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Tor QotW #9 hints at the physical size of the body limiting the quantity that can be channeled... Shannow Send a noteboard - 06/06/2010 06:42:22 PM

Men can't feel the ability in others unless they are holding the power.


Yeah, men can sense nothing unless the man decides to hold saidin.

As for Cyndane, I think she's got a true strength reduction, much like Siuan and Leane. I don't think any tied off shield could hold Lanfear. She mocks Asmodean about it, implying that she has a shield-breaking Talent, and even Aginor claims that he can break any shield with time.

My two theories on Cyndane are that she either has a body that can't support her strength in the Power, or that she was Healed by the Black Ajah. Both theories have serious flaws, but I don't think there's anything better out there.


I'll point you to the Osan'gar/Aran'gar intro scene too. Aginor specifically points out whatever Shaidar Haran didn't to cut their access to the Source, it wasn't like a shield and there was no way to break it.

It's not a large leap to make to speculate if Shaidar Haran can temporarily make it as if you were severed or had never had the ability at all, it may well be possible that Shai'tan can on a permanent basis (permanent only if he doesn't undo it, maybe) reduce your strength with some sort of TP shield.

I don't see anything in the books or quotes that eliminate this as a possibility.

If Jordan has left clues to puzzle out what happened to Cyndane (I'm not convinced he did, but maybe) then this might be it.

Cyndane seems way too strong for BA healing, I think, and it's unlikely she was stilled. If she lost her ability, it would be by being burned out, not stilled. It's hard to think any BA could better what Nynaeve did with her weave. It's hard to think why Semirhage would not have be ordered to learn the weave and do it. It's not like the DO to trust any channelling job to anyone but his Chosen.

As for the body theory, I find there's more holes in that one than swiss cheese. The fact Aran'gar can use her full strength in saidin in a delicate female body put serious dents in any theory like that. Sammal was short, but still very powerful. Alivia is the same. Nynaeve too. Even at lower levels, Moiraine was very small and delicate, yet she bettered any but Cadsuane in strength before the girls. Jordan never gave any hint that physique has any relation to strength. He spoke of genetics and soul as two factors in the ability, not genetics (specific determinant genes, not genetics in general) and additional body characteristics. By all evidence given Rand has the exact strength of LTT, strength is determined by the soul, and for the soul to be able to channel, the genes for the ability to develop must be present in the body the soul is incarnated in (the genes must be how the Wheel can enable or disable the ability to channel for everyone). Even the fact the bridge Nynaeve healed in Siuan/Logain/Leane was not something physical suggests strength is related to this conduit (it seems women's are made of saidin and men's of saidar - as if the opposite half of the OP (with the possible exception of the TP) is the only thing saidar/saidin can't pass through, an hypothesis supported by the method used by Rand to cleanse saidin : could his filter have been anything but saidar? I doubt it), not to anything in the body itself.










Week 9 Question: When a person channels, where do the flows appear to originate from? Do they extrude themselves somehow from the person's body, or do they seem to appear out of thin air in the channeler's general vicinity? What do the flows look like to a person who can channel? Are they colored, clear or indeterminate, smooth or rough, wispy or solid?

Robert Jordan Answers: To the channeler, the flows seem to originate in his or her very immediate vicinity, not to emanate from themselves, although to another channeler, those flows do seem to be emanating from the channeler. The latter is the actual case, as the One Power is passing through the channeler, one of the reasons for individual limits on how much of the Power a particular person can handle. (And you have seen characters react as if to a blow from having a flow snapped or cut.)

In the above quote, RJ seems to be hinting that the fact that the flows are originating from the body of the channeler is a direct reason for the individual limits that different channelers have in the volume of Power they can channel.

It would SEEM to suggest that since the Power has to pass THROUGH the pysical body of the channeler, the size, volume, density, strength or some other attribute of the body is directly related to the quantity of Power that the individual is able to channel.

It is clear that he is referring to the PHYSICAL body, and not the soul, because of the next sentence where he uses the example of how a snapped flow PHYSICALLY hurts the channeler.

There is no definitive conclusion to be made from this quote, but it certainly suggests that the physical body somehow limits the volume of Power that can be channeled by a specific person.
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Did the Finns take Moiraine and Lanfear's strength in the OP and swap them? - 05/06/2010 09:05:37 PM 1502 Views
Post some Cyndane quotes. I thought she was still far more powerful than Mo - 05/06/2010 10:30:02 PM 684 Views
or the difference between Lanfear and Cyndane is now in Moiraine - 07/06/2010 01:25:04 PM 607 Views
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Nope... - 06/06/2010 12:05:11 AM 861 Views
Things you can ask for... - 06/06/2010 12:32:48 AM 653 Views
Wrong Finns - 06/06/2010 01:20:26 PM 698 Views
Not Shielded - 06/06/2010 12:38:54 AM 730 Views
Re: Not Shielded - 06/06/2010 01:51:45 PM 616 Views
Osan'gar could have felt the ability anyway - 06/06/2010 03:07:39 PM 685 Views
Indeed - 06/06/2010 04:54:05 PM 666 Views
Re: Indeed - 06/06/2010 05:51:17 PM 677 Views
Tor QotW #9 hints at the physical size of the body limiting the quantity that can be channeled... - 06/06/2010 06:42:22 PM 709 Views
Re: Osan'gar could have felt the ability anyway - 06/06/2010 05:22:19 PM 654 Views
Sure it does - 07/06/2010 12:29:18 PM 548 Views
This shield-theory was basically ruled out by BS - 07/06/2010 09:44:05 AM 761 Views
That theory doesn't explain why Aran'gar and Osan'gar and Moridin - 07/06/2010 12:44:56 PM 709 Views
I think... - 07/06/2010 01:10:29 PM 695 Views
I don't agree that this is the case - 07/06/2010 01:23:44 PM 668 Views
We don't know... - 07/06/2010 01:46:07 PM 621 Views
Halima is described as pretty much an average sized woman - 07/06/2010 02:32:04 PM 785 Views
Yeah, but... - 07/06/2010 02:37:53 PM 580 Views
Dude, he was one of the Forsaken! - 07/06/2010 02:54:20 PM 685 Views
As said... - 07/06/2010 03:07:14 PM 627 Views
I'll fall outta my chair if this turns out to be the answer - 07/06/2010 03:11:17 PM 626 Views
The problem with this is... - 07/06/2010 03:21:42 PM 623 Views
*shrugs* - 07/06/2010 04:39:40 PM 611 Views
I lean towards Etzel's theory myself - 07/06/2010 04:34:55 PM 536 Views
I agree that it could have something to do with the body - 07/06/2010 04:42:04 PM 640 Views
I agree with Daurius ^ but I still think the Finn could've been the culprit... allow me to elaborate - 08/06/2010 12:20:44 AM 677 Views
There are quotes - 08/06/2010 08:49:17 AM 675 Views
He actually said might involve not a definitive there. - 08/06/2010 02:46:00 PM 813 Views
Doesn't make much sense... - 08/06/2010 03:12:48 PM 646 Views
Re: Doesn't make much sense... - 08/06/2010 03:20:54 PM 614 Views
The quote... - 08/06/2010 03:42:48 PM 589 Views
Honestly I've yet to hear a single theory I'm particularly in love with - 08/06/2010 03:45:34 PM 626 Views
So... why did they try to kill Mat? *NM* - 06/06/2010 08:02:26 AM 270 Views
Re: So... why did they try to kill Mat? - 06/06/2010 02:16:26 PM 721 Views

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