I also feel that in real life, it would not have disapeared. But in Randland, those may be the reasons.
The area you're in is suddenly encircled by lava - you need to Travel to a safer location to get away.
A chasm suddenly opens up between you and your horse - you need to Travel to get to it, or if it dies, to the nearest source of food and water.
The mountainpeak you're on is suddenly surrounded by an earthquake-induced tsunami, leaving you stranded on an island. As before, you need to Travel to get to dry land.
Gateways would be crucial in the dangerous environment that is the Breaking.
The gateway doesn't have to open to a preferred location the first time either. If you need to get AWAY from somewhere fast, you will keep making gateways until you find a decent enough spot to go to.
Industrial processes like making angreal and ter'angreal may disappear, but Travelling? I don't see it happening.
To Travel, you need to know your point of departure in any case, not your destination.
Does it really change something? You open the Gateway and the location is not the same. You still end up somewhere that is not where you wanted to go. Ocean instead of a city, mountain instead of a forest. In the end, Traveling became unusable because of the changes in the landscape.
Your point about other planets is also, in my opinion flawed. Whose to say they used Traveling to go there and not some other means lost to us now. Even so, even if the planet is moving in space, the physical location on it's surface is the same and maybe that's all the Channeler needs to Travel.
And also because RJ needed that the main protagonists be more "special" and find out those weaves and use them almost exclusively to their inner circle, at least in the beginning.
I also share your thoughts on the easiness everybody has to copy weave and I like your analogy on the symphony. I guess that this late in the plot, the story doesn't center as much on the complexity of weaves and learning to use the Power, but more on the conclusion. See how cleansing the Source was done and how fast (in pages) it happened. When compared to the time spent showing us the girls in Tar Valon learning OP related stuff, it was done really fast. RJ even had to explain it to some readers on his blog. He focused more on the symbolism of the Cleansing than the way it was done.
Does it really change something? You open the Gateway and the location is not the same. You still end up somewhere that is not where you wanted to go. Ocean instead of a city, mountain instead of a forest. In the end, Traveling became unusable because of the changes in the landscape.
Your point about other planets is also, in my opinion flawed. Whose to say they used Traveling to go there and not some other means lost to us now. Even so, even if the planet is moving in space, the physical location on it's surface is the same and maybe that's all the Channeler needs to Travel.
And also because RJ needed that the main protagonists be more "special" and find out those weaves and use them almost exclusively to their inner circle, at least in the beginning.
I also share your thoughts on the easiness everybody has to copy weave and I like your analogy on the symphony. I guess that this late in the plot, the story doesn't center as much on the complexity of weaves and learning to use the Power, but more on the conclusion. See how cleansing the Source was done and how fast (in pages) it happened. When compared to the time spent showing us the girls in Tar Valon learning OP related stuff, it was done really fast. RJ even had to explain it to some readers on his blog. He focused more on the symbolism of the Cleansing than the way it was done.
The area you're in is suddenly encircled by lava - you need to Travel to a safer location to get away.
A chasm suddenly opens up between you and your horse - you need to Travel to get to it, or if it dies, to the nearest source of food and water.
The mountainpeak you're on is suddenly surrounded by an earthquake-induced tsunami, leaving you stranded on an island. As before, you need to Travel to get to dry land.
Gateways would be crucial in the dangerous environment that is the Breaking.
The gateway doesn't have to open to a preferred location the first time either. If you need to get AWAY from somewhere fast, you will keep making gateways until you find a decent enough spot to go to.
Industrial processes like making angreal and ter'angreal may disappear, but Travelling? I don't see it happening.
How were all these amazing weaves 'lost' ?
- 20/08/2010 04:33:43 AM
1624 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
999 Views
Re: You're right. It is merely a plot requirement, made ludicrous by the ease of mastering
- 20/08/2010 03:40:16 PM
745 Views
These are good points. To some extent, it may be because our main characters are "gifted" channelers
- 20/08/2010 08:57:49 PM
758 Views
The bigger problem is minor characters copying the weaves so quickly...
- 20/08/2010 09:14:25 PM
814 Views
Lost Weaves
- 20/08/2010 01:43:25 PM
966 Views
Not logical
- 20/08/2010 01:50:32 PM
961 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
919 Views
All good points also.
- 20/08/2010 03:48:49 PM
1262 Views
If you go back and read the descriptions of the breaking, and think about the 3000 year cycle
- 20/08/2010 04:37:02 PM
837 Views
I don't think that creating cuendillar and 'angreals was common knowledge.
- 20/08/2010 05:06:20 PM
785 Views
You & Ryan make good points, esp on balefire/compulsion. In a shorter series, it'd make more sense
- 20/08/2010 08:52:59 PM
799 Views
Maybe Aes Sedai treated weaves like Intellectual Property
- 20/08/2010 09:49:12 PM
716 Views
Trademark? Patent? Or Copyright? =P *NM*
- 20/08/2010 10:19:36 PM
326 Views
If they are secretive and protective, it's not a huge stretch that knowledge would be taken into the
- 21/08/2010 10:27:15 AM
829 Views
Idea?
- 21/08/2010 12:47:52 AM
647 Views
But they weren't too weak
- 21/08/2010 02:48:43 AM
723 Views
That's because most of the major people in WoT are powerful channelers.
- 21/08/2010 04:13:04 AM
721 Views
How can you "write a weave down"?
- 21/08/2010 04:54:28 PM
768 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 disagree - Moiraine's wilder tricks show that she is quite creative with the OP
- 24/08/2010 03:31:06 PM
731 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
We know of her trick with stones and light from 'New Spring' IIRC
- 25/08/2010 02:40:26 PM
863 Views
Passing on useful survival skills trumped esoteric lore during the War of Power and the Breaking
- 25/08/2010 03:18:47 PM
883 Views