Good morning friends. This week in Reading the Wheel of Time, we’re finishing off what we learned about the history of the Aiel, the breaking, and the Bore. I’m delighted by some of these revelations and frustrated by others, but overall just proud I made it through everything. It’s easy to feel like I’m missing important themes, even after breaking this section down into three weeks of recaps. Is there such a thing as FOMO for reading?
When Rand takes his next step, he becomes Jonai again, but a younger Jonai this time, and he is running through empty streets lined by broken buildings and dead chora trees. He enters the Hall of Servants, noting the panic of those he passes, though none look at him as he goes up the stairs and slips into a room behind a plain door. Inside he finds half a dozen Aes Sedai, all women, standing together and arguing. He wonders if men will ever stand in a gathering like this again.
On the table lies what looks like a crystal sword, and also the Dragon Banner, as they argue about a Foretelling Deindre had and the Fate of the Wheel. Jonai stops listening, content to wait until they are ready to speak to him, and turns his attention to Someshta, the Nym whose body seems made of leaves and vines. Someshta has a brown, charred fissure running along his face and when he sees Jonai, he asks if he knows him.
Jonai, who has heard that most of the Nym are dead, tells Someshta that they are friends. Someshta can vaguely remember singing when Jonai prompts his memory, but too much is lost. He asks if Jonai is a Child of the Dragon, and Jonai winces, since the mistaken belief that the Da’shain Aiel served only the Dragon, rather than all Aes Sedai, has caused trouble for them.
Just then Solinda, the Aes Sedai Jonai serves, calls his name, and he goes on his knee before her. She asks if all is ready and he affirms that it is, but also that some of the Aiel wish to stay, to continue to serve.
“Do you know what happened to the Aiel at Tzora?” He nodded, and she sighed, reaching out to smooth his short hair as if he were a child. “Of course you do. You Da’shain have more courage than… Ten thousand Aiel linking arms and singing, trying to remind a madman of who they were and who he had been, trying to turn him with their bodies and a song. Jaric Mondoran killed them. He stood there, staring as though at a puzzle, killing them, and they kept closing their lines and singing. I am told he listened to the last Aiel for almost an hour before destroying him. And then Tzora burned, one huge flame consuming stone and metal and flesh. There is a sheet of glass where the second greatest city in the world once stood.
Jonai answers that the Da’shain earned the people of the city time to flee, but Solinda, rather harshly, insists that his people have a part to play yet. Jonai believes she means the things that she has given the Aiel to carry. But Solinda emphasizes to him that they must keep the Covenant, even if they lose all else.
“Of course, Aes Sedai,” he said, shocked. The Covenant was the Aiel, and the Aiel were the Covenant; to abandon the Way would be to abandon what they were. Coumin was an aberration. He had been strange since he was a boy, it was said, hardly Aiel at all, though no one knew why.
She tells him to go, to always keep moving, and to keep the Aiel safe, and is quickly drawn back into discussion with the other Aes Sedai. As Jonai leaves, he hears them telling Someshta that they have a task for the last of the Nym.
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Jonai leaves and goes to find the thousands of horse-drawn wagons that have been assembled to carry the Aiel and their angreal burdens away from the city—wagons and horses must suffice, where once there would have been more technologically advanced options. He finds his children, including Adan, and his wife Alnora, at their wagon, loaded with their possessions, the Aes Sedai objects left in their charge, and its chora cuttings. He thinks that the trees are a necessary symbol, something to give the people hope.
He gives the signal for the wagons to move, and the Aiel leave Paaren Disen.
Rand comes back to himself, almost overwhelmed by the crowding of memories, and sees Muradin digging at his eyes. He steps forward.
Rand is Coumin, kneeling at the edge of plowed fields with Da’shain Aiel and Ogier. Beyond them, soldiers with shocklances stand guard. Coumin is fascinated by the men who kill—his great grandfather, Charn, has told him stories of a time before war, when there were no Myrddraal or Trollocs for soldiers to protect people from, no Forsaken, and the Dark Lord of the Grave was sealed away. Coumin can’t imagine a time when no one knew his name, or the word “war,” but he likes Charn’s stories.
But some of Charn’s stories aren’t well received, such as his claims that he once served Lanfear, and that Lanfear was not always evil. Coumin wishes that Charn would claim to have served the Dragon instead.
Someshta approaches from across the field, surrounded by butterflies. Each field has its own Nym now, and the Ogier begin to sing. The Aiel men join in next, and Someshta takes the threads of the songs and weaves them into his dance. And as they sing and dance, the seeds begin to grow into plants that will never be touched by blight or insect. Coumin feels joy in the singing.
After the singing ends, the women come to join the men, laughing congratulations, ruffling his hair and giving him kisses.
It was then that he saw the soldier, only a few steps away, watching them. He had left his shocklance and fancloth battle cape somewhere, but he still wore his helmet, like some monstrous insect’s head, its mandibles hiding his face though his black shockvisor was raised. As if realizing he still stood out, the soldier pulled off the helmet, revealing a dark young man no more than four or five years older than Coumin. The soldier’s unblinking brown eyes met his, and Coumin shivered. The face was only four or five years older, but those eyes… The soldier would have been chosen to begin his training at ten, too. Coumin was glad Aiel were spared that choosing.
The soldier tells them that, while it is not confirmed, there is a report that Lews Therin led the Companions on a strike against Shayol Ghul, and that the Bore has been sealed, with most of the Forsaken on the other side. He seems lost, somehow, observing that the people are celebrating, but that they would not want a soldier to join them.
Coumin feels as stunned as the soldier, and he suddenly wants Charn. He goes looking for him among the merrymaking, when suddenly someone hits him, knocking him down.
“The townsman spat at him. “The Forsaken are dead. Dead, do you hear? Lanfear will not protect you anymore. We will root out all of you who served the Forsaken while pretending to be on our side, and treat the lot of you as we treated that crazy old man.”
A woman pulls the man away, and Coumin, panicked, runs to find Charn. But when he finds him, Charn is dead, strung up by a rope thrown over a ridgepole and hanged.
Rand comes to himself, the light from the columns shrill and almost solid, clawing at his nerves. He sees Muradin, eyeless and veiled, apparently chewing on something.
Rand is Charn, making his way down chora-lined streets. He thinks about how a city without chora trees would be a wilderness. Charn is 25, and ready to accept the offer of marriage made to him by Nalla. It will mean transferring his service from Mierin Sedai to Zorelle Sedai, but Mierin has already given him her blessing.
