Dragon con reports

[Isabel]

Well, as some of you might have noticed I was there on dragon con. Here are 3 reports. The first i typed out myself, the other ones by tamyrlin of theoryland:)



Report written by Isabel –Dragon Con day 1

As you might all know, or might know now, I am a crazy wot fan and Nynaeve fan. (I recruited 16 more members for the Official Nynaeve Fanclub) Infidel: Yeah I am a fangirl
I met Robert Jordan before 4 years ago and he thought I was 12 than. (I was 17 at that time) Any I just go a bit crazy when I can ask Robert Jordan lot’s of questions;) Note I am 21 and not 12, some people were going huh, she doesn’t look 12!

Anyway, first was the signing at 1 o clock. I was there already at 11.45 or something like that. So I was first in line. I kept spots for the fellow theorylanders who would arrive later. (zae, kitten, Dapple, Hopper) So they were standing next in line.
Anyway, I was really excited about meeting Jordan again. I was kindof jumping up and down and hoping he recognized me;) He entered and when he sat down. He looked at me and recognized me and said something like : Did you sneakout without telling your mother. The theorylanders all laughing and than telling them I was 12 again. It can be he said more things, but I have kind of forgotten that. Perhaps some fellow theoryland will add to it for me.

Well now the important things for all other people reading this. (and yeah you have to read through all this) His answer to a few questions. (I didn’t put on my tape recorder, so not all answers are his exact word, but they are correct)

I started asking him about the two conflicting chats. The question was already send to him, but he declined to answer it for the question and answer session. I was wondering about why he would do it, but as you might guess when reading his answer. It’s because it’s a rafo question.

Both answers on the chat are RIGTH!!!! He knows exactly how Thom managed to escape with only a limp and how he managed to survive that. But he might use it in the next book and doesn’t want to give away anything. So we have to do it with the knowledge that both answers, although seemingly conflicting are both CORRECT.

Well, for Liandra (my fellow amyrlin of the official nynaeve fanclub): Tar Valon doesn’t mean white tower. It does mean something else, but that’s RAFO.

Hehe, after those questions Zae went up to Jordan. She first said something about (I don’t know exactly anymore) but apparently he took it as an asmo question and said ‘ I killed him’. Than she asked if Lan and Myrelle slept together. (I thought it was duh, although it probably happened with tweaking the bond) And for Jordan is was also duh, yeah they slept together.

Than I couldn’t hear any other questions and I went back in line. I could only ask him one question. It’s a discussion we had on theoryland a while ago. Can the a’dam hold every sul’ dam? (he managed to get my question after a few time repeating it. I leave that out;)
Frenzy, you were right. (I hope I remember your stand on this issue correctly)
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. He said the circle helped them get to the point that’s described in the book, as being on the brink of being able to channel, one foot stepped over or something. (quotemasters , plz find that quote for me;)

Well , those were the signing questions and answers of mine. After that I was on a new spring panel. That was fun. But after that I ran to the Reading session. Fortunately I could get on the front row and save a few spots for fellow theorylanders. (who would be arriving late)
He did a reading. He didn’t read the prologue as everyone thought he would be, but he did another chapter. I am not allowed to say anything about it. Copyright issues. And no other theorylander wil say anything about itl!!!! Yeah, sorry RAFO Think of it as a room full of people have been giving a advanced copy of a chapter or a part of the chapter.

After the reading he had a lot of time left for questions and answer session. I jumped up first ofcourse. And he started telling everyone again that I managed to sneakout without telling my mom and that I was 12;) hehe, so I think people did notice me;)

Anyway, my first question was: In book 10 Elayne mentioned that Galad fancied Nynaeve or had for a time. Did I miss something?
(I put his answer on tape, will type out his words, it will be as close to it as I can get it. Although my tape recorder doesn’t pick out everything and I am not going to listen to something 10 times to find his exact exact words. But it is really close)

First he had to repeat the question:
In the tenth book there was a thought that Galad fancied Nynaeve. I thought by Elayne.
Me: yeah

Yeah, and eh it’s hard to keep up exactly with who thought what and when.
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.

Me: when did he had the attraction?
RJ: In the beginning when he goes to Nynaeve room. At that time he was interested in her. And Elayne still thinks he is..

Me: But at that time he was interested in Egwene, I thought.
RJ: no not yet. Not at that time.

Me probably staring at him in amazement.
RJ: no not yet.

Someone else asked a question about the development on characters. Something about that Mat is his favourite character and that he has forgiven RJ for leaving out Mat for a whole book. (laughter of all the people) And than about how characters grow in RJ’s perception/ imagination as the series progressed.
RJ: Not so much as growing in my perception. I had a thought about how I wanted those people to grow. The first vision that came to me was the ending of the last book. The next things that came to me was Emondsfield. And I realized the book was going to take these people to turn them into those people you see in the last scene in the last book. So I knew how I was going to change them. Not all the mechanism of the changes but I knew how I was going to change them.

