrased)Brandon Sanderson
Ability to channel/souls. I think this has all been reported, but he stated definitively that the ability to channel is tied to soul. He stated definitively that the spark was not tied to the soul but could be affected by a specific body (i.e., just because you had the spark in one life, you could be reborn and just have the ability to learn.) He stated with 85% probability that strength in the Power was not tied to soul, meaning that if you were an uber channeler in one body, you could be weak in the Power in your next body.Tags
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Interview: Jun 10th, 2010
Luckers
In Lord of Chaos Ch. 30, "To Heal Again", Siuan, after being healed, says to Nynaeve that 'if she could heal her to half of what she was' she would be better off. This has led to the perception that Siuan and Leane are less than half their original strength. Yet in Crossroads of Twilight Ch. 19, "Surprises", we find out that both women stand several steps above the Aes Sedai minimum strength. This seems problematic—the range of Aes Sedai strength does not appear to be so great as to allow for this. So the question is, did Siuan and Leane in fact lose such a large amount of strength as they appear to have?Maria Simons
Yes, they did lose a large amount of strength. The range of strength is greater than you think, I believe. At the beginning, Siuan was near the top (and Leane close behind); if she were half the strength she used to be, she'd be in the middle. Instead, she's somewhere in the lower half, but not absolute rock bottom, nor nearly as low as Daigian Moseneillin.Tags
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Interview: Jun 10th, 2010
Luckers
Is strength in the power evenly distributed? Would on a scale of one to one hundred the most channelers be on the 50 mark? (within a gender, of course).Maria Simons
Jim described it as a bell curve, with most channelers in the middle.Tags
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Interview: Jun 10th, 2010
Luckers
Of the really strong channelers we know the nature to, all but one have been sparkers. This has led to the belief that sparkers are on average stronger than learners. Is this belief justified?Maria Simons
No. "Having been born with the inherent spark apparently is not an indicator of strength. There are as many with weak potential who will channel whether they are taught or not as there are of great potential" (from Jim's notes). The stronger ones just get more attention.Luckers
Do stronger sparkers stand a better chance of surviving touching the Source unaided?Maria Simons
It depends on what you mean by "stronger" sparkers. If you mean strength in the One Power, not really. If you mean strength of will or character, perhaps. Jim said of touching the One Power unaided: "if you have not learned some sort of rough control, conscious or not, you will die screaming and writhing in agony."Tags
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Interview: Nov 8th, 2010
TOM Signing Report - Sarayne (Paraphrased)Question
There was a really strong channeler. Will she be back?Brandon Sanderson
It's likely.Footnote
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Interview: Apr 17th, 2011
Driving Mr. Sanderson - Terez (Verbatim)Terez
How does Demandred compare in strength to Moridin and Aginor? Sammael?Brandon Sanderson
Um...I have to have the list in front of me for that one.
Terez
Ahh.
Brandon Sanderson
Sorry, Terez.
Terez
That's okay.
Brandon Sanderson
I really want to just post that for people, because so many people ask about it...
Terez
Right, they're like really obsessed with it at rafo.com....
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, they're very obsessed with it, and the thing is, a lot of them are really close, and so it's a matter of a few points on Jim's scale...
Terez
Yeah, I figured, like what you were saying earlier about how they were Chosen because their talents...
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah.
Terez
...obviously they're all within...
Brandon Sanderson
...yeah. They're all awesome. And so, you know, you couldn't be a Forsaken simply for being awesome in the Power. It's like you had to be awesome at the Power, and be awesome at other stuff.
Terez
Well, I mean...that's what they said about Balthamel, that that was the only reason he was one of them, was that he was so strong...
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah....
Terez
But, you know, obviously there was something else going on there...
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah. [I think he was already looking at the next (last) question at this point because we were nearing the airport terminal.]
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Interview: Dec 17th, 2011
Alloy of Law Signing Report - Loialson (Verbatim)Loialson
Hey Brandon, I got a bunch of questions from the Wheel of Time Re-read.Brandon Sanderson
Okay! Alright! So Wetlander and people.
LOIALSON
Yes...Are the impressive displays of power that Rand makes in Towers of Midnight (i.e., stopping the Trolloc army and having no concern over being able to leave the White Tower) a result of his integrated knowledge or his ta'veren nature?
BRANDON SANDERSON
Umm...Both, though, one thing you have to keep in mind, is...Rand, as a result of power level...Robert Jordan was specifically not using him very often because his power had grown so powerful even by the end of Knife of Dreams. I mean, you look at Knife of Dreams—if you go reread the fight in Knife of Dreams he is laying waste to nearly as many Trollocs as he has when he does the battle at the temple—which is not actually called that in the books—that's the one with the Trollocs and things [referencing Rand's big single-handed fight in Towers of Midnight]. And so...yes, some of these things have changed, but he's really powerful now.
