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Re: I disagree... DomA Send a noteboard - 11/11/2010 04:32:15 AM
As also the wolves said when Perrin watched Rand's epiphany on Dragonmount, if Dark-Rand hand't become Zen-Rand, there wouldn't be any Last Battle. It would be the end of everything. But Aviendha's visions made clear that Rand even won it. Thus Rand's change to the Light again was obviously already incorparated in Aviendha's future. Still, Aviendha has to change something else, so that the conflict between Seanchan and Aiel will be resolved in another way.


The crucial difference is that the wolves were not making a prophecy, they following their instinct that Shadowkiller was making his decision between fighting the LB or ending the world.

For the Wheel it's different. The Wheel cannot predict the future beyond the LB or the end of the Pattern accurately. There are prophecies and a weaving for a future, but it's not fully reliable. It depends if Rand wins, and probably how.

Recently, almost everything has come to depend on Rand. Aviendha saw the world Rand was preparing, at the time she had her vision. That's "Dark Rand's" future, if he didn't end the world and if he won the Last Battle, two variables the Wheel cannot predict because it depends on some factors outside its control (eg: Shai'tan, Fain who has sidestepped the Pattern etc.). The Wheel is a purely logicial, non-sentient system, that works by input-feedback. Aside from Shai'tan who isn't part of the system, it cannot predict the actions of someone who is completely insane, and thus irrational and unpredictable, like Fain. Rand was becoming that way in TGS, and Fain is "as mad as possible", RJ said. The Wheel cannot pull and push a person like Fain, because it has no way to predict how the person will react to any pull.

So the future Aviendha saw is "meaningless", in a way. The future depended, and still depends, in part on Rand's choices. With his epiphany, Rand has opened new paths.

The meaning of the Aelfinn's answer is now extremely obvious, and Rand had it wrong with his notion he had to tie Tear to Arad Doman.

"The north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one. The two must be as one."

The north and the east refer to the Borderlands, Andor, Tar Valon, the Aiel, Carhien, Tear and Illian. In short, to the alliance behind Rand. Elayne and Perrin have finished to make it a reality, and Elayne has tied it to Tar Valon, and Egwene and Rand work to gather them together north of TV. The Borderlanders are coming. All these people will be "as one" when they gather at Rand's meeting.

The south and the west refer to the Seanchan's conquest: Tarabon, Amadicia, Altara. They will be "as one" when Tuon has mobilized all her forces and Travel to strike at Tar Valon.

The Two must be as One. This is about to happen, as Tuon moves everything North too. The Light needed to regroup in a single place, literally. The two must probably ally as well for the full prophecy of the Aelfinn to be fulfilled.

It seems obvious to me the reason why is that otherwise the Shadow had plans to eliminate most of these forces if they remained scattered apart, and only the fact they've regrouped will ensure their survival past the opening strikes of Tarmon Gai'don... The cities/powerbases will fall to the Shadow, but the armies of the Light will not be at home when it happens. The big "bad surprise" for the Shadow will be that the Seanchan move north, and ally with the Light. The army of the Light that will survive the first strikes will be much, much bigger and powerful than Demandred hoped, I think. I believe he thought the isolated Bordermen all but dealt with, but now they will be spared. I think he expected the Seanchan to stay south, where they would be dealt with in time. They were not a priority, because they could not Travel, and could not move North very fast to interfere. If one way or another Tuon can be convinced to free the damane, then they will be able to link, and the channelling forces of the Light will be spectacular - all these women well trained in battle, now able to join big mixed gender circles. They already will be quite formidable as it is, with the Sea Folk, WO, the Tower all coming to Rand's meeting...

There were clues in TOM that the Shadow Black Tower is bigger than we thought, though. It sounds like Shadow Asha'man have been trained somewhere else and only now are they all gathering for war (the "new men" have come right before the dreamspike was put in place, They have already been trained. Androl has noticed a "new man" is much too strong for someone who've barely arrived... he could only judge that when he saw him channelling, as men cannot sense potential.). It makes sense some DF were trained at another base. If Taim's faction included openly all the dreadlords there is, it would have raised an alarm. Already, at around 100 men this alarmed Logain enough to seek Rand and warn him Taim was becoming too powerful.

So it sounds to me like the channellers near Moridin recently aren't Asha'man at all. They are soldiers from Demandred's army. Taim was allowed to keep only a portion of the DF Asha'man - a lot of them have rather been sent elsewhere. My hunch is that Demandred has arranged for Taim's recruiters to test all the male darkfriends for the abilty. A percentage of those who could learn followed Taim to the BT, the rest went elsehwere to train.

Now that the eve of TG is reached, Demandred is "gathering for war" and has sent his liaison officers to Taim, and Moridin has provided a dreamspike, so Taim can close down the BT to Travelling. Only the Drealords can now move in and out. The last preparations are being made. Mesaana said "more and more join our side every day" - and "The Aes Sedai will serve us this time", because the 13x13 turnings had begun. What we forgot is that for Mesaana, the Aes Sedai refer to more than women! Taim started slowly, perhaps because initially he was provided only one circle of thirteen women, and because before the dreamspike was in place, he needed to be cautious not to raise the alarm and that someone escaped. Now the dreamspike is in place, he let the Lightsiders get used to it, and stop being on alert. He is increasing his number of DF women by the turnings. My guess is that he is only waiting for the arrival of the BA remnants for his 'night of the long knives". He's going to capture all the lightsiders in a single blow and turn the prisoners. Gods knows what will happen to the poor families of the Lightside Asha'man. They may be enslaved to serve Taim and his men, or when they refuse or resist, simply slaughtered to convince the rest of them to obey....

Of course, Pevara and Androl are likely to manage to escape - unless RJ didn't intend to spare them, but is keeping them safe for now because they are the POV characters through whom show the horrors of the "night of the long knives" from the Light's side, and they will fall then.





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