A question about if Jordan has be approached by movie makers and directors etc. and if he sat down with them.
RJ: There is a company called Red Eagle that has the options for the eye of the world to make the movie. I am waiting to see the outline from the screenwriters. Hmm, which is in effect telling me what of the book they want to keep and what they want to leave out of the book. Since you are not going to get the whole book into movie.
But if it’s actually going to be made. Even now I can’t say. Some years ago NBC optioned the eye of the world to make a six hour mini series. Less than two years after we had signed the contracts. eh They came with the screenwriter, who did the miniseries Merlin. Than two years after the contracts were signed, all the people who brought the project together had left NBC.

Are Ogier being able to dreamwalk?
RJ: no Ogier cannot dreamwalk.

Do you have more hope that the movie is going to be made and is the movie going to be a miniseries or a movie?
RJ: Actually, I have to tell you, I don’t really care. It would be nice, but if it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen. I am not a moviemaker. I write books. I will just write more books.

A question of me again. (sometimes me with my horrible accent has to repeat the question a few times, for him to get it) Although if I remember correctly it was Aan’ alleins question;)
How did Aginor manage to sense the Shadar Logoth dagger in the eotw?

RJ:That has to do with the end of Winters Heart. How many of you have read it?
(everyone but one raising hand, well at least after asking who has not read it)
It’s an effect of resonance. The dagger is the same evil as the evil of Shadar Logoth. You can say it’s diametrically opposite to the taint, that’s 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.

Me: So it doesn’t require actual channeling?
RJ: 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.

(hehe, YOU? NO, could be Fain. (Emma’s own speculation)

Do Seanchan Ogier have the Longing?
RJ: The longing is a effect of being separated from the stedding for a long time during the breaking. At the parts that later became the Seanchan empire, there were much more stedding. (through chance) So they were not separated from the stedding for so long.

So will there ever be a confrontation between the seanchan ogier and the other ogier?
RJ: They will meet….. (in other words RAFO)

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’angreals.
RJ: 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 it’s 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.

Tamyrlin:
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.

RJ: No… No to both.

What’s the favourite scene you wrote in the entire series?
RJ: My favourites scenes are the scenes I am writing. I like them all. (laughing)

How do the Atha’an Miere and the Amayar deal with male channelers?
RJ: 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.

Are we going to see more of Tremalking in the next book or of their prophecies?
RJ: In a way.

I know the male side of the source is clean but those who were driven mad before, will they be cured?
RJ : No. Whatever the degree of taint channelers have won’t change. (they won’t get more)

Zaela: Did Taim have motives for coming to Andor after he escaped the Aes sedai?
RJ: Ta eem, (he said it phonetically) (don’t know how to write down how to say it, but it’s not how most people say it)
RJ: Sure, he is a men who can channel. The aes sedai see him as a men 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 won’t be able to come after him.

(sorry Sodas, but at least he didn’t complete wipe out YOUR theory)

Now that you’ve finished Knife of Dreams, How many more books will there be?
RJ: I have said it before and will say it again. There will be one more book. Even if it has to be a 1500 page book. It will be the last book even if you have to use a luggage cart to move it (laughter and applause).

(Tamyrlin question removed at his request. He will post it later.)
comment by Isabel about answer for Tam’s question; hehe, sometimes you wish you hadn’t asked the question or only gotten a RAFO;)

Man walking around with microphone than made a comment to Isabel:D o you want me to just give that list to him (RJ)? (Emma’s list of questions) Tam, Emma and Andrea were passing the list around between themselves.

WSB: How was Nynaeve able to channel fire when she slept. (for ravhin scene)
RJ: In TAR you can channel fire. You can channel spirit only from your sleeping body but being in TAR is different and you can channel anything.

Is one of the effects of the taint to lower the boundaries between past lives or is Rand a special case?
RJ:RAFO

You say one more main sequence book after KOD but will there be any more.
RJ: I intend to do 2 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 EOTW. When I will do those 2 novels, I do not know.

Can you shield someone who is in TAR by shielding their sleeping body?
RJ: if you are injured in TAR it will be transferred to your body, but not vice versa.
Shielding someone in TAR it will shield the body, but shielding the body is not transferred to TAR. They can channel in TAR, but of course when they come out, they are shielded.

I have a question regarding the wolf brothers such as Perrin and Elyas and Thom’s nephew.
RJ: Thom’s nephew began to channel.
Oh. Anyway with all the wolf brothers coming out now, will there be a resurgence of even more wolfbrothers?
RJ:Could be.

Someone had a question 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?
RJ: It’s not a servant of the Dark One. It will kill Trollocs or anything else. You can say its a parasite that grew in the Ways because of the Taint and the one power that was used to initially create the Ways. The talisman of growing that was used to extend the Ways.
So it’s not a servant of the Dark One, but it’s definitely on the evil side.

