From: darknite@camelot.bradley.edu (John S. Novak III)
Subject: Re: Aes Sedai
Keywords: Sedai
Organization: Bradley University
Date: 25 Jan 93 21:59:41 GMT

In <1993Jan25.183058.21079@cc.gatech.edu> erica@cc.gatech.edu (Erica Liebman Sadun) writes:

>(1) Who is jaim farstrider.  Indications are (strong strong hints) that 
>	he is still alive. Could he be Thom? After all, Morraine was
>	fairly certain that he was still alive after the Fade got him.
>	Why was that?

I don't know. 
Occam's razor would disctate that, as Morraine knew Thom from
'before', that she knew that he was mean enough to survive a
fight with a Fade.  After all, its not impossible-- indeed, as
the story goes on, and the point of view changes from scared
teenagers' to powerful young mens', the fades become less
terrifying, and more simply dangerous.

>(2) What the HECK are the Aelfin and Elfin up to.  Why can't they stand
>	iron or music or light?  And why does it occur to me that
>	neither the tinks nor the aiels carry swords (iron)? And what
>	are the implications of Mat carrying the steel ("well heck it's not
>	iron") into one of the gates. Remember, Rand is supposed to break
>	swords and turn 'em into leaves. (way thereof?) and the Aiel
>	and the Tinks neither carry swords.

This ranges into the area of _pure_ speculation, since I don't
think anyone has enough information to make a good decision.

No iron is obviously a reference to the weakness of Earth's faery
forces to iron.  No music might imply that there is a particular
form of music to which they are vulnerable-- perhaps the Lost
Song of the Travelling People?  No light could have any number of
meanings.

Their game, however, might be a bit more complicated than the one
played out in the 'real' world.  After all, we know that there
are a number of different worlds all connected by the Travelling
Stones.  We saw a number of them the first time Rand used them.
Some of them seem populated, some not.  Is it possible that the
Aelfinn and the Eelfinn homespace can be accessed or can access
more than one of these worlds directly?  Their goals might
involve shifting the probabilities of worlds'
occurance/dominance.  The biggest question, though, is whether
they have any concern for the war between Shadow and Light, and
how they will be affected by the outcome.

Also, I always had the idea that neither Tinkers nor Aiel carried
swords because they were told not to by the Aes Sedai before the
Breaking.  The original Aiel (the now non-existant Jenn Aiel)
held fast to the rule of 'no weapons, and go west.'  The present
day Aiel corrupted the 'no weapons' into a 'no weapons to be used
exclusively on humans.'  They fudged a loophole, though, so that
_hunting_ weapons could be used on humans.  The Tinkers kept the
rule about no weapons, but gave up the journey.

I didn't think it had anything to do with the Aelfinn or Eelfinn.

>(3) Who was Mat? In rereading, I realize that he can't be King Arthur because
>	Art is one of the dead heroes that stops by to say hi y'all and 
>	call Rand Lewin.  My guess is aemon.  Clues: Red Eagle, massive
>	gambler and that battle scene against the thousands of ravening
>	trollocs.

Aemon's a good assumption.
I'm not yet totally convinced, though.

>(7) >Random guess: I think Gaebril is Rahvin, from the events when Mat
>    >delivered the letter and from Moghedien's comments on Rahvin.  As he
>    >apparently came from the direction of the Manetheren waygate, he may
>    >be unable to Travel, making him one of the weaker Forsaken.
>    Who are these people?  For that matter, exactly how many forsaken are there
>    and have we met or killed them all yet?

The Forsaken were thirteen Aes Sedai who, during the first
recorded war against the Shadow, sided with the Shadow rather
than against him.  They were defeated by Lews Therin.  

There are, I believe, thirteen of the Forsaken, and not all of
them are dead.  I don't think we've met all of them, either.
Granted, I can't remember the names of the two forsaken who
appeared near the end of TEotW, but I don't think Rahvin was
among them.

>(8) What IS the song of the Nim?  What did the Green Man have to do with them?
>    Clearly, the green man was not human.

Its not yet clear.  Not to me, anyway.
But it seems apparent that the Green Man is at least associated
with the Nim, the Nim being a race of large people, larger than
Ogiers, who lived before and shortly after the Breaking of the
World.  I believe the Nim were also associated with the Ogiers
themselves.

I seem to remember their song being something akin to the Ogiers'
ability to sing to trees, and prodcue growth.  I don't know why
they died, or where they went.

I speculate, on gut instinct alone, that the song of the Nim is
the song for which the Tinkers search.  No evidence.

>(9) I love numbered lists.

Whee.


--
"Dave's Black Box Theory:
     You just worry about the input and the output; you don't worry about
     the sh*t in between."
John S. Novak, III		darknite@camelot.bradley.edu