I expect that Elaida will break quickly, but you are right that the hassle of this would not be worth it. Thats why I came up with the new idea of just warding the collars with OP so that the AS weaves of air are blocked. We know that is possible (Rand has done such) and it would prevent the AS from opening collars without first breaking through the ward.



The idea was to arrange the cuendillar-cover and the adam in such a way that it could not be opened while a damane was wearing it, but could when the head was out of the way. Might take a bit of fiddling to come up with a proper design but I think it would be possible.



The warders argument came up earlier. Against the damane the warders would drop like flies basically. By the time the warder was in danger from damane, he would likely be dead a few seconds later. How long could the AS maintain such losses? And what would the Warder losses do to recruitment numbers. Or the mental health of the AS who are losing so many warders.

As for risk to ones life, yes once the AS feels she is in danger of dying she can use the OP to kill, but not before. We have _seen_ this happen several times during the books. The AS have to wait until the enemy is near enough to threaten them, or in cases where they need to attack (such as Dumais Wells) actually run straight into the enemy forces. It might be easier to convince themselves of the danger since the damane can use OP, but not until the fight begins. It is a real weakness.



Egwene also had a super-powerfull sa'angreal. As for the Shaido WO, I was under the impression that the WO are not allowed to normally fight. As such it is likely that the WO actually suck even more in fights than the AS do. As for damane skills, I am less sure of that. We do know that some damane atleast are quite skilled (Alivia vs Cyndane).



I cannot really agree. I mean where would the AS have developed their combat skills? They don't fight trollocs, they don't take part in wars and the few male channelers they capture are usually hapless victims with no real skills. Even their weaves don't really seem all that great. I think when it comes down to combat skill and experience, the Asha'man are the most deadly, followed by the damane/sul'dam and the AS as third.



I cannot agree here either. Look at the sheer horror&teror that the Asha'man inspire in the AS. Given that, it is hard to believe that the AS would not be willing to come together in major links if needed. Not to mention the fact that even in their discussions the AS admit that they cannot stop the BT. Surely they would have added the qualifier "unless we all link" if what you say is true. But they just say "its too late to stop BT", fullstop. No, I belive that the truth is that circles are not the super weapon that would allow the AS to defeat all single opponents. Helpfull yes, but no more.



I know, but I thought the AS now had both techniques from Moghedien?