The Wheel of Time Database

55 interviews available

Interviews

Interview Questions from Netherlands Tour

Question	Action(s)
Where did you get the inspiration for the Aiel? The Aiel (eye-eel) for example have bits of Zulu, and bits of Apache, and bits of Cheyenne Indians, and bits of Bedouin and bits of Japanese cultures, and also some things that I simply thought would be neat. ... So I could fit them into the culture.	View More Details
Can a Warder bond be passed to a non-channeler? No.	View More Details
Do Warders have a regular lifespan? Yes, they do. They hang on to what you would call 'vitality' longer than the average man, but they live a normal lifespan. They do get things out of the bond, but not a longer life.	View More Details
This will probably be a RAFO, but I hope you can at least say something, or did you just forget about him? What happened to Sheriam's Warder? Um... No, you'll read and find out.	View More Details
Have you ever thought about reinstituting some of the old ideas from earlier books? For example, in The Dragon Reborn you had a situation with thirteen dark sisters and thirteen Myrddraal to forcibly convert someone to the darker side of things. It seems you have abandoned that. Do you think you might have something like that pop up again at some unexpected moment? It doesn't seem realistic for the Black Ajah to abandon the idea. I have not abandoned this notion about a circle of thirteen Aes Sedai and thirteen Myrddraal can convert someone to the Shadow. It is not an easy situation to set up, in fact it's a very difficult situation to set up. It has to be worth the effort, you don't go to all of this effort to just convert anyone. In fact it might be better for your plans to manipulate someone against their will than as a willing ally.	View More Details
Does the Black Ajah contain all Aes Sedai who are Darkfriends? Yes.	View More Details
Does the ashandarei come from the Age of Legends? Yes the ashandarei comes from the Age of Legends.	View More Details
If Mat only has memories from around the Trolloc Wars, how does he know how to use [the ashanderei]? Mat does not have memories only from the Trolloc Wars. Mats memories extend all the way into the time of Artur Hawkwing 1000 years later.	View More Details
Are the ruins of Lews Therin's palace still in the [current] world? Are they really gone? Ah, no. They are really gone.	View More Details
The Prophecies of the Dragon are a fairly sized book. Do the prophecies of the Sea Folk, the "Jendai Prophecy", have a similar size, or is it much smaller? And who or what is or was "Jendai"? The Jendai prophecies are smaller in length but similar in scope to the Dragon prophecies but limited to the Sea Folk.	View More Details
When/if Rand manages to remove the taint placed on saidin, are the people infected with it cured? Or does their condition remain the way it is? When/if the taint is removed from saidin further ill effects are stopped but what has already occurred remains.	View More Details
(from Vanin) What did Aginor mean in The Eye of the World when pointing towards Mat and saying something about old history, old friend, old enemy? RAFO you horsethief!	View More Details
Can you give some more details on how the taint was cleansed? I was sort of confused reading the book. You don't think it's obvious? Err, let's see. You have.. You're using both repulsion and attraction of opposites here. Repulsion of things that are opposite and [attraction] of things that are the same. The Taint upon [saidin] as versus the conduit, which is made of saidar through which the saidin passes. The saidin and saidar, as men and women, are in many ways opposite. It repels one another. It is safe to make this conduit of saidar between saidin and Shadar Logoth, because there can be no mixing. As the eh.. as [saidin] passes through, as the taint passes through, the saidar actually repels it, pushes it away from [saidin]..., alright? Now, you have a taint on... the eh Source, the male half of the Source, you have the taint on Shadar Logoth. They're not the same, yet they are. The taint on Shadar Logoth did not come from the Dark One. The taint was created by humans, who believed that they must do whatever was necessary, anything that was necessary to defeat the Shadow. And because they would accept no limits to what they would do, to what could be done, to what needed to be done, they created their own destruction. Their evil is, or was, as great as that of the Dark One, but diametrically opposite. It is an evil created for the best of intentions, created for good intentions. So it is the opposite. So, this attraction created the conduit begins to pull the taint from [saidin] to siphon it off. Remember, it's