Would it be cleaned with the Cleansing of Saidin.
RJ: No. It’s like a bacteria breed. Just by cleaning up the chemicals that caused the bacteria to come into existence, unless it’s feeding on that, those chemicals, you are not going to destroy the bacteria. You simply cut off what helped to create it.

Did you have the intention to explore what happened before the Breaking of the World?
RJ: No, anything I would do there would have a sense of inevitability. You know what’s going to happen.

The waxing and waning of the novels lengths your decision or the publishers?
RJ:It was my decision. I submit the manuscripts and they run with it.

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 been waiting there for them. Is Machin Shin in any way related to the evil of Shadar Logoth?
RJ: In some ways. Machin Shin is linked or you might say drawn to that. It’s 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 is at a fungus that was constructed with the wrong type of materials. If you think about it as that way you get a more idea about its true nature.

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?
RJo, there was no way to stop it or make it weaker (the SL 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.

WSB: Was Taim a sparker or a learner?
RJ: I am sorry? (didn’t quite get what WSB meant)
WSB: Did Taim had the spark or could he learn how to channel?
RJ: He was born with the Spark.

Question about his writing routine. Do you write the same amount each day?
RJ:He has breakfast, reads the newspaper, goes to his desk. Look at the emails I have to deal with. I cannot say go to Hell. Deal with the phone calls that have the same ranking. I am supposed to stop for lunch. I generally remember I have to stop for lunch about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I don’t often eat lunch. Than I go help Harriet to get dinner on the table. I do that pretty much 7 days a week. I don’t mind if I go fishing on a Wednesday or play golf. Last year I believe I played golf once and went fishing three times.

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.
RJ: 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.

A question about the Forsaken. It is said they have varying levels of strength in the one Power. Do you know where they rank?
RJ: Yes
I get the impression that Asmodean is weaker than Lanfear even before he was shielded. How much weaker etc.
RJ: 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.

Andrea: are Mins visions about the past or the future?
RJ: they are about the future.

Me: wanted to ask how min saw blood in taims future and his past… But they cut me off:p (I guess no time and we already gotten in many questions)

Everyone laughing when I tried to sneak in the follow up question.

If Galad and Rand were to fight with swords who would win? (laughter)
RJ: Well it’s not going to happen. I would say Rand would, at least until recently.

[Isabel]

Second day at Dragon Con – by Isabel

The night on Friday till Saturday I only got 4 hours sleep, because of transcribing the whole report and thinking about what to ask RJ. This morning I got help from a fellow theorylander called WSB. That’s why you have the whole picture. Now Tamyrlin is typing out all the question and answers of today. RJ answered a lot!!!!!!!

So here is the transcript. It’s ten pages long and you have to thank Tamyrlin for typing it all out. (but my taperecorder)
Saturday Q&A

Modest Fellow…(comment on the name of GlotD)

Great Lord of the Dark: You bio for dragon con shows you enjoy the sport of poker. Do you get the chance to play often, would you consider playing against fans, and how much would someone have to match you and raise the stakes by to get an answer to who killed Asmodean.

Jordan: As to playing with fans, no, I don’t want to take money from fans, and I don’t want you to take mine. And as for the raise of the bet of who killed Asmodean, you do not have enough money collectively.

Aubrey: Since we are unlikely to ever read of a raising of an Aes Sedai to the red ajah, can you tell us anything about the ajah secrets and/or rituals

Jordan: I meant to strike that out because there might be something about that in the next book. Some of the reasons why I drop questions is there is a possibility I am going to use that so I like these things to come as a surprise, so read and find out.

Tamyrlin: Have any of the members of your fandom affected your writing. For example have any of the latter minor characters been reflections or poked fun of anything you have read.
*comment by Isabel, somehow I thought it wasn’t tam who asked that question. But he is not here right now, so we hear it later. *
**Yes, I don't recall ever asking this question, I wouldn't have wasted a question on something like this, not sure why it was attributed to me...maybe someone else submitted it named Tamyrlin**

Jordan: No, no, I don’t believe in poking fun at my fans. (Tells a short story about using a name or two of individuals he has met…he mentions a couple of Aes Sedai names, missing Aes Sedai, from names of some fans who sent a letter to him without a return address.)

Frenzy: How can Slayer know that Rand is his nephew?

Jordan: The Shadow knows a lot about Rand, they know a lot about Perrin and Mat to, once they began to identify possibilities, they went hyper trying to get information because anything might be part of the key to controlling him.

Question: 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.

Jordan: 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.
*this is a question from theoryland, at least that’s what I remember *
*ouch and there I was thinking yesterday we had finally a case for Fain……. He should stop with ruling out every character. I am still not going for Greandal. Sorry, don’t see it. And I use almost the same quotes other people use to prove greandal did it, to prove she didn’t do it:p (comment by Isabel)

Emma: In the next book, Knife of Dreams, in comparison to the other books?