Just then, Charn is bumped into and knocked down by someone, a civilian, who begins to upbraid him until the man’s companion realizes that Charn is Aiel and points it out. He begins to apologize profusely and help Charn up.
“I am not hurt, citizen,” Charn said mildly. “Truly, it was my fault.” It had been, hurrying like that. He could have injured the man. “Did I harm you? Please, forgive me.”
The man opened his mouth to protest—citizens always did; they seemed to think Aiel were made of spinglass—but before he could speak, the ground rippled under their feet. The air rippled, too, in spreading waves. The man looked about uncertainly, pulling his stylish fancloth cloak around himself and his lady so their heads seemed to float disembodied. “What is it, Da’shain?”
Other people, seeing Charn’s hair, also gather around him to ask what is going on. But Charn pays them little heed, pushing through the crowd to look up at the white spire, the Sharom.
Mierin had said today was the day. She said she had found a new source for the One Power. Female Aes Sedai and male would be able to tap the same source, not separate halves. What men and women could do united would be even greater now that there would be no differences. And today she and Beidomon would tap it for the first time—the last time men and women would work together wielding a different Power. Today.
But then he sees the Sharom begin to fall apart, slowly at first, and then with huge bursts of flame jetting out of it. The Sharom cracks apart and begins to fall, and darkness spreads across the sky. People are screaming as Charn takes off, running towards the Collam Daan. But he knows he’s too late.
Rand comes back to himself, reeling and blinking spots from his eyes, outside of the columns. Asking himself if he really just saw a hole being drilled into the Dark One’s prison. Remembering the thought that a city without chora is a wilderness. Muradin is nowhere in sight, and Rand is certain he will never leave the columns.
And then Rand sees Mat, hanging from the tree. After they escape from the dust monsters and step out of the mists of Rhuidean, Rand looks up the mountain to where the Aiel people wait. He remembers what the Aes Sedai said about the man who would come from Rhuidean at dawn, who will tie the Aiel together, take them back, and destroy them.
The portrait painted here of the prosperity of the Age of Legends is really beautiful. I’m intrigued by the technology, and curious how the use of channeling and Aes Sedai power affected the course of technological advancement during the Age of Legends. It seems to be a balance of what we might call “modern” civilization and a deep connection with nature, including mythical or fantasy creatures. Besides the snake and fox people, who resemble fairies or fae and with whom the ancient Aes Sedai had dealings but who don’t seem to belong to the same plane of existence, there were also the Ogier and the Nym, who seem like they might be related species in some way—we know that the Green Man, Someshta, called Loial “little brother” and that Loial called Someshta “treebrother.” This relationship may be more spiritual than literal, of course, but it is still interesting.
It was so wonderful to see Someshta again. He was probably my favorite part of The Eye of the World, and I would very much like to see what a land with Nym roaming in it would be like. It is also painful to be reminded all over again of the tragedy of his death, seeing him there with his withered, brown-charred injury, in the room with the female Aes Sedai as they planned the construction of the Eye of the World. I assume that “Kodam and his fellows” are the male Aes Sedai who helped make the Eye—it sounds as if, because they were young and less experienced in saidin, the taint affected them less, or less immediately. And we also know that the Aes Sedai who made the Eye of the World, probably Solinda among them, died in the construction of it. It’s interesting to think that many Aiel have witnessed these memories, but without Rand’s context, the debates, the clues about Callandor, about the making of the Eye of the World, would have meant nothing to them. None of them have ever met Someshta, as Rand did. As I remarked before, Rand is seeing bits of his history as the reincarnated Dragon, as well as one of Aiel bloodline.
The Nym seem to have brought their talents to the humans to help with cultivation, as did the Ogier, much the way Ogier stonemasons now help humans with the building of great works or cities. It’s fascinating that the Aiel had the ability to sing to growing things the way that the Ogier still do, though we know that such talents have faded among the Ogier of the current day, just as the ability no longer exists in humans. Perhaps it only still exists in the Ogier because fewer generations have passed for them than for humans, since the Breaking of the World.
And then we see that even the traditional warrior’s outfit of the Aiel began as working clothes. They also seem to have lived longer than humans of today do, as Jonai is sixty-three and that is considered the prime of life and too young for gray hairs. It is possible that people in the Age of Legends all lived such long lives, but it’s also possible that the Aiel had increased health and lengthened life through the Aes Sedai. They served the Aes Sedai, and may have been connected to them, like some kind of peaceful version of Warders. We do know that Warders gain some abilities from bonding, so it may have been the same for the Da’shain Aiel.
Learning that the Aiel were servants of the Aes Sedai makes a lot of sense. We’ve had hints of this, several Aiel characters have alluded to some failure or sin the Aiel committed towards the Aes Sedai, and that they believe that their lives in the Three-fold Land are a punishment for that betrayal. I assume that the sin is the failure to keep the “Covenant” or the Way of the Leaf, and thus to lose what made the Aiel who they are, or rather, who they were. I did notice that Jonai was more focused on the carrying things part of the task Solinda assigned him, whereas her main concern was clearly for the Aiel to survive. She appeared to care deeply for them.
It makes me wonder which divide of the Aiel is closest to the way of their ancestors. The Jenn were the “True Dedicated,” who kept at least some of the angreal, sa’angreal, and ter’angreal long enough to bring them to a place of safety, as instructed, and they kept to the Way of the Leaf. But they did die out, while the other two groups survived, although there is a question as to whether the modern Aiel would be considered Aiel at all, by the standards of those from the Age of Legends. Meanwhile the Tuatha’an abandoned the duty Solinda charged them with, no longer keeping even an unremembered connection to the Aes Sedai, but they do still practice the Way of the Leaf, even to this day.
And now we know a little more about the song the Traveling People are searching for. Even when they were first formed, Sulwin and his followers didn’t remember the singing that their ancestors practiced or what it really was, and it sounds like there were more kinds of singing besides seed singing, given the story about the Aiel who died at Tzora. But all Sulwin has to go on is stories his grandfather told him when he was young, and while it may be possible that there is a specific song they are searching for, the song might also be a metaphor that evolved into a spiritual belief over time, once the remembrance of the Age of Legends was lost.
