The Wheel of Time Database

113 interviews available

Interviews

Interview Questions from Dragoncon

Question	Action(s)
Do certain races have better ability at channeling than others? For example, the Sea Folk at very good at weather, the Aiel have a high proportion of Dreamers, and the Seanchan can make ter'angreal. The Seanchan can only make one kind of ter'angreal. They haven't thought about making another. Certain groups are better at some abilities but its a matter of need. The Atha'an Miere are dependent on the sea, the wind and water and it would be natural for them to develop high skills to deal with control of weather and winds. For the Aiel, Dreaming is one of the ways to find new water, using need is how they find water. When the population in a hold is too great, and they have to find a new hold, the Dreamwalker uses need to find it. So yes, there are more Dreamwalkers there.	View More Details
About New Spring: I had a question about Lan, about the battle with the Aiel. How do they recognize him? I guess I am more curious about the background - how they recognize him and what they know of him and his back story. They know quite a bit about his back story. They think he is a man who has much ji. He has a one man war against something he cannot beat. And they recognized him by the crescents on his helmet.	View More Details
Did Lan and Myrelle sleep together? Yes.	View More Details
Elaida slipped through the cracks uncaught by the Red Ajah scheme twenty years ago, called the Vileness. How did Elaida and Galina for that matter manage to slip through when three Sitters did not? Elaida slipped through largely because she was minimally involved. Galina slipped through because there were enough Red sisters involved, at various levels that taking them all down would have decimated the Red Ajah. The decision was made to punish the Ajah by exiling the Sitters, take off the top. And it was supposed to be a life exile, you are out of here forever. The only reason they were not stilled was that the Tower was trying to hide what happened - it was a major atrocity carried out in the name of the Tower, and it didn't matter whether the Tower as a whole really wanted it or not, it was still a major atrocity and the Tower was at the heart of it.	View More Details
During the raising tests for Accepted and Aes Sedai, are the ladies taking the tests actually inside of the World of Dreams? No...well, I am not going to say where they are for the tests for Accepted, that might be a RAFO, probably not, but it might be. For the test for Aes Sedai, they are in effect inside what you might call an uber-virtual reality device where what happens is entirely controlled in this case by the sisters controlling the device, but it is a virtual reality that is so terrific that it is reality for you. You die, you are dead. No game over, start again. You are dead.	View More Details
What is the title used for the members of the Brown Ajah council? Technically, they have no titles. It is the council and the head of the council. Informally, and this is strange, and it gives you an idea of the disorganization or the disinterest in organization of the Brown Ajah. First Chair is the informal title for the head of the Ajah, but this is as far as the Ajah is concerned. It is simply the council and the head of the council. As far as they are concerned there are more important things than this organization stuff.	View More Details
Who was the third Blue Ajah Sitter who didn't make it to Salidar? What became of her? Well, she died. She was one of the ones who was killed after Siuan was deposed and everything went to hell in a handbasket inside the Tower.	View More Details
Quoting from Tamra in New Spring: "You will tell no one about this, not for any reason. If necessary, lie, even to a sister. Gitara died without speaking. Do you understand me?" How is it that Tamra can tell Moiraine and Siuan that Gitara died without speaking, when she knows full well that she did speak? It's simple. It is part of her instructions. There are a lot, thousands of loop holes, about that thou will speak no word that is not true. This is part of her instructions; she is telling them what they are to say. She is not saying something she believes, and thus she was able to say it.	View More Details
Based on the Oaths: if a sister asked them, if they were instructed, as to what they have to say, would they be able to say it after taking the Oaths? After taking the Oaths they would find it hard to say; even with instructions, they might not be able to say it at all, because they know it is a lie. That is the key: you can't knowingly tell a lie.	View More Details
Why did turning the Tar Valon harbor chains to cuendillar help? You would think a chain made of cuendillar would be flexible because it is in separate pieces. No. As I showed you in one of the scenes where they are learning to make cuendillar, they had two items touch each other when they were turning it into cuendillar and they fused to one another. So what you have is a series of chains where each link is fused to the next, so in essence what you have is one solid piece of cuendillar.	View More Details
Can you explain the reasoning behind Verin's decision to break Tower law and give a ter'angreal to a novice, especially considering the fact that she did so with little or no guidance? RAFO, sorry.	View More Details
Are the Aes Sedai ever going to try to use cuendillar to make it into armor? Since they can't make weapons, does that restriction extend to making armor? RAFO (Read And Find Out)	View More Details