Jordan: I would say it is the same length as Winters Heart, perhaps a little longer. Hello Emma. I still don’t see that note from your mother allowing you to be here. Emma is only twelve, don’t believe what she says, she is only twelve.
*hehe, so funny, but sorry for this question. I posted this question before we got the information from dragonmount about the length of the book *

(Question about potential Movies I didn’t care to transcribe)

(Question on Comics, I didn’t care to transcribe)

Michelle: What does it mean when dresses are slashed with a color.

Jordan: There are two possibilities meanings to this. The most usual one is that there is an underskirt of the color that says it is slashed with. The outer skirt has a slit in it, a slash, which is sown in such a way that it is always open thus revealing its underneath color. The other way of doing this is there is this sort of pocket sown on the inside of that slash of the second color, so you are looking through the outer skirt into a depth, so it looks like it is a little pocket that other color in the skirt. This is not my invention, they did they during the renaissance, and I believe earlier as well.

Question: 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? (Some of this question paraphrased)?

Jordan: There are thirteen towers of midnight. The Towers of Midnight are a fortress complex, and were, at the time this happened, Shandar 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.

Sodas: Is there anything you can tell us about Taim’s choice to head to Andor after his escape.

Jordan: 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 there 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.

Frenzy: Elaida slipped through the cracks uncaught by the red ajah scheme twenty years ago that had a name called the Vileness (Couldn’t understand the first part of this question, so I am sure Frenzy can give the correct version of this question submitted to Age of Legends) How did Elaida and Galena for that matter manage to slip through when three sitters did not?

Jordan: Elaida slipped through largely because she was minimally involved. Galena 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.

Question: Why was the infant Isam sparred death at the hand of the Trollocs?

Jordan: Possible political use later. You’ve got somebody who is related to the royal family of milkier 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.

Question: Was Isam raised by the shadow directly, by his mother, or by someone else?

Jordan: By someone else. Read and find out.

(Question about playing RPG’s, which I have not transcribed)

Aubrey: During the raising tests for Accepted and Aes Sedai, are the ladies taking the tests actually inside of the World of Dreams.

Jordan: No…the…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.

Question: What is the title are used for the members of the Brown Ajah council?

Jordan: 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 importants things than this organization stuff.

Sara Part 1: When out of the three thousand year sleep, were the Forsaken still wearing the clothes from the time they were imprisoned?

Jordan: Yes, they were.

Sara Part 2: How does the process of waking up work, and were they conscious of it happening to them and or the other forsaken?

Jordan: 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 unaged, looking exactly as they did, but Aginor and Balthamel although wearing the close they wore, and the 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.

Question: Will we ever find out what happened when Elayne went through the arches?

Jordan: Probably not, maybe, but probably not.

(Skipped: A question about how Nynaeve knew about the Kinsain custom, to which Jordan then goes on to discourse on male and female relationship, which was funny, about women seeing men like peeling and onion, and men being goldfish that need to keep flopping, so women don’t walk away, by preserving secrets, not forever, but enough that may be upsetting that just when she thinks she knows you, such a secret is revealed, and she then realizes there…anyway, you had to be there)
*Isa here, I will make a transcript about this…….It’s a question from the Official Nynaeve Fanclub and I want the full words here *

Question: Can a damane who has been burned out or stilled continue to be controlled by the a’dam?

Jordan: No.

Question: Who was the third blue ajah sitter who didn’t make it to Salidar, what became of her?

Jordan: Well, she died. She was one of the ones who was killed after Siuan was deposed and everything went to hell in a hand basket inside the tower.

Question: Since Sul’dam have abilities normally associated with channelers only, do they also slow?
Jordan: 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.

Question: The auras that Min sees, would they ever show the person’s past or other elements that are simply unique to that person.

Jordan: No, it is the future.

(Question about Internet following that I am not transcribing) * perhaps I will transcribe it later)

Question: Can someone who can learn to channel, but lacks the inborn spark, begin to channel unconsciously, like those wilders who created mental blocks, or must they be taught by an outside teacher?

Jordan: Well, they don’t necessarily have to be taught by an outside teacher, but they must make the effort, they are not going to begin to channel unconsciously. Nynaeve taught herself to channel, in effect, she did so without an outside teacher, but if she had never made an effort, its desperation and need in her case, and trying so hard, you might call it unconscious if you wanted to. But if something were to happen with someone who was born with the spark, who is going to channel eventually whether she tries or not. There has to be for the one who is born without the spark, there either has to be a teacher or some kind of effort to channel, which in Nynaeve’s case came because she was so desperate, (…) she would have done anything to try and save the kids.



Question: Previously you have made it known that an individual who is stilled 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?

Jordan: 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 stilling affects that except in this lifetime, your current lifetime.

Question: 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.

Jordan: 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.

Question: I have a follow up to a question you just answered. 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.

Jordan: 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 cant knowingly tell a lie.

