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ow the Old Blood works.

by Cor Shan: 2003-10-20 | Not yet rated

Previous Categories: The Wheel of Time

How the Old Blood works

This is how I, Cor Shan, think the old blood works.

The Old Blood Works with several different parts; most like channelers:

Old Blood Carrier: A person who can carry old blood; when a period of great Trauma occurs, they absorb habits, language, and such into the slot that carries the old blood. [like a learnable channeler]

Old blood Recipient: Matrim Cauthon, who spoke the OT before SL, Before the Finns, before every other event, save Winternight. Also, you cant just have strong OB to be an OLD BLOOD RECIPIENT, you have to be an OLD BLOOD CARRIER.

Old Blood Slot (slot): the niche in which the memories ECT. are stored, and has a key, a set of conditions that must be similar at storage and release, but after release, the conditions are less vague.(Or the Finns or SL helped shake them loose.) Mats are fighting Trollocs, and the Aes Sedia betrayal of Manethern. You can have multiple release conditions though.

So: some Manethern Warrior who is an OLD BLOOD CARRIER fills the slot with his habits and Language, and passes it down. Actually, several cache it and send it down the line. Then when the following happens the OB is released:

1)The Blood line is strong, say 1/25158515400102605505000 (2000 years, 25 years/ generation, very low number actually [50 OLD BLOOD CARRIER at Manethern] rounded off.) [to stop everyone from babbling it in the Borderlands.], and the slots have to be similar that you inherit.

2)SIMILER tensions: Mat first says the OT when fighting astronomical amounts of Trollocs, (50 or some such). He might have said it on Winternight, but that was off-screen. The slot was opened, and he said the OT with decreasing commonness. [Healing and such.]

3)The borderlands have much more comings and goings than The Two Rivers, also they have so much more stress that any slots would be rewritten, so people just get a strange way of speaking for a while.

My first Theory so sorry if it lacks meat.

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Comments

Tamyrlin: 2003-10-28

So, you are suggesting that extreme amounts of stress will not trigger the OB response that was captured in a previous generation, unless the person is involved in an event that mimics the one in which the event was captured? So, when Mat exhibits these characteristics during a battle against Trollocs, his biological ancestors, we are led to believe, fought Trollocs? Do you believe, once it happens the first time, that any additional time the old blood exhibits itself, that it can break those rules?

Rand-althor: 2003-10-28

I would have to dissagree with you. I think that the old blood just comes into play whenever you need something, similar to channeling your first time. When you are desperate for some kind of old knowlage or something, or there is something in common when something happens (such as Mat speaking the old tounge, and Egwene almost understanding it) then the old blood manifests itself. Where I start to doubt your theory really is when yau talk about mat's healing, as far as we know nobody from Manatherin was healed and 'woke up' bound to a surface in the White Tower, so that would make no sence,in your theory.

solomonrex: 2003-10-28

I think the key is that the 'Old Blood' proves some connection to a set of knowledge and/or skills that are only accessible through TAR. The Heroes are resting in TAR, so I think that Mat's soul is tapping into something similar. The 'finn are in TAR (apparently) and can read past and future events. Wolves tap into a similar 'racial' memory of some sort.

Is it that great trauma triggers it, or that (like Rand) the 'carrier' digs deep and finds something he/she didn't expect. Mat speaks the OT without realizing it, now, but prior to the 'finn he only spoke it under duress. So it may be a choice, but a subconscious one.

Cor Shan: 2003-10-28

Tam: The rules become more vague: Then any trollocs _might_ trigger it, or any Aes Sedia trickery. The finns gave him memories of everything: battles, dancing, rulers, ect, so it could work the same way

Rand: VEry good point. Anger at Aes Sedia, but still that is weak

Solomonrex: The 'Finns are in TAR? Then when Mat wanted anything to help him fightof the Wish-Finns, he didn't get anything? Master of TAR I guess. Trauma is what triggers it, but it opens it up, and like a hole in a boat, the hole just grows bigger each time. Subconscious chioce? good point. I am not sure how the 'finns OT works, but it is similer: the Tylin meeting, mind blank... uh...

bye

Callandor: 2003-10-28

I disagree. It is not just distress. And are you saying the Old Blood is common or uncommon? Because it is pretty common to me, just not as strong as Mat's case; reasons for this is Egwene almost understanding Mat's speech (she never babbles the Old Tongue) and when Rand travels via Portal Stone in TGH he has a vision of the Two Rivers people defending themselves and "remembering" that they did this before (like in the fall of Manetheren).

Also, Mat speaks the Old Tongue every once and a while and not just under stress; weather you say this is because of his Healing or the dagger is up to you, but it wasn't stress.

kikyo: 2003-10-28

I think the Old Blood is simply an ancestral memory. There are lots of theories about ancestral memory in the real world (our world) and I think RJ just played on that to make it a more tangible thing in his world. For example, I have a friend who is Irish and his ancestors are fishermen. He has never lived near water or fished, except for one time, but he said the one time he went fishing, he felt like he had done it many times before, and he caught more fish than anyone else because he had this sense of where to cast his line, and what to do to get fish. He thinks he has some sort of ancestral memory from his fishing predecessors. I think this is the kind of thing RJ is going for.

Caramoor: 2003-10-29

I think it has more to do with ancestry as well. Its kind of like breading a dog. You find traits favorable to your desired affect and the result is, hopefully, you get a retriever that retrieves, a heeler that tries to hamstring livestock, a shepherd that herds sheep.

The Old Blood is strong in the Two Rivers because they have been practically cut off from the world, thus the same traits apply to following generations. For the Two Rivers, a sense of community, cooperation, courage, and stubborness, which seems to be the traits of Manetheren, the thorn in the DO's foot.

On a side note, this may sound weird, but to go with the Irish fishing analogy, I am of German heritage, have never been taught German, my family has been in the U.S. for five generations, so we speak English exclusively. When I was taking a Spanish class, my teacher, who also spoke German, told me occasionally I would slip into speaking German occasionally. That is what the old blood means to me.

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