Loial did mention in The Eye of the World that he taught some Tuatha’an the songs he sings to the trees, although for them it was just a nice song, nothing with power or seeming to be the song they seek. Of course, whether the Da’shain singing was a skill gained from the Aes Sedai or simply an Age-lost talent like being a wolfbrother or a Dreamer, that ability is lost. So in a way, it’s possible that what Loial taught them was the song, or would have been if they had been in a position to receive it.
Speaking of the singing, that was a beautiful segment, but I have to note that, once again, Jordan seems to have gendered the ability. There are only men singing with the Ogier, while the women clap to “urge the men on” and then come to kiss them afterwards. Also it’s notable that everyone Rand sees through is a male ancestor, implying either that there were no women of import in his family line, or that the columns only show you memories of the ancestors who were the same gender as you. Which… why?
I mean, at this point you all know my opinions about the gender divisions in The Wheel of Time. It’s the thing I struggle with the most in this series, and it’s especially frustrating when it messes with the coolest bits of the series. The world Rand knows inhabits that vague medieval fantasy place which assumes a certain position for women in society, but while that’s bad enough, there’s really no reason to have the Age of Legends also keep such division. Granted, we have barely seen anything of that culture or society outside of the Aiel, and even those glimpses are fragments, but what we do have is the implication of only male leaders amongst the Da’shain Aiel (it is unclear when Wise Ones become part of the culture, but it does not appear to happen until after they settle in the Waste, and even then, these leaders are separated out from the main culture), the seed singing (which is all male), and a suggestion that all Dreamers are female. Even accepting the gender divisions of the One Power, there’s no reason for these divisions to exist as well.
And speaking of the gender divisions, this revelation about the Bore, the hole in the Dark One’s prison, makes me very anxious. The idea that the ancient Aes Sedai mistook the Dark One’s prison for a power source is a fascinating one, and one well in keeping with science-fiction tropes. The dangers and possible hubris of great scientific advancement, the way great power can corrupt and lead to a lust for more power—all of these make sense as themes for this story to tackle. But I’m put off by the specific suggestion that the greatest sin of an Age, or perhaps any age, occurred because of a desire to surmount a gender separation that, in the world of The Wheel of Time, is biological fact. More information may change the implication of this, but right now, there is a suggestion that the desire for a power that would allow men and women to work united, without differences, is a bad one, almost a sin in some way, that led to the downfall of the greatest civilization of the Age, or at the very least an unnatural and dangerous one—and I don’t like it.
I hope that this is where this revelation is going. We still don’t know why only male Aes Sedai went with Lews Therin to seal the Bore, but it’s interesting to note that he apparently had nothing to do with the actual start of the Breaking, which was the opening of the hole in the Dark One’s prison. Perhaps Lews Therin’s decision to take the fight to Shayol Ghul was a mistake, but it’s interesting to note that his part is the only part that is remembered in the future that came after the Breaking. On the other hand, Jonai knows the whole story and is very upset to see the Dragon Banner in the room with the Aes Sedai. Perhaps there is still more to Lews Therin’s actions than we yet know, or perhaps it is merely the knowledge of the taint and the horrible things it brought Lews Therin and the other men to do that is enough to make Jonai, and everyone else, think of his memory as cursed and in need of being destroyed.
One thing I thought was really cool was seeing that fancloth was originally a fancy fashion statement, which then became a garment for soldiers, and then eventually became the cloaks of Warders. Some of the fabric must have survived the Breaking, allowing modern Aes Sedai to learn how to make it. That was a really cool detail, and a less fraught change than some of the others we saw unfolding through the memories.
I was very moved by Coumin’s encounter with the soldier (note the Seanchan-style helmet!). Coumin can’t imagine being someone who kills, but he also acknowledges that the soldier was picked out for that service at age ten. And Charn has told him stories of a time before war, which means that a way of peace existed, at one time, not just amongst the Aiel but amongst all people. Before the hole was drilled in the Dark One’s prison, there was a time where there was peace everywhere. And this, I think, really recontextualizes the Way of the Leaf. I’m sure there was still conflict, cruelty, even murder in those prosperous times, but it was apparently only on an individual scale, not a national or world-wide one. The Way of the Leaf would make much more sense in a world that only had human frailty and ego, a world that appears a relative utopia with plentiful food and beautiful cities, a world without Evil-capital-E.
Pacifism means something different in the Age of Legends. We’ve seen the debate between Perrin and the Tuatha’an, and the question of whether or not it is morally permissible to enact violence in self defense, or the defense of others. Perrin’s main argument is that if no one stands up to evil, it will overtake anything, and that is certainly true in a world that is at war with the devil. People, even cruel people, can be reasoned with, taught to be better, given opportunities to change, if one can find the right way. The Dark One and his minions cannot.
And we see that the Da’shain Aiel were willing to stand up to protect others, that they did so without turning to violence. They protected the people of Tzora with their bodies and their voices, and although the sacrifice was horribly great, turning violence against Jaric Mondoran would clearly have availed them not at all, and gotten them all killed even quicker. As it was, even in the throes of the taint, they were able to hold Jaric at bay for hours. That is powerful indeed.
I hope we get to see more of the Age of Legends and what life was like then. It gives so much context to the current world, and I admit that I was a little frustrated that the later flashbacks dropped words like “jocars” and “sho-wings” and that it mentions the Sharom without explaining what it is. If Charn knows what these things are, and Rand is Charn, then he must understand what they are too. We are all in Charn’s mind now, so we should know what he knows. Maybe Jordan felt that was too much extraneous detail in an already busy section, but it made the vision incomplete for me, somehow, since the rest of the picture was so vivid but then there were significant parts that I couldn’t actually picture at all.
Next week we move on to rejoin Loial, Perrin, and the rest, and I get a glimpse of why some folks don’t like Perrin and Faile’s relationship very much. There is also some fascinating dreamworld stuff, and Perrin meets a mysterious woman.
Sylas K Barrett is an indifferent singer, but would really like to learn how to interact with the world by singing at it.
Perhaps just because I’m older, or because music has become a more important part of my life since then, but even just re-reading the clip of the Aiel at Tzora gave me chills, and while I highly doubt we’ll see it, it’s the kind of thing I’d love to see in the show or a movie. Holding a madman at bay for hours with song (even if that sounds impractical to our ears now) is just such a powerful scene.