Now, the thing about in the White Tower is something different. [Brandon smiles]
Footnote
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Interview: Apr, 2012
Afternoon Tea with Brandon Sanderson - Luckers (Paraphrased)Brandon Sanderson
When we were discussing Moiraine’s various angreal, Brandon said he was of the impression that even with it, Moiraine’s was still very close, but just shy of her original strength. I checked that night and Moiraine does say in Towers of Midnight that with it she is 'very strong, stronger than I was before'. I checked with Brandon and he nodded and said that that was a scene that RJ wrote, and it went in almost without any changes. I started to ask whether he was still under the impression that Moiraine was close to her old strength, albeit on the upwards side (after all to an Aes Sedai Moiraine’s old strength was ‘very strong’, and therefore Moiraine might only be marginally stronger, and she might very well phrase it precisely as she did). A fan approached at that moment, and I’m not sure how much of the question Brandon heard, and we never got a chance to raise it again, so it might be worth clarifying.Footnote
Brandon went into a little more detail here on the changes he had to make for that scene.Tags
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Interview: Aug 8th, 2009
WorldCon 2009 - Dom (Paraphrased)Dom
Brandon Sanderson
He also got into his own approach to magic systems, which lead to questions about how much of a challenge he found the One Power and how he prepared himself to handle it (and yeah, he admits being a One Power fan). Brandon explained researching and analyzing the One Power was one of his main focuses during his pre-writing re-read of the series (the other was analyzing the characters' "voices". He also said RJ left a massive amount of notes about the One Power, some of it he's read (he couldn't read everything, he rather relied on Maria to find him the exact information he needed when he needed it). I think he's said that before—or RJ did—but RJ's notes for WOT are longer than the series itself and he always kept adding to them, from back story and history elements to world building tidbits to creating hundreds of characters he could use to sketches for possible scenes. It was Maria's job to index all of this so if he was writing a scene he wanted to use backstory elements or a new weave in, he could have her look first if this already existed in the notes and what of it had appeared in the series already—or if he didn't already have it and needed to create something from scratch.
Sanderson said he resisted creating new weaves (beside introducing those Jordan planned to introduce) for the most part. His contribution will rather be to have the characters figure out they can use weaves they know in new ways—turn them into weapon etc., and for this he looked for details in the previous books. He mentioned one specific example: after Knife of Dreams, he thought characters figured out gateways and deathgates can also be used to slice non-Shadowspawn up in battle.
We also discussed a bit the 21 levels list, which Brandon used a lot. Jordan did start it just the way he described it long ago, that is as a way to keep track of who defers to whom among minor players etc. However, as of now, this document's scope goes beyond this (and it's quite big). The document assigns a rank number to each Aes Sedai referring to the twenty-one levels system, and it lists their personal weaves if they have any, and who knows and have the skills to use which weave and to what extent, their strength in flows if details in the series have blocked this up etc. Brandon confirmed Jordan developed a similar ranking system for the Asha'man as well, but couldn't recall out of hand how many levels there were for them.
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Interview: Nov 6th, 2009
TGS Signing Report - gammahunter (Paraphrased)gammahunter
I asked if Graendal were dead and had she killed Asmodean could he pop back up in Caemlyn.Brandon Sanderson
He said no. He said that Rand only took Rahvin out of the Pattern for 15 minutes to an hour. So, even if the Choedan Kal were 1000 times stronger than Rand with the fat man it would only be like 9 days at most. More interesting, however, is that he said that we have not seen anyone who could burn someone out of the Pattern that long, however, it was possible for someone to be that strong!—Who or what could this be?Tags
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Interview: Nov 24th, 2012
Idaho Falls Signing Report - PrncRny (Paraphrased)PrncRny
Do we ever find out how strong in the power Tuon would be if she ever snapped and started channeling? Did RJ leave any notes about that?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes he did. The problem is that that's not the sort of thing I can work into the books very easily. The issue is that her strength would be tied to, well, people's strength go up they practice and things. Yes he has the notes, but there's no way the characters can know for sure. That would be something for the outriggers, which maybe we can get into the encyclopedia. He left a big list for everyone and a number for their power level, their strength in the One Power, just for comparison's sake, which was cool because it would also say 'Here's the threshold for creating a gateway and here's the threshold for this' and its a really cool list and I hope they put it into the encyclopaedia but I don't know if they will.
PrncRny
Ok, so she's not going to snap in the next one and start channeling?
Brandon Sanderson
Well. Even if she did, how powerful she would get would not be immediately evident. Does that make sense?
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Interview: 2012
Twitter 2012 (WoT) (Verbatim)Tor Nordam (30 October 2012)
RJ said in a Q&A that 62.5% of women strong enough to be Aes Sedai, yet only 20% of 1000 novices are strong enough. How so?Brandon Sanderson (30 October 2012)
That sounds like a question for Maria, I'm afraid. I don't have the notes handy to look into the discrepancy.
Brandon Sanderson
Email is probably best, or grabbing her at JordanCon. (Or sending the question with someone you know who is attending.)
Brandon Sanderson
Actually, the easiest way is probably to drop me an email through my website and let me forward it on to her.
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Interview: 2013
Xx255q (March 2013)
If full Dragon had the same amount of power as pre-Dragon with the access key, how much power was full Dragon holding with his power multiplied? Or orders of magnitude larger? Such as, how many people who can hold the power equal him, or what could he do with all of it?
Brandon Sanderson
One of the realizations that Rand came to in the books was that brute, raw power was of far lesser importance than he'd once imagined. Comparing his power post and pre access key is a moot point, as it wasn't power he was seeking. It was a method to accomplish what he needed to accomplish. But, to give you something more of an answer to the question you're actually asking, Rand post-epiphany is not more powerful than Rand with the access key. However, he was far more efficient, as he gained hundreds of years of experience with the use of weaves.
Xx255qImpressive using the sword with the power and skill like that.... He could do anything.
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