Date: 2009-10-27
Type: Verbatim
Location: Provo, UT
Reporter: Matt Hatch
Note to readers—I did not transcribe the entire hour long conversation. Instead, I picked what I thought were the most important plot related items.
Enjoy,
Matt
Brandon summarizes why the next book will be a bit more chaotic than The Gathering Storm , which may make Towers of Midnight a longer book. The Gathering Storm feels focused, whereas the Towers of Midnight may not feel that way.
Brandon discusses Mistborn questions.
Brandon mentioned that Peter knows the secret.
Did Robert Jordan leave a power to time comparison, as to how much time is burned back on a thread using balefire. Is there a calculation that says x amount of power will burn back x amount of time on a thread?
M.A.F.O—Maria and Find Out. What he did leave, he left a lot of stuff, there is discussion of these things in the notes. I need to look and see if there is an actual equation. He was very focused on strength of the Power and things like that. He has probably told you before, I think I’ve seen a copy of that on notes and things. He did leave scales on exactly how powerful each person is…
RAFO. Sorry, but we are doing an encyclopedia, and I have to reserve some things in case we want to put them in there.
This is answered in more detail below, at entry #5.
The Choedan Kal, does it amplify your power? Is it a limited, for example, if I have a certain amount of power does it give me 10x what I have, or is it a certain amount of power I can access?
One of the things I’ve been doing when I answer questions is that I’ve been saying that this is my understanding and putting an asterisk at the bottom that is a—I am speaking from my understanding and not from specific knowledge from the notes, meaning yes I am probably right but these are the questions I could be wrong on…this one my understanding is that it is a reservoir of power. It is not necessarily a magnification. A very weak person with a very powerful sa’angreal is very powerful. I’m pretty sure on that one, but I will add the asterisk just in case. If you send me an email, I can go back and look to make sure. But I’m reasonably sure on that one, the reasons being things that are talked about in the notes mixed with the way angreal and sa’angreal worked previously in the books mixed with two specific things that he talked about in the notes when people using angreal and sa’angreal after they become very weak or after they are weak.
Brandon is presumably talking about Siuan and Moiraine, both of whom are weaker and supplemented by a sa’angreal and a strong angreal respectively. However, Brandon’s explanation wouldn’t explain why Elayne thought it prudent to give the angreal to the strongest women when the Bowl of the Winds was used. If it were simply a reservoir of power, then it wouldn’t matter who used the angreal in a circle.
We know that in the Age of Legends that the Forsaken/Chosen, everyone agreed to stop using balefire because of its effects on the Pattern. Is it unrealistic then to say that a great amount of power could burn someone’s thread back a year or six months? Is that an unrealistic thing to say that there is enough power available to either one or multiple people to burn somebody back that far?
I see what you are getting at you are trying to figure out if killed Graendal with a whole lot of balefire would bring Asmodean back to life.
…like that could ever happen…
That’s what you are digging for isn’t it?
Let’s say, if a Forsaken was responsible for killing another Forsaken…
Uh huh…
And said Forsaken was balefired…
You are under the assumption…You are trying to figure out who killed Asmodean again. That’s what you are trying to do and I’m not going to get caught and let you know…
It’s a legit question…and I’m sure whatever is said at this table stays at this table…
I’m sure, the leader of Theoryland and the guy taping this… [much laughter] Let’s divorce it. Rand balefires Rahvin as hardcore as he could and Rand is one of the most powerful people to live and he got us—what have you determined?—from the lightning killing Mat until balefire killed Rahvin, I’d guess fifteen minutes.
Well, he at least got us fifteen minutes. We don’t know how far back, we just know up to that moment.
Well, we do know because if it had been too much further than that we would have noticed a lot of discrepancies in the Pattern from things he’d done…
Let’s say thirty minutes to an hour, at the most…
Alright, thirty minutes to an hour. Okay, let’s say the Choedan Kal amplifies his abilities 100-fold…let’s say it’s a 100 times more powerful than Rand. That’s giving us, lets say he got an hour, we’ve got four days, from the most powerful, one of the most powerful sa’angreal ever created. I think it is unrealistic to assume you can get back a year, but that’s not saying it is impossible. I think that if you did that to the Pattern the ramifications would be so dramatic you’d see the Pattern unraveling hardcore at that point, it’s like balefiring an entire city. When I first read that guess I just laughed, I’m like guys c’mon lets run the math on this.
Like I said to Jennifer, it is my job at Theoryland to entertain these ideas.
Yes it is, it is your job to entertain them. But in the terms of Mythbusters let’s go ahead and call that one “Busted” in the realistic world. I’ve got to give you at least something, so I’ll at least give you that…If it were possible to do things like that, we’d have the Dark One just going and balefiring you know Tam so Rand never gets picked up off the mountain. […] I think it is more loose guidelines than it is a formula.
I don’t think Jordan ever, maybe somebody asked, in his notes does he ever say what the treaties were between the ‘Finns and the people with whom they made them? Are those treaties actually written down somewhere?
Um—I think that you may see some of this in the encyclopedia. How is that for a Robert Jordan answer for you? The encyclopedia is coming. [Stuff about the Big White Book]. It is actually going to be an encyclopedia…Harriet, Maria and Alan are working on that. A Memory of Light comes first so they have to keep dividing their time. My guess would be 2012, but if we’re really on the ball, I would think releasing it the same year of the last volume would be a smart thing to do…Peter will you take a note to let Maria know that I told them that that might happen so she is not blind sided by it. She and Harriet will have to decide if that goes in if anything regarding that goes in. The original treaty between the Aelfinn and Eelfinn and mankind. Just remind me to talk to Harriet to talk to Maria about it.
Are the treaties different?
Different from what?
There are two treaties…(hard to hear what I ask next, but I’m clarifying Snakes and Foxes).
They are similar, how about that. They are similar enough that they could be considered functionally identical but there are little differences.
About the Upcoming Epic Magic Battle Between Brandon and Jason Denzel:
See, I’m expecting…the reason why I’m doing it like I’m doing it. I’m giving myself a handicap. I’m not going to draw back into my stock of super cards like I could do. I’m only going to use the cards I’ve been given. It’s the natural, smaller pool. I’m expecting him to go and build the uber-super-deck. He can reach to any cards he wants and build the perfect deck…he’s going to need the fans to tell him what to make and then to make it…I don’t feel sorry for Jason at all. He’s going to come at me with some uber-deck perfected by fans at tournaments…oh he’s good at getting sympathy, but I’m going to expose him for what he is…
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