Regarding the gendered stuff – for better or worse the binary is something pretty heavily baked into the metaphysics of this world which does have a different feel in today’s context. That said – I do think that as we learn more about the strike at Shayol Ghul (eventually you’ll have to read that story) and of course the end of the series, the idea Jordan was going for (in my mind) WAS that men and women are supposed to work together (although in his mind they are still distinct things). I don’t think the True Source is really *intended* to be a representation of men and women together (although that may be how Lanfear was spining it, or maybe what she really thought) in some fruitful way. I do really think it would be interesting to hear what Jordan’s thoughts now on the topic would be because it does have some problematic implications that could be drawn but I’m not sure that’s where he was actually trying to go with it. (Although I could be mistaken – I’m not up on all the different statements he may have made at the time).
You are pretty right on with your analysis of the Aiel and Tinkers and even the song though :)
I think the true motivation for the Bore was POWER, not shared power, which is how they sold it to others. The Forsaken used others’ desire to share to gain power for themselves.
The Strike on Shayol Ghul read should really follow TSR.
I think it should be pretty obvious that “the desire to surmount gender separation” was Lanfear spin. Men and women already did plenty together via linking in circles, and had done so for centuries. The Forsaken formerly known as Mierin knew exactly what she was doing when she drilled The Bore. That Lanfear lived while Beidomon died is pretty conclusive evidence that she was already under the Dark One’s protection.
These chapters are a beautiful example of how the Pattern works, in addition to the wonderful storytelling aspects. We see how the Da’Shain Aiel were shaped to become the most dominant military force in Randland, even as they transformed from serving all Aes Sedai (who in turn served all the people) to becoming the “People of the Dragon”, setting up their role in the upcoming Last Battle. We never find out (to my recollection) how the iterms were chosen to be sent with the Aiel who founded Rhuidean, yet one of the ter’angreal sent happened to not only show ancestral memories, but to give a Dragon tattoo to the men who survive (were there ter’angreal like that for all the Aes Sedai in the AOL?). There are so many little details like that which make this section so convincing.
It is these segments that make “The Shadow Rising” my favorite link in the greater “Wheel of Time” story. The first three books all stood together as individual adventure books and as a three-part tale of a hero come into his own to save the day from the forces of darkness. One could read those, be satiated and walk away. But once you get here, to this place revealing hints of the hidden histories of the greater world, you are stuck riding out through to the Last Battle many (many) books later.
If I had to pick an overall theme to the series, it would be differences (not only in gender) between people are real and the greatest accomplishments require very different people working together to a common goal.
It’s not just male and female channelers, but channelers and non-channelers. Rich and poor. The wide variety of skills. Each of our main characters is painted very differently from any other. When they try to work alone, the narrative punishes them, when they try to work with others, they enjoy their greatest successes.
Personally, I think the separate power systems is an excellent method of showing the message writ larger than life. No matter how powerful you are, there are people who can do things you can’t. You’ll do better working with them than working against them.
The message wouldn’t be as strong if it were merely “teamwork is good.” The unbridgeable difference between women and men with the power is the capstone that holds the acceptance of differences part together.
@@@@@ 7 TBGH
Well said!
@@.-@ – Beidomon survived the drilling. According to RJ, he could not escape the public ridicule for what he had done and he eventually took his own life.
It’s important to note that Charn is WRONG here. He’s an unreliable narrator:
It’s NOT a different power. It’s the One Power. Saidin and Saidar are the same power. Men and women access the same power. That line by Jordan is intentional, and gives away the game, so to speak. The sin wasn’t the desire to draw from a unified Source—it was in not recognizing that the Source they already drew from was unified.
As @Lisamarie said, the binary is baked into the metaphysics of the world-building. It’s understandable given today’s western culture why people find that antiquated, outdated, or extremely annoying.
But even within the world-building, accessing the Power is still on a spectrum. Take Nynaeve, for instance. She very much accesses the power like a “man”, grasping and yanking, and being all angry and aggressive. In fact, it’s the ONLY way she CAN access Saidar at this point in the series. So it might behoove us to not take what the characters say is truth quite so literally. People believe all kinds of things, both in the Wheel of Time and in real life, that don’t match up with the reality other people perceive.
@9 You’re right, of course. My bad, I forgot that.
@10 – I’m not sure if I agree with you there. Saidin and Saidiar are two different opposing powers that drive the Wheel. Ying and Yang. Taken together they form the One Power, but they are still individual powers.
I apologize if this comes across as accusatory. That is not my intent and take this with a grain of salt. I believe that many conversations about gender inequality stem from jealousy. That’s why this book series resonates with me. One group may see another group as weak, but it is that “weakness” that is discovered to be a real strength and the key to victory. I am not a fan of androgyny and like that people have real differences, strengths and weaknesses. I like the diversity and the human aspect of Randland. I see our current world moving away from this at a rapid pace and it saddens me. I also can’t wait for Sylas to meet “Page.” I know it will be a while. I wonder if he will have any impact on the way he feels about this topic?
@12 – I suppose in some ways it’s like the Trinity concept; 3 distinct persons but still one God in perfect unity.
@10 and @12
I do not think they were accessing the male and female half while drilling through the bore. They were seduced by the True Power that comes from the Dark One and can be accessed by both male and female.
@10 and 12:
I think that’s where a lot of in-world philosophers would enjoy debating (as well as us in this world). I don’t know the correct answer, but your two comments together brought to mind the scripture that the man and the woman would no more be two, but one flesh or that man and woman are one before the Lord. I would think RJ likely be familiar with this idea of the two distinct yin-yang entities nonetheless being considered ultimately one. I don’t know the answer, but it’s fun to think about.
@12 I disagree. In my opinion the difference is in how they access the True Source. It is no different than using a bike or car to get to the library. Both lead to the same destination through different means. If there was a difference, then men and women would manifest different powers when using the same weaves. This is not the case. It is the same results just that men have to mand-handle the weave and women have to guide the flow.
I assumed that the AS with the Jenn created or at least “programmed” the ancestor ter’angreal.
We get further confirmation that the old Aiel were awesome and a look at the Age of Legends.
However, I disagree with the reviewer when they say that the Way of the Leaf made more sense in a peaceful society. Ancient Christians were pacifists, and they lived in a violent world facing constant persecution by the authorities. Modern Tuatha’an keep the Way of the Leaf despite the scorn and hatred of practically everyone. Anyone can be nonviolent in a nonviolent society; it takes real dedication to stand by your commitments when you are persecuted and oppressed.
Due to the structure of the flashbacks, we are working backwards, so we already know the Aiel will schism. Some will keep their commitment to the Way of the Leaf; others will abandon it, retaining only a handful of customs without knowing the reason behind them.