(I did not transcribe questions about a physics degree, the word for spear, the storyboard for the books, and whether or not Book 11 is actually going to be released on the date it is scheduled to release on in Oct, and one about Agelessness)

Question: In a previous interview I saw with you online, and you sort of waffled back and forth on whether it will be 12 or 13 books, and…

Jordan: I am committed it is going to be 12 books, even if it is fifteen hundred pages long and it requires you to bring a luggage cart to get it out of the store. Bring your knapsack, you may need it, because no matter what the case that is going to be it.

Emma: Was Taimandred a deliberate ruse to lead your readers astray, or were you surprised (by the all of the theories connecting Taim to Demandred)?

Jordan: I was surprised…but I wasn’t going to disabuse you of it for a while, I like to watch you squirm.

Winespringbrother Part 1: Why Padan Fain go to Falme and why did he leave before Rand arrived.

Jordan: 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.

Winespringbrother Part 2: Why did he leave before Rand arrived, because he must have sensed Rand was near.

Jordan: 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.

Question: 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…

Jordan: 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.

Question: Why is it that the Chosen and Lews Therin speak a language that Rand and everyone else can understand?

Jordan: 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.

Question: 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 creater, was it ….

Jordan: You believe Ishamael??? Sorry, man, but c’mon!

Question by Aan’ allein: A couple of related questions on souls. Can they be split? Is it true you can meet yourself in the worlds of If, is that a copy of the soul, a reflection, or the same soul living in different worlds.

Jordan: I think I will have to give you a RAFO on this, except for the part, souls cannot be split, but the other, I think I will have to give you a RAFO because I may be doing something with that.

(Token religion question I am omitting…look, I am tired, give me a break)

Tamyrlin: 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?

Jordan: RAFO, sorry.

Question: 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.

Jordan: 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.
**hehe, another theory busted, and a very interesting answer. I am going for shadar logoth now*

Question Part 2: In that case, what was Lanfear doing?

Jordan: 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.

Question: When you first starting thinking about the series and thinking about writing it when you were naming things, and places and people, did you have any sort of process or did you say, hey that sounds cool?

Jordan: Well, I don’t know, it is a combination of things. I gave this recently, so it is probably already on the net. How did I come up with the division of the One Power, the male and female half. I had seen a novel, there are a lot now, but this was the first I had seen like this. Young woman wants to be whatever it was, a magician, whatever, but she can’t because she is a woman, and women aren’t allowed to do that so she is going to struggle through it. I thought it was interesting, one of the earlier novels of the feminist struggle, and all that. I put it back, because it didn’t seem something I cared to read, but I thought about it because the thought that occurred to me is okay, that’s real easy, women aren’t allowed to do this, it is historically based or grounded at least, what if it was men who couldn’t, now how would that be, as my wife points out to me, we have the upper body strength, and she is convinced all of the inequities in the world vis a vis gender, are subject to the fact that we have all the upper body strength, and I am sorry about that baby, I ain’t giving it up. So, how could there be a situation where men were not allowed to do this, and it does not somehow get itself reversed over time, add into this I wanted a near gender equal world as I could, …and how could I have a situation where women could maintain gender equality. Okay, now I split men and women have different sources of power and the male source of power is tainted. Okay, you’ve gotta stop men…and at the same time, out of this beginning came the division of the one power, the white tower existing as the political center of power for three thousand years, false dragon, the destruction of the world by men, false dragons arising periodically to remind humanity exactly why men can’t be allowed to channel and why the white tower must remain the center of political power. A lot of stuff came out of that one notion.

Question: Have you seen or noticed anything unusual this weekend at Dragon Con?

Jordan: I have noticed a dearth in edible vamparella (sp?) costumes.

Question: I have a question regarding the RPG based on the Wheel of Time. And that is, can someone who can channel and creates gateways, control the orientation of it…for example if you are falling off a cliff, you open a gateway directly beneath you, and the orientation throws you up so you reduce all of your velocity do you don’t die on impact?

Jordan: I really don’t want to get involved in the game. But I have to tell you something, if I had someone falling off a cliff that could channel, I think I would have him use any number of ways that are a lot simpler such as grabbing hold of the cliff face with flows of air. The other way sounds like a good way to end up jello.

Question Part 1: 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.

Jordan: Read and Find Out.

Question Part 2: 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?

Jordan: Read and Find Out

Question Part 1: 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.

Jordan: They were not the oath rods.

Question Part 2: Well are they positions of power, were they people, or were they actual rods.

Jordan: 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.
**There goes another theory**

Question: Does Mat’s amulet protect him from the True Power?

Jordan: Read and find out.

Question: In the Age of Legends, the soldiers used shocklances, were they projectile, energy…

Jordan: Think of it as a…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 jocars…and there is no industrial base to provide replacement for them

Tamyrlin: I’m trying to verify Rand’s impression he has at the end of book four, regarding the connection he cuts of 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?

