Please forgive me if this has already been discussed.

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Did Moiraine ask the Snakes & Foxes how to defeat the Dark One. I know you have to phrase the question.


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We know, because that's how Rand managed it- by making them about himself vs. the Shadow and him being the DR, but Moiraine did not learn this before she came out, and she went in believing that asking questions touching on the Shadow would have dire consequences. It's not impossinble she decided to take the risk, but Moiraine at that point still believed it was her mission to see Rand to the LB, so I suspect she remained somewhat conservative (actually, I think part of her display of temper to Rand afterward was because he took so great risks, but also in her frustration to learn too late these risks paid off.). But maybe not.

That was all the way back in Tear by the way, it's not questions she could ask at Ghenji but wishes. She had strictly no idea these Finns even existed or what they did. Her first wish may have been formulated as a question like Mat did. She's more calculating and careful than Mat (however he's lucky, and ta'veren alter the odds) - she may well have asked them for the terms first and what they offered, but don't expect her to have fared too well either, with zero background information on them. She most likely asked for the angreal because she thought they might not know what it was and would give her a massive advantage against them, and Lanfear. That did not do her much good, apparently. It sounds like Rand was very lucky to have used Fire, because your ability to channel one way or another they can deal with. We will know in time what her two other wishes were, if they're not too humiliating for her to wish to share them with anyone else (like Mat!) but don't expect her to have fared too well with only three wishes to test the limits and the extent of their power.

It could be the angreal is the best she got out of the deal.



If Moiraine asked for the Tower to be reunited, she wasted a wish. Jordan has explained very well that the Finns have no power over the Pattern and over what is outside their own realms. They're not the Wheel to reweave the Pattern at will. He gave the example of what would happen if you ask them something outside their power, like to make you King of the World. If you're lucky, they might provide you with stuff that might help you make yourself King of the World. If you were not careful to specify King of which world you wanted to be, they could put you in an empty world where you could proclaim yourself King if you wished...

This happened to Mat. He asked to be free of the Aes Sedai and the One Power. This was not something the Finns could grant literally to anyone. They gave Mat a ter'angreal that would keep him safe from Aes Sedai channeling the power directly at him. Far from keeping Mat "free of Aes Sedai" entanglements, it's like the medallion attracted them to him like flies... Elayne, the Namelles, Teslyn and Joline, Sitters, Aran'gar... they were all after him.

I don't know what to think about Moiraine's role. Jordan didn't go and revealed early she's crucial without making sure how she's crucial to Rand will be surprising and fresh. It could be knowledge she got from the Finns back in Tear, but if so her question will have to have been surprising and extremely clever - but this raises an important problem: After Rhuidean, Moiraine knew she would be captured by the Finns, and that coming out was far from certain. She didn't tell Mat to come. She was extremely cautious. She foresaw that Mat could come, and Mat being ta'veren, it meant that it might become "the Will of the Wheel" at some point to bring Mat back to the Finns and rescue her. Moiraine was very careful not to interfere. She told Thom, not Mat, and instructed Thom to share the content with Mat only when and if Mat asked about the letter. The problem is that if Moiraine had information that she must share with Rand that arose from her questions to the Finns back in TSR, it's really hard to figure out what the questions could possibly have been for her to decide not to give this information to Rand before leaving. Even if she was totally unable to puzzle out what the answer meant, she ought to have taken her own advice to Rand and told him what the question and the answer were. Not in Tear, certainly, but after Rhuidean and her "epiphany" most definitely.

I think how Moiraine will figure in the endgame has to be something very cleverly hidden in the story, with very subtle clues. Moiraine has always been about unflinching faith in the Light. At first, it was utter conviction, but she had far greater problems accepting what it meant about her free will and decisions, meaning she utterly believed in the Will of the Wheel but was far less succesful at listening to that Will and let herself be "guided" rather than constantly try to lead everything where she thought they must go. That changed after Rhuidean. She became like saidar, letting herself be banked and guided, surrendering to what the Pattern held in store for her. This won't have changed, and this is a very rare attitude in the series. We know one of the keys to TG is about belief. Moiraine's role may well be linked to that. Because of who she is and how she thinks, because she made the sacrifice of her own mission and role in the LB after the Wheel showed her it's what she had to do, because she surrendered so utterly, perhaps Moiraine has figured out during her long months of captivity when all she could still do was thinking what Rand must do, or what attitude he must adopt, to win the LB.

I get the feeling several characters will hold the keys to TG. It's not only Rand who will puzzle it all out. It's not only Min who will puzzle it all out. I'm pretty sure Perrin and Egwene. It could be Moiraine who brings everything together, or provide the last key piece of the puzzle.

It's all about as much of Creation as possible becoming "One". If all of it came together, this would be... the Creator. I believe the Creator isn't one like Shai'tan anymore. He's multitude, the sum of everything forming Creation, his mind the sum of all souls, his creative power the sum of all souls/threads' creative power. The Creator never spoke to Rand. I believe it was more like a dream or a memory of the Creator, a memory of Light. Re gathering everything as the Creator and start anew was one of Rand's two choices. To do that, he had to destroy Creation. The other choice was that Creation was worth going on, and that means fighting the LB and sealing off Shai'tan.

To accomplish that, enough of Creation has to share Rand's will to save Creation, and believe doing this will grant Rand the Godly/Creative power to do it.

Tel'aran'rhiod may hold the most important key: that dimension is the reflection of everything in Creation. There a Dreamer gain powers to create like the Creator, to reshape the Pattern to his/her will. No individual has enough Will to make massive changes, and the sum of the inconscious of everyone/everybody else will shortly undo everything a Dreamer does there. It's godly creation, but ephemeral. A lot of dreaming humans/animals together, sharing one will, could bring far more massive changes in TAR, but tel'aran'rhiod remains only a reflection, a dream - and soon TAR would again be this malleable reflection of reality, nothing. This would not change "reality". However, those powers in TAR I believe have to be a reflection of the Creator's own creative powers. They exist because TAR is the reflection of the sum and parts of everything. What a Dreamer can do in TAR, Rand has to do in the real world, but he can't do it alone. Enough of Creation has to be one with Rand. That's what Perrin is, he's meant to be Rand's recipient of the animal sentience and he may be also the recipient for everything "non human" in the Pattern. Mat seems to be his recipient of intelligence, cleverness and inventivity. He has been prepared for this by being the recipient of the memories of tons of men which Mat himself must sort through to decide what "creative" move he must make next. At TG, he will have to juggle with the collective intelligence and memories of far more people than those the Finns gave him. Rand himself is the conduit to the True Source, the essence of the Creator, the energy with which he is able to create. He's the one who can wield all this power and creativity to reshape the Pattern and make a new "prison" for the DO.

Rand is already on his way to being this "avatar" of the Creator, and as TG approaches his power has grown. He subconsciously alters Creation where he walks. In his darkness, the world rot and died like Shadar Logoth where he walked. After his epiphany, where Rand walks, he heals and returns Creation to the state it ought to be.. in a very limited way. That's what Rand can do on his own, and without applying his creative will to it. To do more, for his power as avatar to increase to the point he has become enough of the original Creator that he can get rid of the Bore, he will need the faith, will and creativity of many souls behind him.