MODS, in the original post, Sylas refers to the Sharom as a “spire.” It’s actually a sphere, floating in the air.
@10 and 12
Per the text, saidin and saidar are the two halves of the same True Source. The One Power is drawn from it. It is a little paradoxical, but ultimately while the same five flows of the same One Power are each drawn from each half of the True Source, how the channeler manages the five flows are what is different.
I think of it kind of like a volcano, with one giant, infinite magma chamber (the True Source). Once the magma leaves the chamber it’s now lava (the One Power), with 5 different flavors with different properties. The difference is male channelers just access one side of the chamber via lava tubes, and female channelers access only the other side through vents. It’s the same stuff, but functions differently for the different channelers in how you handle it.
@15
While what they sensed and what they were looking for ended up being the True Power from the Dark One, they were definitely still using the One Power in order to drill the Bore. Mierin would not have had access to the True Power until after the Bore was opened, and after Mierin swore to the Dark One, which was not immediately. And Beidomon was never evil and never used the True Power.
@18
Agreed, the glass columns ter’angreal was specifically made in Rhuidean while Rhuidean was being built, to serve a purpose the Jenn could no longer fulfill. It’s so enormous also, that I don’t see how they could have transported those columns on wagons during the Breaking (the columns are nearly as tall as Avendesora, which is 100 feet tall).
I never took this reveal to imply that the motivation for opening the Bore was a sin. I think that it is just a perfectly rational, practical evolution. The One Power is divided by nature, which is frustrating and perhaps even unnatural-seeming. Their society accomplished so much, but was always held back by this immutable rule of nature. With much research, they came to realize that there was an alternative, non-discriminating source of magical power. OF COURSE they are going to try to tap into it.
And doing so is not wrong. What is wrong is that it was all a trick – the Dark One lured them into it. In this way, it was the ultimate tragedy. They had purely noble intentions, but were deceived and ended up destroying all that was good in their world.
One could read this as a morality lesson – about the nature of greed when one has so much that is already good, or the folly of unrestrained exploration/science, or the sin which Sylas reads here. It parallels the “delving too deep” story of Tolkien’s dwarves, for example. These are all valid readings. But to me, these place the moral weight on the wrong actors or actions. What the Mierin and Beidomon were doing was good, but it was corrupted into something terrible. It was not even like the One Ring which twists good intentions toward evil over time and by a process of slow corruption; this was a single deception which involved only the dream of good, even though it would have resulted in evil no matter how or why it was achieved. The Dark One committed the sin, not the Aes Sedai.
By the way, it is possible that Lanfear was not an entirely unwitting agent of the DO prior to drilling the Bore. In this case, I would say that she is guilty of a different set of sins (lying, unleashing horror, seeking for power at all costs, greed, etc.), but I would still maintain that everyone who was not in-the-know but who was supporting her efforts was, even while sorely duped, basically trying to do good and right. Even in this interpretation, the sin is not in trying to realize a non-distinction between the genders (which is what they are in this series – not sexes), but in everything else surrounding it.
Regarding Mierin, how would she already be a Foresaken when she drilled the Bore? I thought that the DO was locked away in his prison and that people had forgotten about him. If she knew the DO was there and was already a Foresaken, that would require the DO being able to touch the world, which I thought he could not do until the Bore was created. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I always assumed that it was hubris that caused them to create the Bore and then at some point soon after Mierin was turned.
@21 konigr: this was a single deception which involved only the dream of good, even though it would have resulted in evil no matter how or why it was achieved
Well, if we look at the example of “original sin” in the RW—the Adam and Eve “myth” in the Bible—we see that the author here was mirroring what he knew. One of the characteristics of sin is that it often seems perfectly rational and reasonable . . . I mean what’s wrong with knowledge? Why wouldn’t Adam and Eve have wanted more knowledge? Look at what is accomplished when there is sufficient knowledge to proceed. And yet, in the Biblical example, it was not wrong to desire more knowledge, what was wrong was the disobedience to a divine limit.
Thematically, I’m pretty the taint on saidin is original sin in WOT, which was caused by an unnatural division in the genders.* It’s not that seeking unity across the genders is sinful, it was attempting to do so outside the natural order. While there are certainly problematic ways to read that, I choose to believe that it would end up fitting reasonably well with more advanced ideas of gender.
*Yes, it gets more complicated if it was cosmologically necessary or prevented saidar from also being tainted or any number of what-if nightmare scenarios.
I share the frustration, but would have the opposite expectation. If Charn was long familiar with those things, he probably wouldn’t be describing them in his mind or giving much conscious thought to what they were. (Probably, but I do that with familiar things.) Rand would be newly learning what they were, but we don’t really see this, as it seems to me that his thoughts were entirely subsumed by the thoughts of whoever’s mind he was in at the time.
So. The Way of the Leaf may now be un-survivable for many people in much of Randland (and our modern world, for that matter), but it was not born of naivete, cowardice, or soft-hearted weakness. It was born in an Age that nurtured it, and carried into a hostile Age with courage and fortitude. Though I don’t currently remember exactly what the Aiel find most horrific about the revelations at Rhuidean — the fact that they used to be the pacifists they now have so much contempt for, or the fact that they failed/betrayed their original purpose and mission, regardless of what it was. Or something else.
@26 AeronaGreenjoy – I always assumed it was some combination of both, but that finding out that they were pacifists was probably worse for them. So much of what we think of as Aiel society was built on conflict, and how one responds to such conflict. Not acting in a manner that extols their bravery is cause for great shame to an Aiel. To a modern Aiel, the pacifism shown by their ancestors must have been near impossible to bear.
The first time in the way-back machine is one of my favorite passages in the books. Getting the all-too-brief look at the height of technology and how society functioned then completely fascinated me.
Mods, now that we’ve seen this bit of history, any chance that you can get a message to Sylas that it’s time he does a full review on the first Prologue. Now that he’s got a pretty good grasp on enough history to better understand, I would love to hear his thoughts on the Dragon’s madness and how it affected nearly every aspect of what came after it.
Unless she was fundamentally changed or irrevocably seduced by the unleashing of The Dark One’s essence with the drilling of the Bore, Mierin was always & only doing what she did for the purpose of Power.
I couldn’t specifically remember if this had happened already in the Stone of Tear, but we already know that those who got close enough to see her without blinkers – Lews Therin chief among them – were ultimately turned off/wary of her mania for Power.