Does Mat's amulet work against the male side of the Power, and if so, will Elayne's research of it develop into something that can be used in the conflict between Aes Sedai? RAFO.	View More Details
When Mat had the dagger, Moiraine and Verin thought he would contaminate other people with the evil of Shadar Logoth, and they would contaminate other people. Fain does seem to be influencing without contaminating people. Is it as dangerous as it seems? Could also normal people become evil, and would they also contaminate other people? No. Fain can contaminate people because he has the dagger; it is the dagger. What Verin and Moiraine thought was incorrect; they were extending it too far. It is the one of things you may have noted in the books. Aes Sedai often believe they know more than they actually know. In other words, a lot of people believe they know more than they actually know. One of the themes I have running through the books is that whatever you think you know, some of it is almost certainly wrong, and it may even be the most crucial bit that is wrong. But even when you are aware that some of your information may be wrong you still have to go ahead and make a decision. You...you cannot afford the luxury of saying, well I don't know everything and some of what I know may be wrong, so I am not going to do anything, I am just going to sit here and wait and see if I can find out some more, because that only leads to sitting still forever.	View More Details
Did you have the intention to explore what happened before the Breaking of the World? No; anything I do there would have a sense of inevitability. You know what's going to happen.	View More Details
I have a question about the Nine Rods of Dominion. We have a couple of references to this, and Ishamael says that Lews Therin summoned the Nine Rods of Dominion, and theories have been floating around. Are the Oath Rods not the Nine Rods of Dominion? They were not the Oath Rods.	View More Details
Well are [the Nine Rods of Dominion] positions of power? Were they people, or were they actual rods? They were actual people, and they were, but you might call them regional governors of the earth, regional governors of the planet. So if I say, summon them, then we've got a guy who has been given in effect ultimate power.	View More Details
In the Age of Legends, the soldiers used shocklances? Were they projectile or energy weapons? Think of it as an energy weapon. Remember, by the time we get to the Breaking, shocklances are actually in fairly short supply and other devices of that sort. Long before we get to the Breaking, the industrial base has been enough destroyed that soldiers are once again using bows and spears and swords because there simply aren't enough shocklances to go around, nor jo-cars, and there is no industrial base to provide replacement for them.	View More Details
How do the Atha'an Miere and the Amayar deal with male channelers? They kill them. Actually the Sea Folk kill their male channelers. The Amayar don't channel themselves - they see it as a violation of their Water Way and they commit suicide.	View More Details
Are we going to see more of Tremalking in the next book (Knife of Dreams) or of their prophecies? In a way	View More Details
I know the male side of the Source is clean, but those who were driven mad before, will they be cured? No. Whatever the degree of taint channelers have won't change. (they won't get more)	View More Details
Did Taim have motives for coming to Andor after he escaped the Aes Sedai? Ta-eem, (he said it phonetically) sure, he is a man who can channel. The Aes Sedai see him as a man who can channel. They will hunt him down and gentle him if they can. He has one safe haven in the world. A place were there are more men like him. Just maybe, if there are enough men like him, the Aes Sedai wont be able to come after him.	View More Details
Is one of the effects of the taint to lower the boundaries between past lives or is Rand a special case? RAFO	View More Details
Do males with the spark also become wilders with blocks then? It depends, a woman born with the spark, that doesn't get trained, she may become a wilder, she may or may not have a block, but quite often do. A man born with a spark, is probably much more likely to go up and become a false Dragon, frankly, but uh, at least before the Black Tower opened up for business. But there are blocks among the men as well. We had one of the characters, one of the men who was one of the first Asha'man, one of the first to come to the Black Tower and is since deceased. He would not believe that what he channeled at, that he could affect anything he could not see. Thus he limited the range, he could not thus make a lightning bolt that hit on the other side of the hill because he could not see. [Tape ended] Other side, Jordan discussed the Isle of Madmen, that blocks in men were one of the reason the isle/continent still remains.	View More Details
In [Crossroads of Twilight Ch. 12] Elayne mentioned that Galad fancied Nynaeve or had for a time. Did I miss something? Galad did have a certain interest in Nynaeve early on. As sometimes happens, that interest has shifted. He is obviously not attracted to Nynaeve anymore.	View More Details
When did [Galad] have the attraction [to Nynaeve]? In the beginning, when he goes to Nynaeve's room. At that time he was interested in her. And Elayne still thinks he is.	View More Details
