OK, I'll humour you. This once. - Edit 1
Before modification by Shannow at 12/11/2009 05:48:21 PM
An angreal magnifies the Power of the individual holding it, not that of the entire circle. If that individual is part of a circle, he/she will merely add a greater amount of Power to the circle, thanks to the angreal.
You sure on that? Like I said, I haven't done a re-read in a while but if you could provide quotes from the books/RJ I'd be willing to accept it.
Also, in the Asmodean/Rand case, they were equally balanced because at the time, they were equal in strength. Rand was not yet at his full power, and he was not in good physical shape. The net result was that he and Asmodean were perfectly matched when they shared access to the Choedan Kal.
Rand was still stronger than Asmodean at that point, they were both in bad physical condition after the chase, so I dont think that argument holds much water.
For me angreals only make sense if a major part of it's calculation is channelers power + "X", wether there is another part of the equation (eg. channelers power x 5 + "X"
or not is up for debate, but a straight out multiplier wouldn't work. On what basis do you say that Rand was DEFINITELY stronger than Asmodean at that point?
And on what basis do you say that a straight magnifier doesn't work for angreal?
On the basis that weaker people could never use the CK, which the multiplier effect does not explain.
As for Asmodean, I cant see their being much difference in fatigue to give him any advantage.
Then if you look at a book or two later he goes toe to toe with Lanfear (each possessing an angreal) and does pretty well. Asmodean could never have done this, despite probably being close to her in strength, she had vast ammounts of skill, for Rand not to be instantly crushed he'd have to be stronger than her in the power.
Rand was probably close to fully developed in terms of how much he could channel by his dual with Rahvin, also Asmodean (admitedly in his character) runs from Rand.
Either way it's a matter of opinion, I'd like to hear Sidious or (god forbid) Cannoli's view which I suspect would put the issue to bed, as they could provide quotes to say one way or another.
As it is I'm in halls without my books so I couldn't find the quotes if I wanted to.
I'm not going to go back and look for quotes that we've discussed scores of times over the last 10 years, but I will give you a quick recap on the basics, this once.
Rand himself says in the first few chapters of Book 5, and I quote from memory: "He had thought he was strong before, but Asmodean's teachings were making him stronger."
This is proof that he was not at full strength yet in Book 4.
Secondly, it is stated numerous times in the series that physical exhaustion reduces the amount of Power you can channel. During the confrontation with Asmodean at the end of Book 4, Rand himself states that he hadn't gotten enough sleep in recent days, and that he was exchausted. Even holding on to the Source, was a struggle for him.
Those are two clear pieces of evidence that Rand is significantly below his full potential when he confronts Asmodean in Rhuidean.
Now, regarding the multiplier effect in angreal and sa'angreal:
How does the "additive" effect in sa'angreal explain the minimum strength threshold for their use any better than the multiplier effect does?
Surely, if Sa'angreal simply gave you access to a predetermined reservoir of the Power, your unaided strength level would be irrelevant?
I see no problem with the fact that angreal are pure multipliers of One Power strength, as are sa'angreal, with the added requirement that the most powerful sa'angreal can only be accessed by channelers of a certain minimum strength.
The problem with your argument, is that the minimum strength requirement is not in any way a differentiator between the multiplier and additive models of sa'angreal operation.