The Wheel of Time Database

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Interviews

Interview Questions from Compuserve Chat

Question	Action(s)
Mr. Jordan, I was wondering where you came up with the "old language" and the Aiel language? Are there preset rules to them and it is a functioning language? Or do you just have a set of words that you devised and insert when needed? It's a functioning language in that I have developed a basic grammar and syntax, and have a vocabulary list which I have devised, some from Gaelic of course, but from languages less often used. Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese. I try to follow these rules that I've set up but occasionally I realize I have to invent a new rule because I'm doing something I've never done before but it all follows the grammar I've devised. As far as the Aiel that I've devised as a culture they have bits of Apache, bits of Bedouin, bits that are simply mine.	View More Details
One of the Forsaken once said of the current Aes Sedai, "They bind themselves like criminals." Was the Forsaken referring to the Oath Rod? Read and find out! (He twirls his mustache maniacally)	View More Details
Why introduce a somewhat important character like Cadsuane so late in the series? Is the fact that it seems a little odd supposed to be a clue? She's introduced late in the series because this is the place where she was supposed to come in... I didn't expect her to be a part earlier in the series---there was nothing for her to do! We introduce no character before her time. With apologies to Orson Welles.	View More Details
How did the Ajahs originate? Simply because I needed an organization for the power structure, and it seemed to me that a collective organization was something women were more likely to come up with, rather than something strictly hierarchal.	View More Details
The character Beidomon was presumably very powerful in the Age of Legends and it has been suggested by some that he is still knocking around in the current Age, possibly as Mordeth. Is there any truth in this? No	View More Details
A follow up to the previous Beidomon question: Is he somewhere in the current Age? Read and find out.	View More Details
Greetings! From Rand's Rhuidean vision: If the Sharom is the Dark One's prison, why would it be floating in on place above a city and not in some transcendent plane? Ah Didn't Rand see it there? But it isn't. The Sharom and the Collam Daan are university/research centers. Or were.	View More Details
Also, did Mierin intend to create the Bore? In part, yes. Not alone.	View More Details
Will we ever know the specifics of Logain's escape, or rather, are they significant at all? Read and find out. Sorry about that!	View More Details
Did Egwene as Amyrlin happen to be watching people's dreams while Rand was shielded? (Tries again) Since Rand was shielded and couldn't form any Wards on his dreams could Egwene have spied out that he was in trouble while in Tel'aran'rhiod? Ah. Yes, she could have. The problem is, when you've learned that something is impossible, you have a tendency to stop trying it. She just didn't try to spy during the period in question.	View More Details
Were Ba'alzamon's burning eyes and mouth caused by being zapped by Eldrene at the Fall of Manetheren? No. Sorry guys! But at least I didn't say, "Read and find out!"	View More Details
Mr. Jordan, please forgive if this is redundant, as I just recently joined the conference. Is Moiraine well and truly dead? Or could her and Mierin/Lanfear reappear at some later venue? Read and find out!	View More Details
Are we going to see Moiraine again?? Lanfear?? My wife would like to know why none of the main characters have any children. Are there any in their future?? Read and find out. Most of the main characters are both very young and unmarried. Even some of the older ones are unmarried--so they have no kids. Read and find out. We'll see what happens.	View More Details
Is their any particular inspiration for the Forsaken, and the other antagonists in your series, as there are for the women characters? Demandred and how he was always an inch behind Lews Therin (in the power, in swordsmanship etc...), for example, was their a particular inspiration for that? Well, there are -- and I won't go into details because I want to keep the mythological and legendary roots hidden -- I don't want to have people spending more time discussing the legends than the stories! The thing is there are several legends and myths based on such jealousy, on the man who is just a half a step short of another man...the woman who would have been the greatest of her age, but there was another who was just a bit better.. that sort of jealousy leads to the worst kind of hatred. When someone can easily defeat you, there's not that kind of jealousy but when he beats you in a photo finish every single time, that is when emotions begin to curdle and rancor sets in and you find yourself with this festering deep inside that can turn into murderous hatred.	View More Details
We have been speculating regarding Demandred's current doings and his possible location/appearance care to comment? Well, no.	View More Details
Hi Mr. Jordan & everyone I was wondering about Artur Hawkwing I notice parallels to the King Arthur legends in particular... But what other stories inspired this? Too many to go into -- truly too many	View More Details
I like the fact that the main characters are a little unsure of themselves and how to proceed in their world, particularly Rand. Instead, the traditional "superhuman" is Lan, who plays a background role thus far. Will we see more of him? Yes, some more.	View More Details
Thank you -- I've really enojoyed the series and look forward to reading your current book. I'm having trouble placing the amount of time that has gone by since the early days when the Aes Sedai came to Three Rivers. How long has it been? Also, will Nynaeve and Lan ever get together, face to face? It's about two years since the beginning. Roughly--very roughly. As to them getting together, read and find out, my dear, read and find out (he chuckled richly).	View More Details