Will we ever find out what happened when Elayne went through the arches? Probably not; maybe, but probably not.	View More Details
How was Nynaeve able to channel Fire when she slept? (before Rahvin scene) In Tel'aran'rhiod you can channel Fire. You can channel Spirit only from your sleeping body but being in Tel'aran'rhiod is different, and you can channel anything.	View More Details
How did Aginor manage to sense the Shadar Logoth dagger in the The Eye of the World? That has to do with the end of Winter's Heart. It's an effect of resonance. The dagger is the same evil as the evil of Shadar Logoth. You can say its diametrically opposite to the taint, thats the evil on saidin. Rand, in one point in Shadar Logoth feels it repulsing with each other. And especially in the wounds on his side. There is a resonance created. A positive and negative pulse of evil, you might say.	View More Details
So [detecting the Shadar Logoth dagger] doesn't require actual channeling? No, but you have to be close to it. It's not something you can sense from a close distance use to track Padan Fain down.	View More Details
In The Great Hunt, when Rand, Mat and Perrin are trying to enter the Ways, Machin Shin is waiting there for them. It seems like Padan Fain has it waiting there for them. Is Machin Shin in any way related to the evil of Shadar Logoth? In some ways. Machin Shin is linked, or you might say drawn, to that. Its not a matter of linked, but more attracted by, in much the same ways as I spoke about the evils being attracted to one another due to opposite polarities. (Shadar Logoth and the taint) In the same way there is an attraction because Machin Shin was created in effect by the taint. It grew out. You can see it as a fungus that was constructed with the wrong type of materials. If you think about it as that way you get a better idea about its true nature.	View More Details
I was wondering: how did Rand stop the taint by channeling at Shadar Logoth? Because you said the taint and the evil at Shadar Logoth are different. Also, because Shadar Logoth came well after the taint, was there any way to stop it? No, there was no way to stop it or make it weaker (the Shadar Logoth evil). But when Rand made the conduit, they were attracted to each other due to opposite polarities, and they were attracted to each other and destroyed each other because of those differences, and it created a huge explosion.	View More Details
Would you please name one character who did not kill Asmodean? Will you please name one of the following: Lanfear, Graendal, Moridin, Shaidar Haran, Padan Fain, Semirhage, Demandred, Mazrim Taim, Slayer. I thank you for your mercy and if you can please explain why they didn't do it that would be a nice touch. Padan Fain didn't because he wasn't in the right place at the right time. He would have if he had been in the right place at the right time, but he wasn't.	View More Details
Why did Padan Fain go to Falme, and why did he leave before Rand arrived? He was trying to gain a power base. His early attempts to do things, were by siding...he is trying to get close to someone in power, to influence him. Remember Padan Fain is also Mordeth, and Mordeth was a counselor, Mordeth was a guy who whispered poison in the ear of the king, and had a great deal of power because of it. So Padan Fain has this part of him that wants to influence power and that is what he was doing there. There are these invaders and what rumors says about them is correct.	View More Details
Why did [Padan Fain] leave [Falme ]before Rand arrived? Because he must have sensed Rand was near. Once he could get his hand on the dagger, he wanted out. He didn't know Rand was coming. Once he realized he wouldn't be able to have any influence, at least, get his hands on the dagger and go, because the dagger is key, the dagger pulls at him.	View More Details
When Mat had the dagger, Moiraine and Verin thought he would contaminate other people with the evil of Shadar Logoth, and they would contaminate other people. Fain does seem to be influencing without contaminating people. Is it as dangerous as it seems? Could also normal people become evil, and would they also contaminate other people? No. Fain can contaminate people because he has the dagger; it is the dagger. What Verin and Moiraine thought was incorrect; they were extending it too far. It is the one of things you may have noted in the books. Aes Sedai often believe they know more than they actually know. In other words, a lot of people believe they know more than they actually know. One of the themes I have running through the books is that whatever you think you know, some of it is almost certainly wrong, and it may even be the most crucial bit that is wrong. But even when you are aware that some of your information may be wrong you still have to go ahead and make a decision. You...you cannot afford the luxury of saying, well I don't know everything and some of what I know may be wrong, so I am not going to do anything, I am just going to sit here and wait and see if I can find out some more, because that only leads to sitting still forever.	View More Details
The snakes and foxes seem to have a lot of powers. Do they also have the Power? I have two questions: can they transmigrate souls? Two: can they hold the soul of an individual they have killed. No. No to both.	View More Details
Does the physical location of the world of 'Finns have anything to do with the bells ringing when the ta'veren were in together? No.	View More Details
Have the 'Finns existed as long as the Wheel? Yes.	View More Details