So, I looked it up, and it is indeed just before The Stone Stands, in Chapter 9, when Lanfear reveals her true self to Rand for the first time, after initially appearing as Selene.
Rand gets his first taste of Lanfear’s ‘You were MINE FIRST!’ spiel.
She finishes with, ‘Before she (Ilyena) ever saw you.You loved ME.’
And Lews Therin bubbles up from within Rand as he instinctively responds with, ‘And you loved power!’
The truth of which is reinforced by Lanfear’s tacit acceptance and continued attempts at coersion. To get Lews Therin to see things her way. And then we see it first hand as she barely has time to take a breath before vaulting from basking in the remembered ecstasy of The Dark One’s Power, to excitedly postulating how they could usurp even that.
While the depth & variety of the narrative may misdirect convincingly in the moment, the truth of the themes being explored here in relation to RandLand is unambiguous.
Gender Roles were & are intrinsic. That in no way lessens or cheapens the character or capacity of either gender to contribute usefully, or lead insightfully or successfully, notwithstanding community expectation, misperception, or prejudice. This is Jordan’s ultimate deconstruction. In 14 books filled with & contingent upon them.
I’m disappointed in Sylas’ need to parse this in terms of contemporary gender emancipation, without exercising any imaginative empathy. Unfortunately in modern criticism an angle of incidence beyond the scope of the work seems obligatory. However it is easily understandable given the heat of the contest that exists nowadays, just to ‘be yourself’.
Lastly, I hope Sylas can come to recognize that the intrinsic difference that is represented by Saidin (something female channelers cannot see, or sense, or make use of without specifically skilled or technologically created assistance)& Saidar – something male channelers cannot see, or make use of without specifically skilled or technologically created assistance – (2 different & irrevocably separate parts of One Power whole) can be complementary AND distinguishable, at least as it pertains to WOT narrative, without being divisive or destructive when used as they were meant to be. Together. In co-operation. Linked but identifiably different, in purpose & application.
@@@@@ 7 TBGH
Indeed, this is arguably the second most important point of the series. Though I would say that the bigger lesson here is not just that more can be accomplished through the combined efforts of people with differences, but also how to recognize the difficulties that arise from misunderstandings and miscommunications that are rooted in those differences, learn to work through or overcome them, and reduce the chances of them forming in the future. Chiefly by attempting to understand those differences without necessarily trying to change them, having appreciation for the idea that one’s own way may not be better than another’s, and with a spoonful of forgiveness for past mistakes and/or misunderstandings.
Edit: Gack. Thanks to foamy @32 for pointing out I switched saidin and saidar in the first version of this. Got it right now (I hope).
Anthony Pero @10 et seq.: I really like fernandan @20’s metaphor of accessing the lava from different sources on the volcano as a way of explaining how the two sexes could access the same material in such different ways, but any theory that postulates that saidar and saidin are actually the same thing accessed in different ways is going to have to explain why one sex can’t even see the weaves the other makes. It seems to me that a lot of the rest of the differences can be handwaved away under the “same stuff accessed differently” theory, but the fact that two powers are mutually invisible seems like it needs more than that.
In the Cleansing scene, Rand seems to actually be able to see the weaves of saidar he’s creating, but that’s while linked to Nynaeve and actively weaving them. I don’t recall if we ever get another PoV from a channeler in a mixed circle that would help resolve this. (In the Bowl of Winds scene the saidin weaves appear as gaps in the saidar weaves, although that may be because Elayne is not leading the circle and/or that the saidin weaves are being generated automatically by the Bowl.)
I don’t think Mierin’s creation of the bore were deliberate, but just a form of glorying seeking in and of itself. This isn’t necessarily evil, but it does allow the Dark One to temp Mierin– not to mention everyone hating on her for creating the bore in the first place.
@30: You’ve got the powers backwards.
@7: It’s made pretty explicit with Min’s vision of the fireflies and the dark, and how the fireflies start winning when the three ta’veren are together. It applies throughout the whole series: Trust and honesty are usually rewarded. Deception — and every major character has a stack of secrets a mile high — gets you into trouble. Trying to do things by yourself gets you into deep trouble, most notably with Rand.
@7: That was very insightful. Favorited, for future reference if someone ever asks me why they should read The Wheel of Time. The gender thing hasn’t aged well, but the core message remains strong enough to last.
I was expecting more about Mierin/Lanfear, so that was a bit disappointing. At least the comment section always delivers.
My take is that she was never working for the Dark One. Before or after the Bore. She seeks power, so all that matters is who offers more. Later on, we’ll see her trying to convince Rand to destroy both the Dark One and the Creator, such is her hubris.
foamy @32: Yep good call. My excuse is that RJ himself did that (once) in one of the published books, so I’m in good company. :-) I’ve updated my comment @30 to correct that.
I will also note that I’m somewhat surprised that, what with all this talk about original sin and whatnot, that nobody commented on the Aiel being, quite literally, cast out of Paradise.
@30 – Not to mention the taint. If they really are just one power source, then logically saidar would be tainted as well. But since only saidin is tainted, that tells me that it is its own power source, independent of saidar.
@30 The inability see each other’s weaves could be a matter of polarity.
@36 the taint is often described as a scum on the surface. If the Power is two separate pools, the taint could be on top of one pool but not the other.
@37 – Right. Which is what I’m saying. They are both two independent sources of power that work in concert to drive the Wheel. Two separate pools, as you said. They may be made of the same substance, but don’t come from the same source. I hope that makes sense.
To illustrate, let’s say at the beginning of…well, everything, the Creator decided the best way to create was to have two opposing powers that could work together to turn the Wheel. Boom, he creates one source of power that is attuned to the male half of creation. Boom, he creates another, independent source of power that is attuned to the female half. These sources of power are made of the same substance, but with two very different natures. They are diametrically opposed, and that opposition creates the power to turn the Wheel.
The fact that men must bend saidin to their will and that women must surrender to saidar is all the proof we need that the powers they access are completely different.
@38 Or it’s the same source where saidin is accessed through a turbulent route and saidar is through a placid route. These different routes also apply a polarity that makes the weaves invisible to someone attuned to the different power.
@39 – Again, if the One Power was all the same source, just different access points, saidar would have been tainted, too.
@30
Thanks – it’s an imperfect metaphor, but it does emphasize that the “how” of accessing the One Power for each group is important.
