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From rec.arts.sf.written Wed Feb 16 16:05:34 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: nntp.msstate.edu!willis1.cis.uab.edu!news.ecn.bgu.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!morgno From: morgno@netcom.com (Michael Thompson) Subject: JORDAN: FAQE Message-ID: <morgnoCLAy7A.B8q@netcom.com> Organization: Castle Morgno X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 05:35:33 GMT Lines: 341 This is the FAQE for the Wheel of Time where Foolishly Asked Questions are Enterred. FAQE NEWS Yup, this thing is FAQE, alright. I thank myself for composing it singlehandedly and myself shall bear the blame. WHAT'S UP WITH THE NAMES OF CHARACTERS? What can we make of the names? Mucho: Thom Moth - his cloak flutters like the wings of a moth. Rand Darn - the word exclaimed by the Dark One whenever Rand is mentioned. Mat Tam - Mat is Tam al Thor reborn. Someshta Shoe mats Just what you need to wipe your feet on after trudging around in the fields after one of the Nym! Aram Rama Although Aram took up a sword, and Rama a bow, and there has been no interaction between Aram and Egwene for several books, there must be some connection as Rama's wife was stolen by the demon Ravana and Elayne's mother was hoodwinked by Rahvin. This is the sort of foreshadowing that Jordan employs which will undoubtedly be crystal clear in hindsight. Ogier Rogie A tribute to the narrator of Julian May's galactic milieu books. The ogier Loial is also writing the history of the events in the Wheel of Time, and may be presumed to be the storyteller whose words we read now. Elayne Trakand Nay, dark LA teen Perhaps Elayne is not the goody two shoes she acts Nynaeve al'Meara Aye, real mean van Nynaeve is always in the front, the van, and she is mean Egwene al'Vere new levee gear Obviously, she must hold back the flood of evil Perrin Aybara Barney Ran, I Rap Once again, a reference to the purple dragon and "the song." Note that Lan and his cousin Isam are both data processing acronyms! This is another case where Jordan has borrowed from urban mythology. DID ANYONE PRONOUNCE "NYNAEVE" RIGHT BEFORE LOOKING IT UP IN THE GLOSSARY? No. IS ROBERT JORDAN A PSEUDONYM? Yes, as mentioned in RASFW, Robert Jordan is a pseudonym for David Eddings. When questioned, Mr. Eddings said he wanted to explore the conflict between good and bad writing without alienating any readers. WILL THE SERIES EVER END? WHAT NEXT? Yes, Mr. Jordan already knows how it will end. In a few more books, he will finish it up. Afterward, he will take some time off to play major league baseball and then write a new series combining his previous works. In this series, Rand al'Thor and Belgarion will discover that they live on the same world, and that each live on continents conveniently unknown to the other. They will discover that the plots of the Wheel of Time and the Belgariad/ Malloreon were each just half of the true story. The major characters of each will combine (some will be discarded if there prove to be too many names to keep track of) and meander around even more previously unknown continents. The first book will probably be called _Demon Lord of Shayol Ghul_. Eventually Robert Silverberg will collaborate and the characters will wander around in previously unknown countries meeting previously unknown alien races each time they cross a rise in the land. WHERE IS THE LAST SEAL? In former days, seals were trained by the Sea Folk to balance small replicas of the Wheel of Time (tm) on their noses. The seals were too busy doing this to reproduce, and face extinction. The last known seal was captured by the Seanchan and now juggles moons in the Tower of Ravens. WHAT ARE THE CHAPTER ICONS? The little symbols at the top of the first page of each chapter. If you click on one, the chapter shrinks to a small square which hides in the back near the glossary. WHY MUST THE DARK ONE BE IMPRISONED? When we read the story of how Lews Therin and the 100 companions sealed up the bore carefully, we realize that this must be interpreted literally. The "Dark One" is actually an incredibly tiresome conversationalist, i.e., a bore. Anyone who talks to the Dark One lapses into a stupor until the only thing loud enough to awaken them, the Horn of Valere, is sounded. WHAT IS THE SONG? The Song goes like this: I love you, You love me, We're a happy family With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you Won't you say you love me too? WILL THE SONG BE FOUND AND BY WHOM? The song has been found, and can be seen on television where a purple dragon named Barney holds court. He uses the One Power to force adolescents to act like small, stupid children. WHAT DOES A DRAGON LOOK LIKE? See for yourself. For more information, subscribe to alt.tv.dinosaur.barney.die.die.die. WHO WERE THE AIEL? The Aiel were a group of people dedicated to achieving maximum economy in the use of letters in common spelling. Aiel was selected as their name for providing three syllables in just four letters. Over 3000 years, this has been forgotten, and now most believe that the name comes from the sound made by most travellers when an Aiel leaps out from behind a rock. IS VERIN BLACK? Maybe. It's hard to tell from the descriptions. In TSR she is described as having brown hair. Most black people have black hair, but this alone is not conclusive. WHY ISN'T ELAIDA BLACK? Well, this is inconclusive also. She is only described as having dark eyes, so she might be. WHAT DID THE OGIER DO OF OLD? As tall as they are, they probably played a lot of