Do [the Finns] have souls? Yes	View More Details
Are the 'Finns from human stock? No	View More Details
Did [the Finns] originate in their current location? Yes	View More Details
Are [the Finns] related to Tel'aran'rhiod or do they control Tel'aran'rhiod? No	View More Details
The Finns reside in a parallel world, is that correct? Yes	View More Details
Are the parallel worlds and Mirror Worlds the same thing? No, they are different.	View More Details
Do parallel worlds have their own reflections [Mirror Worlds]? Possibly.	View More Details
Did Lanfear get the opportunity to ask the Finns, to make a wish, after going through the doorway with Moiraine? Read and find out.	View More Details
Okay, well, then did Moiraine get the opportunity to make a wish [from the Finns]? Read and find out.	View More Details
Can you describe the relationship between the Aelfinn and Eelfinn? Read and find out	View More Details
Mr. Jordan, if you could, I would like to know who built the Tower of Ghenjei. If you can't tell us that, is there any kind of detail you can share without compromising the future? I am sorry this is a RAFO.	View More Details
I guess most of your Aelfinn and Eelfinn questions are RAFO, but could you tell us why it was they didn't consider Mat's steel dagger to be a weapon, since steel is really iron? Why the 'Finns didn't consider the dagger to be a weapon? (Yes) No, I am going to have to RAFO that one; it is going to give away too much.	View More Details
A question about the Forsaken: It is said they have varying levels of strength in the One Power. Do you know where they rank? Yes	View More Details
I get the impression that Asmodean is weaker than Lanfear even before he was shielded. How much weaker, etc? RAFO. I don't go into that kind of thing. I know where they are. I also know they are highly unreliable. None of them is going to admit that anyone is that much stronger than they are, even when you are inside their heads. Don't take everything they say as the absolute truth or unbiased observation.	View More Details
Ouch - Okay, now that you have killed my black cord theory, are the oath and covenants Forsaken make with the Dark One necessary for the Dark One to transmigrate a soul? They are not necessary, but he is not likely to do it for anyone who hasn't done, who hasn't sworn to him.	View More Details
[The Dark One] doesn't have access to all souls to be able to grab any soul? No, no, no. Because of the Bore and the fact that the Bore is best perceived, the Bore doesn't really exist in Shayol Ghul, the Bore exists everywhere, its simply in Shayol Ghul where it can be perceived most easily. By the same token he has greater access to people at Shayol Ghul than he does elsewhere, or did, and uh, that's, when you know, Rahvin died, Rahvin is balefired out of time, slain out of time, cannot be reached, gone. Be'lal, (names someone else),	View More Details
Well, then is there something unique about the Forsaken other than the fact that they are his favorites that he would transmigrate them, or be able to? Well, he would have been a lot less likely to in an earlier time when they were a lot of powerful, knowledgeable channelers who were in his service. Essentially half the people in the world who could channel were on his side, during the War of the Shadow. Now he has very few, hes got the Black Ajah, and a few wilders, and some stuff I ain't going in to, but uh he doesn't have a lot, but he can't afford to waste assets.	View More Details
When out of the three thousand year sleep, were the Forsaken still wearing the clothes from the time they were imprisoned? Yes, they were.	View More Details
How does the process of waking up work, and were they conscious of it happening to them and or the other Forsaken? They were conscious of waking up, but remember that Lanfear said they were in a sleep so deep they were trapped so deep, that they were denied even dreams. Most of them were in fact in suspended animation. Balthamel and Aginor, very close to the surface, were not, which is why they were so wasted when they are seen, and why they have a certain degree of madness as well. The others came out un-aged, looking exactly as they did, but Aginor and Balthamel, although wearing the clothes they wore, and [Balthamel's] mask was an original, he was wearing it when he went in, they were further wasted, you might say, preserved by being sealed in the Bore, but close enough to the surface that they were aware of things going on outside.	View More Details
Was Taimandred a deliberate ruse to lead your readers astray, or were you surprised (by the all of the theories connecting Taim to Demandred)? I was surprised...but I wasn't going to disabuse you of it for a while. I like to watch you squirm.	View More Details
Why is it that the Chosen and Lews Therin speak a language that Rand and everyone else can understand? Because it is a very simple language to learn. When they Chosen are among themselves they are not speaking the language of the current time, they are speaking the Old Tongue, which I happily translate for you, so you don't have to struggle through it. But it is very much the same as Graendal thinking how easy it is to forge things in this time. The lettering script is simplified. But things managed to hang on for a certain extent. Printing presses for example were one of the things that managed never quite to be wiped out completely. Printing started up again, even a few times during the Breaking people managed to get printing presses going, and once the Breaking was over, printing was one of the first trades to get going. You might call it the first higher trade to get going.	View More Details
