ark Friend School
by ilgross: 2004-10-03 | 4 out of 10 (3 votes)
This may seem like a fairly tenuous theory, but I'll throw it to you wolves anyway:)
I was re-reading The Fires of Heaven and I came across this quote, it's to do with Liandrin:
"She loathed all wilders. Dreaming of being Black Ajah, she herself had begun learning to channel a full year before going to the Tower, but she was in no way a wilder."
TFOH, pg 307, A Hound of Darkness
Now there are two takes on this statement.
1) She is simply one of a long line of hypocritical, self-denying characters which, admittedly, are fairly populous in WoT.
2) She somehow learned to channel or was taught in a way which doesn't classify her as a wilder.
Now I know it is quite possible the the first option is true, as RJ has shown numerous characters who are hypocritical and deny things which are straight in front of them.
But. There is some evidence for the second option.
1) Liandrin has never shown any sign of a block and we never have heard of one, which might of been remarked upon.
2) We know she was channeling for a year before going to the white tower.
3) We know she was a darkfriend since she was a child.
4) Once again she has the self denial of being a wilder herself.
5) Wilders only have a 1 in 4 chance of survival and if they make it through that the usually form a block to protect them.
Now if we piece these things together, we come up with the possibility that Liandrin as a Darkfriend was taught to channel by some sort of Dark School which trains up potential Dark Ajah.
This would explain why she doesn't consider her self to be a wilder, and why she doesn't have block.
This would also give credence to the Taim was a darkfriend who was taught line of thought.
What if all dark friends under go testing to see if they can channel, either by Black Channelers or by the Forsaken themsleves.
That might explain a fair bit about dark channelers and about the new dreadlords who will be there to support the DO.
You cannot rate theories without first logging in. Please
log in.
1
Tamyrlin: 2004-12-02
I like your line of thought. I think I accepted the idea that she was a simply lying to herself because she didn't like the label, but you may be right. As Taim demonstrates, maybe other darkfriend channelers were taught to be able to test for the channeling ability, and they went around and found young channelers, like Liandrin. She was likely labeled a wilder, because she could channel, which probably just pissed her off to no end, since she likely felt superior to every novice, accepted, and wilder in the Tower upon arriving there.
2
: 2004-12-02
If Liandrin was in fact taught to channel outside the tower (which seems extremely plausible) then we should ask ourselves who taught her. I definitely like the idea of a darkfriend school, of sorts, but who started it?... who maintains it?... who is doing the teaching? I'll try to round up the suspects:
1) Forsaken - Nearly Impossible... This came to my mind first. The problem is, though, that until rather recently in the series' timeline (after Liandrin would have learned -been taught- to channel) all the female forsaken were trapped, weren't they? They can't be the primary teachers of the darkfriend channelers.
2) Darkfriend Wilders - Highly Unlikely... as rare as it is for someone to learn to channel on their own, the chances of them learning to the point where they could safely teach someone else is extremely slim. Add to that the block that almost all wilders have, and you have a rather impossible suspect.
3) Retired Aes Sedai Darkfriends (becoming darkfriends after they retired) - Possible... unless they were turned against their will, it seems unlikely that any significant number of tower trained woman who hadn't become a darkfriend while in the tower (to be Black Ajah) would become darkfriends after retiring. Although, it would only take one rogue retired Aes Sedai to train another... who would train another... etc.
Black Ajah - slightly possible... it seems like the black ajah may be the key to a darkfriend training school. The only problem with this is that no black ajah member knows of more than two other members. It would be extremely difficult to run a training program while keeping your identity secret from the students and teachers.
Aiel Wise Ones - Highly Unlikely... not only is the revalation of the wise one's being able to channel a new thing, but their disdain of darkfriends seems to make it highly unlikely. Also, how many wetlanders, no matter what their commitment to the DO, are going to be for learning from the Aiel (whom many consider to be nearly a myth).
The Clan - Possible (even probable)... Perhaps not the clan proper, but an offshoot of the clan, or a sect that broke of from the clan.
Those are the suspects I've been able to round up. Besides the Damane and the Windfinders, I can't think of any other groups of people that can channel to provide the teaching. When it comes down to it... I think we can point the finger at retired Aes Sedai, or those trained by retired Aes Sedai (either from The Clan or otherwise).
Those are my thoughts...
3
Dorindha: 2004-12-02
Very interesting, I like it too. I'm not entirely convinced, as Moiraine (eg) and others channel a little before they go to the WT, and are in no way wilders, in the conventional sense. Most girls have a trick - usually eavesdropping or a light form of compulsion, and we know that Liandrin's is the latter, and seems in no way atypical.
4
mako0424: 2004-12-02
I never took this statement to be anything beyond her hyporcitical view point.
We should look at logic and other potential evidence. We know she developed her own method of Compulsion and condiered it hers and secret, it would seem likely some dark school would use or know of Compulsion.