Jordan: No, because what you are thinking of wasn’t a connection, Rand thought it was.
**poor Tam **

[Isabel]

Dragon Con ’05 – Question and Answers Session – 9/4/05

(Robert and Harriet introduce themselves)

(Skipped first question, “what are you doing when you aren’t doing wot track stuff at Dragon Con…)

Question: […] 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)

Jordan: 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.

(Skipped question about what is it like to edit these books, to Harriet. Harriet enjoys editing the books, and even she asks him why he can’t include her favorite character, etc. Jordan contributed to the answer, he discussed how he considers the books as one story)

(Skipped question, by Tamyrlin (the guy writing this transcript), to Harriet, sort of a joke about something previously mentioned by Jordan in another Q&A about male and female relationships. Harriet went on to say that RJ was the perfect man. To which RJ responded that he is in fact the greatest embodiment of what women want in men, Jordan calls himself gullible, he says he believes anything women tell him, although he does mention he knows he is gullible in this way, so he is suspect of what women tell him. He then goes on to give a short piece of advice on how to make women happy. Rule #1 – Make her laugh, Rule #2 – Put the toilet seat down.)

WinespringBrother: Can you describe the relationship between the Aelfinn and Eelfinn?

Jordan: RAFO

Isabel: When Mat had the dagger, and Verin and Moiraine 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?

Jordan: 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 know. In fact, a lot of people belive they know more than they actually know. It is one of the themes I have running through the books, whatever you think you know, some of it is almost certainly wrong. 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 cannot stop, you cannot afford the luxury of saying, well I don’t know everything and something I know may be wrong, so I am not going to do anything, I am going to sit here and wait and see if I can find out some more, because that only leads to sitting still forever.

Question: 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?

Jordan: 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.

Question Part 1: 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?

Jordan: 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..ah…it is really quite immense.

Question Part 2: So, the sun will never go nova, will never die?

Jordan: In this universe, no.

Question Part 1: 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 Ferrier, and she said you need to do this and you need to do that, but otherwise it is okay.

Harriet: This woman, was t 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.

Question Part 2: I was interested in how the physics like with the Mirror Worlds, the world of if?

Jordan: 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 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 PHd’s 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 …

(Skipped question about how he can do what others can’t – he talks about being picked up by a woman, when he was very young, during which his face plunges into her cleavage…and she ruffles his hair, and called him precocious…from which moment he was fascinated with, a life long fascination of women. He said that in his family every last man is strong, because the women in his family kill and eat the weak ones).

Question: 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?

Jordan: I am sorry this is a RAFO

Question: Yesterday, you said something about Nynaeve that made it sound as if she doesn’t have the spark, does she have the spark?

Jordan: 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 who happen later to Rand, by the way. Often the thing, that as I believe has been point 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.

Question: 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 silver dagger to be a weapon, silver is really iron?

Jordan: Why the Finns didn’t consider the dagger to be a weapon?

Question: Yes.

Jordan: No, I am going to have to RAFO that one, it is going to give away too much.

WinespringBrother: How did Bashere and his army manage to track Taim hundreds of miles?

Jordan: Because a man like Mazrim Taim leaves a trail, even when he is trying to travel quietly, traveling quietly is not in his character.

(Skipped question to Harriet about how Jordan may have tricked her in the past, as he has done to his readers about where he was going with something or another. She focuses on two incidents when he tricked her with the books. She makes a point out of the Sword in the Stone coming to her after having read the entire book, she didn’t make the connection to Arthurian legend until she was writing the flap cover. )

Isabel Part 1: Will Nynaeve be able to make Cuendillar?

Jordan: I doubt it, it is as much talent as it is strength. And I don’t think she has that talent.

Isabel Part 2: And can men make Cuendillar?

Jordan: Yes. But they won’t use the same weaves the women use, so they will have to figure out how to do it themselves unless they can get it from one of the male forsaken, if he happens to know it. It is an oddity that Moghedien even knew how to do this, its just her fascination with things that are valuable.

Question: 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?

Jordan: I think you are going to have to think of it as being on a quantum level.

Question: It seems to me that Rand has a half brother, and I was wondering if any of the characters knew and if it mattered?

Jordan: RAFO

(Skipped question to Harriet about a subject of questions she is surprised fans aren’t asking about. She jokes that we aren’t asking about Bela. She says she can’t think of anything we don’t ask about.)

Question: 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?

Jordan: 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.

Question: 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?

Jordan: Read and Find Out.

Question: This is a question about the Great Hunt. 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?

Jordan: 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.

Tamyrlin: 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?

Jordan: They lead to Mirror Worlds, the Portal Stones can take you to Mirror Worlds, not to Parallels, which are separate.

(Skipped question about the quality of writers in North Caroline and the Citadel. They some how get into a discussion about dead mules, and how no one ever sees a dead mule, and how southern literature is supposed to contain dead mules. Jordan has ridden a mule, by the way.)

WinespringBrother Part 1: Do the Forsaken get reports from rats and ravens?

Jordan: Eventually. Not from every rat or every raven, but eventually.