Ishamael mentions in prior Turnings of the Wheel that the soul of Lews Therin was raised up as the Shadow's champion, and if that is the case, who was the champion of the Creator? You believe Ishamael??? Sorry, man, but c'mon!	View More Details
In The Dragon Reborn, Lanfear visits Mat as he is recuperating from his One Power surgery over the dagger. At one point she stretches out her hand towards him and he feels a tingle going over him, somebody interrupts them, and she turns her head and sobs, at about the same time a member of Black Ajah stole angreal and ter'angreal out of the Tower cache, one of which was a ter'angreal that was known to have some effect on chance. So it was about this time that Mat's really really really weird luck and the dice rolling in his head began. Is this a connection or coincidence? That is a coincidence. When they say that Mat has the Dark One's own luck, he can get as mad as he wants to, but in a way it is true. It wasn't a gift from Lanfear, though.	View More Details
In that case [when Lanfear touched Mat after the Healing from the Shadar Logoth dagger], what was Lanfear doing? She was checking his health. She doesn't care very much, except that he is important to Rand, to Lews Therin, him and Perrin both, so she is interested in, the one she wants mainly is Lews Therin, or wanted anyway, and uh, so she is interested in these other two ta'veren, who seemed to be tied in with him, because they might be important to him.	View More Details
I'm trying to verify Rand's impression he has at the end of book four, regarding the connection he cuts from Asmodean to the Dark One. He seemed to believe it was the connection directly from that individual to the Dark One. So what I am wondering is, is that connection key to transmigration? No, because what you are thinking of wasn't a connection. Rand only thought it was.	View More Details
Will Nynaeve be able to make cuendillar? I doubt it, it is as much Talent as it is strength. And I don't think she has that Talent.	View More Details
Do the Forsaken get reports from rats and ravens? Eventually. Not every rat or raven, but eventually.	View More Details
Is there any way to distinguish [a rat or raven] that is eyes and ears of the Dark One? No.	View More Details
Can a person who cannot channel the One Power, can they use the True Power of the Dark One? No.	View More Details
Was Ishamael ever REALLY sealed in Shayol Ghul with the Dark One and the rest of the Forsaken/Chosen? Would I lie to you? For details, RAFO	View More Details
If Galad and Rand were to fight with swords, who would win? Well, it's not going to happen. I would say Rand would, at least until recently (Knife of Dreams).	View More Details
It seems to me that Rand has a half brother, and I was wondering if any of the characters knew and if it mattered? RAFO	View More Details
Are Calian and Shiva are born at the end of every Age? Yes, and RAFO	View More Details
At the end of The Great Hunt when Rand and Ishamael were fighting in the air above Falme, they appeared in the sky over many places and my question is whether this is something done by the One Power or something down by the Creator, how did they appear in the sky? An effect of the Wheel, really. It wasn't the Creator. The Wheel is more than a simple mechanism. Remember the Wheel can spit out ta'veren, can spit out Heroes as a self correcting device because the Pattern is drifting from what it is supposed to be. We are not talking about something as simple as a spinning wheel at all, we are talking something more along the lines of the most complex computer you could possibly imagine. There were at that time, two, there were false Dragons that had a chance to create a lot of disruption. By the appearance in the sky at that battle, not just in Falme but in other places, those false Dragons were taken off the board because there was only room now for one, for one Dragon.	View More Details
You say one more main sequence book after Knife of Dreams, but will there be any more? I intend to do two prequels: one is why Tam al'Thor gave up a successful military career and went home to buy a small farm in the Two Rivers, and the other one will be largely why and how Moiraine and Lan showed up in the nick of time in The Eye of the World. When I will do those two novels, I do not know.	View More Details
We have seen the organizing capability of Mat and Perrin's father-in-law. And one of the most difficult things that your characters have to overcome is not knowing about what is going on. May we expect to see Mat organize an intelligence service any time soon? Read and Find Out	View More Details
What cultures and societies did you base Saldaea on? And <nervous grin>, is the sa'sara supposed to be a sort of belly-dance? <duck> Saldaea is based, in part, on a number of middle eastern cultures and several cultures in countries surrounding the Black Sea. In part. The sa'sara, now...you'll need a certificate from your doctor, a note from your mother and a certificate of health for whoever you intend to dance it for before I can give you any more information beside the name.	View More Details
Would Rand technically be a bladesmaster since he killed the Seanchan blademaster [Turak] in The Great Hunt? Or is there more to being a bladesmaster than that? There's more to it than that.	View More Details
