Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

He's been doing lots of important things.

Why do you think RJ straight up said that Taim wasn't Demandred when he could've just said RAFO and kept everyone guessing?

I think he was tired of people all looking in the same place.

The duration varies from man to man; the circumstances are different, and the men themselves. Nobody really knows how long the process takes (or has to take), since once you start channeling the Aes Sedai usually find you pretty quickly, and gentling stops the progression of the madness and the taint (though it does not cure what's already happened). Channeling is addictive; once you've done it, you can't stop. The Breaking took about a hundred years before all the men finally died, though some of them did shelter in the stedding for a while. Nobody knows how long the process takes, except that there is variation. It's all in my notes.

But what about Taim? Isn't fifteen years something really exceptional? [Subtext: Is he Demandred???]

Read and Find Out.

The answer is: Women usually slow at twenty, sometimes a little earlier, but usually around there. Men wouldn't slow until twenty-five, usually closer to thirty. He claims that they could go past thirty, but that probably depends on how early they start and how much they channel.

So, if Taim started at twenty or so, like Rand (actually, that's later than Rand), and channeled a reasonable amount, he would probably slow at twenty-seven or thereabouts. After all, Nynaeve started probably at sixteen or seventeen, and only channeled on the uncommon occasion that someone was dying in her presence of some disease, and slowed at twenty-three (that's the age Setalle Anan thought she was, but she's twenty-six). That's seven years or so.

Well, Taim looks thirty-five, according to Rand. He shouldn't. Even if he didn't slow until he was thirty-two, Rand still wouldn't have estimated him as being as much as fifteen years older than he was. So, my conclusion—Taim is Demandred. Only a Forsaken could look that old, given the slowing. Yes, I know it's not solid, irrefutable evidence, but it's still good evidence. That's my two cents.

Ryan R. "He Who Just Missed Coming With the Dawn"

Uh yeah, uh well, no no. Uh, some of them do, yes, some of them have ageless faces, but not all of them.

But do the two who were in the circle with Flinn have ageless faces?

Oh, let's see.. oh, the two who were in the circle with Min?

Flinn.

Flinn, ah... Just trying to remember which ones I had with which one...

Sarene and Corele.

Sarene Nemdahl does have an ageless face and ehh... I think Masuri... no Masuri was not.... I'm sorry, I actually forgot who I...

[And then the silly man who had done the interview interrupted us and talked about the time and that it was getting late. So I thanked Jordan and circled around the line to go stand close to the table where he was signing, see if I could pick up any more interesting tidbits. Well, at least we now know for sure that one of the Aes Sedai had an ageless face, so that Demandred should have seen this if he was as close to them as those opposing Taimandred claim.]

RAFO.

Naturally :( .

Would Taim have recognised Flinn, in that position?

Yes.

Not expected, but not helpful either because of [the previous answer].

Did you intend in Winter's Heart to make it clear that Demandred is not Taim?

RAFO.

Obvious :D .

Ah...no, they were eh... [long silence while he's thinking] no, no, no...Damer Flinn and Corele eh... no, no, that's meters...just some meters. Err, they couldn't have come face-to-face. That's eh... Yeah, it's not a short, not a really...not like you and me.

...he didn't see the ageless faces...

... [nothing really, he was done signing then, but no contradiction either]

The general idea I now have is that it was something like 10, maybe 20 meters between them. Not the 100+ meters I'd kinda expected.

All in all it was a pretty short session, but well worth it, even with all the added travel time.

Hrm, but that wasn't all. I distinctly remember someone asking, "Did Demandred recognize Flinn?", getting answered RAFO, followed by a question "Would Taim recognize Flinn in a similar circumstance?", being answered that "yes, he should" if the distance wasn't too large or something.

But then I mentioned that the distance wasn't all that great, just a couple of meters, he'd said so just a few days before, and he looked at me in a way that said, "you know all you need to know about this, I'm not going to make it any more obvious."

Aan'allein

I know it isn't proof, and I hate my guts for not taping this so I'm capable of showing something tangible, but the way it was all said, the way it played out...I don't believe Taimandred anymore. Not just because of this actually. I already had the feeling last Friday, after another mention of the "seen something pretty out of the corner of their eye / for the last third they must have read someone else's books" about the FAQ. Although there was something more, something about that he doesn't work "that way." Again it wasn't anything concrete, but at that point I began to doubt all our "person x = person y" theories. Added to his look at my remark about the distance (which he told me himself just two days before; he really shouldn't have tried to evade the Taim question using that), I've stopped believing in Taimandred. I hope KuraFire has a good recollection of exactly what Jordan said here.

Oh, by the way, it is pronounced Taa-eem, not tame.