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You're right. It is merely a plot requirement, made ludicrous by the ease of mastering these weaves Shannow Send a noteboard - 20/08/2010 10:08:10 AM
Let's talk about some of the weaves that have been 'lost' since the AoL.

Travelling/Skimming, Compulsion, Balefire, Creating Cuendillar, Creating Angreal.

For most of these weaves it makes no sense how they got lost. I can see Balefire and Compulsion being forbidden, and once the Aes Sedai who knew them died.. Even so, even if they were forbidden, you would think some book somewhere in the Tower would explain them. Even forbidden losing knowledge forever should be obscene to an Aes Sedai, especially of the Brown Ajah.

Something like Travelling I do not see hot that would become lost at all. Every Aes Sedai would use that weave, and there are a lot in this day and age who can use it by themselves, so the theory that the Aes Sedai werent strong enough to use it is moot.

Maybe creating things from Cuendillar could be passed off as "well, most women had no strength in Earth", this is hairy at best because there are plenty of women who were in the Tower in Exile that could do it, Egwene being one, and Leane being another and Nicola and more. So it just got erased too?

Same with Angreal. You're going to forget and/or not pass down how to create them? Even if noone was strong enough to do it in thousands of years, noone will even write it down?

There's a million theories we could make say, but all seem weak.

'They were too busy to write them down'

' They never write a weave down'

' All the strongest died and noone's been strong enough in 3-4 thousands years until now (all of a sudden)'

None of those really fly with me. For one thing it seems like there is an immense amount of strong channelers today even though channelers breeding with channelers purposely has been out since the AoL. So does anyone have any idea besides just that it was more suspenseful and exciting for RJ to make them all get 'discovered' in this day and age?




For logical consistency, RJ should have made it much more difficult to Travel, weave balefire, make cuendillar etc. Basically, the ease with which Rand's Blossoms of Fire, Deathgates etc. are copied instantaneously by the Ashaman, and the ease with which Egwene is able to teach NOVICES to produce large quantities of cuendillar and so on makes a mockery of the idea that these weaves were lost.

Travelling is the most difficult to believe of all. Even an average Aes Sedai should be able to Travel. And females can link to make gateways. So there is no way it should have been lost.

The mistake is not that these weaves were supposedly lost. The mistake is the ease with which they have been re-learned, and the large portion of Aes Sedai who are able to learn them.

A better system would have been one where weaves are like complex mental formula, or musical compositions. Where a ball of fire may be a simple tune - with a few dozen notes to learn - a gateway should have been like a symphony, which only master musicians can learn, or something along those lines.

And even if others can learn it, it should take years of study, not an instantaneous copy of Rand's Master Battle Weaves that have not been seen for 3000 years.

This message last edited by Shannow on 20/08/2010 at 02:06:37 PM
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How were all these amazing weaves 'lost' ? - 20/08/2010 04:33:43 AM 1625 Views
Ishamael may have had a hand in that... - 20/08/2010 04:45:39 AM 998 Views
Agreed. - 20/08/2010 10:01:37 AM 899 Views
You're right. It is merely a plot requirement, made ludicrous by the ease of mastering these weaves - 20/08/2010 10:08:10 AM 1000 Views
Lost Weaves - 20/08/2010 01:43:25 PM 966 Views
Re: Lost Weaves *NM* - 20/08/2010 01:45:30 PM 485 Views
Not logical - 20/08/2010 01:50:32 PM 962 Views
Re: Not logical - 20/08/2010 03:22:04 PM 793 Views
All I'm saying, is that Travelling would STILL be a very usefull survival tool during the Breaking.. - 20/08/2010 03:44:59 PM 920 Views
All good points also. - 20/08/2010 03:48:49 PM 1262 Views
Re: Not logical - 20/08/2010 03:45:55 PM 753 Views
Re: Not logical - 21/08/2010 04:20:41 AM 680 Views
you may have hit onto something with your last statement - 21/08/2010 05:06:59 PM 773 Views
Re: you may have hit onto something with your last statement - 23/08/2010 05:09:06 PM 687 Views
I don't think that creating cuendillar and 'angreals was common knowledge. - 20/08/2010 05:06:20 PM 785 Views
The need to learn a location to travel - 20/08/2010 05:58:48 PM 729 Views
They could use Rand's trick from TGS. - 21/08/2010 01:06:33 AM 691 Views
My only theory... - 20/08/2010 06:02:14 PM 731 Views
The Strongest Died seems like a pretty valid theory to me... - 20/08/2010 06:14:29 PM 889 Views
Maybe Aes Sedai treated weaves like Intellectual Property - 20/08/2010 09:49:12 PM 717 Views
Trademark? Patent? Or Copyright? =P *NM* - 20/08/2010 10:19:36 PM 326 Views
It doesn't have to be logical... - 20/08/2010 11:50:17 PM 858 Views
Idea? - 21/08/2010 12:47:52 AM 648 Views
But they weren't too weak - 21/08/2010 02:48:43 AM 724 Views
That's because most of the major people in WoT are powerful channelers. - 21/08/2010 04:13:04 AM 722 Views
How can you "write a weave down"? - 21/08/2010 04:54:28 PM 769 Views
How did Moiraine learn balefire then? *NM* - 21/08/2010 05:04:27 PM 1009 Views
figured it out on her own, don't forget that Nyn used it too against the Fades in TDR. *NM* - 21/08/2010 05:12:15 PM 360 Views
That's a stretch - Moiraine never demonstrated any creative talent with the OP... - 21/08/2010 06:15:01 PM 709 Views
OK, I'll buy Vandene teaching it, but not learning it from a written description *NM* - 21/08/2010 06:35:46 PM 365 Views
I myself can't buy Vandene teaching that weave to any Sister - 24/08/2010 04:06:26 PM 741 Views
Me neither... - 24/08/2010 05:50:24 PM 783 Views
Mispost.. *NM* - 25/08/2010 02:51:02 PM 426 Views
I disagree - Moiraine's wilder tricks show that she is quite creative with the OP - 24/08/2010 03:31:06 PM 732 Views
Re: I disagree - Moiraine's wilder tricks show that she is quite creative with the OP - 24/08/2010 05:32:11 PM 1059 Views
But... - 24/08/2010 06:40:39 PM 699 Views
When did she use that? *NM* - 25/08/2010 09:34:31 AM 346 Views
We know of her trick with stones and light from 'New Spring' IIRC - 25/08/2010 02:40:26 PM 864 Views
Elayne did use Moiraine's coin trick. - 25/08/2010 06:09:27 PM 827 Views
Likely from Vandene - 21/08/2010 05:58:31 PM 1067 Views
Something no one else is mentioning... that I saw... - 21/08/2010 07:15:49 PM 826 Views
one thing i've noticed - 23/08/2010 06:37:48 PM 737 Views
Simple: none were necessary for survival in Stone Age barbarism. - 23/08/2010 09:12:40 PM 724 Views

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