elective Balefire
by Shai'tan: 2000-11-23 | Not yet rated
Not quite a theory, just a question than has bugged me. When bale fire hits a person, shadowspawn, etc. that being is burned from the pattern. But, when balefire hits an inanimate object, just the parts touched by the light are destroyed. Now, If someone's pinky finger is hit by balefire, will they loose that finger, or will their entire body soul be burned from the pattern??
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1
Tamyrlin: 2000-11-23
That is a good question, maybe RJ is basing on the inanimate, animate distinction. How about this, if I am holding your arm and you get balefired, do I get balefire too?
2
Anubis: 2002-12-08
Another queston, what happens if i balefire my foot? would that create a paradox, or would it just not work? i seem to remember balefire being outside of the pattern so maybe that would just be like getting balefired by someone else.
3
Drekan: 2002-12-10
I think this can be answered with a simple item that RJ has used a lot. The soul. If balefire destroys everything(except cuendillar of course), it would destroy your soul as well as the rest of you. Your soul is all one piece, so if one part of your soul is balefired, all of it is. Since the souls is part of you, it being all one piece makes you all one piece, so if your pinky got balefired, it is you, so you get balefired. Since inanimate objects have no soul, they are just disconnected atoms, so only the parts that get hit are removed.
Also, I think balefireing your foot would create a hole in the pattern, that you would then fall down. I wouldnt recommend trying it :)
4
Gird: 2003-01-14
But if I used a lot of power in the balefire wouldn't I just go back in time like Nynaeve? Wouldn't I just end up before doing it since I killed the person killing me and that person in turn was killed by me and so on. Would it just create a circle of killings or would I end up before balefiring me?
5
Dragons Shadow: 2003-01-18
Now wouldn't that be an interesting twist. Travel back in time by balefiring yourself. Hell of a way to get a second chance to do something. But time travel invariably leads to paradox if your thread in the pattern is burned out BEFORE you balefire. how can the balefire burn your thread?
Could balefire be outside the pattern?
Would it have any effect on the DO?
Too many questions.
6
Callandor: 2003-01-27
It wouldnt work on the DO because the DO doesnt have a body or a thread in the pattern to balefire. He exists outside the pattern so he doesnt have a thread.
And look at all the trouble that was stated by Moiraine about cities being destoryed entirely by balefire. Imagine what would happen if u balefired the DO. IF!!!! But you cant.
7
Great Lord of the Dark: 2003-02-26
Balefiring yourself doesn't send you back in time, it just undoes things you did up to a time corresponding to the amount of balefire used. The Balefired person is still dead, and not just dead, but inressurectibly dead. Ouch!
The Dark One may or may not be balefireable, but the seals should be. That's why Demandred was asked if he would use the Balefire in the Great Lord's service. Balefire the prison and not only is the Great Lord of the Dark free, but he's had lots of time to wrack the world before Rand and friends can react to him. That's why Slayer was after what Rand was carrying in Winter's Heart, and fits with events in Crossroads of Twilight.
So where did Rand hide the seals anyway?
8
Callandor: 2003-02-28
Rhuidean I think. And I also think that it would be impossible to balefire yourself. We have always seen the balefire going away from the person in a straight line (only partial exception is in ACOS when Rand **drags** the balefire stream toward Sammael but this could easily be done with a straight stream of balefire so I dont count it as an exception), and nothing reflects balefire since it goes through anything, so how could you balefire yourself?
9
Jearom: 2003-03-01
I started thinking about where balefire comes from when used - I always imagined it came from the users hands - kinda like Ryu in streetfighter2.
Anyway heres a quote:-
TITLE: Dragon Reborn
CHAPTER: 9 - Wolf Dreams
The Power filled him. Something leaped from his outstretched hands; he was not sure what it was. A bar of white light, solid as steel. Liquid fire. For an instant, in the middle of that something, the dog seemed to become transparent, and then it was gone.
So if it leaps from his hands - downwards - it can hit his foot.
10
Anubis: 2003-03-01
well guns only shoot straight (or they're supposed to) and people have been able to shoot themselves in the foot. so i imagine if you point down and balefire your foot it would work, esp considering that balefire is somehow outside the pattern and it wouldn't undo itself.
11
Vander: 2003-09-30
i dunno about balefiring yourself. what im curious about...
if someone balefires someone else, then a third person balefires the first. would the second person come back since the first didnt exist, or would they still be gone because of the fact that they also dont exist anymore?
12
Anubis: 2003-09-30
nope, my understanding is that the balefire is completely independant, can not be done by any means.
13
Callandor: 2003-09-30
**if someone balefires someone else, then a third person balefires the first. would the second person come back since the first didnt exist, or would they still be gone because of the fact that they also dont exist anymore?**
No. From the WoT FAQ:
**If person A balefires person B, and then person C balefires person A, does person B come back to life?
This one has cropped up time and again over the years, and we finally have an answer for it. Paul Ward received a letter from RJ (dated March 2000) in which he stated, "The balefire weave exists wholly or partly outside time, which removes it from its own effect." The answer, then, is No.**
14
molec: 2003-09-30
Someone above asked where the seals are hidden. Soon after Rand gives the seals to Bashere for safe keeping, there is another POV by Rand where he is observing Bashere's calvary in training. During this POV, Rand uses his power-enhanced vision to look for a small white stone on the face of a nearby hill. I remember him thinking to himself something like, "Hopefully no one else noticed what he and Bashere had done last night at that spot". My bet is that the seals are hidden there in the ground.
15
The Leveler: 2003-09-30
What if someone opened a gateway, and the balefire went through it, and the gateway had opened behind/beside the weaver? Just a thought.
16
timetorollthedice: 2004-03-05
1- Speaking of refracting balefire by using a gateway, if someone was falling off a building could they create a horizontal gateway immediately beneath them with the other end opening 10 feet or so above them so they would fall interminably until some came and caught them in flows of air or something? (I'm assuming that the person is familiar enough with the area through which they are falling to create a gateway.)
2- If you balefired yourself, I think you would would get something like this: "ERROR- Cell references in the formula refer to the formula's result, creating a circular reference. :p