I noticed that your other pen name is Sean O'Neal. Did you draw Mat's "Band of the Red Hand" from family stories? No. That came from my mind twisting certain mythologies that I had read, certain legends.	View More Details
Mr. Jordan. I love your series, it is intricate and interesting. My favorite character (other than Rand) is Mat. People have speculated that Odin was the outline for this character. I see Chukullen (misspelled). Could you elaborate? There are a number of characters reflected, mythological characters, reflected in each of the books because of the basic theme, if you will, of the books, that information becomes distorted over distance or time... you cannot know the truth of an event the further you get from it. These people are supposed to be the source of a great many of our legends or myths, but what they actually did bears little resemblance to the myth. That is the conceit, that time has shifted these actions to other people, perhaps compressing two people into one or dividing one into three as far as their actions go so Rand has bits of Arthur and bits of Thor and bits of other characters and so does Mat and so does Nynaeve, and so do others. And yes Mat does have some bits of Odin, but not exclusively. He has bits of Loki and bits of Coyote and of the Monkey King.	View More Details
You approach the issues of sex love and the like with all of your characters while maintaining an almost virginal perspective and yet there is a great deal of nudity throughout the novels. No problem with this but when are Rand and Matt and Perrin going to stop thinking the other has the upper hand? I'm not sure that they ever will. Who knows? It seems to me to be a very human thing in dealing with the opposite sex at least to think that somebody else knows more about it than you do. You might swagger and put on a surface belief of "well, I have that nailed!" but I think for most people, there's a little voice in the back saying "God, he really does know how to handle women, doesn't he?" or "God, she really does know all about men!"	View More Details
Are Min's visions absolute Foretellings or probabilities? Her visions are absolute Foretellings. The problem is, she doesn't always know what it means. The only changes from that are two visions she's had which indicated the possibility of the future forking, an "either/or." And that's the only time she's ever had anything like that.	View More Details
I love the song lyrics in your books. Do you write songs and music other than in the books? No, not at all I'm afraid. Some poetry to my wife now and then, that's all.	View More Details
I find it interesting that there is no formal theology in the series. Why is this? This is a world where what might be called the proofs of religion are self-evident all the time. It seemed to me there was no necessity for the trappings of religion which by and large are to reinforce us in our faith and to convince others... if your beliefs are made concrete and manifest around you at any given time there is not the need for that.	View More Details
Is stones based on GO, the Asian game of skill? It is more complex than chess... so it is appropriate if so. And what stones are used (type of stone)? Stones is based on Go, and the actual stones used can vary.	View More Details
Is there any specific reason why there isn't a name given to the continent in which Rand and company inhabit? Simply because people don't generally give names to their homes that way -- it's other places they give names to.	View More Details
What is/was Garen's Wall? Will it play a role? Garen's Wall is a split between tectonic plates. It is a great cliff that stretches across hundreds of miles. As to whether it plays a part, read and find out! Maybe it do and maybe it don't.	View More Details
Is Rand's world an atheistic world, based on only human "powers"? There seems to be a "devil" but nothing on the flip side. What would you say the Creator is? The Light?	View More Details
I find you characterization of the relationships between the male and female characters to be interesting, and amusing. Did you model Nynaeve after an older sister or other female that tortured you in your youth? :) All of the women are modeled in one way or another after the conglomerate of women I've met in my life but every single one of them, EVERY one of them, has some element of my wife in her. I won't say what elements are in what characters, we'd get too far afield. I will say it has nothing to do with torture in that particular case.	View More Details
Mr. Jordan, I was wondering where you came up with the "old language" and the Aiel language? Are there preset rules to them and it is a functioning language? Or do you just have a set of words that you devised and insert when needed? It's a functioning language in that I have developed a basic grammar and syntax, and have a vocabulary list which I have devised, some from Gaelic of course, but from languages less often used. Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese. I try to follow these rules that I've set up but occasionally I realize I have to invent a new rule because I'm doing something I've never done before but it all follows the grammar I've devised. As far as the Aiel that I've devised as a culture they have bits of Apache, bits of Bedouin, bits that are simply mine.	View More Details
Does your world have defined natural laws in terms of: the One Power, the True Power, the weather, etc. or do you make them up as you go along? There are set laws -- there have to be -- if you write stories where anything can happen, they get flabby, you lose focus.. I have certain set laws and limits on the One Power, the True Power, and all of this... and these limits and laws come out in pieces...they are not the focus of the stories so they only come out in bits and pieces.	View More Details
