Sure, just a couple of points... - Edit 1
Before modification by Shannow at 13/11/2009 08:19:13 AM
While I'm not saying the one woman shield is proved correct, I'm going to hold that it is a possibility. But lets move past that.
I agree with that shielding theory. Silviana has been traditionally placed as an equal to Leanne, and she is, at the very least, as strong as Katerine, who is a very strong Aes Sedai.
I remember the number we had all agreed to be 66%. But the principle is the same.
Then why couldn't Amys? Amys is as strong as Elaida and Moiraine, and there's no way Silviana is stronger. And Egwene is likely even stronger now than she was when Amys tried to hold her.
This was an issue I raised even when KoD was released, and I believe that the only explanation is that when the Shield was woven, Katerine and Barasine were linked.
Yup. Maybe Cadsuane gave her angreal to one of the sisters, but still wanted extra guards.
Two women could hold Nynaeve in CoS, and there is a big gap between Egwene and Nynaeve. Egwene admits this herself. So it might well be possible that 1 woman can hold Egwene. I cannot recall where Silviana lies on the strength table. My calculations in the past indicated that a woman could hold a shield on someone as long as you were approximately 60% as strong as the captive. But to shield them in the first place, with any degree of certainty, you had to be as much as 50% STRONGER than them.
I agree with that shielding theory. Silviana has been traditionally placed as an equal to Leanne, and she is, at the very least, as strong as Katerine, who is a very strong Aes Sedai.
What I'm saying is that in my view, if you are 60% as strong as someone, you should be able to hold an existing shield on them.
I remember the number we had all agreed to be 66%. But the principle is the same.
So if Silviana is a 25 on the strenghth scale, and Egwene is a 40, that makes Silviana just over 60% as strong as Egwene, and hence she should be able to hold the shield.
Then why couldn't Amys? Amys is as strong as Elaida and Moiraine, and there's no way Silviana is stronger. And Egwene is likely even stronger now than she was when Amys tried to hold her.
This was an issue I raised even when KoD was released, and I believe that the only explanation is that when the Shield was woven, Katerine and Barasine were linked.
Regarding an angreal. That changes the picture completely. 1 Woman with a powerful enough angreal could hold Rand himself.
Yup. Maybe Cadsuane gave her angreal to one of the sisters, but still wanted extra guards.
It might have been 66%, sorry, it was some time ago that we spent so much time on this stuff. But I'm glad we're back to discussing it!
Regarding Amys, I recall that there had at one time been much debate about the disputed position of Amys on the strength table. If I recall correctly, this is due to two conflicting quotes about Amys's strength back in tSR.
One quote said she was stronger than most Aes Sedai, and another seemed to indicate that she was only in the upper middle regions. I will have to go back and try to find it.
Lastly, regarding the issue of the difference between a shield make by one person versus one made by a linked circle.
The example I used was Rand in the box, back in LoC. How is that different from the examples we are talking about now? Rand's shield was also created by a linked circle. In his case it consisted of 13 sisters.
His shield was also maintained by a reduced number of sisters. In his case it was 6. But the shield was still the result of a link. It wasn't made up of 6 individual shields.
And from a strength perspective, we saw that once the shield was down to only 3 sisters, he could break it. If he wasn't so weak and exhausted, he could probably have broken a shield held by 4. In CoS, when Logain is healed, the Aes Sedai say that he almost broke free from a circle held by 6 sisters, and that he might well have succeeded if it had been held by only 5.
My point is not the numbers, so much, as it is the fact that EVERY shield that involves multiple channelers is by default the result of a linked circle. Therefore, the example of Silviana, or the example of Semirhage is no different from that of Rand or Logain, or of Nynaeve being shielded by the two Black Sisters in CoS.
They are ALL the results of links. So if the number of sisters are reduced, like in the cases of Logain and Rand, the evidence seems clear that the strength of the shield - even though it was the result of a circle - is reduced correspondingly.
In my view, the only two solutions for the Semirhage example are:
1. The sister had an angreal.
2. Sanderson made a mistake.