Second, she would have been given her oaths as an Aes Sedai first, and then would have to have lost those and gotten the new Black Ajah Oaths, and i believe she said she did this like only three years after her Aes Sedai Oaths. If she ahd gone in with some Dark training, it would be logical to assume all the Black Ajah memebers inside knew of her Darkfriend associations and would terfore have replaced her Oaths immmediately instead of waiting to recruit or whatever.
We know this because it has been surmised that the Black ajah Oaths or allegiance to the DArk One and not to betray other Black ajah (something like that) so they would have done this quickly for there own safety, and so as not to ever admit to being trained previously. I think she was always a Darkfriend, but a wilder who trained herself, and her naturally sinister intentions led her to develop tricks like compulsion and prolly some other nasty things, but i do not believe there to be some sort of school.
5
Aiel Finn: 2004-12-02
This is a good theory. Could there possibly be somthing when they take the oaths to be a darkfriend that let's someone high up know that they can channel and send them a teacher, because I don't think that the DFs could recruit everyone they test to have the abilty w/o the White Tower finding out.
6
a dragonburned fool: 2004-12-03
It is an interesting idea. However it is not clear enough, why the Shadow would need to train Liandrin first if Liandrin is supposed to go to the White Tower, where she will be trained, isn't Liandrin's going to that supposed dark school a awste of ressources for the Shadow? And with the Towers very intolerate politics against any kind of channeling societies outside the Tower it's risky for the SHadow to maintain such and it's beter for it to direct the DFs in the Tower. Ishamael's special care about the Black Ajah implies, that he concentrates in his efforts on DF society inside the Tower not outside of it. And as it was already mentioned, there are issues with who could be the teachers in this school.
7
Callandor: 2004-12-04
**1) She is simply one of a long line of hypocritical, self-denying characters which, admittedly, are fairly populous in WoT.**
She's simply in denial. She can't hate herself; jeez, what do you expect her to be? Human? ;)
But I do like the implications for Taim.
Still think she wasn't taught and is just in denial though. But interesting none the less.
8
bigjellybeans: 2004-12-04
i do not think this is so. Throughout the book many members of the black ajah and darkfriends in general have been very secretive of their identity.... which is why it's always been so hard to find one. for example in book 2 in the prologue all the darkfriends wore masks to keep themselves unknown
9
Gardener: 2004-12-05
Yeah I agree with Beans. I dont think that any of the DF would want even other DFs to know their true identity. And I think that the only "school" for Dark CHannelers out there is the Tower itself. Since there is the black ajah, I dont think that they would even risk the chance of being caught. Any way it would probably be to much of a hassle to train channelers outside the tower.
Even though I agree that they have a system to find dark channelers in the first place.
10
Ashaman Grady: 2004-12-06
Hate to burst this, but at some point Liandrin said that she had to search out the Black Ajah after either coming to the White Tower or being raised to Aes Sedai. I believe she said it took her two years.
If there was a Darkfriend school, you would expect they would have just told her to talk to a specific person, or at least taught her one of the Black Ajah signs. The time a recruit, especially someone already a darkfriend, needs to spend searching for the Black Ajah is wasted time the recruit could be spending scheming for the Black Ajah.
The need for Liandrin to search seems to strongly suggest against a formal "school."
11
Wag al Thor: 2004-12-07
I agree that this is a good theory. However, we know that women cannot train men and vice versa. Who could have possibly trained Taim if this is the case? I don't think we can bank on an endless supply of male channelers passing the secrets down from one to the next. With the DO sealed, they could not have been protected and would go mad.
Some might argue that perhaps the AS have caught each of these men before they went mad. I don't think that is plausible given the time span. Surely some of them would have slipped through the seams.
12
Tamin: 2004-12-07
How about - Black Ajah sisters are not bound by the oath rod, and thus they live twice as long as other AS. However, they can't very well show themselves, so they have to do something quiet with the rest of their lives. Perhaps a Dark Friend School?
13
jason wolfbrother: 2004-12-10
**How about - Black Ajah sisters are not bound by the oath rod, and thus they live twice as long as other AS**
Black Ajah are bound by the Oath Rod, just as regular AS are. upon induction into the BA they are unbound from the Three Oaths of Aes Sedai and swear a new trinity of Oaths as Black Sisters. Galina's pov Ch. 40 CoS
14
Dragons Shadow: 2004-12-10
How about the channelers in Shara? There are unbroken lines of channelers in that country, including male channelers. There has also been mentioned some sort of long standing Dark influence in that land.
Just a random thought.
15
Aiel Finn: 2004-12-11
The BA are bound by the Oath Rod. They are just bound to different oaths than the standard three. Remember in FoH, when Egwene and Nynaeve are trying to interogate the BA they captured. The one who was stilled tells all she knows, but the other one *CANNOT* say anything because of the oath.
16
silverwolf: 2005-09-29
Also, if the black Ajah members were not bound by the oath rod (and by more than one oath), they wouldn't exhibit the ageless look (RJ has said that one oath wouldn't cause the look).