Yesterday, you said something about Nynaeve that made it sound as if she doesn't have the spark. Does she have the spark? Yes, she has the spark. The question seemed to me to be about the difference between the people born with the spark and those that aren't. Even people who are born with the spark are going to start channeling whether they want to or not. But Nynaeve did it through a conscious effort, really. It wasn't just happenstance that she began channeling at that point, she had a need to channel. Uhm, the same thing that happens later to Rand, by the way. Often the thing, that as I believe has been pointed out, often the thing that pulls someone that has the spark into their first channeling is a perceived need, when they channel without knowing they channel, not realizing what they had done, quite often. The, the people who are not born with the spark, can they channel unconsciously, can they, that is someone who can learn but doesn't have the spark, can they channel unconsciously? No. For them, they must have a teacher to guide them, or make a conscious effort, which is unlikely to succeed, but might.	View More Details
Are Ogier able to Dreamwalk/ No, Ogier cannot Dreamwalk.	View More Details
So will there ever be a confrontation between the Seanchan Ogier and the other Ogier? They will meet... (in other words, RAFO)	View More Details
About Machin Shin in the Ways: since it seems to absorb the creatures that pass through there, could you regard them as a servant of the Dark One or perhaps almost as a Forsaken? It's not a servant of the Dark One. It will kill Trollocs or anything else. You can say it's a parasite that grew in the Ways because of the taint and the One Power that was used to initially create the Ways, and the Talisman of Growing that was used to extend the Ways. So it's not a servant of the Dark One, but its definitely on the evil side.	View More Details
Would [the Ways and Machin Shin] be cleaned with the cleansing of saidin? No. It's like a bacteria breed. Just by cleaning up the chemicals that caused the bacteria to come into existence, unless its feeding on that, those chemicals, you are not going to destroy the bacteria. You simply cut off what helped to create it.	View More Details
Why is it that the Chosen and Lews Therin speak a language that Rand and everyone else can understand? Because it is a very simple language to learn. When they Chosen are among themselves they are not speaking the language of the current time, they are speaking the Old Tongue, which I happily translate for you, so you don't have to struggle through it. But it is very much the same as Graendal thinking how easy it is to forge things in this time. The lettering script is simplified. But things managed to hang on for a certain extent. Printing presses for example were one of the things that managed never quite to be wiped out completely. Printing started up again, even a few times during the Breaking people managed to get printing presses going, and once the Breaking was over, printing was one of the first trades to get going. You might call it the first higher trade to get going.	View More Details
Can the a'dam hold every sul'dam? The a'dam can only hold sul'dam who have been sul'dam for a long time and so wearing the bracelet for a long time. Four months for example isn't enough.	View More Details
Can a damane who has been burned out or stilled continue to be controlled by the a'dam? No.	View More Details
Since sul'dam have abilities normally associated with channelers only, do they also slow? No, not unless they actually begin to channel. Slowing is a function of actually channeling. If you have the ability to learn, and you never learn to channel, you are not going to slow. You will age at a normal fashion. Sul'dam are women who can learn, and as they develop the affinity, as they have been doing this for a little while, they begin to slide toward the ability to channel, but they never step over. I believe I have someone say that one of these women felt almost as if she should be able to channel, but not quite. They are getting closer and closer to the brink but they will never step over without conscious effort.	View More Details
Previously you have made it known that an individual who is severed will retain the ability to channel in his or her subsequent life, which connects the ability to channel with the soul. How does burning out affect ones ability to channel in the next life? Specifically, will an individual born with the spark but who burns out during his or her life have the inborn spark in a subsequent life? I don't think I have said if you are born with the spark you would have the have the spark again. I have said if you were born with the ability to channel, to learn or with the spark, you will, when your soul is born again, you will have the ability again, whether with the spark or without. And neither burning out or severing affects that except in this lifetime, your current lifetime.	View More Details
Regarding the One Power, in a universal sense, like your physics background, is it more of a force like gravity would be, weak electromagnetic and stronger electromagnetic, or is it something more of on a quantum level? Is it on a quantum level in your universe or is it a macro power? I think you are going to have to think of it as being on a quantum level.	View More Details
