1
Tamyrlin: 2005-01-04
(Frenzy for Tamyrlin)
From Winter's Heart: "These ter'angreal, they duplicate a stedding. In the important ways at least, I fear, though I suppose an Ogier would not think so."
There is more to a stedding than just the Power-dampening effect.
Also: how would you explain Deathwatch Gardeners? We don't have confirmation, but we also haven't seen them affected by the Longing, or the Taint.
2
Aiel Finn: 2005-01-04
What if the steadings are a place where the pattern is more solid. There are places like SG where the pattern in thinner, and it seems that the powers are stronger there (TP and OP). Because the steadding are places where these powers are gone, and where those minions of the DO are afraid to go, they must be thicknesses in the pattern. This would cause the Shadowspawn and strong DFs to be uncomfortable because they lose their contact with the DO. I belive that the taint may have had something to do with it, but the Bore probably has more. The Ogier would not be effected by the Taint as much as the DO's touch.
3
bigjellybeans: 2005-01-04
Many times in the book Loial has seen cut trees and cleared out lands and it has sent him into a depression. I think that being overexposed to this creates the longing. So they must return to a stedding to see the beauty of it and put joy back in their hearts. So in short a stedding visit is an ogier anti-depressant
4
Purple Dragon: 2005-01-05
RJ answered that.
Deathwatch Gardeners where able to find or remain in their stedding in the Seanchan part of the world.
Thus never being affected by the longing.
5
NargsBrood: 2005-01-05
We do have confirmation. I believe it may have been the weekly questions(may not have been) but RJ said that they deathwatch guards were not affected because there were more steddings where the seanchan are from. they didnt have the longing like the mainland ones did.
6
Oatman: 2005-01-05
Maybe the reason Randland Ogier need the Stedding is because of the lack of violence committed within them. Because they dont commit violence themselves they dont get "tainted" by it. I dont have a quote on me but I think Hurin says that any act of violence stays on a person or place permanently, but that it fades over time. Because the Ogier are so in tune with the environment they can sence the violence and this causes the Longing - A desire to be away from violence. This could also explain why the longing takes a different amount of time for each Ogier, they are travelling through different areas at different times.
The Seanchan Gardeners however, commit violence on a regular basis, and would be used to it, which is why they are not affected by the longing.
I also believe that if they were to enter a stedding, and sence the lack of violence, they would be converted to the Randland Ogier way of life.
7
ema: 2005-01-05
I just have a question: is there a taint on the True Source? I thought that there was no division, so no saidar or saidin, meaning there would be no taint. I don't know, maybe I am wrong, but I thought that was how it goes.
8
Cha Faile: 2005-01-05
If the Ogier were "allergic" to the one power then why weren't they affected by the Longing BEFORE the Breaking. There may be a connection but you need to find something that happened after the Breaking to support your arguement.
9
a dragonburned fool: 2005-01-05
If it was the taint what caused Longing, so an Ogier would feel Longing faster and in greater degree if there is more taint around him, i.e. when an Ogier is around an often channeling man. Loial was long time out of his stedding before meeting Rand, later he spends a lot of time around Rand while Rand is using huge amounts of OP (i.e. also huge amounts of Taint fly around). But no problems with Loial's Longing are to be seen.
10
Jay al Ender: 2005-01-06
They had steddings in the Age of Legends. There was no taint then so I think the taint theory doesn't hold.
Now if you want to link the taint and the ways black wind I could buy that.
11
Aiel Finn: 2005-01-06
It's not a OP allergy that is causing the longing, it's feeling the TP that causes it. That is what caused the longing after the DO prision was opened. This also works with the idea that the Gardeners wouldn't feel it just like all the fighting ogier didn't in the AoL.
12
terez: 2005-01-07
The Ogier were bound to the stedding before the breaking, before the taint. I guess you could say the taint caused the longing, because it caused the Breaking, which caused the Ogier to have to search so long for their stedding. And their search went on during one of the most turbulent stretches of history - great cause for psychological duress. I think the Longing is much the same as the Bleakness - a psychological tendency. The Longing is fueled by relatively recent bad memories. That is why some Ogier are less succeptible to it than others - they have the ability to "pshych" themselves against it. Loial is less succeptible than an Ogier that has no desire to go outside. He has no fear of that, really, only that lovable sense of adventure.
Also, he has no fear that he will not be able to find a stedding if he wants to, thus reducing any sense of panic, such as the Breaking Ogier had.
13
WaterSeeker: 2005-01-10
I believe that the steddings are a place where the ogier "recharge themselves" in a way. They were tied to the stedding before the breaking but didn't fully understand the extent of the connection as during the age of legends, trevel was easy, the steddings were known and accesable, and no Ogier was ever out of one long enough to feel this longing. During the Breaking however Randland was completly changed, its possible that some stedding were claimed by the sea while new ones came up from the deep, mountains or other impassable landscapes would have blocked off more stedding also. Therefore the remaining Ogier would have had to travel this new land to find the stedding once more this process would have taken decades during which time the Ogier became weaker because of this longing and it began to take a gerater toll such that the present grenation can't survive one decade away form the stedding. Since the Ogier gardiners are from a different content they could have found the stedding much sooner and therefore not have become suceptable to the longing as the Ogier on Randland.
14
Sampson: 2005-01-10
I think if we answer the question of where the ogier came from we would be able to answer the question about the steddings. But until then, I think they grew the steddings and part of the fertilizer was peace, non-violent behavior, loving nurturing environment where you could take as much time as you wanted to learn, think or exist. The ogier cultivated these traits and they became apart of the land. After who knows how many centuries, they changed the earth. This could be a lot like Shadar Logoth, all the humans changed that city so not a pebble was safe.
15
a dragonburned fool: 2005-01-18
I cannot find the right quote now, but in the books it was said, the the steddings was what created the Ogiers. Having this in mind, staying long time outside a stedding will divide the Ogier from the source of Ogier's nature and so it could cause the Longing without the need of Taint-explanation.
16
ranman38: 2005-02-04
So, maybe the Ogier are elementals, made by the greenman to tend his gardens, and the ways. Made from earth and rock and trees, to tend same. Plausible?