always been described it's not at mixed all through [saidin], it is like a thin skin of rancidness, think of a thin skin of rancid oil floating on a pond, and if you get through it, you've got clean water, but you can't get through it without putting your hand in that oil. You're getting it on your hand... To attract one another because they are opposites, but because even being opposite, they have gone far enough around the circle, they act to destroy one another. You see, it's not opposites along a straight line. We're actually talking opposites along a circle. Continuing the motif of the Wheel of Time, if you will. So you've got two things that are both opposites and the same. That will both attract one another and negate one another. Do you understand better now? Oh, and one last point: It's all imaginary, my dear...	View More Details
Did Demandred recognize Flinn in the last chapter of Winter's Heart? RAFO	View More Details
Would Taim have recognised Flinn, in that position [at the end of Winter's Heart]? Yes	View More Details
Can you eliminate anyone from the list of suspects in Asmodean's murder? No. I like to see you wondering. It should be obvious to anyone. (Isabel: Not even a single one?) (pause) Rand. Apart from him, I will not clear any other suspects. Not even Bela.	View More Details
In The Shadow Rising, Lanfear mentioned two sa'angreal stronger than Callandor that a male could use. Is the second one ever going to appear? Read and Find Out	View More Details
In The Great Hunt, was Lanfear present to inspire the Dark Prophecy about "Daughter of the Night, she walks again? Of course she was about... (Questioner: But was she present in Fal Dara?) Read and Find Out.	View More Details
An Asmodean question.. Just using the first five books, is the answer also intuitively obvious? I think so. It seemed to me so. It seemed to me that there was no need to go into any more detail. I thought that if I went into any more detail, I was being blatantly obvious, and you know... what do I need to do? Caper around with a sign saying 'Here! Here! There he is, see?' I mean.., I assumed that the people who read my books are intelligent to a certain degree, have a reasonable level of intelligence, and are able to deduce things that you know... I mean, I don't have to tell them water is wet. They know that. I don't have to tell them that if they fall of the roof, it's gonna hurt when they hit, you know, they know that. So I... no, I... At this point, I must tell you: although I will continue to put clues into the books. Again. A bit here and there. If I see a spot where I can put a clue, for those who are slow of wits to catch up ... I will not tell you. For the simple reason I am enjoying watching you all try far too much to deprive myself of the pleasure of that.	View More Details
Did Slayer meet Asmodean before he was killed? No... um, no. Not in the books.	View More Details
Can you eliminate a few suspects of who killed Asmodean? RJ: No. No, I refuse to... Well, I'll tell you this. It wasn't Rand. But I have my suspicions about Nynaeve. And I've always thought that Elayne might have been covering up something that was going on at the site. One of us: It was Bela... RJ: Oh, you're one of those people who believe Bela is a Darkfriend, are you? Us: No, she's the Creator herself. RJ: No no, there's a whole body of thought, a whole body of writing on the net, proving that Bela is indeed a Darkfriend, and possibly an avatar of the Dark One himself. Kura: We have the proof that Bela is the Creator. RJ: You'll have to put it on the net then... (blinks Jordan isn't aware of Larry Homer's essay? What a pity indeed... Seems like he's still thinking as they did back when the "where was Bela during Lord of Chaos?" contests were held in rasfwr-j...) Kura: It is. Emma: how about the idea that Moridin is the horse of Rand? RJ: No, actually Moridin is hiding as Nynaeve.	View More Details
Does Slayer know every Forsaken? Yeah, he does.	View More Details
Have all the Forsaken heard of Slayer? Yes, they've heard of him. Slayer is not old in the way they are. Slayer does not come from the Age of Legends, Slayer is something much newer. Slayer is also known by all Forsaken...	View More Details
Is Sammael dead ead, or 'he will never return dead'? Sammael? [pronounce something like Sammy-el] Sammael is dead. He's dead. He could be reborn. In another life. Without knowing anything of Sammael. He's not going to be reincarnated, he's not going to show up again.	View More Details
We haven't seen much about Mesaana and Semirhage. I assume they're going to feature somewhere in the future books? Yes Mesaana and Semirhage will feature in future books. There are reasons they have been lying low.	View More Details