This is in reference to a previous question I asked you about Parallel Worlds and Mirror Worlds, today I believe, and you mentioned they are different. And the question I had about Portal Stones was, do Portal Stones lead to Parallel Worlds, Mirror Worlds, or both? They lead to Mirror Worlds, the Portal Stones can take you to Mirror Worlds, not to Parallels, which are separate.	View More Details
Can you make music using just the One Power? Yes, you could.	View More Details
With regards to Healing severing vs. being burned out: There are a lot of theories online that you can Heal severing but you cannot Heal being burnt out. Is that true? Read and find out.	View More Details
Oh. Anyway with all the Wolfbrothers coming out now, will there be a resurgence of even more Wolfbrothers? Could be.	View More Details
How did your background in physics influence how you structured the world of the Wheel of Time? Jordan: Largely it was to make things realistic, as realistic as I can. Background in physics and engineering; I also tried to structure channeling as if it were a science or technology. No eye of Newton, hair of dog. There are real limits, there are rules, there are technological structures to channeling which I think are fairly obvious to anyone who looks at it. That was the major influence. Plus making sure that I see that everything is real. Well if I bring about a blacksmith, well I don't know anything about blacksmithing, but I was able to get some nineteenth century books on blacksmithing, and once I had written the scenes I sent them to a women I met that was a blacksmith and farrier, and she said you need to do this and you need to do that, but otherwise it is okay. Harriet: This woman was at the time the only woman blacksmith on the high council of American smithing. She made a lot of the stuff at Billy Graham's in North Carolina, but she wrote wonderful comments back and said, if you want Perrin to ever have children, you must have a leather apron, which was among her other good bits.	View More Details
How can Slayer know that Rand is his nephew? The Shadow knows a lot about Rand. They know a lot about Perrin and Mat too - once they began to identify possibilities, they went hyper trying to get information because anything might be part of the key to controlling him.	View More Details
At the end of The Great Hunt when Rand and Ishamael were fighting in the air above Falme, they appeared in the sky over many places and my question is whether this is something done by the One Power or something down by the Creator, how did they appear in the sky? An effect of the Wheel, really. It wasn't the Creator. The Wheel is more than a simple mechanism. Remember the Wheel can spit out ta'veren, can spit out Heroes as a self correcting device because the Pattern is drifting from what it is supposed to be. We are not talking about something as simple as a spinning wheel at all, we are talking something more along the lines of the most complex computer you could possibly imagine. There were at that time, two, there were false Dragons that had a chance to create a lot of disruption. By the appearance in the sky at that battle, not just in Falme but in other places, those false Dragons were taken off the board because there was only room now for one, for one Dragon.	View More Details
I was wondering, can you talk about how your lead character would have not one but three true loves, and how does your wife feel about that? Um, when I was much younger, before I met Harriet, I had two girlfriends simultaneously, who arranged my dating schedule between them, who was going to date me on which night. They chipped in together to buy me birthday presents, Christmas presents. You know, they just sort of shared me between them, you know. And they had been friends before, and I am not quite sure whether or not they made the decision they were both going to date me or not, on their own, before they first met me, it just came about. But I figured if I could manage two, surely Rand could manage three. Besides there are mythological reasons to have these three women involved with him. As far as my view on this, with Harriet, I have many more than three women, there are so many facets to her personality she quite often makes me dizzy, I am quite satisfied there. About how she feels about this, I suspect you want her answer, I seem to remember her saying to me, you do remember this is fantasy right? And I think it was an accident she was holding a carving knife to me throat, just coincidence, but I am not sure. Harriet: In four short words, I am not for it. Four and a half words.	View More Details
When Mat and Perrin found out Rand could channel, Mat related a story to him he heard from a merchant guard in the Two Rivers about a male channeler who woke up and found his entire village smashed right around him except for the bed he was sleeping in. So, with regards to multiple personalities that a channeler can get like in Rand's case, is it possible for one of them to take over when the channeler falls asleep? Well, you're...I can answer that question, but I realize in answering that question I am going to have to RAFO you, because I can't answer your question without telling you some stuff I don't want to tell you yet, sorry.	View More Details
The relationship between Rand and his adopted father, I enjoyed it very much in the first book. And I wondered if it was a deliberate choice to keep them separated over most of the series so far? Yes, a deliberate choices, yes.	View More Details
Before it became public knowledge that Rand was the Dragon Reborn, did Tam al'Thor know or suspect that Rand was the Dragon Reborn or could channel? No, Tam had no inkling of this.	View More Details
