Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

KEVIN BARTLETT

I was fortunate enough to attend the Robert Jordan book signing at the Barnes and Noble in San Jose near where I live in California, and I figured everyone might be interested to hear what it was like.

RJ was scheduled to appear at 7pm, so, my (much more dedicated friend who drove seven hours from LA) went down to get in line around 3pm. Shortly after he arrived, he called to warn me, "The guy next to me says that last year, the line wrapped around the building!" So, I took the afternoon off work and headed down to ye olde book store.

I got there around 4, and about seven people were in line. Surprisingly, only three of us had read Winter's Heart, so we went off into the onsite coffee shop, and had a few hours of hard core Jordan discussion. We went back and forth on a lot of the issues in Winter's Heart: Demandred (we really wanted to be convinced that the evidence was inconclusive—IMHO, RJ is a huge, deceptive tease otherwise), the possibilities for Slayer as Asmodean's killer (Sure, he really looks like it now—but did we really have enough evidence to guess it was him pre-Lord of Chaos?), whether Sammael is alive, whether he's directing the slayer, if Moridin was just sending the Forsaken off to "pay the butcher's bill" rather than actually stopping Rand, if Olver was Gaidal (this never dies!), and if a Well explained Verin's delving in the stedding.

Naturally, all this rampant Jordanism led into what questions we would ask Jordan. I had brought a notebook, and wrote down a few of my favorites:

—How many more of your books will feature nude women slapping each other? Is there any possibility they will be illustrated?

—Is it now crystal clear who Asmodean's killer is? [I know what poor luck Asmodean questions have—but I figured a quasi-indirect one might get by.]

—What can you tell us specifically about the compulsion used by Aes Sedai in the Warder bond? What effect, if any, does channeling have on preventing this? Is it sufficient to just be holding saidar/saidin to avoid this effect?

—Is Machin Shin a result of the Dark One's taint on saidin being used in the creation of the Ways, or a result of some portion of the corruption of Shadar Logoth creeping into the Ways via the Waygate there? Or is it something completely orthogonal to both these powers, merely being a parasite that showed up once the place began to grow dim?

—Were The Path of Daggers and Winter's Heart originally meant to be one book? Why was the book jacket changed?

—What does the title Dragon mean, historically speaking? Was there some deeper significance to Lews Therin Telamon being named that, or was it because dragons have always been historically badasses?

—What happens to an Aes Sedai's Warder bond if she enters a stedding? Can she still detect it? What if I tie off a weave, and enter a stedding? If the weave vanishes, will it reappear when I leave? If it won't reappear, why can't shielded/tied channelers such as Asmodean or Liandrin simply enter a stedding to have their shield dissolved?

So, naturally, my friend and I didn't have time to ask all these questions, but it was quite an event.

Then, I asked my question, which concerned the Warder bond and the stedding.

QUESTION

What happens to an Aes Sedai's Warder bond if she enters a stedding? Can she still detect it? What if I tie off a weave, and enter a stedding? If the weave vanishes, will it reappear when I leave? If it won't reappear, why can't shielded/tied channelers such as Asmodean or Liandrin simply enter a stedding to have their shield dissolved?

Brandon Downey

Robert Jordan

Brandon Downey

Robert Jordan

Brandon Downey