RJ often described deliberately paradoxical elements to his cosmology. The Dark One’s prison is everywhere, and nowhere, kind of at Shayol Ghul but kind of not. The Creator TAKES NO PART, except when He does, a little bit. The Dark One is infinite, but also a pitiful mite. Everything about balefire. And I think the True Source/One Power halves also defy the descriptions put to them. Separate, but the same. Work with, but oppose. Is it really One Power, or two?
He didn’t like to spell everything out or explain every detail, and I think RJ would approve of us having these arguments 30 years after the first book came out.
@39 Only if the counterstroke reached through saidin to the common source. It seems to have been more a coating on top of saidin. Like pond scum polluting one pool but not contaminating the aquifer so another pool fed from the same source is still clean. Saidin itself is still pure but there’s no way to touch it without first touching the taint.
Probably some of the best chapters in WOT here. I very much agree with @7, very well said. Just a few questions:
You have to read The Strike on Shaol Ghul, a short story written by RJ that can found online. The explanation is there. Also the Breaking of the World had everything to do with The Dragon, he is the one that indirectly caused it via the Taint. What the last vision showed was not the start of the Breaking, but the Drilling of the Bore, much before the Breaking.
You have answered you’re own question. See the memory of the Seed Singing when the POV wishes his great-grandfather would have said that he had served The Dragon, the revered and respected leader and champion of the forces of the Light, rather than one of the hated and feared Forsaken. It is a great contrast with the previous segment, later in time, when the POV character is very uneasy about The Dragon, due to the Taint and the Breaking of the World this unleashed. That POV is only still at the beginning of the Breaking and has not developed the context and hatred that will later come.
Why wouldn’t have Rand’s ancestors have all been men? Who says they have to have female ancestors in there at all? Who says they have to be evenly distributed exactly 50/50? That the original creators, while already constructing a massively complex ter’angreal that shows you the memories of your ancestors in ascending order ultimately going back 4000 (ish) years in time, would have also had the time to program it so exactly 50% of the ancestors would be male and the other 50% would be female (God forbid there’s an odd number of ancestors)?
Or, maybe, it was just simpler to match the gender of the user with the gender or the ancestors (if user = x, then y).
Because, spoilers, when Aviendha takes her (extra) trip through the pillars, every relative is female.
Good Lord, Sylas, stop analyzing a series that’s approaching 30 years old with brand new gender theory. They’re not going to line up, so save yourself the headache and just enjoy it.
Just a reminder that you should express your opinions and comments here in a civil and constructive way–the fact that you disagree with someone’s interpretation or thoughts on the text does not invalidate their analysis. Let’s be careful about telling a first-time reader what they should and should not care about, or request that they stop talking about a given topic. Sylas will not read these comments, and will continue to analyze the novels and comment on them as he sees fit–if that’s not of interest to you, that’s fine: feel free to move on, rather than insisting on a different interpretation. As always, we ask that you be respectful of others and try to add to the conversation, rather than discouraging or silencing other viewpoints. The full moderation policy can be found here.
Regarding whose gender of ancestors you watch the memories from:
Don’t know if you people know, but in the human genome there are small bits that mutate very rarely and are identical to your mother or father, and to their mother and fathers, etc. The matrilineal DNA that is copied is called mithocondrial DNA. The patrilineal DNA is called Y-DNA, since it’s the part of the Y DNA that isn’t paired with the X DNA.
So I guess the ter’angreal that is these columns in Rhuidean looks at the Y-DNA or mtDNA of the person inside, tries to find matches with this and the rest of the DNA to find ancestors, and shows the memories hundreds or thousands of years before. I wonder what would happen to someone who came with a new strand of Y DNA or mtDNA. The columns would probably show just a screen spelling Error in the Old Tongue for a while, I guess.
Errata:
· “keeling” should be “kneeling” I presume.
· The Sharom is a sphere, not a spire.
That’s what Moiraine believes at least. Yet there must have been some – both men and women – who either survived or didn’t take part, because they said Callandor would have to wait, and both saidar and saidin were used in the weave that prevented everyone except the Dragon from touching Callandor.
That’s not certain, is it? Several people found refuge in the Eye of the World over the years. Some Aiel might have found it too.
Suddenly finding yourself in the head of someone of the opposite sex would be a rather confusing experience I think, and maybe uncomfortable too. Sex is a rather important aspect of identity. As a case in point, some people find that their body disagrees with how they identify themselves, and feel so strongly about it that they choose to undergo quite invasive surgery to adjust their anatomy.
Seeing things from the opposite sex’s point of view could be a very instructive lesson, but that’s not what the history ter’angreal was designed for. There are limits to how much people can learn in a short time, and the lesson is already quite hard, as Muradin illustrates. Therefore I think the Aes Sedai who designed the ter’angreal chose to put the user in the heads of people they can more easily identify with, to avoid distracting from the lesson they wanted to teach.
@Chad (17):
While preparing to cleanse saidin, Rand expresses amazement at how different saidar feels compared to saidin. He has some difficulty before he manages to surrender to saidar and subjugate saidin simultaneously. When he starts weaving, he observes that the flows of saidar insist on forming curvy shapes that he isn’t used to. This indicates rather strongly that there are real differences between saidar and saidin. If the same person must handle them in different ways, then it’s not just a matter of different people using the power differently.
The One Power is two, and also five. The True Power comes not from the True Source, but from the Father of Lies. It’s all very paradoxical, and I’m sure that’s entirely intentional.
RJ is simply using daoist cosmology: wuji/dao (One Power) -> yin – yang (saidar – saidin) -> wuxing (5 Powers) -> bagua (8 trigrams) (missing in WoT) -> wanwu (10.000 things = everything)
https://www.goldenelixir.com/taoism/taiji_tu.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taijitu
https://www.learnreligions.com/taoist-visual-symbols-4123169
“The truth that can be spoken is not Truth.” Thus unreliable narration.
One thing no one is commenting on is how this section showed the solution of an old debate (which of course has been resolved) about Rand vs. Lus Therin – is it the same soul that is reincarnated etc… The wayback angreal clearly shows that Lus Therin as individual is not one of Rand’s ancesters (I cant believe his experience would be missed if he was; besides he killed off his kin). If his soul was some how reincarnated in Rand’s body, how does this “soul mixing” happen…? Which basically implies that anyone (of sufficent power etc) could become the new Dragon and then be retroactively cas by the prophesies. Still the question between the soul and the (gendered) channeling ability remains; as we know souls come with the ability and not the bodies.
