We've seen gateways raised slightly above grounds late in the game. Logain managed to do that to his (which means he found out how to alter his weave to make this happen to his gateways), to make sure he wouldn't destroy anything on the Sea Folk ship he travelled to. This impressed the windfinder whose POV we saw that scene from. So I would say "it has not occured to them yet" is definitely one of the factors involved. Aerial warfare is a new concept in the Westlands. It's not likely something the channelers have given much thought to at this point.
I think this is the main reason, they just haven't thought about using gateways to spy from the air. Or they just think they can't do it and limit themselves because they believe it to be true.
I guess opening a gateway in mid-air isn't impossible, but it's most likely not easy either, conceptually speaking. It might not be so easy to open it at a precise altitude too (you need to know the destination very well (have opened a gateway from there previously is best) or be in visual range to be extra precise with the point your gateway opens at, it's not for no reason channelers take no chance and so often open gateways km away from their real destination, in areas they are sure are empty of people, and why they've adopted the Travelling ground practice, points from which they've already Travelled, and thus know the exact weave to make to open a gateway to that exact point later.
You're remembering wrong, you have to know your current location very well in order to Travel, Skimming requires you to know the destination. I've always assumed that Traveling grounds are assigned just to avoid accidentally slicing people in half with your gateway.
It's difficult to say, because we haven't got much information on how exactly the channelers conceptualize the two points and how they translate that into their weave. We've also only seen so far gateways that open at 90 degrees to the ground. Those opened in mid-air would make it difficult/dangerous for the channeler to bend over to see below on the other side, without touching the razor sharp bottom edge of the gateway, and so far, we haven't see any gateway that's aligned at 90 degrees at the opening end, but aligned at a different angle to the ground at the exit end. It may or may not be possible to do this with a gateway.
We actually have pretty good explanations of how gateways allow Traveling, IMO. Rand tells Egwene in LoC, Ch 27, Gifts, “I bend the Pattern and bore a hole from one to the other. I don’t know what I bore through, but there’s no space between one end of the hole and the other.” Later in LoC, Moghedien tells Egwene how women Travel, "You make the two places in the Pattern identical." I don't see why either of these would be limited to where they appear relative to ground level. In fact given that Logain is able to open one over open water, implies that it is relatively easy to make gateways appear at any height.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Gateways in midair
- 17/01/2012 01:30:50 PM
973 Views
maybe it has something to do with the conceptualization?
- 17/01/2012 05:37:42 PM
751 Views
Pretty much, at least I think
- 17/01/2012 06:27:27 PM
942 Views
I think they mostly limit themselves
- 18/01/2012 05:17:35 AM
887 Views
Likely hasn't occured to them
- 20/01/2012 06:53:08 PM
701 Views
Also would make traveling grounds moot.
- 22/01/2012 10:20:21 PM
692 Views
The use you propose is probably a heavy-handed way for Age of Legends channelers to scry *NM*
- 27/01/2012 01:56:23 PM
264 Views