They may have noticed the flaw and thought it was insignificant, which it might have been, until the taint came along. This sort of thinking can be applied to most modern technologies.

It wasn't so insignificant. LTT planned to use a powerful circle at SG to seal the DO. It was a deed that could be accomplished by one person (the circle leader), with enough power and precision, and since it was plan A, it was preferable that one person accomplished it (does this mean it forced LTT to combine seven seals made by seven channellers separately instead of one made by a circle or one man with a big san'angreal? Maybe). At least two of the most powerful san'angreal ever made for men were made during the WOS, which combined with LTT's fear tells us that AS have willingly limited the power of san'angreal before the war forced them to risk having those around. In other words, LTT using Callandor could well have been the original alternative for the Sealing, but the flawed buffer requiring a circle with two women would have removed Callandor from the realm of possibilities, because of the Concord.




I didn't mean the speculation of what's going to happen, I meant presenting the "magnification of the taint" the way you did. RJ didn't RAFO the questions about san'angreal and the TP, he flat out said the ones made for the OP don't work for the TP. He didn't leave a door open that in some conditions a san'angreal could be used for the TP or anything like that.



That's almost certainly due to the faulty buffer. Most likely, the magnification of the effects of the taint on someone's mind occurs when you reach the "unsafe zone" and your mind start losing control. That's what seems to happen to Rand in TPOD. He started drawing too much and he both lost control of his channelling and lost touch with reality, as if madness was very suddenly catching up with him. The buffer prevents the channeller from drawing an unsafe amount, but using large amounts of tainted saidin does no good to a channneler's mind. LTT appeared in Rand's mind after he used Callandor in Tear, Rand got far worse after he used Callandor in TPOD, and got worse again after the Cleansing. Callandor just makes this worse, using the CK still did no good to Rand.



The revelation came too early in the game, a third into the finale. The prophecy is transparent, and it after all concerns the biggest resolution to the whole series. Why would RJ spoil it so early? Something is fishy.

IMO, it's most likely a well crafted red herring designed to distract us from two things: Rand's new sword (Justice) about which LTT knows things "he wouldn't tell Rand" (and that Rand made a point earlier on to tell no one, and specifically not even Min, what sword it is), and the fact the three ta'veren are "merging" (so to speak - I'm referring to the colour swirls and their increasing effects). Brandon confirmed it's Justice, even though he shrouded the sword in mystery in the book itself. So the fact it's Hawkwing's sword isn't what's important about it, and not probably related to it's importance. I would discount the part about Callandor or Justice if not from the fact it's pretty obvious the three becoming one has to refer to Perrin, Mat and Rand. If it's not referring to a circle, then the sword from the prophecy isn't necessarily Callandor, and enters the picture what LTT knows about Hawkwing's sword that (before Rand's epiphany) he was keeping from Rand. Justice is referred to in one of the fourth Age verses we have, which could indicate it's importance through the LB and rather obviously Rand won't keep its identity hidden forever.

How could Justice possibly be used at SG? Where do the three ta'veren being one comes into play? *Shrug*. Not being obvious isn't a point against it, the sealing/removal of the Bore is after all the biggest story resolution of the whole book, and of the whole series. LTT knows things about the sword. It's credible that it could mean the OP can be channeled in it. Using a ter'angreal could be a way to avoid touching the DO directly with the OP.

As I said elsewhere, I think Cadsuane is going to get a very disappointing answer for Rand about Callandor and the LB, and likely this will come at a bad time, when time is running out and Rand is still clueless about what to do to get rid of the Bore. I'm pretty sure if there was something special about it, the discovery would have come from LTT/Rand, not served him on a plate by Cadsuane.

I'm also terribly suspicious about AS interpreting prophecies. In the series, whenever one did they were systematically wrong. I've also noticed Min is, shall we say, less than satisfied with their current attempt to decipher the one concerning the sword and the three becoming one. It's like the whole subtext is that they're wrong.

Callandor will be used during the LB (it's the last big male san'angreal after all), just not anywhere near the Pit of Doom.



The intuitive knowledge of how to draw the True Power he must have drawn straight from Moridin's mind, without realizing it much the same way Moridin has inconsciously on occasion (strong emotions etc.)Rand's reactions/emotions (and must realize it to make it stop). The mental state to embrace the True Power is related yet completely different (even opposite) from the state of mind to embrace saidin. It's a terribly dark state of mind, likely very difficult to achieve for most people but the Forsaken (you need to embrace evil, so to speak), or people swallowed by darkness the way Rand was at the time. That takes care of the first of RJ's two conditions: "it's a matter of knowing how". Rand didn't, but in a moment of intense emotion Moridin would have shared, he drew it from him inconsciously. As for the second condition...

The notion that he drew the TP through Moridin who as far as we know was very far away, and without the DO any the wiser sounds 100% silly to me, and if that were true, Shai'tan would make sure it won't happen again. But it didn't happen. Rand put himself in the right state of mind, and Shai'tan let him draw it, no different from any Forsaken with the permission. Giving Rand a taste of the highly addictive TP was well worth Semirhage's life.

The True Power is the DO himself, his essence. This is a world of opposites, so it's virtually certain the True Source is the essence of the Creator. The DO almost certainly could stop Rand from tapping it if he wanted to, not to mention it's not very reasonable to think the DO's own essence could have any effect channelled back at.. the DO's own essence.



This contradicts RJ's second conditions to draw the True Power: you need the DO's permission. Sanderson turned that in "you normally need the DO's permission" but RJ's answer didn't have this ambiguity at all (when he had to answer that way, RJ simply RAFO, or told us his answer was partial), and it's fairly obvious Sanderson was telling us "the DO let Rand use it" without confirming the DO let Rand use the TP. He waltzed around the question of the betrayal of Semirhage much the same way. The issue that the DO let Rand use the TP and why probably returns later on.