Doesn't add up. Androl isn't the only one making ridiculously large Gateways. I believe I have pointed out before the case of Reanne Corly in CoT making a Gateway as large as Elayne or Aviendha can. Based on Androl's statements on his strength, he does indeed have a huge amount of Talent. Doesn't mean he's the only one with the Talent. In fact, the Glossary of several books call Traveling a Talent.

Of course you can. Any scientist worth their salt will do exactly that. You can't have a trend when an outlier of this size exists. It isn't like Androl is slightly weaker than Rand but makes a Gateway as large as him. He's pretty much rock bottom as far as strength goes (can't even make a rock explode), but is able to match Rand's Gateway with ease. The moment you have a confirmed outlier like that, you have to toss your trend in the garbage, and realize that what you saw was a correlation, not causation.

For example, Talent in Gateways could also be a bell curve distribution with Androl at the very highest possible level. Since most channelers will be clustered around mid-level skill, and their strength will also be more likely to be mid-level, there will likely be a correlation between Gateway size and strength in the OP among them. To a casual observer (which is what Logain is), it would seem that greater OP strength causes greater Gateway sizes (especially since they aren't actually measuring either, differences between same strength channelers due to Talent will be easy to miss, near median strength and Talent). Nevertheless, the actual relationship is different. Your Gateway size is some kind of function of your strength and Talent level.


First of all, we have seen no example of Semirhage working the weather. Asmodean says she has almost no ability there. Secondly, your Moiraine point only disproves what you say below. Yes, with an angreal Moiraine can Heal more, but she would have not been able to Heal at all if she had zero Talent. On the other hand, someone like Sheriam with almost zero Healing ability can be given the Choedan Kal and she'd still probably not match Moiraine. As rare as Androl is, there's probably an equally rare man who is very strong but cannot make a Gateway at all because he's so lacking in the Talent.

Want proof? Look at Aviendha. Due to the second learned weave limitation, which is something that impacts skill, she needs to use way more of her strength to create a Gateway compared to Elayne. Thus, she is indeed using her strength to overcome lack of Talent. However, in her case, we actually know she can fix that. If she improves her Talent (remembers how she first made the weave), she'll automatically make much bigger Gateways with much less of the OP. What's more, she says her Gateway size would increase even with the reduced OP being directed into it. Right there, you can see what's happening. A Talent is basically streamlining a process, making it more efficient. Its more effective utilization of resources (OP strength). Which means Androl isn't some weird outlier. He's just the most highly efficient in the creation of this weave, and others fall behind him by varying amounts. OP strength is thus not irrelevant, but is only partially responsible for Gateway size.

Prove this please. Show me someone with very low Talent but very great strength simply managing to achieve the same results. Are you claiming that with a sa'angreal, Nynaeve or Egwene could start making cuendillar? And with Egwene's remarkable strength, you would think she would have done a better job Healing Gawyn. She could barely close his wounds, and she was even using Nynaeve's new weaves.

He's extremely strong. How does this prove your point?

Except this is patently not true. We don't see Sharina working at it, for example, even though she could have thrown a lot more strength at it than Leanne. And Tiana says straight out that the weave requires very little of the OP. That's why even Novices are able to do it with ease.

You know this is true for all of them? How?

And that proves Darius's point. The question is not can you Heal/Travel at all. Its how well you can do it. Gateway size is a sign of how well you can Travel (not the only sign). You're saying it is purely strength based. Which means every strong channeler near Rand's strength can make a Gateway around as big as his. But as you said, a strong channeler with weak Talent will only be weak with the ability. Yet, Logain doesn't take this into account at all.

Really? One in a thousand with a Talent that has been called a Talent all the while?

Nope. He'd be totally wrong about causation, and if he does a careful study, he'll definitely find inconsistencies. There'll probably be any number of cases where two Asha'man of the same strength won't have exactly equal Gateways. But Logain doesn't measure those with a tape measure, so he assumes they're the same. Every time a true anomaly comes by, he just ascribes it to unique Talent. But that's plain bad science.