Will we ever find out definitively who killed Asmodean? Of course you can find out who killed Asmodean. You just have to be clever enough.	View More Details
Is Mat really as strongly ta'veren as Hawkwing was? No	View More Details
In this same Age, in a different Turning of the Wheel of Time, could it be possible that it wouldn't be Rand's soul that was spun out as the Dragon, but for a different, female soul to take on this role? Jordan said "Yes" then maybe a few more words and only then did I remember to actually put the recorder on again... RJ: ...it would have to be. Err, in the differences between the same Age in different turnings of the Wheel, are that.. as for an analogy: imagine two tapestries hanging on a wall, and you look at them from the back of the room to the front of the store. And to look at them, they look identical to you. But as you get closer, you begin to see differences. And if you get close enough, they don't look anything at all alike. That is the difference between the Ages. Between the Age in one Turning and the Age in another. So it's quite possible that someone other than Rand could be the reborn soul of the Dragon Reborn.	View More Details
It would be the same soul, or it would be a different soul [for the Dragon Reborn in another Turning of the Wheel]? It would be the same soul. That is, that is the belief of the world that I've set up, that it's the same soul. It's a soul of someone bound to the Wheel, which is spun out for the purposes, for the Wheel's purposes really, to attempt to re-balance the Weaving of the Pattern. But the soul would always be male. Souls don't change gender, so ... ...so the soul of the Dragon Reborn is always going to be male, just as Birgitte's soul is always born as a woman, just as Ameresu's soul...is always born as a woman. There are divisions here, and they are not interchangeable.	View More Details
Are Mat and Perrin Heroes of the Horn reborn? RAFO	View More Details
You said time after time that Lan will die if Nynaeve dies. What about her? She's Aes Sedai, so she will live very long. And he's much older than her anyway. Would she be able to live without him?? Lan is undergoing the severing effect of his bond to Moiraine which means that he has lost the desire and will to live which is being restored to him by Nynaeve on top of which he loves her. If she dies he really really has no reason to stick around. As for Nynaeve, and Lan dying, women are always a lot tougher, emotionally, then man are. Nynaeve will cry for a very long time when Lan dies and she will go on living.	View More Details
Is Edeyn still alive? RAFO	View More Details
In New Spring there were still a lot of them, but nowadays Lan is the only one around: how's that possible? Did they all die? No, it's a matter of assimilation. All these people now think of themselves as part of the country they live in, they've taken on these new cultures. Lan is the only one who hasn't done this, who at heart remains a Malkieri.	View More Details
Why do Rand, Mat and Perrin see colors when they think of each other? The acronym is RAFO - Read and find out.	View More Details
Do you have someone to advise you on writing sex scenes from a women's point of view? No. And if I had she would lie to me. A woman is as likely to tell the truth about that as men are to tell them, and if you think about how many of that you would tell anyone on god's green earth about that. And if you come upon that teaspoon of liquefied truth you would tell, know that that is five times the truth that she would tell you. No, what I do is, I eavesdrop. [laughter] One time when he was younger and eavesdropping on women, he received Veritas. He knew everything there was to know about women. And it turned his hair completely white, and beyond, so that most of it is dark again, except for that piece in his beard there, plus it also erased all knowledge he had gained straight from his head. [In other words, more and more he was really getting in a funny-story-telling mood. Maybe Jordan should have become a stand-up comedian. I don't know how much of the humor I manage to bring across, I can imagine it's very little, but if you were there you would have laughed at every other remark, just like the rest of us.] Once in all his books, he went to Harriet saying 'Okay, in this particular situation, this is how I think this woman would react, this is how I think she would feel. Do you believe it?' And she said 'yes, I do.'	View More Details