Will Rand end up with all three girls or just one? :) RAFO	View More Details
Is Rand the most powerful channeler alive right now? RAFO	View More Details
How much of Jesus Christ is there in Rand? We have the wounded palms, side wound, crown of swords...How representational of Jesus is Rand? Rand has some elements of Jesus Christ, yes. But he is intended more to be a general "Messiah figure." An archetype such as Arthur, rather than a manifestation of Jesus Christ in any way.	View More Details
We know the Tower of Ravens located in the Seanchan capital city is used as an imperial prison especially for members of the Blood, but there is also a reference to the first marath'damane shaking the Towers of Midnight. Are the Towers of Midnight also a prison? Can you tell us more about them? There are thirteen Towers of Midnight. The Towers of Midnight are a fortress complex, and were - at the time this happened, Seandar wasn't the capital and the Towers of Midnight were the center of military might, or the forces that were beginning the consolidation before the conquest of Seanchan.	View More Details
Is Shaidar Haran an avatar to the world beyond the Bore? I am not certain you can really call him an avatar because I generally think of an avatar as having exactly the same powers as, and it is not, Shaidar Haran does not have nearly as much power as the Dark One. It's as though the Dark One is able to project a shadowy form of himself into this creature - it is the Dark One in shadowy form. (24/7?) 24/7 Harriet: Shaidar Haran has another life in the suburbs (Yeah, he has two and a half little Fades running around) Harriet: He has to go home for the weekend to cut grass. I don't think so.	View More Details
Why was the infant Isam spared death at the hand of the Trollocs? Possible political use later. You've got somebody who is related to the royal family of Malkier, and you can raise him exactly the way you want...you can instill whatever belief system you want. He's a blank slate and he might be a very powerful tool.	View More Details
Was Isam raised by the Shadow directly, by his mother, or by someone else? By someone else. Read and find out.	View More Details
Was Taim a sparker or a learner? He was born with the spark.	View More Details
How old is Taim and has he slowed? Taim has slowed, but one thing I am not going to reveal it in the books, so I'll tell you, men slow later than women do. And yes, he has slowed, and he is in his late twenties, yes his late twenties.	View More Details
Is there anything you can tell us about Taim's choice to head to Andor after his escape? Well, he really didn't have much other choice. He's a man who can channel. At that time, as far as he knows, any Aes Sedai that gets their hands on him will try to gentle him again. But the word is getting around: there are men gathering near Caemlyn, men just like him, and maybe there are enough of them that if they stick together the Aes Sedai will not be able to take them down. So he has no other choice. He can either spend a life on the run or he can enlist. He decided to enlist.	View More Details
How did Bashere and his army manage to track Taim hundreds of miles? Because a man like Mazrim Taim leaves a trail, even when he is trying to travel quietly - traveling quietly is not in his character.	View More Details
As a feminist, one part, the Children of the Light, get my goat, make me angry...what are the Children of the Light in the story for? (paraphrased) The Children of the Light are all of those people who say "I know the truth, my truth is the only truth, you must believe my truth, you must believe my truth, if you refuse to believe my truth I will kill you." I wanted them in there because there are always people like that in any world, and they have a tendency to organize and start killing people that don't believe what they believe, so it is really their similitude. I don't think there can be a world without the haters. Haters exist.	View More Details
In the Wheel of Time there is focus on events occurring again and again throughout history. Is it just history which is circular, or is it time itself which is in a loop? If you think of history being in a loop, then time must be in a loop. The Greeks were the first, as far as we know, to think of time being linear which allows for change. Almost every other culture prior to them had believed in circular time. If time is a wheel there is no possibility of change. Whatever I change now, whatever injustices I correct, the wheel will inevitably return, the inequities will return, there is no possibility for change, therefore there is not impetus to change. So time and history are in a loop in this world, a large enough loop..that it is really quite immense.	View More Details
I was interested in how the physics like with the Mirror Worlds, the world of If? The Mirror Worlds of course come right out of physics, and the possibility of (mumble) universes and all of the rest of it. But frankly while I don't follow the literature, I haven't for a number of years, I occasionally get stuck on panels with physicists and I am supposed to discuss physics for which I am twenty five years out of date. But I find that I can hold my own, although I do not have a doctorate or did I ever intend to get one (I went to work instead). I can hold my own with the PhDs in physics when they are talking theoretical physics if I stop talking physics, at least from my point of view, and start talking theology and this troubles me.	View More Details