Secondly, I wander about the inheritance of the one power and its relationship to being Aiel. It is very clear that the ability to channel is somewhat genetic. Also it is clear that Rand’s ancestors (on the male side) were always Aiel. What happened with the ones that were able to channel? Do they become Aes Sedai (in the age of legends) and what’s the relationship between the two groups.. Also if the male line did not bring any contribution for channeling, did it all come through his mother side? It would definitely relate much more to the Andorian family etc…
Any thoughts on this?
@51
I’m not 100% sure what you’re trying to say, but here’s a few points.
The wayback ter’angreal does not show whether or not Lews Therin was an ancestor of Rand’s. But we already knew that Rand could not be descended genetically from Lews Therin because Lews Therin killed every one of his children and anyone who carried his blood.
It’s clear in the cosmology of this world that reincarnation is real. There is no “soul mixing.” Rand and LTT have the same soul, which was born as LTT, died, then was born again 3000 years later; not two souls blended into one. No, not just any one can be the Dragon, only the one with the Dragon soul.
The ter’angreal only shows Aiel ancestors. The Aiel never (or very nearly never with only one known exception) married outside the Aiel group, so naturally all of his paternal ancestors were also Aiel. But the point of the ter’angreal is to show only Aiel ancestors, which is why it does not opt to select any perspectives from Rand’s male ancestors from the female line. At any rate, we don’t know about channeling ability in Rand’s paternal ancestors. For all we know, some or many of them may have been latent male channelers, and certainly some of his Aiel female ancestors may have been Wise Ones. We just don’t know. It’s clear that channeling is only partly genetic, and it’s also tied to the soul.
Re: saidar vs saidin being so different,
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether they are the same thing or not, and would probably need another read through with that in mind to form an educated opinion.
However, i don’t think their apparent surface differences mean much. Take water for example. Someone looking at ice, liquid water, and water vapor who doesn’t know anything about them could be excused for assuming all 3 things are completely different substances. They look and behave completely different from one another, yet we know that they are in fact just 3 separate forms of the same substance. I see no reason to believe saidin and saidar couldn’t work the same way.
I know this is very late to add to the discussion but I look at saidin/saidar as variants of the One Power (OP) that do not become saidin/saidar until either a male or female channeler interacts with the OP. Saidin or saidar do not exist independently, they are only brought into existence when the OP is being channeled through someone. When a man interacts with the OP, it generates saidin, and when a woman interacts with the OP it generates saidar.
Think of the OP as an ocean of milk, and channelers access that milk through a straw. If male straws are all coated with chocolate syrup, and female straws are all coated in strawberry syrup, men can only create chocolate milk (saidin) when they draw the milk through the straw, and women can only create strawberry milk (saidar). Neither the chocolate milk nor the strawberry milk would exist without the interaction of the male or female drawing on the plain milk with their gender-specific straws. This analogy is also in line with the idea that men have to control saidin, and women have to guide saidar. They have different kinds of straws that interact with the OP in different ways and produce results that are nearly identical, yet definitely not the same.
This explains how saidin and saidar can be different yet fundamentally the same. This explains why, while they are coming from the same source (the True Source), men and women can channel the same 5 flows but still not bee seen by each other or used in the same way. For example, when men form gateways, they are both using the one power, but saidin is used to bore a hole from one place to the other, whereas saidar creates a similarity between the two points that becomes the gateway (I think I am remebering this correctly).
It explains why Rand could see saidar when linked with Nynaeve, but the women using the Bowl of the Winds did not see saidin. Nynaeve was creating the strawberry milk and he was able to taste it after they linked (sorry if that sounds… wrong). It’s not that men are unable to wield saidar, they just do not have the right ingredients in their straw to create it themselves when they draw on the OP, and vise versa for women. But when they linked, it gave Rand access to draw through Nynaeve’s straw and wield saidar.
When the women linked to use the bowl, they were simply channeling through the bowl, they were not linked with the bowl, so they were not granted access to a chocolate straw to be able to actually see saidin or draw upon it themselves. In the end, the women were never in control of the flow of saidin, and channeling through the bowl is not the same as being linked with another channeler of the opposite gender.
Lastly, this explains why Robert Jordan was so adamant that men and women always create the greatest wonders together, because a chocolate covered strawberry is of course much greater than simply the sum of its parts.
@54, I wasn’t so sure, but you pulled me in with that last line. Strawberry and Chocolate milk is what they are from now on.
I really like this observation that trying to overcome gender difference is the original sin of the Wheel of Time. I don’t think this one can be explained away — gender essentialism is baked really deeply into the book. You can say that this vision of gender essentialism is correct and that it doesn’t undermine some version of feminist goals / gender equality, but I think it’s impossible to deny that this is a really deep and consistent obsession of the author. The series of books is meant to explain, illustrate, and defend this vision of what gender is and should be (metaphysical & normative).
@57 I think that’s right; that in WOT there is a very fundamental distinction between Saidin and Saidar users – that said, in my reading the organization of the magic and masculine pole and feminine pole is the least of Jordan’s interest in the gender binary. For example, I could see an extremely plausible reading of gender queerness in Nynaeve’s relationship to how she uses magic.
Likewise, I could see both a use of clearly defined gender/magic to illustrate transness just as easily as Jordan perhaps puts it to use to in his creation of immovable categories
If one wanted to attack the books on ideological grounds (which I don’t, I quite sentimentally read them as a younger person) the ground on which it is ripe to do so I think is in the way Jordan punishes most of the characters who step outside of some rather prescribed gendered social roles – but again given the ponderous length of the series things get messy and complex
GAH! I’m in the middle of my mumble-mumbleth re-read and the “Read More” button for Sylas’s TSR read simply shows part 20 again…where’s the rest of the TSR read, please?!? I even tried just changing the part number in the URL but get the dreaded 404… Any moderators still out there to help?
Argh–we’re going to have to ask the production/development folks to take a look at the series page, but in the meantime, Part 21 is here: https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-women-are-the-sun-in-robert-jordans-the-shadow-rising-part-21/
Part 22: https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-womens-circle-business-as-perrin-grieves-a-loss-in-the-shadow-rising-part-22/
Part: 23: https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-dreams-and-responsibilities-in-robert-jordans-the-shadow-rising-part-17/
And so on–the content’s still there, but the series page itself is broken. Honestly, I just used a Google search for “Reactormag Reading the Wheel of Time Sylas Part ##” for each part, which is extremely annoying, but I hope it helps in a pinch while we try to sort out the problem…