Is the Shara world going to be changed a lot now that their male channelers won't go mad? Will they even find out because they kill them so early anyhow? Shara will not be changed by the fact that male channelers wont go mad because they kill man who might possibly be able to channel at a very young age - those guys are nothing but breeding stock kept utterly innocent and utterly ignorant until they are killed.	View More Details
Mr. Jordan, why did you choose a heron as a mark for the Dragon Reborn (and swordmaster)? I chose the heron because that is a quick supple and to its prey very deadly bird. The perfect avian simile for a swordsman.	View More Details
Is the material of a true heron blade altered the same way as a ter'angreal? The material of a true heron mark blade is altered. It is not simple steel anymore.	View More Details
Maybe this is a stupid question too: but you told us that when you had your first thoughts about Wheel of Time Tam and Rand al'Thor were the same person. Now I have a question about Nynaeve. When you first thought about her was she the same person as she is now (did you already thought about her tugging her braid???) Nynaeve in the beginning was actually going to be the love interest for Rand/Tam, but she was the same kind of woman - quickly temperamental and not suffering fools gladly.	View More Details
In the Guide, there's this song from the Ogier... about clear the fields, smooth it low... ... here the towering trees will grow. Is this sung when stedding are created? No. It's sung... uhm, it's just a work song. As it is now. It used to be something more. But now it's just a work song. Read and Find Out.	View More Details
In The Great Hunt, you showed us Trayal, the Ogier without a soul. And he could still walk. Barely, but he could still walk. So, the body retains some skill without the soul. How.. how's that.. divided? Think of it as.. ah, as what is autonomic, nervous-system really, autonomic nerve reflexes. You still breathe, you still move, but I would not... I would not ask him to play the flute. (Language skills?) Ehm, no. (Absolutely nothing at all?) Absolutely nothing. Unless it's done in the form of a Gray Man. Which is a voluntary ahh.. rejection of your own soul. In that case, there are other skills, higher function. That's a matter of making a deal with the Dark One, and there are other prices to be paid from that.	View More Details
Does Perrin still have Moiraine's coin? Read and find out	View More Details
How did Bashere approach Rand without being announced the first time? Matters were a bit confused at the time. It was just coincidence.	View More Details
How come the first character you came up with isn't a 30-year-old Rand anymore? When did this change? The first character I came up was not a 30-year-old Rand, it was that the first version of Rand was a 30-year-old man. I changed that because I wanted the character of Rand to find everything beyond his village to be strange and new.	View More Details
Are there any dragons (like real dragons (animals)) in Rand's world? If not where did they get the idea of dragons? There are no animal dragons of any kind in this world. the people speak of a man called the Dragon. They know that the banner that has a certain creature on it was the banner of this man and they have taken to calling this creature the dragon. To them it is a simple association with the name of this man.	View More Details
Which cultures in the Seanchan? (based on things in the Guide) The Seanchan also are the melting of things that have come from many different human cultures to make their culture. There have been many rigid stratified, rigidly hierarchal cultures. It's a very human thing. The concept of being able to climb above your station is a relatively new one in human culture. You were born where you were born for a reason, and that is the place you will stay, that has been the norm for human culture, for most of history.	View More Details
Is it possible for two souls to inhabit one body at the same time without the aid of the Dark One's powers? RAFO	View More Details
What happens to the soul of someone when he becomes a Gray Man? Is his thread removed from the Pattern, or are threads and souls different things altogether? Err, they are... Oh, uhm, no, it is gone. It is gone. And it ceases to exist in any form that you could of as real.	View More Details
So threads and souls are the same thing? Err, not the same thing, but they must coexist. The thread can be removed; you die in this world. You die and the soul remains to come again and begin another thread. The soul disappears from this Gray Man, it's gone. Think of the Dark One as having eaten it. It's a fiction, but a convenient fiction for the moment. The thread of the Gray Man remains until the Gray Man dies, physically.	View More Details
