You're right. It is merely a plot requirement, made ludicrous by the ease of mastering these weaves - Edit 1
Before modification by Shannow at 20/08/2010 02:06:37 PM
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?
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 pieces. 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.