basketball. The Ogier women often had successful careers in Beach Volleyball. Some teams were the Tsofu Toughguys, the Shangtai Tsunami, and the Peking Mighty Ducks. WHAT IS WITH THOSE COVERS BY DARREL SWEET? Darrel Sweet does the covers for all of the Wheel of Time books. With the thousands of copies sold, it is no wonder that the covers come loose so easily. His telephone rings or something, he gets distracted and doesn't apply the glue properly on the copy you eventually buy, and the cover falls off. DOES HEINLEIN APPEAR IN THE SERIES? How did you miss it, I ask you? Actually, all the characters in the Wheel of Time, no matter how they are described, actually reflect the mores and habits of middle-class American writers. WHY DON'T WE START A NEW NEWSGROUP? We don't really care about people who can't work kill files. If you are reading this FAQE intentionally, you don't care about a new newsgroup either. So there. SPOILERS FOR THE FIRES OF HEAVEN: ^L Why does Moiraine poke out Mat's eye with Rand's severed hand after Mat gets her pregnant? Apparently she was angry about the floods Rand caused in Cairhien when he diverted the rivers to wipe out the trollocs. WHY IS MOIRAINE NOT DEAD? There are two competing theories about this, neither of which has any credibility or support: 1. Moiraine will reappear as did Gandalf after killing the Balrog. She will act mysterious and refuse to explain how she survived. Of course, both Gandalf and Moiraine acted mysterious and refused to explain anything before their sacrifices. As Gandalf becomes what Saruman should have been, Moiraine will become what Lanfear should have been. Note the similarity between Moiraine and Mieren. 2. Having sacrificed herself through the stone ter'angreal like Aslan on the stone table, giving herself willingly to the White Witch in place of Rand, she will find that death has worked backwards and she is more powerful than before. WHAT IS THE TAMYRLIN? An old folk song recorded by Fairport Convention. In the story, the hero is saved from the Faerie Queen by some girl who keeps showing off her knees, and tries to tell people she got pregnant from a rosebush. WHO WILL MARRY MAT? It seems that this old joke won't work. I'd like to say, "a preacher," but we saw in the Shadow rising when Perrin married Faile that wedding ceremonies don't have anyone who officiates. WHO WILL LAN BE BONDED TO NOW? We've all agreed unanimously that Lan is bonded to Nynaeve. Or Myrelle. Or to Moiraine. Or to somebody whose name begins with a nasal sound. WHAT IS WITH ALL THIS SNIFFING BUSINESS? Even after 3000 years, the dust kicked up by the breaking of the world is still aggravating everyone's sinuses. This sort of thing occurs even today, where the Breaking of Southern California has kicked up dust causing an increase in infant botulism. IS THERE A CONNECTION BETWEEN MAT AND THE STOLEN DICE TER'ANGREAL? No. Although Mat feels no moral qualms about wagering in games of chance that he never loses, he never actually steals anything these days. WHAT DOES EACH AJAH DO? Brown The brown Ajah seeks to corner the market for Trivial Pursuit games in the Fourth age. White Engages in philosophical arguments about how best to meddle in human politics. Black Meddles with human affairs, jockeying for position at the Dark One's coming out party. Red Meddle's in men's affairs, seeking revenge for permanent PMS. Green Meddles in human affairs (literally). Also known as the free love Ajah. Blue Meddles on behalf of the light. Yellow Specializes in what we would call medicine. Doesn't meddle much as long as they get Wednesdays off. Gray Arbitrates between the various other meddling factions. Steely Meddles with music. Call them Deacon Blue. East Okay, this one's too obvious even for me. WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SEVERED HAND? Eeww, gross. WHO ARE THE BOOKS DEDICATED TO? tEotW Harriet tGH 30-some people tDR James Oliver Rigney, Sr. (is this a clue, or what?) tSR Robert Marks tFoH Harriet The Net detectives have not yet come up with an explanation as to why tGH is dedicated to so many more people. Did Mr. Jordan have a lapse of faith in the series and figure he had to get all of his dedications out of the way? By the time tFoH was published, he had to go back to Harriet again. Inquiring minds want to know, to whom will LoC be dedicated? WHO ARE THE AELFS AND EELFS? Annoying beings from another dimension. When encountered, they will answer questions or grant wishes, but as the price, they will harass you until you trick them into saying their names backwards. WHO KILLED ASMODEAN? What evidence do we have that Asmodean is dead? All it says is that Death took him. It doesn't say Death killed him! With all the personifications of good and evil running around in this series, maybe Death is just someone who took him out to dinner at one of the many fine inns in Caemlyn. WHAT'S WITH SALDAEA? Just because questions are asked doesn't mean they are all answered. WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I'M OBSESSED? Get a haircut, and get a real job. WHEN IS OUR NEXT BOOK ACQUISITION FEVER SYNDROME? October or November, 1994. WHAT'S WITH MAT DYING AND LIVING AGAIN, ETC. Mat's a somewhat annoying and not very effective character. The author keeps trying to get rid of him, but he's popular with the fans. Every scene where he's killed off, a group of fans will show up, wearing red head bands, carrying jewelled daggers, and waving oversize dice cups. Mr. Jordan has no choice but to put him back into action. -- Michael Thompson Castle Morgno morgno@netcom.com