WinespringBrother Part 2: Is there any way to distinguish one that is the eyes and ears of the Dark One.

Jordan: No.

Question: Going back to mythology and the way that you reference everything from the western European triple goddess through Arthur to the oriental warrior ethos and everything in between. I was wondering if you could speak to way drew you to any of those particular aspects that you synthesized into this universe, and was this kind of synthesis something you deliberately set out to do?

Jordan: Yes, I found them all interesting, is what directed me to them. There are many books which are based upon one myth or perhaps I should say one country’s myths. There are many Arthurian novels, there are many novels based on one continent or another, one nation or another. A few, I don’t know too many based on Chinese or Japanese mythologies, but there are some. It seemed to me within the borders of the United States, I could find representatives of almost every culture of the world, not just one or two, I could find perhaps communities, and given that, it seemed to me a truly American fantasy would be based on the myths of every possible culture that could be included, so I went gathering. As I say, I was fascinated by many of these myths beforehand, but, myths and legends, and I went hunting for what I could use.

(Skipped “pronunciation” question, I will never say TaEEM!)

Question: Do males with the spark also become wilders with blocks then?

Jordan: 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.

Question: While reading the whole series of books, I find myself seeing some aspects of Mat, Rand, and Perrin…I was wondering as you were creating these characters, what parts of yourself did you see in these three characters and then what parts of yourself does your wife see in these characters that you have created?

Jordan: Well, I don’t know, as I like to point out, Lan was the guy I grew up wanting to emulate. Mat is the side of me that at fourteen was passing myself off at twenty and picking up college girls in bars on North Market St. Perrin is the side of me who knew I was bigger than kids of my own age, so I did not have a fight with any single person, there were some times where kids of my own age decided since I was too big to fight one on one, it was quite alright to come at me with five or six together, but the only fights I had one on one until I got into the army, were with kids who were three to six years older than I was, because I was going to hurt the other guys, I was afraid of kids of my own age, I would walk away from a fight with kid of my own age because I was bigger than he was, I was going to hurt him, there was that out of me in Perrin. And in Rand, I don’t know, I don’t know what there is of Rand in me, except that I always felt like an outsider, even when I was an insider, I felt like an outsider.

(Skipped question: Asked Harriet how often she was RAFO’d, never she says, but she says she doesn’t want to get it from him, she wants to read it, and so he says he doesn’t tell her, because it would affect what she does as an editor. Harriet says she knows the general gist of the final scene of the last book in the series. Jordan jokes about RAFO’ing Harriet regarding the meal he wanted for dinner, RAFO.)

Question: Can you make music using just the one power?

Jordan: Yes, you could.

Question: With regards to healing stilling vs. being burned out. There are a lot of theories online that you can heal stilling but you cannot heal being burnt out. Is that true?

Jordan: Read and Find Out.

Camel: I know a lot of questions have been asked and I was wondering if either of you knew of a question we haven’t asked that you think we should have asked already, and what would that be?

Jordan: You really think I am going to be that easy. I mean I am gullible, but that’s with women, Jack!

Question: 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?

Jordan: Yes, a deliberate choice, yes.

Question: You have said, you are going to keep the series to twelve books. Since we are on eleven, what comes after book twelve, what do you plan to do after that?

Jordan: At some point I will do the two prequel novels that I talked about, the two other prequel novels, besides New Spring. But, primarily I will give Harriet a small hand on a project she has signed a contract for, she’s gonna do an encyclopedia of the Wheel of Time which will have all of the characters, all of the terms, all of the invented words, and roughly and a roughly eight hundred fifty to nine hundred vocabulary in the old tongue. What I will be starting with is a trilogy called Infinity of Heaven, which will be a different universe, different world, different set of rules, different cultures. One culture that you meet eventually will be as close to being inside the Seanchan empire as you can come but this culture is even more stratified both vertically and horizontally than the Seanchan empire, much more like ancient Japan truly was, or really like medieval Japan truly was. It’s funny I talked about book I’m gonna call Shipwrecked, some of you may have heard of that. Shipwrecked is actually the second volume of the Infinity of Heaven trilogy, because I realized I needed more of the setup and as I did more of the setup I realized I had another novel here. It could not be the first part of the novel to do that, it had to be this was a novel in itself. So in these things I had thought ten or twelve years ago, would be a trilogy, has become two trilogies, but I intend to try and hold it to that very tightly.

Question: I guess I have two questions after hearing that. One is, are we going to see a full version of the prophecies of the Dragon in the encyclopedia?

Jordan: No, the prophecies would be a volume in themselves, and I don’t think I am going to go into that. I will admit I have not written out a complete set of the prophecies. I have the prophecies written out that I needed, but not the others.

Question Part 2: Can a person who cannot channel the one power, can they use the true source of the Dark One?

Jordan: No.

Question: 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?

Jordan: No, Tam had no inkling of this.

Here is a report of the questions we were able to ask Jordan during the book signings over the last few days. There is too much to report, but this should be a good slice of information for everyone to chew on.

t.