And the rest of the Shadowspawn, [do they have souls]? And how do their threads work? The threads work in the way, in the same way that the thread of any living thing works. It is part of the Pattern. They are not outside of the Pattern. Neither are the Forsaken. But the Pattern in a thing that is open, that's change. It is not a matter of the lives being forced necessarily. It's wide, you have the Pattern, the Heroes that are bound to the Wheel, they're not always heroes in the way of someone who rides in galloping with a sword, or carries out daring rescues. The people, the Heroes who are bound to the Wheel, are the corrective mechanisms. Human behavior is throwing the Pattern out. It's throwing the balance off. And the Wheel spins out the proper correctives. Put everything back in the balance. So not even the Forsaken are apart from that, they're not outside. The only things that are outside are the Creator and the Dark One. Neither affected by the Pattern.	View More Details
Who are the 2 people Slayer kills in Winter's Heart? The two people Slayer kills are simply a couple who had the misfortune to rent a room that somebody thought was still occupied by Rand and Min.	View More Details
Are Whitecloaks based on the Ku Klux Klan? Amongst others. Any group that believes to know the Truth with a capital T and want you to believe the same. Mostly it's based on groups like the Teutonic Knights however, since they don't hide behind anything. The Church in the early Christian days, like the Taliban now, are people who know the Truth, and they will kill you if you don't believe the Truth.	View More Details
I noticed that only men use the phrase 'so-called', while only women use 'who called themselves'. Is that a coincidence, or is it intentional? Coincidence	View More Details
Do you have someone to advise you on writing sex scenes from a women's point of view? No. And if I had she would lie to me. A woman is as likely to tell the truth about that as men are to tell them, and if you think about how many of that you would tell anyone on god's green earth about that. And if you come upon that teaspoon of liquefied truth you would tell, know that that is five times the truth that she would tell you. No, what I do is, I eavesdrop. [laughter] One time when he was younger and eavesdropping on women, he received Veritas. He knew everything there was to know about women. And it turned his hair completely white, and beyond, so that most of it is dark again, except for that piece in his beard there, plus it also erased all knowledge he had gained straight from his head. [In other words, more and more he was really getting in a funny-story-telling mood. Maybe Jordan should have become a stand-up comedian. I don't know how much of the humor I manage to bring across, I can imagine it's very little, but if you were there you would have laughed at every other remark, just like the rest of us.] Once in all his books, he went to Harriet saying 'Okay, in this particular situation, this is how I think this woman would react, this is how I think she would feel. Do you believe it?' And she said 'yes, I do.'	View More Details
You talked before about the same Age in different Turnings, you can compare them to tapestries, they look alike at first sight. I was wondering, when at first sight, what would make a difference... Two points I'm really interested in. [grumble A stupid mobile phone was apparently not switched off here; yet again... I think Leiden was the only question session not interrupted by this.] Level of technology and gender related... if for example the roles of men and women were switched between Ages, would the tapestries still look alike at first sight? Ah, but you're not gonna have that sort of switch. In this Age, how can you have a switch? One of the things for instance in the Age that I wrote. One of the things...For instance, I've been accused by some people of ignoring the feminist struggle. Well, there is no feminist struggle in this world, because there is no need for one. No one says a woman can't do this because she is a woman. A woman wants to be a blacksmith, she can learn to be a blacksmith, and she becomes a blacksmith, or a merchant or a wagondriver, or a worker on the docks, or wherever else. All of that took place, took place a long time ago. And they're very good at it. That sets the whole reasons why this should come about. Three thousand years ago the world was destroyed, by men. There is one group that has survived for that three thousand years, one organization that has managed to stick together for three thousand years, and have a great influence on history, and that is a group of women. Okay, so you just don't have, you just don't have it. To have a reversal of roles means... absolutely nothing.	View More Details