Why weren't Compulsion and Illusion mentioned in the previous books before LoC and is there any specific character in the series that you have taken a liking to? Compulsion and Illusion: They weren't mentioned primarily because it wasn't necessary. Actually Compulsion has been mentioned a number of times, and I think Illusion has been mentioned in passing at least once or twice. It just wasn't necessary to deal with them in depth. The answer to the rest of the question: All of them. (Sorry.) I like all of them. Whoever I'm writing -- that's the one I like.	View More Details
Mr. Jordan, I have found the prophecies in your books very structured. Would you recommend a prospective author structuring any prophecy in this way? And, did you establish the main prophecies in the series early on and think to yourself, "Now how am I going to fulfill that one?" Well, it is a matter of knowing what I wanted to happen in the story, and how I wanted the story to go, and placing prophecies that would foretell these events sometimes in very shadowy ways. As far as structuring prophecies for your own work, I think you should do it however you want to do it; it's the only way you can!	View More Details
I am an avid reader of author Ayn Rand. A hero in her novel The Fountainhead matches Rand's physical description exactly. Coincidence? Coincidence--I'm afraid I haven't read Ayn Rand since college.	View More Details
I would like to see the fires in Rand's head quenched, but I would settle for them being significantly subdued. Do you find yourself wanting to make things happen sooner so that you can delve into other areas of a character's psyche? I sometimes feel impatience but I am trying to maintain the same pace, making great effort to maintain that pace, to go neither faster nor slower than I have gone before.	View More Details
Your societies seem to all place women in a very influential role. Any particular reason why you created so many matriarchies? Also, do you already have a solution for Rand's love triangle? 1. 3000 years ago, the world was destroyed by men: specifically men, and for all of that time, every society has been afraid of any man who can channel. The result has to be greater power and influence for women. 2. Yes.	View More Details
My question has a few parts. When Perrin left the Two Rivers did he tell people who he was going to see? Did Rand's father come? Does he know about Rand being the Dragon Reborn? 1. Read and find out. 2. No, Rand's father did not come. 3. Read and find out	View More Details
If Rand's mother isn't Aiel, was she formerly Queen of Andor? Read and find out!	View More Details
Is the Hawking era and or the Seanchan based on any actual historical era and do you plan on including some more historical data about the Age of Legends and maybe a separate series? The first part of your question: no. It's based on several combined. The second part: Only insofar as it affects the story in the "here and now." In a separate series: no.	View More Details
We know of high ranking Darkfriends among the Aes Sedai and Whitecloaks. Is it safe to assume that there's one placed near each of the ta'veren as well? Gee guys, read and find out.	View More Details
Are there limits to the Dark One's power besides: inability to reincarnate balefired people, and his imprisonment? Read and find out! Obviously, there are some limits or he simply would have ripped the prison open and done as he wanted to do. With an absolutely powerful character, there is no story, or at least the story goes "it shall be as I will it to be," he said, and so it was..the end. That's the whole story.	View More Details
Because the Wheel of Time contains the Dark One's prison, and the Ages repeat with each revolution, then isn't humanity itself also imprisoned....unable to truly evolve? No :)	View More Details
Will we be getting more glimpses into the Dark One's prison as we go? The prison: maybe	View More Details
What made you decide to make male Aes Sedai go insane versus female Aes Sedai using magic somewhat safely? I'm not sure about the last of that question, but this was part of the basis, the foundation of the story...if women had gone insane using the Power and not men, it would be a much different world, a much different story and not the story I was interested in writing!	View More Details
Your female characters have so much feeling and emotion. How do you accomplish this as a male author? With difficulty. I'll tell you, when I was about four years old, I was picked up by a friend of my mother and she hugged me, she was wearing a soft, silky summer dress, and her perfume smelled life and as she put me down, my face slipped between her breasts and throughout the experience, I was thinking, "this is wonderful, this feels wonderful" and though I was four I found I wanted to spend my life observing these fascinating people and I've learned that they look different , they feel different, they are different, and I've put all this into the books.	View More Details
Hello all + Mr. Jordan. I am a big WOT fan and I am amazed by some of the themes, i.e. struggle between men and women. Mr. Jordan truly sheds some light on differences between men and women. There also seem to be some allusions to Native Americans, weaves of fire, air, etc. The politicking and warring of the Games of Houses and battle scenes are told with the clarity of someone who has military experience. Can you briefly state what from your background makes WOT so realistic? Forty-odd years of life. "Briefly?" It's what it boils down to.	View More Details
How was the Dark One created, i.e. is he a fallen angel, an inherent part of the universe, etc.? I envision the Dark One as being the dark counterpart, the dark balance if you will, to the Creator carrying on the theme, the yin yang, light dark, necessity of balance theme that has run through the books... it's somewhat Manichean I know, but I think it works.	View More Details