[Isabel]

Questions by Isabel at Book Signing:

Isabel: Since you said Galad fancied Nynaeve first. But in the Great Hunt I thought he fancied Egwene first because he asked Egwene for a walk in the garden.

Jordan: Galad just thought Egwene was pretty and that it would be nice to walk with her. (Harriet added that it doesn’t always have to be love at first site.)



*I wanted to ask RJ some more about the Galad fancied Nynaeve thing. I searched up the quotes in book 2 that pointed to Egwene. (didn’t have 3 with me and no good acces to internet or my notes)
With this answer I really think there are much more relations and mistaken thought by characters than we thought. Gawyn thought Galad fancied Egwene, remember….. And not all quotes are what they seem to be. I think 90 percent of the people or even more just assumed the Elayne quote was a mistake. I certainly did!!!*

Questions by Isabel at Book Signing, 9/4/05:

Isabel: Nynaeve was born with the spark, right?

Jordan: Yes.

Isabel: Because yesterday there was a question about Learners…

Jordan: …somebody who is not born with the spark, but is born with the ability to learn, could they begin channeling unconsciously. And no, they could not, they would have to make a conscious effort. They could make a conscious effort without a teacher and maybe succeed, but without a teacher they’ve got a very small chance of actually doing it.

Isabel: Someone (on the internet) has mentioned that you met them in a restroom, and you told them who killed Asmo…

Jordan: No, I did not.

Questions WSB Asked at Book Signing, 9/3/05:

WinespringBrother: Do the Finns inhabit a perpendicular world?

Jordan: No, it is a parallel world.

WinespringBrother: Does the physical location of the world of Finns have anything to do with the bells ringing when the ta’veren were in together?

Jordan: No.

WinespringBrother: Have the Finns existed as long as the Wheel?

Jordan: Yes.

WinespringBrother: Do they have souls?

Jordan: Yes.

WinespringBrother: Are the Finns from human stock?

Jordan: No.

WinespringBrother: Did they originate in their current location?

Jordan: Yes.

WinespringBrother: Are they related to T’A’R or do they control T’A’R?

Jordan: No.

Questions WSB asked at Book Signing, 9/4/05:

WinespringBrother: Is Shaidar Haran an avatar to the world beyond the Bore?

Jordan: 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.

WinespringBrother: Is it twenty four seven, or just part time.

Jordan: Twenty four seven.

Winespringbrother: Ohh.

Harriet: Shaidar Haran has another life in the suburbs…☺

WinespringBrother: Yeah, he has two and half little fades running around

Harriet: He has to go home for the weekend to cut the grass…I don’t think so.

WinespringBrother: How old is Taim and has he slowed?

Jordan: 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.

Questions Tam asked at Book Signing, 9/3/05?

Tamyrlin: You have been killing my theories left and right since I got here.

Jordan: I have always thought that the small whimper of a theory as it dies is a beautiful sound.

(General laughter all around)

Tam: Ouch…Okay, now that you have killed my black cord theory, are the oath and covenants Forsaken make with the DO necessary for the DO to transmigrate a soul?

Jordan: They are not necessary, but he is not likely to do it for anyone who hasn’t done, who hasn’t sworn to him.

Tam: He doesn’t have access to all souls to be able to grab any soul?

Jordan: 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)…,

Tamyrlin: 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?

Jordan: 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, he’s 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.

Tamyrlin: Okay.

Isabel: Have you started writing the next book already?

Jordan: In a sort of desultory way, working, the week after I handed in the final manuscript, and sent it off to New York, I started working half day here, three quarter day there, a half day again…

Tamyrlin: Well, I am hoping for that fifteen hundred page book…

Jordan: It may be […] I am not saying it will be that big […] and I will fight them doing a George R.R Martin on me.

Tamyrlin: Yeah, please do.

Camel: Yeah, where’s your hat, your little, in your picture, I was really looking forward to seeing the hat.

Jordan: I didn’t bring the black one this time, I brought a brown one. I thought it might get rained on a lot…

Camel: I was really looking forward to the hat.

Questions asked by Tamyrlin at Book Signing, 9/4/05

Tamyrlin: The Finns reside in a Parallel world, is that correct?

Jordan: Yes.

Tamyrlin: Okay, so are Parallel worlds and Mirror worlds the same thing?

Jordan: No, they are different.

Tamyrlin: Okay, well then do Parallel Worlds have their own reflections?

Jordan: Possibly.

Tamyrlin: Did Lanfear get the opportunity to ask the finns, to make a wish, after going through the doorway with Moiraine?

Jordan: Read and find out.

Tamyrlin: Okay, well, then did Moiraine get the opportunity to make a wish?

Jordan: Read and find out

[Shandy]

Thankyou so much! You guys rawk I totally rely on you to get the Nyn questions asked, and you do so with style... great job!

[Isabel]

Haha, thanks:)

[HammerOfGod]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D